Greenversations

About the author: Viccy Salazar joined EPA in 1995. She works in our Seattle office on waste reduction, resource conservation and stewardship issues.

I work for the government. One of the things that this means is that I spend a lot of time in meetings. Since I, or someone on my team, is often planning the meetings, my team decided to see what we could do to ensure that the meetings we host don’t use unnecessary resources.

The first thing we did was look on EPA’s website for green meetings. We clicked on the link for meeting planners and go directed to a list of 10 easy things to do – well, it didn’t seem easy to us but we were committed so we moved ahead. As a team, we decided that we wanted to 1) be as zero waste as possible, 2) minimize the amount people had to travel by providing options, and 3) track our result and savings.

We thought zero waste would be the easy one. We called up our local organic caterer and asked if they did zero waste. By zero waste we meant - no packaging, durable serving platters, plates, silverware, and cups, they would compost the food waste and any other non-durable items, and finally, they would carry away and wash everything. Simple, right? Well, not really. They said they did organic but not zero waste. We worked with them and finally got ‘almost’ zero waste. It required some work and the vendor had not done it before. One thing we learned was that it was important to be very specific with your food vendor and conference facility about what you want. Getting recycling at the event seemed easier but we still had to educate the meeting attendees to actually recycle!

We don’t always order out. Sometimes, we go and buy the food for meetings ourselves. When doing that, we learned some lessons like: buy from the bakery and take in your own platters. Almost all of the packaging provided by the shops is either plastic or has a plastic window in it – not zero waste. Provide drinks by making it up in a pitcher, serving drinks in cans (very recyclable) or making coffee/tea. Most other drink types had lids that needed to be disposed of. Fruits and vegetables work great – just be sure to carry in your own bags so you don’t end up with plastic bag waste.

The upshot of our lessons for providing food at meetings is:

1. be clear about what you want, ask for it – we want it to become part of their service package,
2. communicate to the meeting attendees what you are doing, they like it, and
3. do the best you can – you can’t always get everything you want.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Lea la versión en español a continuación de esta entrada en inglés.
Some links exit EPA or have Spanish content.

Modern technology enables us to be connected 24-7. Whether it’s via a computer, a PDA or a cell phone—most of us have some portable device to connect with family, friends, or work at a moment’s notice. Some of us rely on modern technology to be “connected” to the office even while away. (I recently committed that egregious act—repeatedly– during a recent family vacation). Others rely on the cell phone to text to or chat with friends about their daily comings and goings.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have four daughters. My 6 year old still does not have a cell phone, but she’s quite tech-savvy for her early years. She often surprises me with her technology skills. On the other hand, my other three daughters are avid Internet and cell phone users. Each with her own personality and cell phone needs. That brings me to today’s issue. How do you keep up with your mobile needs without hurting the environment?

I pose the question because many of us discard our unwanted cell phones after a couple of years even though they still are in good condition because we want the latest in mobile technology or perhaps we want a battery with more durability. These unwanted cell phones and accessories often clutter our drawers or, in worse cases, landfills. These discarded e-devices are made with precious materials that can be recycled. So why don’t we?

There are many ways to donate or recycle these used cell phones and other used electronics. Learn more about our Plug-In to eCycling program as well as our cell phone recycling campaign in English and Spanish. Let’s teach our children more about the life cycle of a cell phone, perhaps they’ll have a greater appreciation for these communication devices to limit e-waste—and unnecessary text messages as well.

¿Qué hacer con su viejo teléfono celular?

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

La tecnología moderna nos permite estar conectados las 24 horas del día. Sea mediante la computadora, un PDA o un teléfono celular—la mayoría de nosotros tiene algún dispositivo portátil para estar conectados al instante con familiares, amigos o el trabajo. Algunos de nosotros dependemos de la tecnología moderna para estar “conectados” a la oficina cuando estamos de vacaciones. (Cometí ese pecado mortal repetidamente durante unas vacaciones recientes con mi familia) Otros dependen de su celular para enviar mensajes de texto o simplemente conversar con amigos sobre el quehacer diario.

Como he mencionado antes, tengo cuatro hijas. La pequeña todavía no tiene un celular, pero se maneja muy bien con la tecnología moderna pese a su edad. A veces me sorprenden sus destrezas tecnológicas. Por otra parte, mis otras tres hijas son empecinadas internautas y usuarias de móviles. Cada una tiene su propia personalidad y gustos de telefonía móvil. Eso me lleva al tema de hoy, ¿cómo podemos adaptarnos a nuestras necesidades de telefonía móvil sin hacerle daño al medio ambiente?

Planteo la pregunta porque muchos de nosotros descartamos nuestros celulares usados dentro de un par de años a pesar de que todavía están en buenas condiciones o porque simplemente queremos la última tecnología móvil o buscamos una batería con mayor durabilidad. Estos celulares y accesorios indeseados muchas veces son arrinconados en nuestras gavetas o peor, amontonados en nuestros rellenos sanitarios. Estos aparatos electrónicos descartados tienen materiales preciosos que podemos reciclar. ¿Entonces, por qué no lo hacemos?

Hay muchas maneras de donar o reciclar estos celulares u otros aparatos electrónicos usados. Aprenda más sobre nuestro programa “Conéctese al reciclaje electrónico”, así como nuestra campaña de reciclaje de celulares en español. Enseñémosle a nuestros hijos sobre el ciclo de vida del teléfono celular, quizás tengan una mayor apreciación por estos aparatos de comunicaciones y así limiten los desechos electrónicos—y los mensajes de texto innecesarios también.

About the author: Ken Sandler is Co-Chair of EPA’s Green Building Workgroup. He has worked for EPA since 1991 on sustainability issues including green building, recycling and indoor air quality.

At EPA, we strive to help people make the environment part of their everyday decisions. But how can we tell when we’re succeeding?

In truth, we often can’t. But sometimes the evidence of change is hard to miss.

Take green building (Web site or video) – making buildings and their sites better for the environment and health. It’s an issue on which I’ve worked for a decade, and I’m now leading efforts to establish a new EPA strategy on the subject.

Yet for years, I would draw blank stares when mentioning “green building” in conversation. Some people would even ask if it meant painting buildings green.

And then, suddenly, nearly everyone had heard of it. My Dad was sending me articles on green building from Newsweek. I would mention it at a barbecue and people would come up to me and say, yes, we’re looking to green our homes, tell us how!

Green building seems to have reached its tipping point. But how do such things happen? If there’s a formula to make sustainable practices bloom, we’d like to get our hands on it.

In fact, we’ve seen such phenomena before. Take recycling. In 1988, only 1,000 communities in America had curbside recycling. Just 8 years later, that number had leaped to 9,000. Why? One reason was that in 1989, responding to public concern, EPA set a goal for the US to recycle 25% of its municipal waste.

This helped set off a competition among states to set their own recycling goals. In response, systems were established to recycle a variety of materials. The engine of recycling got going – and keeps on humming.

With green building, the story is different. Since the early 1990s, EPA has successfully pushed voluntary programs covering many aspects of the built environment – energy, water, indoor air quality, products, waste, smart growth and more. Other groups began to put these pieces together in holistic, market-based programs.

The U.S. Green Building Council, a leading non-profit, has its own eye-popping numbers on the transformation they helped bring about. From 2000 to the present, their member organizations went from 570 to over 15,000, the number of buildings registering to use their LEED green building rating system from 45 to 21,000.

So does this mean our work is done? Hardly. The green building field has needs that range from research to stronger standards to more public education and partnerships. We plan to work with a wide variety of groups to help tackle all of these challenges.

But there are many advantages to reaching a tipping point. Those years of struggling in obscurity have given way to lots of new doors opening up. And it’s nice to get fewer blank stares at parties.

About the author: Rob Lawrence joined EPA in 1990 and is Senior Policy Advisor on Energy Issues in the Dallas, TX regional office. As an economist, he works to insure that both supply and demand components are addressed as the Region develops its Clean Energy and Climate Change Strategy.

While enjoying the countryside near Santa Fe, NM, over the Memorial Day weekend, I came across an old glass soft drink bottle. And it got me to thinking about growing up in Baton Rouge in the 60s and my first environmental action – recycling.

My family had just finished building a house in a fairly new subdivision and my younger brother and I were looking for ways to make some spending money. We noticed that the work areas around the new construction sites were littered with bottles left by the roofers, carpenters and bricklayers. So every afternoon during the summer of 1966, we pulled our red wagons around the expanding neighborhood to gather bottles. On Saturday, we would load cases of returnable bottles into the family station wagon and head to a local grocery store to convert someone else’s trash to our treasure. Together, we made about $600 that summer – not bad when you realize that was over 30,000 bottles at 2 cents a piece. Having seen a sign while on vacation in Arizona that said that returnable bottles there went for 5 cents, we tried, to no avail, to convince our parents that we should drive back and get the cases of bottles stacked behind our house.

I learned a lot of lessons that summer, including that even trash has value if you look for it and applying economic theories to environmental issues can be a worthwhile approach.

What was your first act of environmental awareness?

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Lea la versión en español a continuación de esta entrada en inglés.
Some links exit EPA or have Spanish content.

As the school year comes to an end, many parents are in the predicament of finding activities to keep the kids entertained during the summer months. As a parent of a six year old, I want to find educational activities for her to do while I’m at work and on weekends.

Personally, I think this season is a golden opportunity to get the children interested in science AND, above all, in protecting the environment. The best part is that you can make it fun without letting them know that you are “teaching” them something. When talking about the environment any location can be your classroom—be it indoors or outdoors.

For example, while planting vegetables for the summer, you can teach the children about greenscaping. Playing outside or going to the beach are opportunities to talk to kids about protecting themselves from the sun’s powerful rays. And if there are any creepy crawlers in the home you want to get rid of now, visit an interactive Website in English and Spanish, Help! It’s a roach!

For parents of young children, I highly recommend some of EPA’s materials, in English and Spanish on the Planet Protectors Club. These are a series of workbooks and educational materials for young children designed in conjunction with teachers that basically focus on the three R’s reduce, reuse, and recycling of waste management.

Our Office of Solid Waste has other materials geared for middle school and high school students which have many applications.
Furthermore, two new publications, Working Together for a Healthy Environment and Teach English, Teach About the Environment help multilingual individuals and community groups learn more about recycling. Plus, there are numerous community service projects that enable students to apply the lessons learned in the classroom to real-life experiences.

OK. I’m getting off subject now. Let me go back to young children.

I must confess that as the mother of a six year old (and of three college students) I have also become aware of how much children learn from our example and daily comings and goings. Recycling has become second nature to them and I was very impressed by the little one reminding me not to get out of the house without sun block! Glad to know that I must be doing something right.

Que el mundo entero sea su salón de clase

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

Mientras se avecina el fin del año escolar, muchos padres están en el proceso de encontrar actividades para mantener a sus niños ocupados durante los meses de verano. Como madre de una niña de seis años, quiero encontrar actividades educativas para que ella se entretenga mientras estoy trabajando y durante los fines de semana.

Personalmente creo que esta época realmente se presta como una gran oportunidad para interesar a los niños en las ciencias y especialmente en la protección ambiental. Lo mejor de todo es encontrar algo divertido sin que ellos se den cuenta de que se le está “enseñando algo”. Cuando se habla del medio ambiente, cualquier lugar puede ser un aula escolar-sea en entornos interiores como exteriores. Por ejemplo, mientras esté sembrando legumbres y flores para el verano, puede enseñar a los niños sobre la jardinería ecológica. Mientras está afuera o en la playa también puede aprovechar para hablar a los hijos de cómo protegerse de los poderosos rayos solares. Y si ve algunos insectos indeseables invadiendo su hogar y quiere enseñar a los hijos sobre cómo eliminarlos, visite el sitio interactivo en inglés y español, ¡Socorro, una cucaracha!

A los padres de niños pequeños, le recomiendo alguno de los materiales educativos de EPA en ingles y español del Club de Protectores del Planeta. Son una serie de folletos y materiales educativos para niños diseñados en conjunto con maestros y se centran básicamente en las tres R’s de la gestión de desperdicios-el reducir, reutilizar y reciclar.

Nuestra Oficina de Residuos Sólidos tiene otros materiales para estudiantes de intermedia y de escuela superior. Además hay dos nuevas publicaciones, Trabajando juntos por un ambiente saludable y Aprenda inglés, aprenda sobre el medio ambiente que ayudará a individuos y comunidades multilingües a aprender más sobre reciclaje. Además hay numerosos proyectos de servicio comunitario que ayudan a los estudiantes aplicar las lecciones aprendidas en el salón de clase a experiencias de la vida real.

Bueno, estoy divagando. Regresemos a los niños.

Debo confesar que como madre de una niña de seis años (y otras tres universitarias) he cobrado consciencia sobre el hecho de que nuestros hijos aprenden mucho de nuestro ejemplo y acciones cotidianas. El reciclaje ya es un buen hábito que han internalizado y me impresiona el hecho de que mi pequeña es la que me recuerda antes de salir de la casa que tenemos que usar la crema de protección solar! Después de todo parece que estoy haciendo algo correctamente.