The City of Fort Collins is hosting No Impact Week for Earth Week 2014!

The NRRC Green Teams challenge YOU to participate.

No Impact Week is described as a “Carbon Cleanse.” Each day of the week you add a new focus while continuing to the do the previous sustainable activities. The challenge will run from April 20 to April 26. To register, go to: http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/. The “City of Fort Collins, CO No Impact Week” can be selected from the bar on the left of the web page. Once you register, you will receive links to a pre-survey and a guide. The survey link works, but unfortunately the website hosting the pdf Guide is blocked by USDA. Instead, your green team will be emailing it to you.

This Challenge is based on the movie No Impact Man that ARS Fort Collins viewed on Earth Day two years ago. ARS Fort Collins’ EMS (green) Team will re-show the movie at each ARS building at noon over the next 2 weeks. Bring your lunch! Feel free to attend whichever building’s showing you want.

• Today (4/10) – Bldg. D, Eagle conf room
• Next Wed (4/16) – Bldg B – check with Bldg B green team for time and place!
• Next Thurs (4/17) – NCGRP main conf room
• Next Fri (4/18) – CRL conf room

Some employees will have limitations to participation during the week, depending on their personal and work situations. For example, if you live in Greeley it may not be feasible to use human-powered transportation to get to work, but you might be able to take public transportation or carpool. Or perhaps you can do all of your errands on the way home instead of making a separate trip, thus cutting back on your driving. The point is, challenge yourself and do the best you can.

USDA ARS Fort Collins’ goal is to have at least 50 of our employees participate in this challenge (~25%).

Here’s the plan for No Impact Week (Note that themes are celebrated in a different order at Bldg B):

• On Sunday (April 20), stop buying things you don’t need.
• On Monday (April 21), decrease your trash generation, and don’t buy things you don’t need.
• On Tuesday (April 22), use sustainable transportation while practicing decreased consumption and trash generation.
• On Wednesday (April 23), start eating sustainably while continuing to use sustainable transportation and decreasing your trash and consumption.
• On Thursday (April 24), cut your energy use while continuing to eat sustainably, use sustainable transportation, and decreasing your trash and consumption.
• On Friday (April 25), cut your water use while continuing to minimize your energy use, eat sustainably, use sustainable
• On Saturday (April 26), give back to the community while continuing your sustainable activities from the week.

Details and suggestions are in the guide.  Watch for daily posters in your building focusing on that day’s theme.

Additional activities going on during the week will be announced in upcoming emails and posts!

Bldg D gets ClimateWise Platinum!

USDA ARS (Building D, NCGRP, and CRL) received the Platinum Partner level for the 2012 reporting year!  This is the highest level of achievement currently available from the Fort Collins recognition program, and we are one of only a dozen organizations that reached Platinum this past year. Thank you all for your efforts to increasingly “green” your jobs.  Your outstanding work has really paid off.

Results from 2012

Utility Data:

Electrical consumption for all 3 buildings combined = 6.8 million KWh (up by 0.8%)

Natural Gas for CRL and Bldg D = 237,000 therms (up by 5%)

Steam for NCGRP = 3,575 million BTU (down by 1.5%)

Domestic water for all buildings = 3.2 million gallons (down by 8.2%)

Raw water for irrigation at Sugarbeet Farm and LIRF = 36 million gallons (up by 320% due to drought and research needs)

 

GOV transportation:

147,000 miles driven (down by 13.3%)

11,200 gallons of gasoline, diesel, and biodiesel purchased (combined) (down by 20%)

 

Air travel:

585,000 miles traveled by air (up by 28.3%)

 

Solid Waste:

49,000 lbs of waste landfilled from Bldg D and NCGRP (down by 62% – I’m guessing there must be an error in the data I received from CSU, but I don’t know for which year)

320 gallons of food waste vermicomposted at Bldg D (up by 237%)

12,600 gallons of research (including some food and paper towel waste) and germination waste composted commercially by CRL and NCGRP (down by 33.7%; but the vast majority of this is dictated by SBRU research needs)

13,100 lbs + 50.6 cubic yds of comingled materials recycled from all 3 buildings (different units make comparison to last year impossible)

 

Commute Travel:

52,148 commuter miles saved!!  (up by 44%) The breakdown of car travel saved can be seen in the graph below.  Numbers are likely an underestimate since not all users of alternative transportation report mileage.  Because the level of reporting varies each year, the difference in miles saved could reflect, at least in part, this reporting difference.  However, the increase in teleworking between 2011 and 2012 is real.

People’s Orchard Planting

Orchard plan courtesy of Gardens on Spring Creek (Click to enlarge)   This is the plot just south of NRRC Building A.

We’ve made the jump from Planning to Planting! Your Green Team is inviting volunteers to see our People’s Orchard become a reality on Saturday, September 17^th, from 8:35 a.m. until all the trees are planted and watered. The more hands we have, the faster the work will go. The Green Team will be serving breakfast to volunteers from 8:00 a.m. until 8:30 a.m.

If you plan to attend, please email us. On the 17^th, bring sturdy work gloves and a shovel from home if you can.

The People’s Orchard will be home to apples, cherries, plums, currants, elderberries, and an apricot tree, all waiting for someone to give them a proper start. And there’s no extra charge for gittin’ yer hands dirty.

Our People’s Orchard is a collaborative effort with the City of Fort Collins, Colorado State University and USDA agencies throughout the NRRC campus:

• Building A’s Green Team provided the vision and leadership to coordinate this project and make it happen.
• The Gardens on Spring Creek helped us choose fruit tree and shrub varieties and designed the layout of the orchard. The Orchard will compliment the nearby Gardens by serving as an informal extension of their facilities.
• CSU’s University Landscape Architecture office provided design guidance and will install and maintain the orchard’s water-wise irrigation system.
• Other USDA buildings/agencies in Fort Collins are excited about the project and may have volunteers help us plant the trees on September 17th. They include ARS, APHIS and the Rocky Mountain Research Station.

In addition to being a nice alternative to the current weedy plot of ground, the orchard will save irrigation water, demonstrate sustainable growing practices, provide educational opportunities, and, in a few years, provide fresh fruit to the Larimer County Food Bank.

It’s important for volunteers to arrive on time Saturday morning at the south side of Building A. We will start with a “proper tree planting” briefing followed by a safety briefing—these are mandatory and won’t be repeated.  The Green Team will provide drinking water and a canopy on site with chairs so that people can get out of the sun and cool off if necessary and a first-aid kit to treat blisters—we told you to bring gloves!

And stay tuned … our People’s Garden is the next phase of the project!

New Green Team Logo

We have a new Green Team logo! Our thanks to Sheryl from the Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team for volunteering her time to create it for us! The logo includes icons representing our four main goals: energy and water conservation, waste reduction and alternative transportation. These goals match those of the City of Fort Collin’s Climate Wise program, of which we are a Silver-level partner. There’s a cool graphic of Horsetooth Rock in the center and it also looks great in black and white.

Water Smart Landscaping

Last week I attended a meeting sponsored by the City of Ft. Collins on water smart landscaping. The first speaker was Dr. Jean Reeder and she spoke about the importance of knowing your soils and the relationship between moisture and clay, silt, and sand. The next speaker was Dr. David Whiting and he discussed hydrozoning (using similar plants with similar watering needs in the same zone or area). This concept could be used at this building. Also he discussed the amount of overwatering that occurs here in Ft. Collins – all in the interest of having a green lawn. The third speaker was Brent Jeffrey of AECOM and discussed some of the technologies available for smart watering (SWAT – Smart Water Application technologies). Next year there may be a business incentive to implement SWAT. Finally, I talked to Eric Olson of the City. He stopped by our building afterwards. He agreed to meet with us next spring and review where we could implement some water conservation techniques on the campus.

Building A Becomes a Climate Wise Silver Partner!

You may have noticed two new plaques in our front lobby. One recognizes Building A as a City of Fort Collins Climate Wise partner and the other recognizes us for achieving the Silver partnership level.

Climate Wise is a free, voluntary City of Fort Collins program that is dedicated to helping local business and the environment.

The goal of the Climate Wise program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting waste reduction, energy savings, alternative transportation, water conservation, and practicing pollution prevention.

The City’s Climate Wise Team, working closely with your Green Team, conducted a comprehensive environmental assessment of Building A in late 2009. If you work in Building A and would like a copy of the report, send us an email!