Category: Newsletter UMW In the News

This week’s “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” is a spotlight on GWRideConnect, a free ride-sharing service that assists commuters who are seeking daily transportation for the Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline and King George counties to employment locations in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, Richmond, Dahlgren and other employment sites here in the Fredericksburg area.  What is great about GWRideConnect is that it can assist with taking part in one of the most underrated ways to help the environment on a regular basis — carpooling to work.

Why consider carpooling?  First and foremost, it reduces the amount of CO2 emissions generated by more vehicles being used.  Secondly, it reduces your own personal transportation costs.  Two great facets of sustainability!  GWRideConnect’s database contains hundreds of carpools from Caroline county, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline and the City of Fredericksburg; if you’re interested in forming a car pool, the service will assist you with finding riders that work in your location.  You can also form a van pool through GWRideConnect.  The service also provides users with information about available commuter lots, as well as the Guaranteed Ride Home service in case something unexpected should happen.  Check out their website for more information: http://www.gwrideconnect.org.

For those who have friends and relatives commuting to the DC area, slugging is always an option that reduces the emissions footprint and saves time and money.  Check it out at:  http://www.slug-lines.com/.  Slugging is a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in the Washington, DC area sometimes referred to as “Instant Carpooling” or “Casual Carpooling”. It’s unique because people commuting into the city stop to pick up other passengers even though they are total strangers!  However, slugging is a very organized system with its own set of rules, proper etiquette, and specific pickup and drop off.

While GWRideConnect serves a valuable purpose, the topic of carpooling makes me wonder if UMW should consider forming its own transportation service for faculty and staff that may be interested in commuting to and from work together.  Surely there are many people who take similar routes to work and would be interested in splitting transportation costs, reducing carbon emissions, and also maybe freeing up some parking on campus!  Perhaps a bulletin board could be posted at main office buildings where folks can post information about ridesharing or carpooling.  Maybe UMW needs to provide a small incentive to make this happen.  Preferred parking anyone???  If anyone should have any other ideas as to how to get this idea off the ground, leave a comment to this article or reach out to the Staff Advisory Council (http://sac.umwblogs.org).

If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.  The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.

Last Week’s Tip: Spring Cleaning.

Even though Fredericksburg saw light snowfall earlier this week, and with it still a possibility in the upcoming forecast, Spring officially arrived on March 20th.  While it may be a little early to toss your winter jacket to the back of the closet, it’s not too early to start thinking about Spring Cleaning.  This week’s tip focuses on considering a more sustainable approach to this seasonal cleaning pastime.

One important thing to remember when cleaning your office or your home is many popular cleaning detergents contain chemicals that are toxic to the environment.  When it comes down to it, we’re more or less just talking about cleaning normal surfaces.  You’ll find that there are many alternatives to the cleaning detergents that you may normally use.  Moreover, they will probably wind up being less expensive than what you spend on name brand products.  A great site that contains recipes for making your own cleaning detergents can be found at The Sustainable Solution.  Check out how with just some vinegar and water you can clean your windows and floors.  Also, you may want to consider also using natural fiber sponges or an old t-shirt or piece of cloth as opposed to paper towels.

Some other sustainable spring cleaning tips for your home or office:

• Use fresh flowers or an open box of baking soda as opposed to chemical air fresheners
• Hang a clothesline to dry clothes naturally
• Replace old bulbs with energy efficient LEDs or Energy Star bulbs
• Always recycle
• Donate instead of throwing away!

And when the warmer weather does finally arrive, remember at home to try and open windows and save air conditioning for those truly hot unbearable days.

If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.  The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.

Last Week’s Tip: Meatless Mondays.

We wanted this week’s tip to point out something that has a very big impact on sustainability, but something that not everyone may be aware of.  Have you heard of the Meatless Monday movement?  Even though its been in existence since 2003, I had never heard of it until my wife brought it up to me several days ago.  The Meatless Monday movement is an international campaign that encourages people to not eat meat on Mondays in order to not only improve one’s personal health, but also the health of the planet.  One startling fact that highlights the effect that the consumption of meat has on the environment: it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef!  Another interesting fact: it takes the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of grain-fed beef in the United States.  With increased energy consumption, often comes the environmental damage we have seen take place in the United States over the last few decades.

We’re not suggesting everyone stop eating meat; that’s a personal choice.  As a fairly regular meat-eater, I’m always hesitant when I hear the word “meatless” or “vegetarian,” but the goal of the Meatless Monday campaign seems very reasonable for those of us who are not willing to make that jump to vegetarian or vegan, but are interested in ways to not only cut back on our meat consumption, but also help the environment.  The overall goal of the campaign is more to reduce your meat consumption as opposed to giving up meat altogether.  I strongly encourage you to go to the Meatless Monday website to read more about the campaign as well as browse through some great articles on healthy living, tasty meatless recipes, information about seasonable vegetables, and how certain businesses and schools are also adopting the idea of Meatless Mondays.  This is something that you could consider doing not only in the home but also at the workplace.  You may also find that by cutting out from consuming meat on Mondays (or any one day of the week for that matter), you’ll be saving money as meat prices have been on the rise over the past few months.

If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.  The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.

Last Week’s Tip: Litter on Campus.

It takes a tremendous amount of work to maintain a sustainable campus.  Whether it’s the efforts of the President’s Council on Sustainability (PCS), the annual Recyclemania event, the upcoming Shred Event, the Do One Thing Campaign, or any of the other numerous programs and projects that UMW participates in to create a sustainability campus community.  One thing is definitely for sure — sustainability does not happen on its own.  One area that we can ALL do something about–and that we all have a responsibility to do something about–is littering.

Laziness, apathy, and ignorance are probably the major reasons people litter.  Even in the year 2013, you will see people throw used wrappers on the ground in a fast food parking lot or leave their paper coffee cups in a supermarket shopping cart.  How often are you startled on I-95 as you watch someone throw a can or bottle of something from their car window (one of the often overlooked facts of littering is that it causes a tremendous amount of car accidents each year: http://www.greenecoservices.com/deadly-litter-and-car-accidents/).  Even for a school as Eco-friendly as UMW, litter is still a problem — on the grounds, in office hallways, building bathrooms, etc. — and as representatives of the university, we all have a responsibility to keep UMW clean and litter-free.  Some simple steps that you can take:

• Make a commitment to not litter and encourage others to do the same
• Pick up litter when you see it
• If you smoke, carry a pocket ashtray instead of throwing cigarette butts on the ground

Litter not only damages the appearance of our campuses, but it also harms plants and animals, not to mention the Earth.  It seems that within the last ten years or so, focus with regards to sustainability has shifted heavily to recycling, composting, and using biodegradable products–all very important areas that should be highlighted in order to protect the environment.  However, littering continues to take place and it is often not the center of many environmental campaigns.  The good news is–it can be maintained if you’re committed to doing so.

If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.  The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.

Last Week’s Tip: Donating Blood

When most of us think about sustainability, I would imagine the topics that immediately come to mind include reducing waste, recycling on a regular basis, and conserving energy.  But what about the ultimate act of sustainability — donating blood.

I’ve been donating blood on a regular basis for a little over ten years.  However, I have been technically eligible to donate blood for about 20 (wait–that can’t be right–I cannot be that old!).  So why did I go ten years without donating?  Well, like many people, the main reason I never donated was because I was never asked.  On those occasions when I would pass a blood drive being held at my college while I was a student, I would never seriously considered donating.  I would think of needles and how I’d rather not get stuck with one (how many of you are in this boat?).  No one I knew personally had come and asked me to donate, and no one I knew was donating blood that day, so where was my personal connection with the whole thing?  And probably at that moment I didn’t even have the time to donate.  You know college students–so very busy and only have time for studying and nothing else.  In retrospect, for me these are all pretty flimsy excuses.  When I was in my mid-twenties, a co-worker organized a blood drive and asked me if I wanted to donate.  It was probably the first time I had ever been asked, and I remember initially being hesitant like many of us are when we are asked to do something we’ve never done before.  But after she explained to me what was involved (a mini-physical is performed where the technician checks your pulse, blood pressure, temperature, and hemoglobin level, you answer some basic questions about your lifestyle, travel history, and medication/health history, the donation itself takes about 8-10 minutes, and you then enjoy some refreshments before you leave), it was hard to find a legitimate reason to say no.  I can honestly say that donating blood for the first time changed my life and I’ve been donating either blood or platelets on a regular basis ever since.  I would like to think that most of us live our lives thinking about how we can help others.  When you donate blood, you can save up to three lives.  What better way is there to help others than giving the precious sustainable gift of life?

So if you’ve never donated blood before and are eligible (tips for first time donors), please consider stopping by one of the many blood drives that UMW holds throughout the year.   If you cannot donate because you are ineligible, encourage others to donate.   The Fredericksburg Campus organizes several drives throughout each semester, and the Stafford Campus has been holding blood drives every six months since Fall 2011.  The last blood drive at the Fredericksburg Campus took place on February 19th, and the next blood drive at the Stafford Campus will take place on April 10th.  If you’d like to make an appointment to donate blood on April 10th at the Stafford Campus, please email me (kcaffrey@umw.edu).  Colleges and Universities play one of the biggest roles in collecting blood by holding drives on a regular basis.  These drives are not just for students — they are for staff, faculty, friends, family– anyone and everyone in the campus and local community.  So will I see you at the next blood drive?  You can look for me at the refreshment table.  I’ll be the guy who just saved some lives and is kicking back enjoying a big bunch of Oreos.

For some additional facts about donating blood, go to: http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-facts-and-statistics

If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.  The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.

Last Week’s Tip: How To Turn Consumers Green.