If the employees around the table keep using their silverware and napkins every working day, they will save over 6,000 plastic knives, forks and spoons and as many napkins from being discarded each year. Ideally, if all Weill Cornell Medical College employees made the switch, we would prevent over 2,880,000 plastic utensils from ending up in landfills each year. That would be more than 129,600 pounds of trash in just five years.
The group represented five departments across the campus and each person was involved in green initiatives in their own work area. Some also volunteer in their communities to support greener living. During lunch the group discussed many initiatives and all were happy to see some progress. The NewYork Presbyterian Hospital operates the Garden Cafe, which has recently provided full recycling. Brita Kube, Department of Psychiatry, noted that Rockefeller University's cafeteria provides all reusable items for a "dine in" option, rather than providing only disposable materials. The group decided to contact Rockefeller University's cafeteria management to learn how they were able to manage the changes.
If you have changed to greener habits, or are working differently to support a greener campus contact us so that we can share your story.
]]>Starbucks is piloting a program in 7 Manhattan locations to test a new cup made of old corrugated cardboard. These locations now contain recycling bins. To read more information on this pilot program, and what it could mean to recycling programs everywhere, check out the full program details at Seven Starbucks Project Details. And learn more about this type of retail recycling at Global Green USA.
New employees learn from Andrew Ryan, Senior Director of Maintenance and Engineering about the ongoing initiatives at Weill Cornell Medical College. Cardboard and paper recycling increases, LED light installations, and night setbacks in the Weill Greenberg Center are just a few examples. Many of the Medical College's initiatives will be featured on this site, and progress will be reported via new postings.
They also hear from Kristen Adams, Administrator, Department of Anesthesiology. During the "Seven Minutes to Save the Planet" presentation, new hires learn from a fellow employee how green teams across the campus are saving energy and reducing waste. Employee driven change starts one employee at a time.
Ordering recycled supplies, turning off computer monitors when not used, limiting copies and print-outs, and always using double sided copying are a few examples of what every employee can do to reduce the carbon footprint of our work. Some changes like using a reusable coffee mug save an employee's own money, as well as creating less garbage.
Upcoming events and new ideas are also reported here on the Sustainability Web Site. So what are you waiting for? Check out this site, start making some small changes, and contact us to get more involved.
]]>The Medical College is interested to know if employees are using Zipcar, you can find out about New York City Zipcars by linking to this article in New York Magazine. You can also visit the wikipedia entry to learn about Zipcar sharing. Zipcar parking sites help travelers share cars and reduce waste. Respond to relay your interests, experiences, or your thoughts via email Kristen Adams
]]>Firefox is recommended especially for SAP users, who are keeping their Microsoft Internet Explorer at a lower version. Employees not using SAP may find that IE at the most recently released version works well enough.
The site is viewable and will permit basic navigation using any browser.
]]>We will meet at the entrance to the Garden Cafe cafeteria on Thursday November 5th at 11:45 AM. Whether you bring your own lunch, or plan on buying lunch there; we can sit together and share new ways to reduce trash while at work. We will also be creating awareness among other employees. No RSVP required, just bring your napkins and silverware to the cafeteria entrance.
If you do not have an extra couple of cloth napkins at home, consider making some by recycling old linens. Or check out thrift stores for silverware and linens. Let's stop using paper napkins and plastic forks, knives and spoons; and bring reusable materials to work.
If you would like additional information please contact Kristen Adams
]]>The Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) oversees our compliance with the use of chemicals in the labs and the disposal of hazardous waste. EHS serves as a resource to the research community and is leading many initiatives toward better practices. One of the best ways to help the planet is to reduce the amount of the most toxic substances used in the lab, or change the types of chemicals used for experimentation. Researchers want to go as green as possible in consideration of the health and safety of the lab staff, as well as helping the earth.
Weill Cornell Medical College has a four page Waste Minimization guide that helps labs create better policies and practices to reduce pollution from chemical waste disposal. The guide includes internal re-sourcing procedures and is a quick reference guide is a great starting point to organizing the lab to operate in a greener way.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a terrific web-based tool called The Green Chemical Alternatives Purchasing Wizard . The wizard is a guided process that allows the user to search from a select list of solvents commonly used in the laboratory, and the associated process. The Wizard identifies less hazardous and more environmentally benign chemicals or processes that may be substituted, and provides journal references as well as URLs to information that is available online. Users may print article information or have email sent with the URL for the article reference.
In 2007 book The Secret History of the War on Cancer, Devra Davis, PhD, MPH raised issues regarding the health and environmental impact of multiple exposures to the many chemicals encountered by humans every day, as well as those used in research. The book is an in-depth look at cancer research, challenging the industry to study the environmental causes rather than limiting research to finding a cure. The author also includes some examples of research worker health issues, creating an awareness of the possible risks of scientific work. The detailed analysis and overarching tale of political spin by industrialists make it worth the considerable investment to read the book.
In addition to full length books, there have been many recent articles on greener research. A recent article in Scientist magazine entitled “Green at the Bench: Replacing your lab’s chemical “worst offenders” with less toxic alternatives,” for example, takes a very practical look at some first steps to find the safer practices and less toxic lab chemicals for both the world and our immediate work environment.