another library’s green pages February 14, 2010

Here is just one of many examples popping up these days as libraries are creating their own ‘green pages’ or green blogs or environmental resources Web sites.  The Burbank Public Library offers these Green Pages to blog about their green ideas offer resource links and share news -  also including a calendar of So Cal green events and a display the twitter feed for their city’s water and power company.

I know lots of other libraries are creating such pages, blogs or twitter accounts but please comment and share your information! I gathering links to  libraries’ green pages for libraries to create a resources for everyone to use.  FYI – for resource listing specifically on green library buildings visit Green Libraries site.

WebJunction Green Libraries Group November 18, 2009

Started by Tara Matsuzaki, Librarian at West Vancouver Memorial Library, the Webjunction Green Libraries Group is for library staff and trustees interested in making our libraries more ecologically sustainable. Currently there are a few documents such as green suppliers, greening your operations and telecommuting. The discussion area has a few threaded discussion topics from librarians sharing ideas from their own libraries.  The more people who join the Webjunction group,  the more information, documents and ideas to be shared by each other.

Energy 101 September 16, 2009

Where do you get your energy? You hear the terms off-grid, smart-grid and renewable, but what does it all mean.  Most of us are connected to a power grid that gets its energy from coal, nuclear, or hydroelectric dams.  But as companies are realizing the effects of carbon emissions on the world they are looking at more sustainable and renewable technologies like wind and solar power.  The problem with renewable sources is they are intermittent and thus smart grids can come into play.  Read more at Inhabitat.com or the  US Dept of Energy (and opportunities through the Recovery Act)

Find out more about how your library’s power is generated – how clean is the electricity you use? Use this EPA tool which graphs via your zip code, your fuel mix and air emissions and compares it to the national average.

All fonts are not equal August 3, 2009

Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth in their work Measuring Type analyzed fonts at the same point size to see how much ink they really use, aka,  how economical they really are.  According to the article by inhabitat on their project, the conclusion “Use light, serif-based Garamond instead of bold and compact Impact.”

Also check out a recent post i did on ecofont – a free font that uses less ink by being holey!

How green is your city? July 22, 2009

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has a site called Smarter Cities.  They offer stories, maps, news, information, etc. on what makes a city “smart” and they also ranked cities according to how “green” they are. They have 3 categories according to city size: under 100,000 = small, 100,000- 249,00 = medium and over 250,000 = large) You can read about how they collected data and scored cities under the criteria of  Air Quality, Energy Production and Conservation, Environmental Standards and Participation, Green Building, Green Space, Recycling, Transportation, Standard of Living, and Water Quality and Conservation. Top large cities: Seattle (WA), San Francisco (CA), Portland (OR).   Top medium cities: Madison (WI),  Santa Rosa (CA), Fort Collins (CO).  Top small cities: Bellingham (WA), Mountain View (CA), Norwalk (CT)

American Libraries April 2009 April 8, 2009

Be sure to check out the latest American Libraries magazine with two green library articles (A Green Library, A Greener You and Building Science 101) and a showcase of library designs – some of which use sustainable practices.

National Geographic: Energy Conservation Feature

National Geographic published in March 2009 a feature on Energy Conservation.  There is an interactive 8 question quiz on carbon cutting to see how much you know about carbon emissions and how to reduce them (wow, there was a lot I didn’t know!)  The green life interactive shows a house with highlighted areas you can click on to find out the carbon counts (how much CO2 is emitted each year) as well as clicking on the other tab showing highlighted areas for energy savings tips.  Be sure to check out the interesting photo gallery(by Tyrone Turner) some using thermographic photography to show where energy is being wasted and the article by Peter Miller on tracking  his personal carbon emissions for a month. There are also some  graphs on cuts that save money and cuts that cost money.

Energy Vampires

Want to know more about energy vampires – devices that are sucking up energy, even when they aren’t being used? Check out this Yahoo: Green article Fact vs Fiction, NGS’s  interactive quiz on the subject, or this easy to read chart from Good Magazine.

Environment & Resource Management Division of SLA April 3, 2009

Did you know about the Environment & Resource Management Division (ERMD) of SLA? They offer a discussion list, a Green Award, a newsletter, and support green initiatives and presentations at conferences.   If you are lucky enough to be able to attend the SLA 2009 Annual Conference, it will be June 14-17, 2009, in Washington, DC and be sure to check out these ERMD sessions: Building your Green Library – From Information to Legislation: Silent Spring and its impact on anti-pollution law and policy – REACH and the Future of Toxics Legislation – Socially Responsible Decision-Making: Ethics at work – Toxicology Round Table: Environmental resources of the National Library of Medicine using innovative web technology.  ERMD will also be co-sponsoring sessions on Food Safety and on Climate Change. (Detailed Schedule)

Oh and ERMD is on Facebook too.

EcoLogical Mail Coalition April 1, 2009

After employees leave  their job for good,  mail accumulates for them for years following their departure. Some of the mail is relevant for their replacement, but many times its junk and a waste of not only paper, but the mail room staff’s time. Check out this FREE service which helps eliminate this problem -  EcoLogical Mail Coalition. They have been around since 2002 and many companies use this service.  Some questions you might have:

• how can they afford offering this service for free?
• how does it work?
• privacy policy?
• do they create mailing lists of these names?
• how big a environmental problem is this really?