May 2008 Edition

Welcome to the Spring 2008 edition of EcoBytes! If you didn't get it in email, you can always catch up on it here! EcoBytes updates you on CET's accomplishments in waste, energy, environmental education and sustainable development.

IN THIS ISSUE:

• This Old House features ReStore Deconstruction
• Big Y - Business Recycler of the Year
• Textile Drive was a 13-ton success
• CET recycling services lands a new truck
• Earth Day 2008 Round-up
• Purchasing managers learn about going green
• Heinberg draws a crowd
• Green home-building workshops are a hit

This Old House features ReStore Deconstruction

This old house is being dismantled - or rather, it has been, and you can learn all about it this fall on This Old House! The ReStore dismantled a 1900-square-foot home in Weston, MA, in April while This Old House crews filmed the event for inclusion in this year’s series, which is scheduled to premiere in October.

The ReStore’s professional deconstruction crew carefully dismantled the house using hand tools and small equipment, saving more than 85% of the home for reuse or recycling. All the materials that we recover are sold at affordable prices at the ReStore’s retail location at 250 Albany Street, Springfield. Many of the materials from this home, including lumber, flooring, doors and insulation, will be used over the coming months in the construction of a Habitat for Humanity home.

A crew from This Old House will also visit the ReStore and the Habitat for Humanity construction site in the coming months to film additional footage for the show. The ReStore is also producing a time-lapse video of the project, which will be available in June on www.restoreonline.org. For more information, contact John Grossman at 413-788-6900.

Big Y - Business Recycler of the Year

Big Y has gotten big into recycling with a little help from CET. So much so that in mid-April the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) Advisory Board awarded Big Y Foods Inc. its prestigious Business Recycler of the Year Award.

In the last year alone, CET has helped Big Y expand its efforts by setting up organics diversion programs in seven additional stores - so now 17 locations are diverting food waste and waxed cardboard. Big Y continues to be a leader among supermarkets and plans to start composting at 10-15 more locations throughout MA in the coming year. Last year CET also helped Big Y establish a film plastics recycling program to collect shrink wrap, stretch wrap, case plastics and plastic consumer bags - all of which are used to make composite lumber. CET helped find markets, design collection systems and provided technical assistance to facility maintenance staff to make the program successful. In the last few months of 2007, Big Y recycled over 80 tons of film plastics and they plan to recycle much more in 2008. For more information, contact Lorenzo Macaluso at 413-323-5264.

Textile Drive was a 13-ton success

Berkshire County residents came in droves to our 13th Annual Textile Drive the last weekend in April. In partnership with Goodwill Industries, we collected 26,000 pounds of textiles - 10,000 more pounds than last year! Thanks go to our wonderful volunteers from the Adult Learning Center and community. And a big thanks to Bagels Too, Pizza House, Dunkin Donuts, Samel's Deli, Morningside Bakery, and Harry’s Supermarket for the yummy food donations. Collecting textiles is hungry work. For more information contact Jamie Cahillane at 413-445-4556 ext. 14.

CET recycling services lands a new truck

The 1984 Mack truck that CET Recycling Services has long used to pick up office paper finally gave up the ghost. Now our driver Dave Minor is happily reporting that our new 1999 International is a much nicer ride. In 2007 CET and its 160 dedicated office paper recycling customers recycled nearly 1,000,000 pounds of paper. We’re planning to recycle even more this year with our spiffy new truck. For more information, contact Jamie Cahillane at 413-445-4556 ext. 14.

Earth Day 2008 Round-up

The explosion of interest in being green kept CET busy during Earth Week!

We were at schools...

CET staff presented at the Green is Beautiful conference at Mount Everett High School. More than 100 students, staff and teachers learned how to establish a successful, sustainable recycling program. Before the day was over, Tech Ed teacher Paul O'Brien said the school was already devising ways to reduce waste and improve its recycling program.

At Berkshire School in Sheffield, CET offered information on the sources and uses of various forms of energy and kept students enthralled with model solar and wind energy activities. The Berkshire School is this year’s winner of the coveted Green Cup Challenge, an award given to the school that measures the greatest reduction in average campus electricity use.

Meanwhile our AmeriCorps VISTA Amanda Dubrowski was busy at MCLA, the Plunkett Elementary School in Adams, and BCC all Earth Week long... At MCLA and BCC, Amanda tabled alongside the colleges' Green Teams, who were busy demonstrating the many ways each campus is becoming green. Plunkett Elementary's Earth Day event was a family affair, with activities for children, information from environmental groups, organic snacks, entertainment and a used clothing sale.

And at museums...

At the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield we were talking about reducing energy use and waste, selling energy efficient light bulbs, and we even organized a workshop where kids of all ages could make innovative creations out of recycled material. A teacher and three students from Conte Middle School were busy cooking apples, hotdogs and roasting marshmallows using the power of the sun.

Conte is one of the Berkshire Bank BEST (Berkshire Environmental School Teams) Schools, and their project this year was learning about solar oven technology.

At the Springfield Science Museum, the ReStore’s Dani Martin, Natural Nargi and Betsy Mason entertained throngs of families with young children. Kids learned about reuse through two hands-on projects – decorating reused tiles and making beautiful coat racks from surplus cabinet knobs and wood trim. They also got their faces painted, just for fun!

We were in the community, presenting...

CET Co-Director Laura Dubester presented Greening the Berkshires - Reducing your Carbon Footprint at the Berkshire Co-op Market in Great Barrington on Earth Day itself. She said that some of the strategies she offered really resonated with the group, such as understanding how small actions add up, leading by example, setting goals, and challenging oneself.

CET’s Peggy MacLeod has been on the speaker circuit of late. Earth Week found her speaking at a roundtable of environmentalists at the Juniper Literary Festival, a UMASS event hosted by the MFA program for Poets and Writers and held in the garden of the Emily Dickinson Homestead in Amherst. Other roundtable participants included area activists working on both local and global initiatives aimed at reducing non-sustainable behavior and increasing community building and local self-reliance.

Peggy also participated in a panel on energy solutions at a conference for municipal leaders organized by Senator Stan Rosenberg. Other panel members included Catherine Miller of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and Penny Geis, the Administrator of the Hampshire Council of Governments. Peggy provided information to rural town managers and select board members on forming energy committees, wind and solar initiatives at the municipal level, and the availability of grants and incentives for energy audits and renewable energy installations.

We even went to the fair...

The Green Fair, that is! And it really was green - there were 47 vendors of green services and products at Franklin County's 5th Annual Green Fair in Greenfield. CET, the ReStore Home Improvement Center and Berkshire Gas Company were among them; and we answered questions about home energy assessments, energy efficiency, green building and renewable energy all day long. "People are hungry for this information," said Greenfield Business Association Coordinator and fair organizer Becky Kurber. She estimated 18,000 people attended the fair this year.

Purchasing managers learn about going green

Forty-five purchasing managers, representing hundreds of millions of dollars of purchasing power, attended a workshop for the Western New England Purchasers Association in early March. CET staffers Jamie Cahillane, Lorenzo Macaluso and Peggy MacLeod gave them the veritable green toolkit, covering everything from waste prevention, reuse and energy conservation, to renewable energy and strategies for forming Green Teams. For more information about Greening Your Business seminars, contact Jamie Cahillane at 413-445-4556 ext. 14 or Peggy MacLeod at 413-586-7350 ext. 26.

Heinberg draws a crowd

Richard Heinberg, the author of Peak Everything, is a world authority on declining energy resources and we were excited to co-sponsor two talks by the author on an afternoon and evening in late April in Amherst. The afternoon talk was specifically for elected town officials who will find themselves searching for practical solutions to the peaking of oil and natural gas in the coming years. The evening talk was for the public, and attracted a standing room only crowd of more than 200 people! For more information, contact Peggy MacLeod at 413-586-7350 ext. 26.

Green home-building workshops are a hit

More than a few builders and architects were eager to catch the wave to greener home construction and learn about the new Massachusetts Residential Energy Code during two engaging workshop presentations by CET’s Jay Walsh and Peggy MacLeod this spring in Belchertown and Lenox. Those who attended will be able to comply with the new Energy Code and ready to respond to the growing public demand for more eco-friendly home construction. Using green building techniques in new home construction or renovations can not only save money for the renter or owner, but can also lead to healthier indoor air quality, greater durability and increased comfort. Jay and Peggy also covered green building programs such as the Massachusetts ENERGY STAR for Homes Program and the LEED for Homes program established by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). For more information, contact Peggy MacLeod at 413-586-7350 ext. 26.

CET would like to thank our sponsors for this workshop: National Grid, Western Massachusetts Electric Company, NSTAR, the Home Builders Association of Western Massachusetts, the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, S & A Supply (Pittsfield), Ed Herrington, Inc (Lenox), F.W. Webb (Northampton), and PeoplesBank.

For over 30 years, CET, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has worked to improve the economy, ecology and health of western Massachusetts. Visit www.cetonline.org to find out more about our programs and to make a secure online donation to CET. Your tax-deductible contribution will help sustain our community work.