What are your acts of green?

The Environment Committee of the Jonesboro Chamber is using their Expo Booth this year to display "A Billion Acts of Green" by showcasing what businesses in Jonesboro are doing to promote environmental stewardship within their business. What are your acts of green? Email your ideas to cmartin@jonesborochamber.com and read on to see what other businesses are doing in the Jonesboro area to promote environmental stewardship.

Kum & Go                  Scott Logemann

Kum & Go provides recycling dumpsters for cardboard materials at all Kum & Go locations and has a recycling bin for newspapers at the Hilltop Kum & Go location.

East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging         Debi Hottel

The East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging has recycled cans for years and giving them to a local church group to help them fund projects.

Pruitt Promotions                   Kathleen Doty Pruitt

Pruitt Promotions reuses previously printed paper for internal office use by printing on the other side, and we adjust the thermostat at the end of the day so the heat or air doesn’t run all night long.

Brackett Krennerich Architects                    George Krennerich

Brackett Krennerich recycles all their used drawing paper and re-lighted exterior and interior light fixtures with LED or florescent lighting. They also use low-flow water fixtures.

Optus, Inc.                  Amy Privett

Optus, Inc. recycles cans, bottles, newspapers, batteries, and toners.

JETS               Steve Ewart

JETS recycles aluminum cans, newspapers, and all used office copy paper is shredded for processing. JETS also heats their large maintenance shop with used engine oil from JETS buses, and other vehicles through the City of Jonesboro departments like sanitation trucks, fire trucks, and police vehicles. In addition, JETS is intentional about not idyling all vehicle engines beyond the minimum for warm-up and to ensure the comfort of passengers.

SHARP, Inc.               Lisa Graves

In May 2008 SHARP began our recycling program by using the blue bags to catch drink cans, plastic bottles and glass used in our office.  To date we have collected approximately 50 blue bags of recycling materials.  We also have used a shredding service since Jan 2000 that recycles the paper materials picked up from our office.  The shredding service sends the materials to Georgia Pacific to be broken down in to paper pulp to make more paper products.

Suddenlink                  Maryce Cunningham

The main focus of the initiative is to provide a centrally-located eCycling drop site at Suddenlink’s Jonesboro retail center at 1520 South Caraway Road. Suddenlink will accept such small electronics as television sets (subject to size limitations), computers, monitors, modems, stereos, cell phones, alarm clocks, and radios. To day, we have delivered 28,360 pounds or over 16 tons of electronic waste material to the Legacy Landfill.

NOVUS          Anthony Hanusowski

NOVUS Glass Repair and Replacement goes above and beyond to try to repair every windshield possible.  Windshields (laminated glass) cannot be recycled due to the lamination in the glass.  Where most Autoglass shops do offer a repair option it is my experience that they try to sell a windshield instead of a repair. NOVUS  invented windshield repair in 1972 and has taken strides to improve each year. They have a full staff in Minnesota working daily to keep the reputation as the best repair in the world.
 If people would only take care of repairs when needed, you would very rarely need a windshield replaced.  When you think about it almost every cracked windshield starts out as a chip that is repairable.

Jones & Company, Ltd.         Rita Reed

Employees at Jones & Company have been going green for years.  As is the nature of our business, we used to generate a huge amount of paper, which we recycle through Hummelstein’s.  Also, we send our aluminum soda cans to be recycled. Four years ago, our office went “paperless”.  All of our files are now computerized and on-line.  We scan most of our records and tax returns into our client files and save a small fortune in paper costs at the same time. We have found our efforts to be easy, cost effective, and environmentally helpful for our planet.

ASU Delta Center Institute for Math & Science Education           Cynthia Miller

The ASU Delta Center Institute for Math & Science Education correctly recycles electronics (computers, printers, cell phones, etc.) by taking them to the Jonesboro Legacy Landfill for proper recycling (instead of putting them in a landfill). The ASU Delta Center severely reduces the amount of paper copies we give educators in our graduate courses/professional development trainings; instead we send info by email/wikis/blogs and we also put info on CDs, DVDs, and flash drives to give to educators. When possible, we use electronic books instead of paper books and use paper cups/water fountain water at our meetings, classes, and trainings instead of plastic water bottles. We recycle newspaper, white paper, aluminum cans, glass, and # 1 & 2 plastics. We reuse materials in our trainings (such as using an egg carton to sprout seedlings and use cereal boxes to teach perimeter/area/volume/surface area/girth/nets, etc.). We carpool whenever possible; and reducing the amount of travel by holding video/phone conferences when possible. We service a 10 county region (from Craighead to Phillips), my Science Specialist and myself drive Toyota Prius cars (hybrid—55 mpg!). Our federal grants require record keeping for 7 years; instead of saving the paper for 7 years (which must be stored in a facility requiring utilities such as electricity/gas/water), we now scan the documents and store them electronically which saves money, space, and natural resources. We encourage teachers & students to Reduce/Reuse/Recycle in their schools and homes; and assisting teachers in writing grants to fund school recycling projects.

United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas  Daniel Leslie

At UCP, we operate a toner/ink recycling program.  We also remanufacture toner cartridges and sell them across the nation.  These two activities prevent non biodegradable materials from going in the landfills. We also operate a Secure Document Destruction operation where all shredded paper is pulped for paper products.  We also bale and recycle cardboard

Shannon Design Enterprises Claudia Shannon

In the commercial interior design business you receive many free samples, catalogs, and magazines. In the past I have made an effort to give as much out-of-date material as possible to college interior design programs, but there are times when that is not convenient. Recently I took two major loads of magazines and vendor catalogs  to Pathfinder Inc. at 2606 E. Matthews, Jonesboro. This facility is a sheltered workshop that provides employment for people with developmental disabilities. They shred the papers and take them in 500 pound lots to Tennenbaum Recycling Group (formerly Hummelstein's). The items that I now take to Pathfinder Inc. not only help Shannon Design in keeping our library clean but also helps Pathfinder provide their employees a paycheck.

Arkansas State University – Newport                      Jack Osier

Here on the Arkansas State University-Newport campus we are making strides towards a “greener future”.  Listed below are some of the things we are doing: recycling Program for Plastic and Aluminum, Implementation of a Renewable Energy Technology program.  Students may earn an Associate of Applied Science in General Technology with an Emphasis in Renewable Energy Technology.  Some of the courses offered in the program include: Bio-fuels, Biomass and Feed-stocks, Introduction to Renewable Energy, and Introduction to Wind Energy; ASU-Newport has adopted a one mile stretch of highway.  We have a school wide trash pick-up twice a year; and ASU-Newport holds an annual Earth Day celebration in which we have speakers from different sectors of the Renewable Energy field come and present information about green technologies and practices.

Some of the possible future projects include: We hope to incorporate a greenhouse on the campus in which we will grow energy crops for students to participate in applied research relating to the Bio-fuel industry; Installation of a solar panel at a pavilion here on campus.  The purpose of this will be to power to LED lights so that students may enjoy the pavilion which at this time has no lights.  The solar panel will charge a battery which in turn will power the lights.  We chose LED lights because of their energy efficiency; and We hope that by exposing our students and our community to emerging green technologies, citizens will begin to appreciate the need for a more sustainable future.

Wal-Mart       Martha Calvin

At Wal-Mart, we reuse materials for our sandwich bales:  the bale is about 40" in diameter and is comprised of aluminum cans, plastic bottles, plastic bags and plastic hangers; with about 1/4" of cardboard on top and bottom. Also, Wal-Mart recycles cooking oil: the cooking oil from the deli area and Mc Donalds, if a store has one, is placed in a holding tank and picked up by an oil recycling company about once or twice per month. And Wal-Mart reuses wooden and plastic pallets:  These are picked up upon request of the store and sent back to the distribution centers to be reused.