Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Sustainability Intern: Holiday Break

Winter break is over and another semester at Ripon, my last semester, is beginning. Over winter break I went back to my old job at Panera Bread to work a few hours and make a few paychecks (I know, college ain’t cheap!). While there I took up my old position as the environmental captain. This previously had me enforcing recycling practices and conservation of water and energy throughout the restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised when I came back to find that the Christmas gift given to the employees this year was a reusable tumbler that can be used for hot or cold drinks. 
I have always noticed how many coffee cups and plastic cups employees go through everyday. I often would bring in a reusable water bottle, but if I wanted coffee or something hot, I would then use a paper cup as well. I thought giving the employees these versatile tumblers was a great idea! But hardly anyone was using them! In order to cut down on the waste of employees using so many cups and to get them to use their tumblers instead I suggested an idea to the managers. Perhaps they could keep track of the employees who always bring in their tumbler and those who use the least amount of cups each week get a free signature drink such as a smoothie or hot chocolate that they would normally have to pay for. Now, I’m not sure if they will take up that idea, but at least I got them considering it. While I’m away at school there are a few others who are in the role of environmental captain at the Panera, one of which suggested the tumblers in the first place. Hopefully they keep up the great work! 
We go back to school in just a few days and EcoREPS will start up once more! I’ve got a few ideas in mind for this semester so hopefully we’ll be impacting the campus and we can be Ripon’s environmental captains! 

Thursday, January 9, 2014

First georeferenced map of campus!

Happy New Year.  It is with great enthusiasm that I share with you a student project completed in Fall 2013.  Environmental Studies seniors, Brenna Richards and Ashley Storms created a georeferenced map of campus.  In it they included walkways and sidewalk, as well as location of buildings and parking lots. This map will be tremendously useful to all campus users as we make changes to campus and catalog them. Thank you, ladies, for a job well done!
Now it's up to the rest of us to populate this map with Sustainability hotspots: bike racks, bike paths, recycling bins, compost drop-off locations, solar panels... Dream big.


If you would like a copy of the map, please contact the authors (richardsb@ripon.edu, stormsa@ripon.edu) or the Sustainability Coordinator via the website.