Baruch’s Green Week

The week from April 16th to April 22nd was marked as Green Week by Baruch College. Baruch Women in Business, Golden Key, Alpha Kappa Psi, USG and Team Brunch were responsible for brining out the annual initiative this year. Students were given free green giveaways. The objective of this week is to educate the children about how they can adopt a lifestyle that is environmentally responsible. They were taught with the help of various events that took place throughout the week. Students have displayed their happiness over an environmentally conscious week. According to TheTicker.org, Kathleen Arteficio, who holds the title of the President of the eco club says that this week helped them in creating a buzz about the college and about the importance of environmental sustainability. Another key member of the college, Chris Catalano, who is the founding member of the club, thinks that this week helped them achieve the eco club’s goals. The week also helped communicate to people about how they can incorporate small changes in their lifestyles to support environmental sustainability.

Free Farmer’s Market- Tuesday

A variety of events were conducted by the eco- club throughout the week. While Tuesday witnessed the Free Farmer’s Market, Wednesday had the event Green Giveaway where reusable green bags were distributed among the students. Thursday was saved for Green Thumb Planting. The Free Farmer’s Market event kick started the Green Week. The eco club members and volunteers made sure they showed the students how going green can be “delicious”! They gave out free naturally grown organic fruits of different kinds to the students. This event turned out to be hugely successful with many students trying to get their hands on the plums, pears and apples.

Green Giveaway- Wednesday

Wednesday saw more students take part in the week. On this day, free promotional reusable bags were distributed to them. If you enter the campus to find tote bags green in color everywhere around, don’t be surprised. By mid noon, bottles made of stainless steel were given away to the students by the volunteers. According to the club members this gesture was aimed at educating the students about hazards of using plastic bags and bottles. According to Catalano, this day was a huge hit with more students turning up to get their tote bags and canteen giveaways.

Green Thumb Planting- Thursday

Thursday, the students were given shovels and soil to plant seeds into pots. Some students took home their own plant. Mitchell Joachim then took the students through a presentation on why sustainability is important today. He talked about how every individual has the ability to contribute towards making all the cities in the world carbon-neutral.

How this move helps the environment

SeaWorld theme parks have been successfully drawing crowds by the millions annually. In 2011 alone, almost twenty four million people visited the 11 parks. The decision to ban plastic bags so that use of reusable bags can be promoted has been well received by all. According to the president of ITPS (International Theme Park Services), Dennis Spiegel, this decision is going to set a trend in the industry. This is good news because if every theme park gives away reusable bags, the consumption of plastic will reduce dramatically. Plastic bags are known to be disposed of to the oceans where they damage to the marine bio diversity. With reusable bags, thousands of marine animals can be saved.

What the company has to say

SeaWorld announced its plans on 24th April, 2012. After the announcement, a new attraction called Turtle Trek was opened to the visitors. This attraction doubles up as a habitat for sea turtles. The President and CEO of the company hopes that this “significant change” will inspire other companies to follow suit. The Vice President for SeaWorld theme parks merchandise Jane Tebbe-Shemelya says that banning plastic is going to cost the company heavily and it is possible that they will lose out on hundred thousands of dollars per year. Despite the loss, they went ahead with the ban. This displays the company’s determination in promoting environmental sustainability. She adds that more than one billion tons of garbage ends up in the different oceans each year. Tebbe-Shemelya emphasizes that the company is constantly looking for ways to contribute towards environment protection. They evaluated their “supply chain” before coming up with this decision. SeaWorld will continue to make efforts towards maintaining a cleaner environment in the future.

How this policy will be introduced

The company might have to face some challenges in the initial days of implementing. SeaWorld Park at San Diego was the first of the company’s theme parks to test the no plastic bags policy in 2011. This year, the company has implemented this policy to its Orlando parks. The parks that include Aquatica and Discovery Cove have stopped distributing paper bags from 24th April. Other theme parks in San Antonio, Williamsburg, Tampa, and Busch will implement the policy in the coming months. By the end of 2012, the company is aiming to go plastic-free in all its theme parks in the US. With more  bags given away, you can enjoy safer and cleaner theme parks. The exact date on which this will happen will depend upon the existing plastic bag inventories that they will have to exhaust.

What this means for the company’s future

According to some industry experts, this move is going to bring in a lot of goodwill for the company and will affect its long term stability positively. Whatever additional costs the company now incurs will be countered by larger profits in the coming years. The reputation as an environmentally responsible company is going to be valuable to SeaWorld group as it has been making efforts towards supporting conservation of wildlife. According to the company’s sources, during the past forty years, they have saved around twenty thousand ill, injured or orphaned animals. More than fifty million dollars have been spent towards environmental initiatives across the globe. This policy will help bring the company’s conflicts with environmental activists who argue that keeping marine mammals as captive animals is animal cruelty. The company has also gone green in its vegetable inks and recyclable fiber napkins. Recently, more additions were introduced in the form of drinking cups that are manufactured with renewable resources. This initiative was a tie-in with the Coca-Cola company.

How Wal-Mart is promoting environmental sustainability

Recently Derek Wong of SustainableBusinessForum.com received a seed paper card from the retailer. He says that sending out cards made of environmentally sustainable materials is going to bring some customer goodwill to the company. This is one of the major steps towards growth for Wal-Mart as it is making attempts at cleaning up its image for the past few years what with all the employee lashing all over the internet.

How you can grow the seed paper

The card has some instructions in the back about how you can use it. Seed paper is generally bumpy on its surface as seeds are used in it. If you want to grow it, you have to tear the card up into little pieces. Bury those pieces in soil and water them just like you would any other seeds. Once you do this, you will notice that the seeds germinate and grow into plants. The plants can be herbs, vegetable plants or flower plants based on the seed that are used in the preparation of the paper.

You can use them too

You can now embrace the ‘don’t cut trees for paper’ policy with this eco-friendly wonder. You don’t even have to worry about the quality of the soil once you bury the paper in it. It starts to compost in the soil. Derek feels if we replace our regular papers with seed papers, we can make earth a better place. He says this because environmentally friendly seed papers give him a sense of “progress, development, nurture” and a future to look ahead for.

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About the documentary ‘Bag It’

‘Bag it’ is an environmental documentary that has won several awards. It is a story about Jeb Berrier who tries to explore the present day dependency on plastic bags. Initially he starts exploring the hazards of plastic within a smaller environment and realizes its far-reaching effects.

The documentary makes an attempt to explain to the viewers about the issues of using such environmentally harmful items to the environment. All attendees at the film screening of ‘Bag It’ will receive a free reusable bag as a token of appreciation.

Objective of giving away the reusable bags

One of the objectives of screening such a movie is to motivate twenty five towns across the US to ban the usage of plastic. Once a step like that is taken, these towns will be called ‘Bag it’ towns. The city of Sioux is planning to bring about the change with different measures. It can be implemented by passing an ordinance where people will be charged a small fee for using single plastic disposable bags that usually end up contaminating landfills. This action will not be necessary though if people stop using plastic bags voluntarily.

Sioux City’s eco consciousness

A few countries around the world have already banned the use of plastic to prevent bio- hazards. These countries include China, Italy and Ireland. Similarly Sioux has taken this measure to bring about a green change.

Target’s perspective

The senior vice president of marketing at Target, Shawn Gensch told media persons that Earth Day is the ideal time to refresh guests’ memory that small actions can make a huge difference in cutting down waste, enforcing sustainable choices in a community and saving money. He added that Target is happy to do its part by helping guests with such choices by distributing reusable totes. The limited-time website created by Target was available until the 28th of April. It gives customers access to a wide range of products and tips in order to lead a sustainable life. The site also links clients to more than $50 as coupon savings. The entire month witnessed clients encouraged to visit the Recyclebank page on Target’s site.

The partnership between Target and Recyclebank also features two internet gaming sections, made by Target. This section gives guests rewards if they explore the sustainable living tips on the website. Apart from the Earth Day program, Target is offering its guests a discount of 5 cents that is valid throughout this year. The discount is given every time a guest uses [promotional reusable bags] distributed by businesses while they are shopping at target. Because of this discount offer, which kicked off in the November of 2009, Target has helped its guests save millions of dollars. It has also diverted thousands of plastic bags from landfills, where they can take about a century to disintegrate. Target has several goals and commitments to sustainability that it aims to achieve by 2015.

About Target

Target is a Minneapolis based corporation that caters to guests in 1,765 retail outlets that is spread across the United States. It is also available on the company’s website, Target.com. The first branches of Target are scheduled to open in Canada in 2013. Additionally, the company runs a credit card business that offers clients branded proprietary credit cards as the main product. Target has been around since 1962 and it gives away 5 percent of the company’s income to community grants and programs. Today, that amount would equal to giving away more than $3 million a week.

The company integrates environmental sustainability throughout its business right from the construction of their buildings to the products they sell. It makes an effort to join hands with guests, partners and team members to keep up to their environmental commitments. One good example of this is the recycling stations that Target has in all its stores to help guests reduce waste. Target is growing as a company and they are doing their best to be sustainable in everything they do. For instance, the company is renovating old buildings for their stores instead of building new ones. This way, the use of non-biodegradable material is minimized. They also build in sites which are blighted and contaminated. The company is known to invest in millions to improve such locations.

Michael John from Sioux City stated that the only advantage that plastic bags have is that they are extremely convenient. Another spokesperson from Sioux City, Lanette Falk added that she reuses plastic bags for recycling and to line the wastebaskets around the house. Kristy Koivisto from Sioux City said that plastic bags are always reused by her for several things apart from packing her child’s lunch.

Steps towards an eco friendly community

These people do not realize that no matter how many times they are reused, plastic bags eventually end up in landfills or just as litter in public places. Sally Reinert from Bring Your Own Bag’s stated that people create a lot of trash that doesn’t even have to exist in the first place. To combat the use of plastic bags, Sally has put together a ‘Bring Your Own Bag” committee to motivate businesses to distribute reusable bags for groceries and discourage plastic bags. She added that if people can remember to bring money to purchase groceries they can also remember to carry these bags; it’s just a matter of forming a habit.

Reinert believes that using plastic bags is an eye sore and it also harms livestock, the environment, and is a setback to economic development. A community that looks like trash portrays one that is declining and past its prime and people don’t want their community to look like that so it is up to them to make an effort. The ‘Bring Your own Bag’ committee organised its inauguration event on the 1st of May. Members of the committee namely, the South Sioux Walmart, the South Sioux Walgreens and the South Sioux City HyVee gave away free reusable shopping totes to customers.

The committee is also helping spread awareness about the benefits of using reusable bags as opposed to plastic grocery bags. The bags can be washed and dried, and it is recommended that separate bags are used for vegetables and meat.

According to Colleen Bednarz, Communications Coordinator at Save Our Shores, “The Save Our Shores booth had hundreds of passers by. Some folks stopped to talk about all of the recent momentum and news about plastic bag bans locally and around the nation, and were surprised and gracious when they found out about the bag giveaways sponsored by Custom Grocery Bags. We consider it a very successful endeavor. The word got out about the great reusable bags, and when new folks stopped by to receive their bag, many wound up down at our San Lorenzo River Cleanup  directly adjacent to the Festival grounds!”

The Santa Cruz County plastic bag ban, which prohibits the use of plastic takeout bags at all retailers and imposes a fee on paper bags, went into effect on March 20, 2012. The Bag Reduction Ordinance prohibits all retailers from providing plastic carryout bags to customers and requires all retailers to charge a minimum $.10 fee for each single use paper bag provided to customers at check out. The paper bags sold must be made of recyclable paper containing a minimum of 40% post-consumer recycled content.  A lawsuit filed by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition pressured the County to remove restaurants from the ban, which the county did.

Earth Day events and plastic bag bans continue to gain momentum around the globe.  Plastic bag bans have already occured in countries like Bangladesh, the first country to ban polyethylene bags in 2002, as well as Ireland, South Africa, India, China, Italy, Spain, Wales, and others.  This year, around one billion people from over 190 countries took part in the 42nd Anniversary of Earth Day. The Earth Day Network and A Billion Acts of Green was a large contributor to the success of Earth Day globally.

The 2012 Santa Cruz Earth Day event hosted four public cleanups that took place at the San Lorenzo River at Water Street Bridge, Cowell/Main Beach, Manresa State Beach, and at Del Monte Beach at Wharf #2 in Monterey.  The four river cleanups along the San Lorenzo River removed 315 pounds of pollution.  Of that, 244 pounds were trash and 71 pounds were recyclables.  At the clean up sites of Cowell/Main Beach, Manresa State Beach, and Del Monte Beach, over 420 volunteers worked to pick up 459 pounds of trash and 79 pounds of recycling, for a total 538 pounds of pollution removed from area beaches in under three hours. The 2012 Santa Cruz Earth Day event was the single largest clean up to date in Monterey Bay with Custom Grocery Bags holding the goods.

Spring is the season of rebirth which can inspire all of us to take stock of our own environment and start a new.  If you are ready to spring house clean, here are some helpful tips on how to declutter safely and effectively:

Furniture

Beginning with the big stuff, like furniture, there are several ways to get rid of old furniture.  If you do not think you can sell them for much, and would rather just donate them, Goodwill and the Salvation Army accept donated furniture and they will give you a tax deductible receipt for the current value of the furniture.  If you have just been remarried and have two of everything, Craigs List is a great platform for selling.  The site is simple to use, and as long as you hop on daily to update your inventory, it does not take long to sell off pieces for a price that is acceptable to you.

Craigslist can also be used to advertise garage sales, or to let people know you have items on the curb for free to take away.  The items you list for free will be gone by the end of the day, just make sure anything you don’t want included is not near your curb.

Computer Equipment

Working electronics can be sold on e-bay or Craigslist. Both working and non-working computers can be donated to programs that refurbish old computers for schools.  The Environmental Protection Agency has a list of  places that accept old computer and electronics.

Clothes

Clothes that are too thread bare or stained can be donated to Good Will or the Salvation Army.  Another option is to see if your local nursing home or church is going to host a community garage sale that will accept your donations.

Baby Clothes and Toys

Donate baby items and working toys to thrift shops or organizations in need of childrens’ items.  For games that are missing pieces, take out the little plastic pieces and throw them in a bowl for crafters.  Bowls of game pieces, spare yarn and old jewelery, are treasures for craft rooms in nursing homes, girl scout organizations or a daughters desk!

If you have toys that are valuable, Craigslist and Ebay are great platforms to sell on.

Books

Nursing homes, Hospice Centers, private schools, used book stores, and thrift stores will all accept donations of books in decent condition.

Hazardous Waste and Cleaning Supplies

Hazardous household waste includes paints, batteries, toxic chemicals, fluorescent light bulbs, cleaning products, and just about anything that shouldn’t be released into the environment through a landfill or through flushing.  Federal law allows disposal of hazardous household waste in the trash.  However, many communities have collection programs for HHW to reduce the potential harm posed by these chemicals. The EPA encourages participation in local HHW collection programs rather than discarding the HHW in the trash. Call your local environmental, health, or solid waste agency for the time and location of your HHW collection program.

Remember to bring anything you are ready to donate in a reusable shopping bag.