Brainstorming: Green Team Ideas -- 12/3/08
 Complete the sentence: I wish we could.....
– Get everyone to recycle
– Create the awareness
– New people get educated quickly – from wherever they come from
– Annual retreats – Green team come and present (drive-able distance)
– Make slide shows available for teams
– Generally reducing single passenger auto trips
– Make more bike racks available
– Expand eco-pass program to post-docs
– SMP shuttle usually empty – any way to fix?
– Recycle the majority of lab waste – or even 20%
– Change culture – OK to turn off lights
– Donation hurdle – how to overcome
– Hard to do changes all at once – tip/email of the week; makes it more
sustainable
– More classes using eRes and similar posting documents on line
– Recycle Styrofoam ability / reuse (maybe have the same company who brings
it to take it back
– Having flash-drives more available during meetings vs. paper
– Use companies that take back the shipping containers
– More awareness at school regarding the reuse site; some kind of discounting
when using whatever is being transferred without such high fees to facilities
for moving
– IT sets al printers to double-sided mode
– Procurement get on board with all documents uploaded vs. faxed into AP
(and gift transmittal) every time; better training – sustainability green
procurement class for administrators
– Disconnect overhead lights that aren’t needed
– Conference and meeting rooms people never turn off lights – put in motion
detectors
– Reusable mugs and plates vs. paper if more efficient to wash with water
– Individual plates/cups with people’s names on them
– Combine shipping orders from common companies
– Make some kind of incentive so that the more senior staff and faculty would
come on board vs. lowly admin “double sided”
– Landscape crew to stop using leaf blowers
– Stop getting postcards about everything
– Reduce the paper junk mail we get from Stanford – centralize mailing list in
SoM – one update
– Hand dryers instead of paper towels in bathroom
– Higher some low paid person to go in and get rid of subscriptions/junk
mailings – throw it into a bin and get it terminated
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– Take on removing subscriptions as a green team task
– Waterless urinals for males
– Electronic signature – empower within the school so all routing is completely
electronic and not printed, singed, scanned, faxed, etc.
– Thermostats that actually make sense
– Someone to help Green team with building audits; fresh pair of eyes
– Regulate temperatures in our buildings better – reduce personal heaters
– Lab freezers and refrigerators – capture and redirect to cold offices
– More solar power / panels
– Passive water heating – store water tanks on the roof;
– on-demand, tank-less water heaters
– Dual flush toilets
– Sealant / covers on windows to reduce sunlight coming in
– Use both sides of writing tablet
– Do analysis of bottled water vs. filtered water
– Make the “turn off the lights” stickers available
– Make it easy to get recycling containers
– Check on the irrigation
– Be a role model
– Be a resource for your faculty and staff
– In raising awareness add this in the footer of your email: Please consider
the environment before printing this e-mail
 What makes people care?
– Small budget or resources available
– Competitions with other green teams
– Food
– Improved climate control in offices
– More space in offices – get rid of file cabinet
– Saving money
– Saving jobs
– Health improvement – exercise
– Local food movement - healthier
– Publicize some of the fun facts (e.g., cost of a piece of paper per day)
– Show people some of the end result – what’s made from recycle material
– Prizes that related to sustainability that related to the challenge (e.g., used
bike)
– Knowing that the supervisors and faculty care – so it’s ok to spend some
time dealing with this – put it in their evaluation
– Students – link to social things such as Facebook; Tamagachi character that
gets better, greener, when happier
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– Tiny container like Julia showed us – people in departments give it a try for a
week
– Putting something on the site – ideal desk, mug, printer – all the things
– Keep a little box next to copier for paper that can be reuse on another side –
or dedicate a tray
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