Of course, it would be easier to put items in the trash, where they end up in a landfill. It takes a little more effort to call an agency to make arrangements for pickup or delivery of donated items, but it can be very rewarding to know that your item will be put to good use by someone who really needs it. It’s an environmentally sound, practical decision.

One of the many things we like about living in Rochester, NY, is the great number of charitable organizations, made up of people whose purpose every day is to help others. Another is the generosity of the many donors and volunteers who help the agencies accomplish their good work. The primary purpose of the Community Wishbook is to help link these potential donors and volunteers with a local charitable agency that has a specific need for their still-useful items or their volunteer skills.

Each year, generous donors use the Wishbook to donate items directly to local organizations that have a need for them. Volunteers use the Wishbook to find agencies who are looking for their specific volunteer skills.

You can help the agencies all year long. Listings on the web site are updated regularly throughout the year as the needs of the agencies change, so please check back often.

Make a Local Donation Directly to an Agency That Needs It is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

Luckily, we can find free advice for nearly any device we need help with. Here are a few great tips for repair and maintenance of some of our most common gadget items.

Cell Phones

Cell phones get dropped, and sometimes their landing place is a big puddle of water. Luckily, they can often be dried out and work perfectly well. A hair dryer can be your best friend when that happens. If the glass plate cracks from a drop or other impact, that is replaceable too with just a few easy steps and inexpensive parts. Even mobile devices that seem a little intimidating, such as a Palm Treo are easy to swap out screens for just the cost of a replacement screen—often as inexpensive as $10-$15. Small scratches can be easily repaired so that your phone stays looking shiny and new. And for iPhone users, what do you do if your phone is bricked? No problem—you can fix a bricked phone at home.

iPods

Maintaining your iPod is important, since they are the constant companion of many people and go through a lot of abuse during the day. Should your iPod drop in a puddle like your cell phone, don’t worry—there’s a way to fix it with rice and a reset process. If the case is scratched, food can again come to the rescue. A banana works to remove scratches and bring the out-of-the-box shine back. Should you find you need to take a nano apart in order to fix something inside, there is an easy way to crack it open without damaging it.

Digital Cameras

Digital cameras can be an expensive item to replace. If you learn a few repair tricks, you can solve some of the more common problems, like replacing cracked screens, getting a jammed lens to open or close again, get beach sand out, and so on. Here is a great video series on taking apart a digital camera and putting it back together. Tips for specific camera brands abound online, and it is often just a matter of a quick search to find tips specific to the repair job you’re hoping to perform. If you own a Canon, you might also be able to get it repaired for free.

Laptops

When it comes to laptops, we might really get intimidated. It is such an expensive item—and often holds a lot of information we really, really don’t want to lose—that we might rush to take it to an expert before trying to mess with it ourselves. However, a laptop can also be simple to maintain and repair. From repairing the hard drive to replacing the screen, from replacing the keyboard to removing and repairing speakers, there is help out there to walk us through DIY-ing it.

Round-The-House Gadgets

There are all sorts of other gadgets we have laying around the house that we might think to just recycle and replace before we stop to fix them. But there is great advice out there on how to repair speaker foam or speaker wire, get your remote control to work again, clean your computer mouse or any other project you might need help with.

So before you think a gadget has had it and start walking it to your local e-waste drop off location, try seraching out fix-it tips and see if you can DIY the repair. It might save you money, hassle, and give you a boost of pride.

Courtesy of: Planet Green

Fix It Tips for Common Gadgets is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

Don’t Throw the Sack is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

For African Violets: When you boil eggs, save the water and when it’s reached room temperature–use it to water your African violets. The calcium in the water helps with blooms and plant growth.

Courtesy of:  1001 Little Ways to Save the Planet, by: ESME Floyd & tipnut.com

Water Recycling is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

Are you ready for your next project given these statistics?

SWBR recognizes the value that sustainability generates for our clients, our economy and our environment, and is dedicated to the design of environmentally-responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. We want you to know about new trends and developments in Sustainable Design that can assist you when thinking about an existing or future project.

For instance, Integrative Design Process is a guided process being used by design teams to assist in working with others to creatively make the best decisions regarding the issues of sustainability. The Integrative Design Process can help the project team be more deeply purposeful in pursuing these objectives.  This process helps project teams navigate the transition from traditional building design to a more collaborative process that can produce high performance green buildings cost-effectively, while addressing complex issues that threaten living systems.

The 7Group, as consultants to the green industry, has a new resource available that thoroughly describes this process and is great for anyone who wants to understand how to make the sustainable design process work.

When considering a sustainably designed building are you thinking about the following:

• What are your goals for Energy Conservation and Efficiency, Water Conservation and Mass Transit?
• Who is your design team and how much experience do they have in sustainable design?
• Are you willing to commit to making pivotal decisions early on in the process in order to save time and money moving forward?
• Are you willing to invest in a team that will provide you with communication, collaboration and share a passion for your goals?
• We continue to strive to promote strategies that contribute to our well being and help to preserve our environment for future generations.
• To help, we recently updated our Sustainable Design Forum to provide you with additional, useful and educational information.

Check out this forum for useful references for sustainable publications, information on design options, energy efficiency, local organizations, costs of green building and much more.  Take a look when pursuing your sustainable endeavors.  Add comments, bookmark it, and check back often for updates, especially to our everyday tips on how to be sustainable and use resources wisely at home.

Are you ready for the NEXT GENERATION
of GREEN? is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

As far as I am concerned, the first book written that attacked the current establishment (written in 1999) and at the same time came up with solutions that are only now being understood for their merit. I read it in 1999 when I was in Graduate School for Architecture and it truly opened my mind to the macro scale of big business and the global economy. Filled with intelligent ideas and humor, Natural Capitalism explores real solutions from, “soft energy”, to Hypercars.

Click on Amazon to learn more about this book.

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

This book written by the Chair of U.S. Green building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Core Committee, passionately sets a case for Sustainable Urbanism. With enthusiasm, Douglas Farr initiates a poetic dialogue with the natural and built environments portending an urgent integration for harmonious economic and population growth.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who spends 80% to 90% indoors. As researched by the World Urbanization Prospects, for the first time in human history, half of the world’s population (3.2 billion) lives in cities with a projection of 70% by 2050.

Click on Amazon to learn more about this book.

Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

Breaking Through Barriers practical guide for anyone working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Which is a  a practical guide for anyone working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a college or university: sustainability directors, CFOs, presidents, students, faculty, and staff.

Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

Armed with notepads and college guidebooks, they weave through university grounds on tours, invade dorms on recruiting visits, and congregate in the cafeteria to share impressions and rate what they’ve seen.

As students and their parents inspect every aspect of the institution with a fine-toothed comb, most colleges have armies of campus representatives strategically placed to answer any question, from “What academic programs do you offer?” to “How good are the parties?”

But another question is now being posed by this new generation of college-bound students — the answer to which could be a deciding factor for a growing number of applicants: “What is your campus sustainability plan?”

Future leaders know green is here to stay

More astute than ever when it comes to the green agenda, the leaders of tomorrow realize that their careers, the environment, and their overall well-being will be inextricably linked to solving the challenge of climate change.

According to a 2006 MTV/CBS News poll, most Americans aged 13 to 24 think environmental degradation will be the biggest challenge their generation will face in 20 years. Eighty-one percent said that action to address global warming must be taken immediately. This statistic highlights an overwhelming shift in the priorities of college-age students.

Wouldn’t it make sense, then, that colleges and universities heed this cultural phenomenon — not only to be socially and environmentally responsible, but also to increase enrollment in a very competitive market?

Experts at Rocky Mountain Institute think so, and have worked for the past year to not only identify why some universities have not caught on to the multiple benefits of campus sustainability, but how colleges can successfully plan for a low-carbon future. According to their newly published book, “Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives,” there is a big difference between putting recycling bins outside student dorms and a full-fledged campus-wide sustainability program, and students need to know the difference.

The result of a two-year collaboration between RMI and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, “Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives” is a manual for campus sustainability planning.  RMI and AASHE experts visited twelve campuses to assess and address the barriers to reducing carbon footprints at colleges and universities.

How can colleges and universities capitalize on the trend?

Michael Kinsley, project manager, RMI senior consultant, and coauthor of the book, said that both the visible and non-visible evidence that a campus is doing its best to mitigate its environmental impact is essential, but not necessarily equal.

“Students look for visible signs of greenness,” Kinsley said. “But beware of the tendency to push for the visible rather the more advantageous, but invisible, carbon reduction measures.”

In other words, although efficiency is the best and most cost-effective means to achieving large-scale carbon reduction in, for example, campus buildings or operations, it is invisible. So while students call for campus recycling programs, lobby for locally grown produce in the cafeteria, or raise money for a solar PV panel for the library roof, it is important they don’t overlook the large efficiency opportunity in the drafty facilities building.

Kinsley is all for highly visible campus programs that engage students, but said campuses should empower students to put these types of programs into context. Students and sustainability facilitators should not lose sight of the practical, highly effective aspects of campus sustainability, such as installing more efficient boilers and integrating alternative forms of energy, Kinsley said, but there is also the job of raising awareness among staff and students.

“When you see evidence of an environmental commitment, ask what it means,” Kinsley advised. “Asking the right questions lets prospective students develop a much more sophisticated perspective of what is needed on their campus.”

Do your research

A college’s visible commitment to sustainability can often be more a symbolic indicator than an absolute measure. Digging a bit deeper allows prospective students to evaluate the most effective green efforts on the campuses they’re considering. Kinsley suggests several questions that prospective students and their parents can ask, including the following:

Have they signed the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment?

Signed by 660 presidents of U.S. colleges, the ACUPC is a commitment to eliminate campuses’ greenhouse gas emissions over time. This involves completing an emissions inventory, setting a target date and interim milestones for becoming carbon neutral (within two years of signing), immediately implementing short-term action items that reduce emissions, and integrating sustainability into their curricula.

Have they completed a carbon inventory?

Escalating energy costs and the threat of climate change are both great reasons for a campus to quantify and evaluate their emissions. It is also a strong indicator that a campus is ready to think seriously about its environmental impact, Kinsley said. “Unless they have measured their impact, it is hard to figure out where to start, and tailor an effective reduction strategy.”

Have they developed an actionable sustainability plan?

College campuses of any size are complicated systems that include buildings, athletic fields, landscaping, energy systems, financing mechanisms, and people — each with a specific but integrated role in the institution’s carbon reduction goals. A comprehensive plan that successfully addresses the system as a whole is quite difficult but nevertheless essential if a campus hopes to achieve aggressive emissions-reduction targets.

During his work with the 12 campuses, Kinsley witnessed first-hand many of the barriers, both real and perceived, of implementing a comprehensive plan. One surprising barrier was distractions — resources poured into exciting one-off projects, programs, and events around sustainability.

“It is critically important for campus leaders to understand that success will not only come from making lists,” Kinsley said. “It also comes from a different way of thinking about buildings, utilities, perceptions, institutional structures, and all the other components of the system that comprise energy and the campus.”

Have they been recognized for their environmental commitment?

AASHE presents four Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards annually to institutions that have made the greatest overall commitment to sustainability as demonstrated in their education and research, campus operations, and administration and finance.

Equipped with the right resources, any prospective student can get to the bottom of what a campus is really doing to green up not only their image, but their impact. Attending a college with a solid commitment to sustainability helps students develop awareness and a long-term commitment to solving the climate crisis — and to learn about the right tools they can use to pursue the next wave of high-paying green careers.

Clearly, campus sustainability efforts count for a variety of reasons; let’s hope that colleges take note.

For more information and a free download of Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives, visit http://www.rmi.org/rmi/Campuses.

Kelly Vaughn is a public relations specialist at Rocky Mountain Institute.

“Green” means more than just money when choosing a college is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum

Green Home Guide is a post from: Sustainable Design Forum