How much lighting is enough? To begin to find out through experiementation, the IslandWood Green Team resolved recently to model stewardship behaviors by turning off some of the excess ambient lights in our Welcome Center when there was no direct need by a group. We resolved to explain this idea to those who sit a the front desk and encourage them to do the same.
What this has meant for me is looking around a bit more: is a group in the Great Hall? Is an event listed on the whiteboard near the mail room? Are there any staff using the sofas for a meeting spot? Will a group of students be arriving to look at the relief map?
It has also meant getting the pleasure of turning off around 24 lights while thinking about a slightly smaller carbon footprint and expense sheet for our environmentally focused organization.
The trick comes in matching expectations with reality. I was recently told as I was turning the lights off that they should perhaps all stay on since there was an adult group on site. I asked "Are they using this area?" and was told they were not, but they might be "walking through."
At this point I asked if there was enough light for walking through (this area has 15 foot high glass windows on two sides and a large skylight that runs the length of the space), to which my counterpart agreed there was but added that "conferences might not like it," perhaps since they might hear complaints from our adult guests?
We definitely haven't made an IslandWood-wide announcement about trying to reduce the lighting, so any confusion is in part due to a lack of communication. However, I decided to keep the lights off and go from there with opening a discussion about the Green Team rationale for decreasing the lighting and making sure to get our conference team's perspective as well. As usual, there are shades of gray in what good service means, especially when groups are choosing us in part due to our environmental position. More to come once I have the discussion.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Journey of a recycled battery
This was posted on Longhouse in the fall:
In response to Amy’s question at the staff meeting about what happens to the batteries being collected in the mail room, we said that they go to the Vincent Road transfer station, but we didn’t know beyond that. Here’s the result of some phone calls after the meeting....
Bainbridge Disposal contracts with “All Battery Sales & Service” in Everett to take the batteries collected at the transfer station.
All Battery Sales used to send them off to a land fill that was certified for use for toxic waste. After searching for a while, they found a company - “Battery Solutions” in Mesa, Arizona that breaks them down for reuse as listed below – based on the type of battery. The following is a brief description about how batteries of different chemistries are physically recycled at the end-site recycling plant.
1) Lead Acid Battery Recycling
The battery is broken apart in a hammer mill; a machine that hammers the battery into pieces. The broken battery pieces are then placed into a vat, where the lead and heavy materials fall to the bottom and the plastic floats. At this point, the polypropylene pieces are scooped away and the liquids are drawn off, leaving the lead and heavy metals. Each of the materials goes into a different recycling “stream”.
Plastic
Polypropylene pieces are washed, blown dry, and sent to a plastic recycler where the pieces are melted together into an almost liquid state. The molten plastic is put through an extruder that produces small plastic pellets of a uniform size. The pellets are sold to a manufacturer of battery cases and the process begins again.
Lead
Lead grids, lead oxide, and other lead parts are cleaned and heated within smelting furnaces. The molten melted lead is then poured into ingot molds. After a few minutes, the impurities float to the top of the still molten lead in the ingot molds. These impurities are scraped away and the ingots are left to cool. When the ingots are cool, they’re removed from the molds and sent to battery manufacturers, where they’re re-melted and used in the production of new batteries.
Sulfuric Acid
Old battery acid can be handled in two ways: 1) The acid is neutralized with an industrial compound similar to household baking soda. Neutralization turns the acid into water. The water is then treated, cleaned, tested in a waste water treatment plant to be sure it meets clean water standards. 2) The acid is processed and converted to sodium sulfate, an odorless white powder that’s used in laundry detergent, glass, and textile manufacturing.
2) Alkaline/Zinc Carbon/Zinc Air Batteries
These batteries are recycled during steel making processes, where they’re placed in a molten mill furnaces as a feedstock. The zinc from the batteries is fumed off into a vacuum baghouse for recovery, while the end metal product is used to make low-grade steel (i.e. rebar)
3) Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, and Lithium Ion Batteries
These batteries are recycled via a High-Temperature Metal Reclamation (HTMR) process, during which all of the high temperature metals contained within the battery feedstock (i.e. nickel, iron, cobalt, manganese, and chromium) report to the molten-metal bath within the furnace, amalgamate, then solidify during the casting operation. The low-melt metals (i.e. zinc, lithium, and cadmium) separate during the melting operation and are collected as a metal-oxide.
4) Lithium Batteries
The contents of the batteries are exposed using a shredder or a high-speed hammer depending on battery size. The contents are then submerged in caustic (basic not acidic) water. This caustic solution neutralizes the electrolytes, and ferrous and non-ferrous metals are recovered. The clean scrap metal is then sold to metal recyclers. The solution is then filtered. The carbon is recovered and pressed into moist sheets of carbon cake. Some of the carbon is recycled with cobalt. The lithium in the solution (lithium hydroxide) is converted to lithium carbonate, a fine white powder. What results is technical grade lithium carbonate, which is used to make lithium ingot metal and foil for batteries. It also provides lithium metal for resale and for the manufacture of sulfur dioxide batteries.
5) Mercury Batteries
The batteries and heavy metals are recovered through a controlled-temperature process. It’s important to note: the percentage of mercuric oxide batteries is decreasing since the passage of the Mercury-Containing Rechargeable Battery Management Act (The Battery Act) of 1996. This act prohibits, or otherwise conditions, the sale of certain types of mercury-containing batteries (i.e., alkaline-manganese, zinc-carbon, button-cell mercuric-oxide and other mercuric-oxide batteries) in the United States.
In response to Amy’s question at the staff meeting about what happens to the batteries being collected in the mail room, we said that they go to the Vincent Road transfer station, but we didn’t know beyond that. Here’s the result of some phone calls after the meeting....
Bainbridge Disposal contracts with “All Battery Sales & Service” in Everett to take the batteries collected at the transfer station.
All Battery Sales used to send them off to a land fill that was certified for use for toxic waste. After searching for a while, they found a company - “Battery Solutions” in Mesa, Arizona that breaks them down for reuse as listed below – based on the type of battery. The following is a brief description about how batteries of different chemistries are physically recycled at the end-site recycling plant.
1) Lead Acid Battery Recycling
The battery is broken apart in a hammer mill; a machine that hammers the battery into pieces. The broken battery pieces are then placed into a vat, where the lead and heavy materials fall to the bottom and the plastic floats. At this point, the polypropylene pieces are scooped away and the liquids are drawn off, leaving the lead and heavy metals. Each of the materials goes into a different recycling “stream”.
Plastic
Polypropylene pieces are washed, blown dry, and sent to a plastic recycler where the pieces are melted together into an almost liquid state. The molten plastic is put through an extruder that produces small plastic pellets of a uniform size. The pellets are sold to a manufacturer of battery cases and the process begins again.
Lead
Lead grids, lead oxide, and other lead parts are cleaned and heated within smelting furnaces. The molten melted lead is then poured into ingot molds. After a few minutes, the impurities float to the top of the still molten lead in the ingot molds. These impurities are scraped away and the ingots are left to cool. When the ingots are cool, they’re removed from the molds and sent to battery manufacturers, where they’re re-melted and used in the production of new batteries.
Sulfuric Acid
Old battery acid can be handled in two ways: 1) The acid is neutralized with an industrial compound similar to household baking soda. Neutralization turns the acid into water. The water is then treated, cleaned, tested in a waste water treatment plant to be sure it meets clean water standards. 2) The acid is processed and converted to sodium sulfate, an odorless white powder that’s used in laundry detergent, glass, and textile manufacturing.
2) Alkaline/Zinc Carbon/Zinc Air Batteries
These batteries are recycled during steel making processes, where they’re placed in a molten mill furnaces as a feedstock. The zinc from the batteries is fumed off into a vacuum baghouse for recovery, while the end metal product is used to make low-grade steel (i.e. rebar)
3) Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, and Lithium Ion Batteries
These batteries are recycled via a High-Temperature Metal Reclamation (HTMR) process, during which all of the high temperature metals contained within the battery feedstock (i.e. nickel, iron, cobalt, manganese, and chromium) report to the molten-metal bath within the furnace, amalgamate, then solidify during the casting operation. The low-melt metals (i.e. zinc, lithium, and cadmium) separate during the melting operation and are collected as a metal-oxide.
4) Lithium Batteries
The contents of the batteries are exposed using a shredder or a high-speed hammer depending on battery size. The contents are then submerged in caustic (basic not acidic) water. This caustic solution neutralizes the electrolytes, and ferrous and non-ferrous metals are recovered. The clean scrap metal is then sold to metal recyclers. The solution is then filtered. The carbon is recovered and pressed into moist sheets of carbon cake. Some of the carbon is recycled with cobalt. The lithium in the solution (lithium hydroxide) is converted to lithium carbonate, a fine white powder. What results is technical grade lithium carbonate, which is used to make lithium ingot metal and foil for batteries. It also provides lithium metal for resale and for the manufacture of sulfur dioxide batteries.
5) Mercury Batteries
The batteries and heavy metals are recovered through a controlled-temperature process. It’s important to note: the percentage of mercuric oxide batteries is decreasing since the passage of the Mercury-Containing Rechargeable Battery Management Act (The Battery Act) of 1996. This act prohibits, or otherwise conditions, the sale of certain types of mercury-containing batteries (i.e., alkaline-manganese, zinc-carbon, button-cell mercuric-oxide and other mercuric-oxide batteries) in the United States.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Resolutions for 2010
After a year of a lot of great discussions but not a lot of action, we decided to start off the new year with some Resolutions for the Green Team for 2010. Here are 6 things that we plan to accomplish this year.
(1) We will educate our staff about a variety of sustainability issues. The topics we plan to focus on are: Recycling (sorting – what goes where)/the IslandWood Living Machine/Earth Tub/ Composting Toilets/ Solar Panels/ Transfer Station (Electronics). This involves learning about how aspects of IslandWood work as well as personal action items.
(2) We will figure out how to track staff commuting information. We hope to learn from other organizations because we are sure that someone has figured out a brilliant system. We want to know what is happening but we also want to raise awareness with the hope of creating change in people’s behaviors.
(3) We will create a Green Team Dashboard Page. This will be a visual area for staff members to see things about the operation of the site, such as electric bills and paper usage. Again we hope to raise awareness with the hope of creating change in behaviors.
(4) We will educate guests. There are some options for commuting that could be presented to guests to help them get to our site in a more sustainable manner. We could also consider adding a carbon offset charge on bills to raise awareness. We can improve the information that is provided on how our water and energy systems work and where we source the food that we serve.
(5) We will find a more sustainable alternative to our laminated nametags. This topic has been a big part of past discussions and raised many questions about all the factors that go into making something sustainable.
(6) We will create a Green Team Blog and add to it. Hooray, we have achieved something! Now we just need to keep the entries and comments coming.
Bike Commuting - Getting Started
One of the challenges of bike commuting is getting started. In its blog, the Environmental Protection Agency wonders why people are or aren’t biking to work, and safety concerns, distance, and smelliness emerge from the comments as key barriers.
There are a lot of resources on the web to help explore your options. One good one is "Commute by Bike" a website with all sorts of resources: reviews of gear, bike suggestions, etc. In particular there are some great articles in the area "Commuting 101" that answer all of the questions I've had.
If you're interested and have just five minutes, take a look at "6 Myths About Commuting By Bicycle."
There are a lot of resources on the web to help explore your options. One good one is "Commute by Bike" a website with all sorts of resources: reviews of gear, bike suggestions, etc. In particular there are some great articles in the area "Commuting 101" that answer all of the questions I've had.
If you're interested and have just five minutes, take a look at "6 Myths About Commuting By Bicycle."
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Promoting Bicycle Commuting
How does an organization promote more of it's staff to commute in something other than one person in one car? Well, we experimented with trying to make some sort of a reward and party system. The idea was simple: build up a collection of "things" until a threshold is reached, then throw a party for everyone.
We got two fishbowls and filled one with pennies. (We wanted to use links from a bike chain, but it turned into too much of a hassle to get enough.)
For each trip to or from work, if you ride your bike, take mass transit, or car pool, you move one penny from the source to the destination. When all of the pennies were moved into the destination, we through a pizza party. All staff were invited - not just those who were moving the pennies.
We then started all over. About half way through the second round, people stopped moving pennies. After several months, the whole thing went away.
Why did this effort fail?
Well...
First off, I'm not sure it was a total failure. We have a group of dedicated bike commuters, which is pretty good for a hilly location in the rainy Pacific Northwest! However....
One thing we did wrong was the party. We invited everyone to it, but we didn't do a very good job of explaining what was being celebrated. One group of folks were having a small meeting nearby - they came and got some pizza, then went back to their meeting - not much of a chance for interaction there!
The real problem with this approach, though, is that it was putting the burden on those who had already modified their behavior in positive manner. Those who car pooled or rode bikes or mass transit were the ones who had to take some action (be it minimal) and move a penny. One day someone put a note in the jar that said "Why bother?" rather than moving the coins. It seems that maybe the people who need to "take action" are those who's behavior we want to modify?!
An example of this is from a colleague who visited us from a working farm/ ee center outside of Hong Kong. When someone there goes anywhere that involves an air flight, they have to personally plant some trees from their nursery into the field that offset their share of the carbon emitted by the flight.
Back to IslandWood, it's hard to out that burden on our fellow staff members. Some live far away, not all feel physically fit enough to ride bikes, the weather is often cold dark and wet, and others have strange hours that make it hard to get everyone to change their behavior. Is it worth making someone feel guilty everyday if they live 25 miles away and we have no good public transportation options? Seems to me that rather than winning them over, we'd be doing the opposite.
For now, my personal solution is to lead by example. I used to ride a recumbent bike so that kids would see it and maybe talk about it and question their assumptions about bikes, etc. Now I just try to make it visible that biking to work is a viable option. Maybe if - I every find a sugar daddy - someday I'll get my current dream bike that not only raises the issue of getting around, but how can that be sustainable. (Check out the Pandurban Bamboo bikes at Renovo in Portland, OR)
We got two fishbowls and filled one with pennies. (We wanted to use links from a bike chain, but it turned into too much of a hassle to get enough.)
For each trip to or from work, if you ride your bike, take mass transit, or car pool, you move one penny from the source to the destination. When all of the pennies were moved into the destination, we through a pizza party. All staff were invited - not just those who were moving the pennies.
We then started all over. About half way through the second round, people stopped moving pennies. After several months, the whole thing went away.
Why did this effort fail?
Well...
First off, I'm not sure it was a total failure. We have a group of dedicated bike commuters, which is pretty good for a hilly location in the rainy Pacific Northwest! However....
One thing we did wrong was the party. We invited everyone to it, but we didn't do a very good job of explaining what was being celebrated. One group of folks were having a small meeting nearby - they came and got some pizza, then went back to their meeting - not much of a chance for interaction there!
The real problem with this approach, though, is that it was putting the burden on those who had already modified their behavior in positive manner. Those who car pooled or rode bikes or mass transit were the ones who had to take some action (be it minimal) and move a penny. One day someone put a note in the jar that said "Why bother?" rather than moving the coins. It seems that maybe the people who need to "take action" are those who's behavior we want to modify?!
An example of this is from a colleague who visited us from a working farm/ ee center outside of Hong Kong. When someone there goes anywhere that involves an air flight, they have to personally plant some trees from their nursery into the field that offset their share of the carbon emitted by the flight.
Back to IslandWood, it's hard to out that burden on our fellow staff members. Some live far away, not all feel physically fit enough to ride bikes, the weather is often cold dark and wet, and others have strange hours that make it hard to get everyone to change their behavior. Is it worth making someone feel guilty everyday if they live 25 miles away and we have no good public transportation options? Seems to me that rather than winning them over, we'd be doing the opposite.
For now, my personal solution is to lead by example. I used to ride a recumbent bike so that kids would see it and maybe talk about it and question their assumptions about bikes, etc. Now I just try to make it visible that biking to work is a viable option. Maybe if - I every find a sugar daddy - someday I'll get my current dream bike that not only raises the issue of getting around, but how can that be sustainable. (Check out the Pandurban Bamboo bikes at Renovo in Portland, OR)
Monday, January 11, 2010
Welcome and the Intent of this Blog
Welcome to our blog. Those of us contributing to it are all staff members at IslandWood, an Environmental Learning Center on Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle, Washington. Much of our message is about Community and Environmental Stewardship, so we've formed the "Green Team" to help "walk the talk." We hope to record our discussions, readings, successes, frustrations, etc., as we work to make our own lives, and the daily functioning of our workplace, as sustainable as possible.
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