GEC Green Team

I found this very interesting map helping people living in Portland to find resource to support a zero waste lifestyle. It is probably very hard to adopt the 100% zero waste lifestyle but I believe that only few changes could make a great difference!  Here is the Map   You can find various layers so that the map is not overcrowded. You can show them by clicking on the arrow on the top left of the map and selecting the ones you're interested to see. Then click on each of the locations to have more information about which products they sell in bulk, which items they accept for donation or what can be recycled there. Buy in Bulk: farmers markets, coops, supermarkets with a bulk aisle Eat Responsibly: restaurants with a mission (reduce food waste, local producers, organic products) BYOC (bring your own cup): bars, cafés and juice bar who encourage consumers to bring their own containers Homestead: Supply stores for arts and crafts (canning, candle making, homemade

Bioswales help filter water and slow run-off into Portland’s sewer system.  In areas of high density, pollution settles on the streets and sidewalks.  When it rains, the polluted water heads for our sewer system and our rivers.  Thankfully, the city of Portland has installed bioswales in many parts of the city.  The program is called the Green Street Steward program.  The Green Electronics Council (GEC) has adopted a bioswale at the corner of SW 4 th and SW Montgomery.  Three intrepid GEC Green Team members visited the bioswale for the first time and we were very glad we brought a bag for garbage!  The bioswale was quite large and while it wasn’t terrible, there was quite a bit of garbage to collect.  We were happy there were three of us.  The GEC Green Team plans to visit the bioswale every other week and we hope others will join us!  Below are some photos of our first bioswale visit.

May is Portland Bike Month which means it is already time for our second Bike More Challenge! This annual contest sponsored by the Street Trust runs from  May 1-31  and is intended as a fun way to increase bike ridership. You can register  here , join the Green Electronics Council team, log your trips (there’s even an app so you don’t have to sign in every day), and contribute to GEC’s bike stats for GLORY! They’ll even enter you to win cool bike-related prizes for each trip you log. If you participated last year, your information is already saved and you can begin logging miles starting May 1st with no need to re-register. Check out their FAQs  here  for more info. In addition to the Bike More Challenge there will be a lot of biking events throughout the month put on by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. You can find a list of other events here . My personal favorite is every person who bikes to a Multnomah County Library branch will receive a free bike light throughout the mont

Thursday, April 19th the Brown Bag Lunch and Movie will show the movie Tomorrow  I just wanted to share with you a little trailer before the movie to make sure you come and watch it! (or watch it later...)  Tomorrow is a documentary s howing solutions, telling a feel-good story… this may be the best way to solve the ecological, economical and social crises that our countries are going through. After a special briefing for the journal Nature announced the possible extinction of a part of mankind before the end of the 21st century, Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent, together with a team of four people, carried out an investigation in ten different countries to figure out what may lead to this disaster and above all how to avoid it. During their journey, they met the pioneers who are re-inventing agriculture, energy, economy, democracy and education. Joining those concrete and positive actions which are already working, they began to figure out what could be tomorrow's world…

Hi Team, As we head into the second week of our Drawdown Ecochallenge, I wanted to share a few learnings from my own challenges. I have challenged myself to keep a food waste journal and find new opportunities to reduce my food waste. So far, things are going pretty well. But, it wouldn't be a challenge without a few challenging components! For me, those are: 1. Tea bags! I drink a lot of tea. You can compost your tea bags, however I'm struggling with what to do with the little staples that keep the tag on. Also, we do not have food compost at work, so I am currently collecting these at my desk and bringing them home at the end of the day to put in my worm bin. 2. Containers! I know the challenge is to reduce food waste, but I'm realizing just how much waste is also produced just in serving and keeping food. I've recycled multiple takeout containers this week, and would love to figure out a way to not need these in the first place if I'm going to go out for

Once upon a time, an author by the name of Paul Hawken assembled a team of extremely smart researchers from around the world to answer a seemingly simple, but as yet unanswered question: What are the most impactful solutions to climate change? This research (and its resulting book and website), are called Drawdown , and it has successfully ranked 100 top climate solutions, from land management to the built environment and everything in between. And now, the Drawdown team is joining forces with the NW Earth Institute for an innovative Ecochallenge that will allow participants to connect directly with these solutions on a personal level. The Drawdown Ecochallenge runs from April 4-25 , and it's really easy to get involved. I will be emailing each staff member with an invitation to join Team GEC. Once you accept the invitation, you will be able to use the Ecochallenge website to select your challenge(s). There are some that are one-time-only deals like getting a home energy audit,