Meghan’s Sustainable Office Tips: Reuse Junk Mail
Feb 25th
Although I am someone who is very concerned with environmental sustainability, there are certain unsustainable practices that are easy to fall prey to when you are working in an urban office space. I try to work on ways to make office life less wasteful and more resourceful. So I’m going to be posting about some of the small things that I like to do to in order to be more conscientious of resources & waste while at work.
Yes, you should recycle, recycle, recycle. But before you toss all that junk mail into the blue box, think about its possibilities! The envelopes and the backs of letter paper are pristine surfaces to write on. It takes just a few minutes for me cut up this pile of “junk” and transform it into note paper. Then I’m using it to its full potential before sending it off to be recycled!
It’s also important to consider simply cutting down on the amount of junk mail your workplace receives. If you have a fax machine, get off those spam fax lists! It’s worth taking a few moments each week or two to fax, email, or call in to subscribe from junk mail and junk faxes!
I’d love to hear what you all are doing as well! Please send me your tips and I’ll post them all up here.
Exploring the Weekend Wilderness
Feb 19th
Despite dedicating so much time to educating about our local environments and sharing people’s sustainability stories, it still can be a challenge to carve out some time to enjoy the nature around me. It doesn’t help when it’s freezing cold and the sun sets before six, either! This past weekend, I managed to escape from urban life for a little while to the Virginia wilderness! Here are some photos from my adventure.
Environmental Education Event on Monday, March 4th!
Feb 13th
Monday, March 4th, 2013
4:30pm to 7:00pm
in the lobby of the United Way Building (1709 Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103)
Register at EcoExpress.EventBrite.com.
On Monday, March 4th, 2013, our EcoExpress program will co-host the Spring into Science Education expo with the Philadelphia Education Fund’s Math+Science Coalition. In its third year, Spring into Science Education is a FREE networking & educational event for local educators. Educators of grades K through 12 will learn about inspiring resources and ideas that can be immediately brought back into the classroom!
Highlights of the Spring into Science Education expo include:
- The premiere of our newest documentary on Rain Gardens
- Exhibits by Local Environmental, Science, and Math Education Experts
- Hands-On Activity Demonstrations
- Refreshments
- Prizes
- And more!
Participating Organizations Include:
Bartram’s Garden, Delaware Valley Green Building Council’s Green Schools Program, Earth Force, Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, iPRAXIS, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia Science Festival, Philadelphia Water Department Public Education, Weavers Way Community Programs, and more to be announced
REGISTER BY MARCH 1st at EcoExpress.EventBrite.com.
Be a Part of the GreenTreks Network in 2013!
Dec 20th
On behalf of all of the GreenTreks Network staff, we want to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year. We have a lot of exciting projects on the horizon for 2013. But first, I want to share some of the remarkable accomplishments our programs have made during this past year .
From EcoExpress:
Through visiting classrooms, providing workshops, helping at science fairs, and more, we are so happy to have spent 2012 encountering such wonderful people. It’s been a very busy and fulfilling year for us! We added new videos and lesson plan materials to EcoExpress.org. We moderated the environmental science education expert panel at the Philadelphia Science Festival. We hosted our second annual Spring into Science Education event at Laurel Hill Cemetery, which drew together organizations from throughout the region and educators.
From StormwaterPA:
Within the past year, we released a gorgeous new website that makes our multimedia resources more accessible than ever before. We’ve highlighted the valuable stream restoration efforts of watershed groups and the stewardship that results from property owners making the connection between their homes and their neighborhood streams. We’ve documented the nation-leading efforts of the Philadelphia Water Department, as well as those of suburban partnerships that are making a difference on private properties and in community parks. We’ve grown our social media presence and connected with new partners to share resources, knowledge, and educational tools.
2013 looks like it will be a momentous year for us . Locally, we’ve got several inspiring new videos in the works, and we are working behind the scenes with some pretty great partners on some pretty exciting projects that will be unveiled in 2013. Be on the lookout for our fingerprint on a great new educational web-portal, a green-focused job training program, and a creative public engagement effort that looks at how climate change intersects with our lives. We’ve also been talking with several collaborators about bringing our storytelling expertise to other regions, including Connecticut, Virginia, and New York.
We need your help to continue to reach people with our high-quality, environmental multimedia resources. Be a part of the GreenTreks Network by making a donation today!
As a special thank you, donations of $75 or more made before the end of 2012 will receive a DVD of Life on the Delaware. Not available anywhere online, this lyrical documentary will turn your view of the Delaware River on its head. This travelogue showcases this “working river” and brings viewers into the lives of some of the extraordinary individuals who are committed to making the Delaware a healthy waterway for the generations to come.
Thank you again for all of your support, and have a wonderful new year!
Meghan Filoromo, Barry Lewis, and Anita Brook Dupree of GreenTreks Network
Highlights from EcoExpress and Stormwater blogs
Nov 27th
As part of our mission, GreenTreks Network provides two main programs to provide people with multimedia resources to take action towards a more sustainable lifestyle. StormwaterPA provides video case studies and multimedia resources for the benefit of homeowners, municipalities, developers, landscapers, and clean water advocates. EcoExpress makes available GreenTreks’ extensive catalog of environmental documentaries for use by educators and students. Each of EcoExpress’ videos are correlated to state academic standards and feature related lesson plan materials.
The unifying aspect of both EcoExpress and StormwaterPA is that both initiatives provide engaging content focused on our local environment. Here are some recent highlights from both programs’ blogs.
Leaf Litter and Its Role in Storm Water Management
By Anita Brook Dupree
“High winds and stormy weather seem like a terrible thing to most of us, but these winds help shed leaves from deciduous trees. These leaves have to be shed. This is a story about the good things that all those leaves do for the environment (especially in wooded areas, forests, parks and even your backyard).”
Read Full Blog on EcoExpress.org’s Main Page.
No Child Left Indoors: Writing for the Common Core
By Anita Brook Dupree
“The Common Core ELA standards require the fostering of three writing capacities: writing to explain, writing to persuade and writing to convey real or imagined experience. A simple walk around the schoolyard can be the experience needed to get your students’ writing jump started.”
Read Full Blog.
Report Back from the Schuylkill Action Network Annual Meeting
By Meghan Filoromo
The Schuylkill Action Network Annual Meeting on 11/16 was quite inspiring! SAN consists of over 300 members who are working together to promote and protect the Schuylkill River! See some of my notes, and find out how you can get involved.
Read Full Blog.
What Happens to Superfund Sites after a Superstorm?
By Meghan Filoromo
“This morning when I was about to head out the door, I caught an interesting (and alarming) story on Morning Edition on NPR.
What happens to Superfund sites after a Superstorm? A few weeks after Hurricane Sandy, many are worried about the toxic chemicals from nearby Superfund sites.”
Read Full Blog.
The Street Art of Stormwater Stencils
By Meghan Filoromo
“Far too frequently, people use storm drains as mini illegal dumping grounds. Stormwater drain marking projects are an amazing (and beautiful!) way to draw attention to these oft-neglected parts of the developed landscape.”
Read Full Blog.
