Designing Recycling Into Your Building; Solar Thermal Gains Momentum

In This Issue

Planning for Waste and Recycling at the Design and Construction Phase

ABOUT
GREAT FOREST

Improve Environmental Performance, Reduce Costs

With over 20 years of experience, Great Forest is a leader in sustainability consulting, providing project management expertise to clients nationwide. Services include:

Learn How to Cut Waste Removal Costs by 20% to 50%

GREAT FOREST GIVES BACK

Great Forest is a proud supporter of the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute, which works to clean up life-threatening pollution problems in low and middle income countries.

CONTACT

Great Forest, Inc.
2014 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10035
212-779-4757 Phone
212-779-8044 Fax

www.greatforest.com

Recyclemania Turns Corporate?

Environmental Leader recently published an article about Great Forest's innovative approach to office recycling -- adapting college campus competitions like Recyclemania for use in corporate locations.

"Corporate executives are not freshmen but we realized

we could achieve similar success if we could replicate the same competitive spirit in offices," says Amy Marpman, director of recycling services at Great Forest. "Our corporate version offers the same motivation, but achieves it in slightly different ways."

To date, Great Forest has piloted the corporate challenge model at a number of office buildings and all have shown positive results. Read our ten steps to an effective office recycling challenge.

-- The Great Forest Team

Planning for Waste and Recycling at the Design and Construction Phase

Commercial office buildings require an efficient and logistically sound waste and recycling system, yet few development teams plan for it early in the building design and construction process.

As a result, new or newly developed buildings are often faced with limited options when it is time to implement a waste and recycling storage system, and many end up incurring higher costs than necessary. Great Forest has been working to remedy the situation and a few of our clients are starting to see the benefits of being proactive. The new National Cancer Institute in Rockville, MD, is one of them. >>Read More

Solar Thermal Gains Momentum

There are many reasons to be optimistic about solar power these days, especially solar thermal technology, which uses collectors to capture the heat from the sun to produce hot water.

Solar thermal in the United States has lagged behind other parts of the world, but new policies and incentives are changing that. New Hampshire and New York now offer financial incentives for solar thermal power, in addition to existing (and growing) incentives for photovoltaic power. >>Read more

Did You Know... The U.S. Disposes of over $11.4 Billion in Packaging (Most of Which Could Be Recycled)

A new report by the non-profit As You Sow finds that responsibility for post-consumer packaging is emerging as an important public policy issue in the U.S. The report, entitled Unfinished Business: The Case for Extended Producer Responsibility for Post-Consumer Packaging, estimates the market value of landfilled packaging at $11.4 billion in 2010.

Packaging comprises more than 40% of the solid waste stream, and most of these materials are recyclable. For instance, only 12.1% of plastic packaging is recycled in the U.S., in part because municipal recycling programs are not capable of handling diverse plastic packaging materials. >>Read More

Have a question for our Q&A or a tip for Did You Know? Contact us!