SustainLane

SustainLane’s Local Action ChallengeTake the Challenge!
8 weeks. 50 Cities. SustainLane’s Local Action Challenge is a way for you to make a difference on the ground level. As global decision-makers prepare to hammer out a new climate treaty at the December 2009 Climate Conference in Copenhagen, the Hopenhagen movement inspires local, on-the-ground action in communities across the US. Grab a camera, and join the movement. Take SustainLane’s Local Action Challenge, and win prizes every week!

Each point you earn is an entry into that week’s drawing for prizes from green business sponsors. Earn points by completing challenges from your city’s list.

Go to http://www.sustainlane.com/local-action to play.

www.greenprintdenver.org

Denver B-Cycle

In spring 2010, Denver will launch a citywide bike sharing program call B-Cycle. To learn more, go to www.denverbikesharing.org

Bike to Work Day 2009

Yay, ALD is once again participating in Bike to Work Day!

The Arapahoe Library District will participate in Bike to Work Day on June 24, 2009. Bike to Work day represents a grassroots effort by cities, counties, transportation planners, community organizations and others across the state to educate commuters about the benefits of using two wheels to get to work.
Bike to Work Day supports and encourages fun and camaraderie among staff while showing the Library District’s support, along with other government and interest groups, for the State declared day. It is also a fun and healthy event that supports our green efforts. The Library District participated in the event last year (click here for blog posting), with more than 40 staff members taking part.

All Library District employees are encouraged to participate. The event not only includes biking, but also other means of commuting such as walking, carpooling or riding the bus.

There are no entry fees. The Library District will support the event by purchasing ALD customized T-shirts for each participant. Although employees must register by June 2, 2009 in order to assure an order placement for T-shirts, participants can register anytime up to the day of the event. Registration is made online at http://www.drcog.org/btwd2009/index.cfm.

Please note these important dates below:
June 2, 2009 - Register to participate in Bike to Work
June 3, 2009 – T-shirt orders will be placed
June 20, 2009 – T-shirt orders received
June 24, 2009 – Bike / Walk / Carpool / Ride the Bus to Work

For more information, please click on the link below to view the Decision Announcement in its entirety.
DA for Bike to Work Day.docx

Earth Day!

Earth Day Fair - April 22
The City and County of Denver invites you to join them at their annual Earth Day Fair in Civic Center Park. This free event will highlight over 30 booths – each highlighting environmental and sustainable products, foods, and resources.
In addition to the Fair they have expanded to include a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle event. Bring us your unwanted clothing, household items, books, and outdoor equipment, and they will make sure that it finds a new “life” and remains out of a landfill.
KBCO will be with them all day broadcasting live with Ginger.

There are other activites going on in the Denver community for Earth Day 2009. There will be the First Annual Denver Earth Day Hunt, with Environ-trivia, Earth Games and Clever Clues, and everyone will walk away with 10 ways in which we can all help to preserve our planet. The Colorado Green Festival is the largest sustainability event in the world of what’s working in our communities—for people, business, and the environment. The City of Denver’s pavilion will feature multiple programs and services, including The Mile High Million tree planting initiative, Denver’s upcoming Bike Sharing Program, and the Neighborhood Weatherization Project. For more information, visit www.greenfestivals.org. There will also be several community garden projects and tree planting ceremonies. You can find a complete list of events by zip code on the EarthDay.net website.

From http://www.examiner.com/x-2169-Denver-Conscious-Living-Examiner~y2009m4d19-Celebrate-Earth-Day-2009

20 Games of Green!

Over the course of 20 games this season, the Colorado Rockies will be enlisting fans and players toward making a positive impact on the environment through the "20 Games of Green" initiative.

The 20 games are split into three "Green Weeks," April 24-29, July 6-12 and September 1-7. Each "Green Week" will feature ticket packages, in-game incentives, fan contests, bike-to-the-game events and more.

They have a calendar of events, but here is a cool one:
"Wood for Wood" - For every Rockies home run hit during these 20 games, we will plant one tree in the Denver area.

Visit their page for more info and the calendar!
www.coloradorockies.com/green

Carshare

From the Carshare.org website:

CarSharing lets you choose to pay the costs of driving ONLY when you want to drive.
CarSharing allows you to choose between alternative modes first, and driving second.
CarSharing saves you money by helping you make this fundamental change in the economics of your car usage.

It’s a pay as you drive system that makes sense and saves cents!

Is CarSharing for Me?

eGo CarShare could be a great match for you if ANY of the following apply to you:
You don’t own a car, but occasionally have the need for one.
You do own a car, but occasionally your household needs another one.
Any of the vehicles your household owns are driven less than 10,000 miles per year.
You need a pick-up truck every now and then. (Did someone say, "Craigslist?")
You would like to have more room in your garage to store your bikes and skis.
You like to bike and walk as much as possible.
You’re committed to reducing your environmental footprint.
You like clean air.
You like clean water.
You like safe streets.
You’re looking for ways to significantly reduce your household expenditures.

Southglenn sustainability

New Southglenn Sustainability!

General carpet
· Carpet tile significantly reduces waste compared to roll goods during installation
· 38% post industrial recycled content
· Low-emitting materials
· 100% cradle to cradle

Work room Carpet
· Carpet tile significantly reduces waste compared to roll goods during installation
· Uses product that would have been recycled or disposed of

Use of wood wall covering VS. Wall paneling
· Made with the highest-grade wood veneer. Arbor Series is a favorite among environmentally-conscious consumers. Efficient veneer slicing processes provide exceptional yields compared to other wood options, reducing the amount of hardwood required for an interior. Several trees are harvested from plantations which are carefully managed to ensure the forest's health.

Ceiling system
· Most of the ceiling is open, saving construction material
· Ceiling tile can be 100% recycled
· Ceiling tile is made up of 35% Pre-consumer recycled content and 4% Post-consumer recycled content

Layout has been designed to preserve the outside view from the majority of the Library

We are reusing existing furniture in the staff area

Lighting and HVAC systems have been designed for maximum efficiency and ease of change.
· Motion sensor light control
· Light harvesting at north wall

On site waste will be recycled.

Long term lease.

Low flow water fixtures

Bulb Eater--chomp chomp chomp

When I first heard bulb eater, I pictured something a little like this:

Facilities is purchasing a "Premium Bulb Eater" (yes that is what it's called) for, as they say, "The safe, efficient way to recycle fluorescent lamps." The Bulb Eater (which we'll have to come up with a name for) crushes fluorescent lamps into 100% recyclable material and captures over 99.99% of the vapors released!

This guy (or girl) can hold up to 1350 4 foot bulbs. You can also feed it about 20 lamps per minute, but that depends on who's doing the feeding (oh and how hungry he is). Once the drum is full, a recycling truck comes and picks up the drum to properly recycle the used product.

One bulb eater will be purchased and be stored centrally at the Administration building.

Now, here is what The Bulb Eater really looks like:

Green Facilities at ALD-Where are we now?

The following information was provided by Jose as an update for how our facilities are practicing green initiatives.

Four motion-sensor lights have been installed at Admin. Chet will be working on this in other facilities as well!

New waterless urinals! Click here.


The following lighting controls will help save on energy at May Library. These are spread throughout the facility and engineer to control lighting where required:
a) Three Dimmers
b) Wall occupancy sensors
c) Daylight Photo sensor
d) T5 transformers are installed and low voltage lighting where necessary






The following lighting controls will help save on energy at Streets at Southglenn. These are spread throughout the facility and engineer to control lighting where required:
a) Wall mounted occupancy sensors
b) Ceiling Mounted occupancy sensors
c) Switch with integrated occupancy sensors
d) Dimmer switch
e) Please note that T5 was also use in this facility

A solar-powered water faucet will be installed for the childrens and staff restroom at Streets at Southglenn! Way cool.

"Green Pages"

This free directory makes it easy to locate and support Colorado's green businesses! Categories include eco-travel, natural health and wellness, organic products, green building and materials, renewable energy technologies, and more.

Click here to check it out!

Gov. Ritter and Mayor Hickenlooper YouTube video

Check out the YouTube video of Gov. Ritter with a cameo by Denver Mayor Hickenlooper in this promo for Colorado's statewide energy efficiency and conservation campaign. Fun!

DPL ditches the plastic

In December, Denver Public Library joined ALD in the effort to reduce plastic bag use...by offering patrons reusable bags for purchase as well as eliminating the use of plastic bags at all their branches. See their page on their new bags here!
In addition to this, four local grocery outlets – King Soopers, Safeway, Vitamin Cottage and Wal-Mart are implementing innovative measures that will reduce the use of disposable bags in their stores. How, you ask? Well the grocers have agreed to the following:

• Have cashiers promote reusable bags as customers check out
  
• Train checkers to make it as easy as possible for customers to use reusable bags, or avoid a bag altogether
  
• Prominently advertise reusable bag rebates
  
• Provide convenient recycling collection stations for plastic bags that are used
  
• Work with Greenprint Denver to document annual progress

According to studies done by Better Bags Colorado, over 50 million plastic bags are disposed of in Denver each year.
If each Denver resident reduced their annual use of plastic bags even by half, Michele Weingarden (Director of Greenprint Denver) said, "collectively we can save the amount of petroleum required to drive a car around the earth's equator more than 175 times."
Source greenprintdenver.org

Wow!

Hike and Bike Map

The average American generates about 10 tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions
annually in direct emissions (home, car, travel) and about 23 tons annually through
their economic impacts such as the clothes they buy, the food they consume, and
the other goods and services they use. For every mile you walk or bike, instead of
driving, you prevent one pound of carbon emissions.
Source: CarbonFund.org and Governor’s Energy Office.


How cool is this! Denver has provided a booklet that includes five walking and five bicycling tours in and around Downtown Denver. Perfect for when you are itching to get out of the house on a warm day and do something different!
The routes vary in length and difficulty ensuring that everyone can get out and enjoy the sights.

http://www.greenprintdenver.org/docs/Hike_and_Bike_Map.pdf

Recycling reminders

Just a reminder to make sure and recycle your recyclables!

• The tall "slim jims" are lined with clear liners (to differentiate from the black trash can liners) and these should be used for bottles, cans and the like. You do NOT need to rinse items you are placing in these lined containers!!
  
• The smaller, unlined recycle bins are for items like paper, cardboard and other CLEAN recyclables.

Try to keep paper and paper products clean by not placing your wet or dirty items in the same bin. Use the lined bins for those items.

Can I recycle???

• Mail? With a window? Glossy? YES YES YES!


• Paper with staples in it? YES!


• Styrofoam? Sorry, NO!


• Post-Its? YES!


• Rubber bands? Sorry, NO!


• Cardboard from my frozen meal? YES (if it's clean)


• Milk carton? YES!


• Paper towel? Sorry, NO!


• Colored paper? YES!


• 3-ring binder? Sorry, NO!


• Yogurt container? YES!


• #6 plastic? YES (any #plastic can be placed in the bin)

Remember, our recycling company does a lot of the work for us in determining what they actually are able to recycle!

For a more-detailed list, see the B&G staffnet page here!

Waterless Urinals at ALD!

One big accomplishment this month will be the installation of the waterless urinals district-wide (in ALD-owned facilities).

• We will have 13 total waterless urinals; 4 at SM, 3 at KO, 2 at CW, 2 at Admin, and 2 at PF.


• Each will help save about 40,000 gallons per year for a total of 520,000 gallons of water.


• Rough savings in dollar figures about $16,318. This does not include sewer consumption.


• Rebate for each urinal is $50 from Denver Water for a total of $650.00.

Here is a picture for those of you who may not be making it in to the men's rooms at these facitlities! There is also an accompanying plaque with the urinals that says our facility is committed to protecting and preserving the environment, and more information about the urinal.

Yay for another step forward for ALD!

Christmas Tree Recycling

Colorado Recycles has compiled a Christmas tree recycling guide at recycleyourchristmastree.com.

Aurora will be recycling Christmas trees Dec. 26 through Jan. 12 in the following locations: Del Mar Park, 6th and Peoria in the west parking lot; Olympic Park, 15501 E. Yale Ave.; Murphy Creek Golf Course, 1700 S. Old Tom Morris Road; and Saddle Rock Golf Course, 21705 E. Arapahoe Road.

For more cities and recycling locations, see the Denver Post article here.

Trash to Trees at the Inverness Hotel

Trash to Trees is a tree decorating contest at the Inverness Hotel that challenges students to use recycled or re-purposed items to decorate a holiday tree. It is aimed bring awareness to the importance of recycling during the holidays using a creative and educational approach targeted at school age children.. The trees are on display at the Inverness from December 5-14.

The Trash to Trees tree challenge was open to Arapahoe, Douglas County and Denver county 4th - 8th graders only. Each participating school was challenged to decorate a 5-foot tree using recycled or re-purposed items only. They selected a ‘theme’ to guide their decorations and a list of all the recycled items they used. Beyond those rules, students were encouraged to get creative!

The trees will be on display beginning Dec. 5 – Dec. 14 in the main lobby and along the main entrance hallways at The Inverness Hotel located at 200 Inverness Drive West, Englewood. The Inverness Hotel will invite the community to stop by the hotel Dec. 5 – Dec. 14 to cast their vote and enjoy complimentary cocoa and cookies. There will a total of 10 judging categories, such as Most Recycled Items Used; Best Tree Top Decoration; Most Original Decorating Theme; etc. The Inverness Hotel will tally the votes on Dec. 14 and list the winners on their Web site by Dec. 15.

Curbside composting in Denver

City recycling officials are stunned at the initial success of their curbside composting program, as volunteers for the pilot put 31 pounds of organics a week into their green bins instead of the expected 18 to 22.

Denver launched curbside composting bins in September for 3,000 homes in about a dozen selected neighborhoods. The green bins were picked up every week until the end of the fall leaf season and are now every other week, just like the purple recycling containers.
The organic waste — yard debris, food waste, vegetable greens, wet coffee filters, etc. — goes to a private composting facility for self-baking into garden soil. If the $215,000 state startup grant is successful, recycling officials will ask Denver to expand curbside composting throughout the city.

Read the article from the Denver Post....

Read more about Denver's composting program...

Holiday Ideas

Look for cards that contain recycled content or are actually recycled materials, make your own cards from scrap paper, or even use old cards as gift tags or something else creative!

Wrap boxes in magazine pages, the funny pages, or old maps. Think about using reusable containers like tins, baskets and boxes. If you do buy wrapping paper, look for recycled paper and reuse.

Give an environmentally-smart gift, such as a refillable thermos, a canvas tote bag, items made from recycled materials, homemade gifts, plants, concert/movies tickets, dinner out, candles, soap, seeds for next year’s garden, national parks pass, membership to the botanic gardens/zoo/aquarium.

Take your own tote bag shopping to avoid using a lot of plastic bags on just a few items.

Make your own ornaments from found objects, or use edible/compostable items.

Consider decorating with LED lights, which are up to 90 percent more efficient than the traditional incandescent. These newer bulbs are sturdy, last up to 100,000 hours (or 20 years) and barely warm up, eliminating fire concerns.

Use timers to limit light displays to no more than six evening hours a day. Leaving lights on 24 hours a day will quadruple your energy costs – and create four times the pollution.

Donate your unneeded clothes/jackets to a shelter for the needy.

Share your ideas for being more green this holiday season!

60 Minutes Exposes Toxic E-waste

60 Minutes corresondent Scott Pelley and crew went to China to investigate illegal smuggling of "E-waste (electronic waste)." Pelley's investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Blurbs from the article posted on cbsnews.com:

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley and crew got roughed up at a Chinese dump while working on a story on toxic electronic waste.

E-waste workers in Guiyu, China, where Pelley's team videotaped, put up with the dangerous conditions for the $8 a day the job pays.

"We throw out about 130,000 computers every day in the United States...we throw out over 100 million cell phones every year," says Hershkowitz. A great deal of this American e-waste winds up in places like Guiyu. In fact, even some companies promising to recycle it safely will illegally export it, as 60 Minutes reveals.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/60minutes/main4579229.shtml