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                                        Vol. 14, No. 3    March 1, 2013
GREEN STAR E-News

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In This Issue
Shining Stars
Events & Reminders
It's the Season for Green Events
Anchorage Chamber of Commerce and Green Star: A Longtime Partnership
Scholarships Available for Manufacturers
How to Get Real Green From Your Green Certification
Visit Us On Facebook
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Green Star AK 

Keep up with Green Star's busy schedule; come join us, friend us, like us!

 

 

 

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 Anchorage Recycles

Stay current on what's happening in recycling around Anchorage. Several recycling organizations post regularly.

 

Thank You to our Sponsors
Thank you to all of our sponsors and donors for supporting Green Star.

BP
Thank you for your continued support of the Green Events program.

Visit Our Sponsor List  

 

This Month's Hot Link

 The Story of Stuff

Learn about the way we make, use, and throw away stuff through a series of 20-minute videos.
Green Star Staff

Kim Kovol 

Executive Director

 

Josh Sherwood  

Technical Assistance

Coordinator


Jeanne Carlson 

Web Master

 

 

What's New

Green Star's address is

333 W. 4th Avenue,  

Suite 310,  

Anchorage, AK 99501.  

 

PLEASE MAKE A NOTE! Several web listings that are beyond our control list out-of-date contact information for Green Star in Anchorage.  

 

Member Benefits

Green Star offers benefits to its members beyond just energy savings and waste reduction.  Many local businesses offer product and service discounts to Green Star members. 

 

Visit our Member Benefits page to learn more.

 

Join Our Mailing List
SHINING STARSGreen Star logo

Thank you to our recent intern, Aura Mael.  A big part of Green Star's work involves documenting the successes of our members. This takes time and effort. Over the past few months, Aura worked to help us gather and input our members' measurement data into a regional Pollution Prevention database. 

Aura was raised in Anchorage and is now in her senior year of a bachelor's degree in accounting at UAA. In the past few years, learning about renewable energy has become a passion of hers.  She says she has not been satisfied with changing her own habits to better the planet, so she sought out Green Star to try to help make a difference.  We are glad you did, Aura!
EVENTS & REMINDERS
 

Find events on Green Star's web calendar.    

 

Reminder to Green Star Members: Green Star logo

  

Green Star has dozens of tip sheets online to help you with everything from recycling and waste prevention to energy efficiency and environmentally preferable purchasing.  You'll find technology-specific case studies and business-sector specific tips.  You'll even find our core set of tip sheets translated into Spanish! 

  

Read them all at Green Star's Tip Sheet page. And please feel free to use these tip sheets as a resource within your organization.  Share with staff, use them in newsletters, send out links, post them on bulletin boards.  


Interior Alaska Green Star Seeks Director 

Interior Alaska Green Star is hiring for the position of Executive Director.  The Executive Director is responsible for raising funds, managing projects, volunteer management and community relationships.  IAGS is looking for someone who has strong fundraising experience, is able to work independently, and has a passion for making a difference in the community.  This is a 20-30 hour per week position located in Fairbanks. Please send a resume and writing sample to [email protected].  Position open until filled. See full job description.  

       
REAP Clean Energy Lecture Series -- March 13

 REAP logo

Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) hosts FREE forums from 6 to 8pm on the 2nd Wednesday of every month from September to May at the Anchorage Museum auditorium, 625 C Street. Those who can't attend can listen via live podcast or download a podcast posted after the event.   

  

Across the US, federal officials are implementing clean energy policies on our nation's military bases as a way to save money and promote national security. Hear from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Mike Warwick on what the Department of Defense is doing to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency in Alaska and other Western States. Bob Zacharski of Doyon Utilities will follow up with a presentation on the new methane gas project at the Anchorage Regional Landfill, which provides up to 80% of Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson's power needs. 

Visit
http://alaskarenewableenergy.org/ for more information, to register for the lecture as a webinar, or to see a list of future lectures.     

Used Oil and Hazardous Waste Management for Auto and Aircraft Repair Shops in Alaska: Webinar -- March 19

EPA logoIf you missed the first one, here's your second chance.  We had such a strong response to last month's webinar, we are offering it again. 

 

Green Star logoThe two-hour webinar (noon -2pm) presents used oil, hazardous waste, and universal waste management standards for automotive and aircraft repair shops in Alaska. Attendees learn how to set up a system for waste management that explains:

  • hazardous waste identification tools 
  • standards for each generator class
  • what to do with common shop wastes
  • rules for burning used oil
  • and much more
Download USEPA's Used Oil and Hazardous Waste Management for Auto and Aircraft Repair Shops in Alaska manual.  Information also is provided about recyclers and disposal options specific to Alaska. 

Due to limited capacity, RSVP to Green Star at
[email protected] for the webinar link.

Anchorage Downtown Partnership "Heart of Anchorage" Awards -- March 30
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5-7pm in the ConocoPhillips Atrium. $30 per person includes hors d'oeuvres, desserts, live music, and a live auction. No host bar. Call 279-5650 for reservations or to nominate someone.  Last year, our very own Josh Sherwood received an award!

GS Award Logo Green Star Award Quarterly Achievement Report Submittal Deadline -- March 31  

To be eligible for earning Green Star Award certification this quarter, please submit your achievement report to Green Star by March 31. Visit Green Star for more details about the process.    

   

 

Tap Root Public House
SAVE THE DATE:
3rd Annual Spenard Beer & Mead Social -- April 13      
 

Anchorage to Zero Waste Guide 
Download the guide
5.2 A to Z coverProduced twice a year by the Municipality of Anchorage's Solid Waste Services, the guide is your definitive source for recycling and zero waste information in Anchorage.  The fall/winter issue includes information about winter water quality, heating with wood cleanly, and updated recycling, energy efficiency, and waste prevention information.   

 

Alaska Materials Exchange.  Don't forget to list your used items on the exchange or look there for items before going shopping.  At any given time, you can find office furniture and supplies, chemicals, pallets, constructions materials and more.  Visit AME for more information. 

 

IT'S THE SEASON FOR GREEN EVENTS
 
gelogo Green Star is in its thirteenth year of offering event recycling assistance to local businesses, organizations, and individuals.  The Green Events program, launched in 2001, has assisted hundreds of events and diverted hundreds of  thousands of pounds of recyclables from our landfill.

Although the program is year-round, the most popular season for borrowing bins is summer.  So reserve your recycling bins early this spring. Green Star often supplies bins to numerous events at once on any given summer weekend and occasionally we run out!

BP sponsors the program each year, providing the funding necessary to offer free use of bins and signage, as well as technical and logistical support to local businesses and organizations to help make an event recycling program successful.   

With the help of a grant from Solid Waste Services, Green Star began one year ago this March to revitalize and maintain the downtown public space recycling bins.  Since then, almost two tons of plastic bottles and aluminum cans have been diverted from the landfill. 

Thank you to BP for its continued funding of Green Events. Thank you to Solid Waste Services for the grant that allows Green Star to maintain the downtown public space recycling bins.
ANCHORAGE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND GREEN STAR: A LONGTIME PARTNERSHIP
 

Anchorage Chamber logo Green Star recently celebrated its 15th year as an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce member but this only tells part of the story of the long relationship between Green Star and the Chamber. Before Green Star was its own entity - a member-driven, nonprofit organization - we were a program housed at the Chamber.

 

It all began back in 1990 as a cooperative effort. The Anchorage Chamber of Commerce successfully partnered with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) and the non-profit Alaska Center for the Environment (ACE) to create the Green Star program. The program, represented by this diverse group of state regulators, environmentalists and business leaders, was created to give positive recognition to organizations that exercised environmental responsibility. It also was created to be both pro-business and pro-environment.

 

Through the Green Star program, it was found that organizations that are environmentally responsible also have a stronger bottom line. By examining an organization's waste streams and making internal changes to reduce them, significant financial savings-as well as environmental savings-are possible.

 

The core Green Star Award program focused (and still does) on aspects of operations, which included examining all waste streams (solid waste, utility usage etc.) and eliminating waste through smarter purchasing, restructuring employee procedures, maintaining or updating equipment and recycling.

 

As the program expanded, the partners decided to incorporate Green Star into a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This became a reality in 1996. Today, Green Star is a USEPA-award-winning organization recognizing businesses and organizations that continue to voluntarily meet and exceed Green Star's high standards of environmental responsibility.

 

Over the years, Green Star's relationship with the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce has remained strong. The Chamber provides Green Star with a regular forum, through its Monday luncheon series, for highlighting the successes of its Award-certified business members. The ability to present the Green Star certification and recognize an organization's efforts in a forum of its peers is immensely valuable for all involved.

 

Thanks to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce for two decades of support!  Check out all of the Chamber's programs and events, including the upcoming 45th Annual Citywide Cleanup at the end of April. 
  
 
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR MANUFACTURERS

AMEP logo Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership (AMEP) is offering education and event scholarships to Alaska manufacturers.  The scholarships are fulfilled as fee reimbursements to course attendees. Any course, workshop, conference, or event hosted by the following organizations qualify as reimbursable:
  
HOW TO GET REAL GREEN FROM YOUR GREEN CERTIFICATIONS
Published February 21, 2013, at Greenbiz.com

P2 Pathways NOTE: Green Star's award program has offered third-party green certification for Alaskan businesses for more than twenty years.    

 

There's a new kind of buyer's remorse in the marketplace. It's the environmentally aware purchaser who has been tricked into purchasing something or using a service that they thought was green but is not at all sustainable; more so a product of clever marketing.

 

In the hopes of providing a future for our children, or maybe just saving our own hides, many of us are suckers for anything touting itself as green these days. There are so many labels, certifications and ads - how can we tell the difference between something that actually does benefit the environment and something that is the advertising equivalent of promising a more virile sex life? This recent misrepresentation in marketing has a name: Green (read: Brain) Washing.

 

Take it from someone who has been green-cuckolded before. As an environmental scientist, I'm not proud to admit that I have been hoodwinked when I should have known better. It's also a testament to just how careful you have to be.

 

There was the "green hotel" I stayed in that didn't have a single recycling bin in the whole hotel. There was the carbon offset I purchased for my car where 75 percent of the contribution went to the executives, not to any carbon projects. Then there were the green gardeners who were so cautious about impacts to the environment that they never actually did any work on the garden but still charged me for it.

 

New third-party programs have sprouted up to market a service or business as green. Some are all about collecting expensive fees for a window decal; others are growing their programs slowly with small baby steps; and a few are very comprehensive programs. The ones that a discerning buyer needs to be aware of are the ones that are greenwashing in green business programs, or marketing a service as green while doing very little or nothing at all.

 

One industry that has been quick to jump on the green bandwagon is the hospitality industry. The hotel industry can potentially earn huge returns on investment in both reduced utility bills and increased patronage by meeting certain environmental standards. Efforts such as upgrading lighting and heating/cooling systems, replacing toilets and providing recycling bins with outreach to customers can reduce their operating costs. However, there is an initial capital cost for these changes and many hotels are realizing that they can simply pay a few grand, fill out an online form and be listed as a "green hotel" with several iconic leaves next to its name. This is much easier than replacing all the toilets and doing a major lighting upgrade.

 

Consumers see a label on a shop window or a web listing and assume that this is a business that pays attention to its triple bottom line. There are two types of programs: self-certified programs that allow a business to pay a fee, fill out a form and gain a seal, and third-party-verified programs.

 

Read more... 

   
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