Week 1 results are in! BCC is 4th in the nation and #1 in Massachusetts!
As we continue on in the RecycleMania tournament, here is an easy-to-follow guide of what can be recycled on campus. Check out our recycling page for more information.
Week 1 results are in! BCC is 4th in the nation and #1 in Massachusetts!
As we continue on in the RecycleMania tournament, here is an easy-to-follow guide of what can be recycled on campus. Check out our recycling page for more information.
BCC has now entered the 2nd week of RecycleMania!
We would like to offer some helpful tips on reducing trash and making a HUGE impact through small actions. This week’s theme is compost! Here’s an easy guide to help you when you aren’t sure what to put in the compost versus the trash:
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year again: RECYCLEMANIA!!!
For those of you new to campus or BCC’s green initiatives, Recyclemania is an annual contest at colleges and universities across the country. This friendly competition helps to promote waste reduction activities and monitors our progress as we move toward our zero waste goal at BCC. Over the course of 8 weeks, we will be tracking our trash, recycling, and compost.
Last year, BCC performed exceptionally well, finishing up with a 70.6% recycling rate. We ranked 8th out of 232 institutions and placed 1st in the state. That’s very impressive! Let’s aim higher in 2016!
Ready to reduce and recycle? Follow these easy guidelines! Have a question? Contact a Green Team member; we are happy to help!
Welcome back to campus, BCC! The Green Team hopes you had a terrific winter break! We are excited to share some updates with you and the college community.
Updates:
Thanks to a collaboration with MassSave, the BCC Green Team will be hosting a FREE LED light bulb exchange this week. Our goal is to help people to save money and energy while reducing consumption and carbon emissions.
We will be accepting old bulbs from students, faculty, and staff in exchange for a shiny new LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulb. They have a 20+ year lifetime! As there are limited supplies, we are asking participants to initially limit themselves to one exchange. If there are LED bulbs remaining toward the end of the program, the Green Team will open it up for “seconds.” These bulbs can be used at work, at school, or at home!
Exchange Dates and Locations:
Tuesday, November 17: 11am-1pm in BCC cafeteria
Wednesday, November 18: 11am-1pm in BCC cafeteria; 4pm-6pm in F208
Thursday, November 19: 11am-1pm in BCC cafeteria; 4pm-6pm in F208
If you cannot make it to one of these exchanges, please contact Charlie Kaminski (ext. 2105) to make other arrangements. Please click here for additional information on MassSave and the bulb exchange.
With great excitement and anticipation, BCC is excited to announce the inaugural Berkshire Natural History Conference! This conference will feature local and regional naturalists, acclaimed authors, special exhibits, a book sale, and a raffle. Admission includes brunch and access to all presentations.
What: Berkshire Natural History Conference
When: Sunday, November 8th from 9am-4pm
Cost: $20 general admission/$10 student admission (Preregistration required)
Where: The Berkshire School, Sheffield
Sponsors: Berkshire Community College, The Berkshire School, Green Berkshires, MCLA, Orion Magazine, Berkshire Environmental Action Team, and the Hoffman Bird Club.
You know what is scarier than Halloween? Hazardous household waste! I guess it’s a good thing that our friends at the Center for EcoTechnology are hosting a household hazardous waste collection on Saturday, October 31st, from 9am to 1pm. Located at Pittsfield Highway on 81 Hawthorne Ave, this collection is open to all Pittsfield residents.
Here is a partial list of acceptable and unacceptable materials (for a complete list, please check out the CET’s events page):
Please DO NOT BRING:
For a more information, please click here. Questions? Please contact Jamie at 413-445-4556, ext. 14 or email for more information.
This month, the Green Team blog will focus on food waste and easy steps you can take to reduce your own foodprint.
Do you know how much food in the US is never eaten? Do you know how much it costs financially and environmentally? If you don’t, you are not alone. According to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, three-quarters of Americans don’t realize how much food enters the waste stream and believe they waste less food than the national average.
Here are the numbers across the supply chain for the US:
What do these numbers mean? I’ll give it to you straight: Americans are wasting the equivalent of $165 BILLION (yes, DOLLARS!) and 150 TRILLION CALORIES EACH YEAR. With the amount of food wasted in the US each year, 2 billion people could be fed for a year.
Are you surprised by these numbers? Would you like to do something about it? Reducing your foodprint is easy and makes a huge and immediate impact. Here are some quick and easy steps to save money and the environment:
Resources:
You’re Wasting More Food Than You Think; Mother Jones
Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers’ Reported Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors; PLOS One
The Environmental Impact of Wasted Food; Fast Company & Inc.
Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill; NRDC Issue Paper
This Year’s 12 Greatest Strides Towards Reducing Food Waste; NRDC
How to Freeze and Store Food; Cook Smarts
Wow, it’s already September…how did that happen?! It’s a good thing that the BCC Green Team is ready for the new semester! As we enter a new academic year, we’d like to share some of our successes and challenges with you.
Successes:
Challenges:
If you have any ideas for greening the campus or would like to get involved, we’d love to hear your ideas! Please join us or contact Charlie Kaminski at ckaminsk@berkshirecc.edu
Looking for something different to do before the summer is over? Try a river cleanup with Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) and the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA)! Meet some great people and do some good in your community; you’d be amazed at what (and how much!) gets pulled out of this one river. Some of past few year’s highlights include a vacuum cleaner, couch, outdoor grill, olde timey shoes, and a mattress.
What: Housatonic River Cleanup
When: Saturday, August 8th from 9am to 1pm
Where: Meet at Fred Garner Park, Pomeroy Ave, Pittsfield
Gloves and trash bags are provided. Please wear old clothes and sneakers or boots. No sandals please! Lunch will also be provided! Woo! Lunch!
To register, please call 413.394.9796 or email adixon@hvatoday.org