Love eagles?  Love baby birds?  Check out the 24-hour live eagle cam from Washington, DC.  In 2014, a pair of mated Bald Eagles chose the U.S. National Arboretum as their nest site.  Their nest is located high in a Tulip Poplar tree within the Azalea Collection. The site is operated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

This is the first Bald Eagle pair to nest in this location since 1947. The two eagles have been named “Mr. President” and “The First Lady.”  The first egg hatched on March 18th and the second egg hatched two days later on March 20th.

Click here to watch the LIVE eagle cam!

© 2016 American Eagle Foundation, EAGLES.ORG.

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:

• The cafe now has compostable hot beverage lids!  Thanks to Kevin Kennedy for his dedication to reducing our waste stream!  Check out his display in the cafeteria that highlights all of the compostable utensils and containers.  In the meantime, here are some photos as a friendly reminder of what can go into the green compost bins across campus:

• The Green Team will be partnering with MassPIRG, League of Women Voters of Williamstown, and the Service-Learning department to host two voter registration drives.  Stop by to register to vote, ask us some questions, or just say hi!  If you are a Massachusetts resident with an RMV-issued ID, you can now register online!  It only takes a few minutes!  Remember, YOUR VOTE = YOUR VOICE
  • Tuesday, February 2nd, from 11am to 1pm, Cafeteria
  • Tuesday, February 9th, from 11am to 1pm, Cafeteria
• Subscribe to our blog for regular updates, information, and tips on greening your office and life
• COMING SOON: RECYCLEMANIA!

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):

• Insect sprays
• Moth balls
• Flea control products
• Oil-based paints (NO LATEX)
• Paint strippers/thinners
• Rubber cement
• Drain and toilet cleaner
• Button batteries
• Antifreeze
• Brake & transmission fluids
• And much, much more!

Please DO NOT BRING:

• Medical waster
• Construction debris
• Smoke detectors
• Alkaline batteries

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:

• 40% of food is wasted which is more than 20 pounds of food per person every month
• For a household of four, food waste accounts for $1365-$2275 annual losses
• 10% of the energy budget goes to getting food on our tables
• 50% of land is used for food production
• Rotting food in landfills accounts for 16-25% of methane emissions (methane is a powerful greenhouse gas)
• Since the 1970s, food waste has increased by about 50%

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:

1. Shop wisely — meal planning, using shopping lists, and buying only what you’ll need (bulk bins are great for this!)
2. Freeze unused ingredients — leftovers and most produce freezes beautifully
3. Buy funny fruits and vegetables
4. Donate your unwanted or unused non-perishable foods to food pantries in your area

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

Think.Eat.Save

How to Freeze and Store Food; Cook Smarts