In the late ’70s, as I began embracing an eco-friendly, vegetarian diet, I was so naïve that I truly believed that if I just educated my friends and family members about animal cruelty and the toll a meat-based diet had on our environment, they, too, would stop eating meat. But it wasn’t to be. In fact, oftentimes, to my chagrin, the information that I shared had the opposite effect.
This month, online bookseller Amazon.com reported that over the last three months, they sold almost twice as many of their Kindle ebooks as hardcover books. Sure sounds like ebooks are the perfect green solution for libraries seeking to save a few trees especially as they appear to be gaining acceptance at warp speed. So why am I concerned?
Like homes and offices across America, libraries need to be cleaned on a regular basis. But keeping toxins out of the cleaning process can be a bit challenging—unless one knows the basics.
I’ve outlined a simple, four-step approach that your library might want to implement to ensure it is exhibiting conscious green behavior in this area:
Step 1: Review
Read the labels on the cleaning products your cleaning crew uses to find need-to-know information.
Some might say that notable billionaire Warren Buffet is eco-friendly, as he’s into alternate energy, green prefab homes, and frugal living. I’d like to see him expand his “thumbs-up” list to include libraries which, as most of us know, are inherently green.
Life is filled with priceless lessons that we can capture if we keep an open mind.
Recently, our country experienced two monumental disasters: the financial fallout and the BP spill. What and how can we learn from these recent disasters? What can we do to minimize looming disasters, many of which are environmental in nature?
I believe some of the best ways are through two simple activities: quiet personal reflection and lively group discussion.
The New York Public Library, founded in 1895, serves some 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually; in addition, the library’s website receives 28 million visits annually from more than 200 countries. Pretty impressive.
But as this is a green blog, I’d like to extend kudos to NYPL today for its dedication to the environment through its continued interest in exploring new and innovative ways to preserve its resources including introducing initiatives to conserve trees, water, and energy.
I have to be honest. In years gone by, learning about printers and print ink has never been on my priority list. Then some good-to-know information came my way that changed my printing practices, making them more environmentally friendly.
One such resource was a 2007 Lyra newsletter where I learned that printer hardware was expected to contribute 1 million tons of solid waste in this country alone that year and that pulp and paper companies are the fourth-largest toxic polluters of water. E-gads.
According to GreenPrint Technologies,* every year Americans use enough paper to build a 10-foot-high wall that would stretch from New York to Tokyo. That’s a lot of paper!
Environmentalists have taken note. More and more frequently, they include one of the following messages in their e-mail signature lines:
Ten years ago, I received a community grant from the Bensenville (Ill.) Community Public Library for developing and delivering programs to library patrons that promoted the many eco-friendly facets of voluntary simplicity. It was extremely rewarding and to this day I feel connected to this library and stay in touch via its e-newsletter, Serendipity.
