Are there abandoned phone booths in your area? Ever consider turning one into a mini-community library? Inouye, the head of the Future Studio gallery explains in a few simple steps how she turned a phone booth into a library in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles. Good magazine’s “How To: Turn a Payphone Into a Library,” explains the four simple steps and Tree Hugger has the details.
Month: August 2010
Green Programming
The Alliance Library System (IL) offered an online workshop last May on Green Programming in libraries. They recorded the adobe connect sessions so you can listen and view it for free! Check out some of their craft ideas, ideas for kids and teens, holiday ideas, green games and more.
Sadly the Alliance Library System who had an awesome Going Green for Libraries blog, had to cut back on staff and core services including their blog 😦
Green Lunches
Do you bring a lunch? Bringing your own lunch is both economical, greener (if you bring a reusable container!), and usually healthier! Treehugger has some fabulously fun suggestions for packing a lunch – well – for kids but I would like some of these as an adult. Check out their slideshow of ideas like this one from Goodbyn or this Tiffin set from To-Go ware… or the cute Snack Taxi:
green resources for kids
With school year beginning, here are some great resources, websites, and groups for your school, kids, teachers, and librarians to use and promote:
- Tree Musketeers: A non profit charity –started by 3rd graders in 1987 – for kids to ” empower young people to be environmental leaders.
- NRDC’s The Green Squad: (aimed at 5th – 8th grade)The Green Squad teaches kids about the relationship between their schools and environmental and health issues. The site also offers a nice library of resources & fact sheets, and a Parent-Teacher Room.
- EPA’s Environmental Kids’ Club: (for young kids) Fun and informative, for kids to explore their environment and learn how to protect it with games, pictures, and stories.
- For teachers check out the teacher site.
- For middle school kids, check out the EPA site for you.
- And for high schoolers check out the high school environmental center.
- Its’ Getting Hot in Here – Dispatches from Youth Climate Movement: (for older teens and youth) A collection of voices from the student and youth leaders of the global movement to stop global warming. Originally created by youth leaders to allow youth to report from the International Climate Negotiations in Montreal in 2005, It’s Getting Hot in Here has since grown into a global online community with over 300 writers from countries around the world… (More info) Check out their Events & Opportunities or contact them to find out about becoming a contributor!
Zimride
Zimride is a rideshare service for campuses, workplaces, or to go to events. Zimride works with organizations, universities etc to create local networks, but there is also a public zimride as well. Its free and easy, just sign up. It integrates with facebook and twitter too. We have Zimride now at my university – you login with you university email, input your route and times, see on a map who is traveling your area and can easily contact them about ridesharing!
Best Workplaces for Commuters
Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC) is “an innovative membership program that provides qualified employers with national recognition and an elite designation for offering outstanding commuter benefits, such as free or low cost bus passes and vanpool fares and strong telework programs.” There are several colleges and universities listed as top for 2010 or you can view workplaces by state. Looking for a “greener” workplace – check out these lists!
Spread the Word at Work
From EPA’s Energy Star website Spread the Word at Work offers download tip cards and posters to share with co-workers, distribute at events, and hang in your employee break room such as Bring Your Green to Work Poster and Bring Your Green to Work Tip Card. The also offer a Green Team Checklist and guides on how to improve energy efficiency for Employees, Executives, Building Managers, or Small Businesses. Also use this search to check out which hotels, schools, offices and other buildings use 35% less energy than others in your area.
85 reasons to be thankful for librarians
This fun and useful list of 85 reasons to be thankful for librarians may not seem green or sustainable related but there are few key points that show how libraries are green: #16, #39, #40, and #41 mentions libraries’ online resources & digital libraries – don’t need to travel and can access from anywhere again and again and again; #22, #37 and #82 mention free DVDs, book exchanges, reading books w/o spending a dime – reuse, reuse, reuse; and of course #56. “Libraries provide free and abundant knowledge to everyone”
So market your library and show how libraries are naturally “green!”
– thanks Louise Baker, writer for Zen College Life Blog
Going Green @your library 
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