Going Green at the University of Richmond

What’s it like going green on a large university campus?  Ask Megan Zanella-Litke.  She has been the sustainability coordinator at the University of Richmond for the last two years.  I recently met with Zanella-Litke to talk about where she sees the school going in the future, and the challenges to working with so many students and faculty members.  For more information on the University of Richmond's sustainability efforts, check out their website.

Ace: How long have you been working as the sustainability coordinator?

MZL: I’ve been at University of Richmond for two years.  I came here from Massachusetts where I was volunteering at U Mass Dartmouth and their sustainability program.  Before that, I did a little bit of work in the New Orleans recovery school district just for a short time, volunteering to help them get recycling started because, after Katrina, recycling went away in the entire city.  I was there creating programming for both the elementary school and high school students, and for the teachers.  They didn’t have recycling at home either. You had to educate the whole spectrum.  

Ace: Tell me a little about what you do as sustainability coordinator.  What’s a typical day like?  Is there a typical day?

MZL: That’s a tough question.  I don’t think there’s a typical day.  It’s a broad job.  I work with faculty, staff, and students on all different kinds of projects.  I work closely with facilities, looking at what they’re doing for energy efficiency on campus, looking at what we’re doing with new buildings, or what we’re doing with modifications to existing buildings, construction projects.  We look at water use and electricity use, seeing where there are opportunities for us to continue to improve.  I work really closely with them on lots of different projects, and I work with student groups on projects that they want to do on campus.  I work with them in a couple different capacities.  We have interns that work on LEED applications for the university.  They get to work with me and facilities on those projects.  I have interns that help with just different projects on campus.  They help to track the university’s emissions, pulling all that information together so that we can figure out how we’re doing each year.  Then with the student groups, I just help them with whatever programming they want to run, whether it’s having a waste audit or if they want to work on a competition between the residence halls to see who can reduce the most energy.  

Ace: That sounds fun.

MZL:  Yeah, and with staff we have programming for them so that the individual offices can work to help the university achieve its larger goals.  We have a green office program that twenty-six different offices are currently involved in.  It’s only a year old, so it’s been a really exciting program.  Lots of offices have gotten involved, and they have to complete check lists.  Each check list gets more difficult and more involved.  It essentially starts with things like, we’re going to make sure all of our electronics in our office are turned off when everybody goes home at night, and then gets to bigger things like reviewing processes that are in there and seeing where you can eliminate material use during a process.  

Ace: Is it difficult promoting sustainability on such a big campus?

MZL: It comes with a lot of different challenges since there’s such a wide variety of people.  There are people who’ve been here for a really long time, there are new people.  Students are constantly changing.  There are people who already know the institution really well who have one perspective, and then there are people who are constantly new to learning the institution.  Both groups provide a lot of helpful information and are really great groups to work with, but it creates challenges in having to program a little differently for students versus staff who’ve been here a long time, or will be here a long time.  It makes so you have to have a wide variety of programming.

Ace: Where do you see U of R going in the future with sustainability?

MZL: I think each year we’ve made huge improvements and huge changes.  It’s a really exciting place to be as….the university is really embracing sustainability and ready to take the next step.  I see it growing into being part of the culture here and I think I’ve already seen that in a lot of instances where people in different offices are starting to think through things a little bit differently.  We have an office supply exchange.  People in offices are able to bring their surplus supplies that they’ve been stocking up, or if they had extra things left over from a conference.  They can drop them off and other offices can pick them up for free.  It’s been really nice to see offices who now call me before they place an order just to check to see if I have it.  

Ace: Is there anything that you want people to know about the sustainability effort at U of R?

MZL: I think we’re really excited that we’ve made a big transition to get off of coal.  We’ve switched completely to natural gas as our main fuel source on campus, which is a really nice next step after coal.  I think that’s the biggest accomplishment of the last twelve months.  That was driven by student group efforts and a lot of administrative and staff and faculty support.  It was great that it was able to be a reality and that were able to make that transition. 

Celebrate Earth Day with Ace Recycling and CARITAS!

Ace Recycling, in partnership with CARITAS, has announced an exciting Earth Day event to be held at Ace’s construction debris recycling facility in Chester. The event is open to the public and will accept old furniture for free reuse or recycling, will provide facility tours and will have raffles for some exciting green gifts! The event is scheduled for April 20^th from 10 am to 3 pm at 13101 N Enon Church Road, Chester, VA 23836.

The tour is a unique opportunity for people to see a local example of a green industry in action. You can bring your old furniture for free disposal. The usable furniture will be taken by CARITAS for their furniture bank, which supports people in need. The remainder will be recycled by Ace. There will also be drawings, and of course, tours of the facility. Kids are welcome!

Ace Recycling opened in early 2009. Any individual, contractor, or waste hauler can bring construction, renovation, or demolition debris to the facility for recycling. The operation is in 70,000 square feet of building space that is part of a larger industrial complex that is now called The Sustainability Park, which formerly was used for tobacco processing. Ace Recycling converted the buildings it occupies by following the US Green Building Standards, known as LEED. The facility currently averages a recycling rate of 84% and employs 32.

CARITAS was organized more than 20 years ago to respond to the tremendous unmet need for emergency shelter for homeless adults in the cold winter months. CARITAS has now become the largest services program in the community providing emergency shelter, furniture and essential household items, and a path back to employment through the new CARITAS works program.

“From the Earth: The Environment in Virginia's Past and Future”

On March 16, the Virginia Historical Society will host the “From the Earth: The Environment in Virginia's Past and Future” conference to celebrate the launch of its new environmental history resources guide.  The day long series of lectures by notable authors like Stephen Ausband and Helen Rountree will cover the span of the commonwealth’s history and end with a panel discussion moderated by former governor Gerald Baliles.  Last week, I emailed Andrew Talkov, Head of Program Development at the Virginia Historical Society, some questions about how the conference got started and the importance of studying environmental history.  Here is what he had to say: 

How did the conference get started?

In 2008, the Virginia Environmental Endowment (VEE) awarded a grant to the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) for the Robert R. Merhige Jr. Archive of the Virginia Environmental Endowment. The goal of the project was to organize, archive, and preserve records related to the VEE’s role in the state’s environmental history. The VEE donated thousands of pages of documents related to the organization’s work over the past thirty-one years and provided funding to process those documents as well as hundreds of boxes of material already in the Society’s holdings related to environmental history.

 Thanks to this partnership the VHS accomplished three goals. The first was the processing of the Endowment’s records—making them accessible to researchers at the Society. In January 2012, the VHS published a hard copy guide to the VEE collection featuring an in-depth history of the organization. An online, searchable version of the finding aid with select digital highlights of its content is also available. The Guide to Environmental History Resources in the Collections of the Virginia Historical Society includes both VHS and VEE materials and is available on the VHS website. 

Secondly, with help from the VEE, the VHS conducted oral histories relevant to recent environmental activities in Virginia. Oral recollections of key players serve as a crucial complement to surviving documentation, amplifying, illuminating, and contextualizing the facts contained in the written word, and allowing the voices of the actual persons who participated in the events to be heard. Information obtained from the oral histories, and the resulting transcriptions of those conversations, will be added to the Merhige Archives to form one comprehensive collection. 

Lastly, the VHS processed the manuscript collections in its own holdings containing significant environmental content with an eye to bringing that content to public attention.  The grant from the VEE complemented funds already received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Hunton & Williams law firm to archive papers from such Virginians as Governor Gerald L. Baliles, Governor Linwood Holton, W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr., and Littleton Hewitt Roden, Jr. 

The goal of the conference, entitled “From the Earth: The Environment in Virginia’s Past and Future,” is to increase awareness of VHS environmental history collections, especially the newly accessible items available because of our partnership with the VEE. We also want to advance overall education about Virginia’s environmental history. As the earliest English colony on the North American mainland, Virginia features a landscape that has been a key factor in American history—from the survival of the Jamestown colony to the various industries that closely align the environment with the economy.

What's something that you're excited to hear about at the conference?

That’s a difficult question to answer as all of the speakers and topics offer something different. I’m personally very excited to hear Professor Stephen Ausband’s discussion of his book Byrd’s Line: A Natural History. In 1728, William Byrd, a wealthy, English-educated Virginia planter, undertook a journey to determine the exact boundary between North Carolina and Virginia. Byrd was an amateur naturalist and diarist and recorded his journey in two books, The History of the Dividing Line and The Secret History of the Line. Always witty, Byrd offered keen observations of natural phenomena (as well as described his predilection for exercise and sexual conquest). Who wouldn’t be tantalized by such an adventure? Professor Ausband used Byrd’s journals and retraced the steps—through swamps, thickets and forests—that Byrd wrote about 385 years ago. I’m really interested to hear what Professor Ausband learned about the past and the present during his adventure along the border.

Another highlight of the conference will definitely be the discussion moderated by former Governor Gerald L. Baliles. He has invited former Secretary of Natural Resources W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr., Ann Jennings, the Virginia executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Gerald P. McCarthy, the executive director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment to discuss the current status and future of the Chesapeake Bay. Each of these individuals, and the organizations they represent, have been catalysts in shaping public policy to ensure that Virginians have clean air, pure water, and the use and enjoyment of public lands. 

Why is it important to study environmental history? 

The environment and the economy continue to be in the forefront of the national conversation and we hope that attendees to this conference will be better equipped to engage in that dialog. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring—the book credited with igniting the modern environmental movement. Historians reacted to the phenomenon, as they are prone to do, by looking at the relationship between humans and their environment over time. The very diverse field of environmental history currently examines the physical impact of humans on the environment; how we use nature; and the environmental consequences of a growing population and its effect on technology, production and consumption. Environmental Historians also look at how people think about nature. Although all of this is useful in building a more complete understanding of our past, environmental history informs our relationship with our environment today and how we plan for the future.

What do you want people to know about the conference?

The conference is free and open to the public, although we are asking people to register online at www.vahistorical.org/news/veeconf.htm. Interested individuals do not need to stay through the entire day in order to participate—although they do need to register. Although all of the speakers’ presentations will be enlightening—as well as entertaining—we want people to feel free to stay for as many or as few of the six hour-long sessions as they like.

Does social media really help the recycling industry?

Most businesses have some kind of social media presence now.  Restaurants post their menus online while stores use the internet to advertise limited time only specials. 

But what about recycling companies?  Where do they belong in the social media landscape?

The industry seems to have embraced this new form of interacting with customers.  Many recycling companies now have Twitter accounts and blogs where they offer their best tips for going green. 

But does social media actually encourage people to recycle?  Tell us what you think.  How have different sites like Facebook and Twitter had an impact on your business?

E-cycling in Virginia

The state of New York passed a law last year that requires electronics manufacturers to recycle old products turned in by customers, including TVs, computers, and phones.  It doesn’t go into effect until 2012, but the Electronics Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act is expected to create a lot of revenue for local recycling companies.    

 

In 2008, Virginia passed a similar law, but it only applies to computer manufacturers.  

 

Tell us what you think--could Virginia benefit from something like the Electronics Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act?   Should the commonwealth amend its current e-cycling law to include other electronic products?

For a list of states with e-cycling laws, check out this pdf from ecyclingresource.org.  

Can you recycle a vending machine?

They’re a fixture in so many businesses around the country: vending machines.  Whether you’re at work, school, or the gym, you probably pass by one at least once a day.  

But have you ever wondered if vending machines can be recycled?

The answer: absolutely.

At first, recycling a vending machine might seem like an impossible task and in fact is often done incorrectly.  However, here is a list of just some of the materials that can be recycled from a single vending machine: 

The bulbs

 The coin and bill changer

·           The compressor, which is made of steel and copper, and contains oils.

The radiator, which is made of multiple materials such as steel, copper and aluminum. 

The circuit board

      

The motor

Refrigerants. These are the gases which keep the contents cold.

 The advertisement on the front of every vending machine is printed on a polycarbonate sheet.

The key to recycling these machines and others like them (such as refrigerators and air conditioners) is attention to detail. Simply crushing them and grinding them at a standard scrap yard doesn't do the trick because the gases, oils, bulbs and related nasties need to be treated first. The cool part is when done properly, these hazardous components are easily recycled.

How do you make sure the recycling is being done right? Make sure the facility you are using is certified to evacuate refrigerants, and ask to see documentation verifying where everything went. Your efforts on this front reward the good guys and of course ensure a healthy environment.