Fresh AIRE

National Public Health Week is April 7-13

More and more people are ‘taking their green to work’.  People refuse to check their morals and beliefs at the door and are helping business take the lead on climate change. 

Also, businesses are finding that incorporating sustainability practices can save them money, reduce liability, increase the health and wellbeing of occupants, and raise employee performance.

National Public Health Week is April 7-13 and it is the perfect time to look at the connection between climate change, health, and your place of employment.  We spend 90% of our time indoors, and 40% of Greenhouse Gas emissions result from commercial office buildings.  That is the largest segment of emissions in Arlington, not transportation surprisingly. 

Sometimes greenhouse gas reduction, office greening, and occupant heath can be a rather nebulous idea.  We don’t walk behind buildings and cough from their emissions like you might behind an idling truck.  Rather, your air quality is directly impacted by your energy use in your office through your airshed.  That means that coal fired power plants upwind from you actually cause degraded living conditions and cause increased extraction of natural resources for fuel due to your offices consumption.

Here are a few tips for your office to get you moving in the right direction to do your part!

1. Form a green team and set organizational goals
2. Evaluate your current practices (bulk purchasing, recycling, energy conservation, water conservation, etc).  These can save you money!
3. Create an action plan.
4. Dive in!

To learn about the Fresh AIRE business partner program please email:  climate@arlingtonva.us

First Green (UMC) Church in Arlington

On January 26, the church council of Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church voted to become part of the Green Church Initiative of the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mt. Olivet UMC is the first United Methodist Church in Arlington to make this declaration and the second in the state of Virginia -- a state with more than 1,200 UMCs. The church spent more than a year discerning how it would meet the requirements in the areas of worship, education, church/individual lifestyle, and outreach.

As a member of Mt. Olivet myself, and an active member on the environmental stewardship committee, I was thrilled and proud. And it's an exciting decision, too, because the annoucement aligns with the County's goal (through the FreshAIRE program) of having businesses and organizations to commit to making “green” progress in the areas of energy efficiency, green building, transit use, and recycling.

Here’s just a sampling of what Mt. Olivet did in different areas:

CHURCH LIFESTYLE: Conducted an audit of energy use of the church’s facilities; conducted an audit of water use; replaced many of church bulbs with CFLs or other energy efficient fixtures; installed automatic switches on lights in bathrooms and some rooms; achieved Wildlife Habitat Certification; used biodegradable paper cups (Ecotainers) for coffee; promoted members bringing their own coffee cups; used fair-trade, shade-grown, organic coffee for coffee; surveyed how members come to church and promoted walking, public transit, riding the church bus to church and carpooling; hosted our first-ever Bike to Church Day (see photo).

WORSHIP: Included prayers for the environment in the weekly prayer bulletin; promoted electronic giving as a way of reducing paper; printed bulletin on 30% recycled paper;  recycled all bulletins and paper, and included bulletin “blurbs” on how to become more ecologically responsible.

CHURCH EDUCATION: Used an environmental theme for children’s vacation bible school; developed material for mission teams on links between global warming and hurricane strength; held Sunday School lessons on mountain top removal, not using water bottles, using public transit, and buying fair trade/organic cocoa

CHURCH OUTREACH: Showed “Inconvenient Truth” to church and community; developed a partnership with Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment; identified environmental activities to be a part of church youth outreach; developed a process to promote “non-partisan” letter writing or petitions to government officials on the environment; hosted women’s retreat on “Greening the Church “and provided a meatless meal using mostly locally produced organic products; and sold compact fluorescent bulbs and canvas bags at alternative gifts fair.

--Jennifer K. Smith
Arlington County