Cultivating a Sustainable Food System:  The MCLA Green Living Seminar Series

“Cultivating a Sustainable Food System” is this year’s 11-week Green Living Seminar series that will consider the broad implications of our how food is produced, transported and consumed. 

Kicking off this series is “Creating Sustainable Food Systems,” presented by Philip Ackerman-Leist, associate professor of environmental studies and director of the Farm and Food Project at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt.  Ackerman-Leist also is the author of “Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems.”

The seminar will be held at 5:30 p.m. TONIGHT in Murdock Hall, room 218 on the MCLA campus.

This event is free and open to the public.  FORUM CREDIT IS AVAILABLE

The seminars will take place Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. from Jan. 30 to April 24.  All events are free and open to the public.  For additional information, please visit the Green Living Series website, found here.  For a complete list seminars, please view this flyer.  Podcasts will be posted online following the presentation.

Many thanks to our own Mary Parkman for this information! 

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget is accepting comments on raising the social cost of carbon from the 2010 level of $24 per metric ton of carbon dioxide to $37 per metric ton. The social cost of carbon is defined as the value to society of reducing carbon emissions.

Submit comments on  www.regulations.gov by January 27, 2014.

For more info: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/11/01/refining-estimates-social-cost-carbon

The Senate Finance Committee is accepting comments on a new Energy Tax Policy regarding the development of clean energy for electricity and fuels.

For more info: http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=3a90679c-f8d0-4cb6-b775-ca559f91ebb4

Send comments to: Tax_Reform@Finance.Senate.gov by January 31, 2014.

The CFO of Massachusetts has challenged community colleges across the state to go Direct Deposit and read their pay advice (or what I like to call, a pay stub) online.  Printing out the pay checks and advices generates over 7 tons of trash annually across the state.  BCC alone sends almost 87 pounds to the landfill each year.  If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to be more eco-friendly, this is a great way to start!

Using the Oracle program (formerly PayInfo), you can stop receiving paper pay checks and advices by following the instructions below:

1. Log in to your Oracle Peoplesoft account (a.k.a the site where you electronically report your time)
2. Select “Self Service” from the menu
3. Click on “Payroll and Compensation”
4. Click on “Direct Deposit”
5. Add Account Information for Direct Deposit
6. Underneath the blue box, you will see a link that says “Pay Statement Print Option.” Click on it.
7. Click on “Do not send a paper copy of direct deposit pay statement” so that the little circle is blue
8. Click “Save”
9. Confirm when prompted.  There you go!  That’s it!

If you do not report your time electronically, please contact our awesome payroll department!

Best of luck! Remember, every little bit helps!

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little – do what you can.
–Sydney Smith