Monday, June 14, 2010

Green, Going

All good librarians should try to out-green their coworkers with increasingly aggressive attempts to make their library work spaces environmentally friendly.  Below are some ideas to get you started...
  • Publicly berate coworkers for not using double-sided printing.
  • Go "off the grid" and cut the power lines that lead to your library building.
  • Hoard empty soda cans and discarded beer bottles in your office and declare the area an "Ant Sanctuary."
  • Steal your coworkers' discarded apple cores and banana peels for the fly-infested compost pile you keep under your desk.
  • Turn off the lights in the reading room, and demand that all patrons purchase library-issued solar-powered light caps.
Ask the readers: What aggressive green tips do you use at your library?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't care much about recycling, really. But my supervisor digs in the trash for my pop cans. I've taken to spitting all over the tops of them before I throw them away...a special gift just for her.

Anonymous said...

i collect the used coffee grounds for gardening and let them mold/mildew in my office

Anonymous said...

anonymous #1 --what, you like pollution? the 5 seconds it would take you to put your aluminum cans in recycling are just too valuable, taking time away from your spitting regimen? Sorry, I can't help despising you and I'm glad I don't work with you.

Anonymous said...

We've taken to weeding/recycling our collection because there are a thousand tiny thrills in knowing that our putrid old books will one day be our toilet paper.

Anonymous said...

At staff day we were asked to bring a grab bag from home to swap. This involved looking around the house for something you didn't want and then putting it in a brown paper bag provided by the library and decorating it. Of course, the bags wound up be thrown away after the opening ...

We were also asked to bring our staff mugs to drink out of ... yet paper cups and place settings were used and tossed afterward. Not sure how green that is!

Otherwise, we just recycle paper, cartridges, and lightbulbs. We also contribute to global warming with our book truck that delivers books between our 12 branches daily.

Anonymous said...

Better yet, keep that worm farm composter under your desk for all compostable materials you collect at work! Is this a serious suggestion?

Anonymous said...

Definitely got chewed out for not printing all my HR forms double-sided this year. Boss made me print them out AGAIN double-sided.

Anonymous said...

always turn out the lights in the restrooms. It is so much fun to be the next person to open up the door to a totally dark creepy room.

G I A D A said...

ahahah that's so true about the lights in the restroom! freaky...

Anonymous said...

Anon #3--it's attitudes like that which encourage my spitting. Don't worry, I despise you and your high horse too.

Princess said...

we have a LEED certified building. Nothing like coming into the workroom and having to jump up and down to get the light to come on. Thank God the bathroom lights don't go out on you or I'd flip. My favorite though, is the sink in the children's workroom never works, so after you've finished using the restroom, you CAN'T wash your hands. UGH!!!! I'm all for recycling and saving the environment, but just a small amount of water would be nice! :)

shushie said...

Recycling: we take all the bank statements, job applications, and personal emails people don't pick up at the print stations and turn them into scrap paper.
Conservation: electricity and water are saved by not washing our library mascot's uniform that the pages are forced to wear to promote summer reading.

Anonymous said...

In the mixed spirit of environmentalism and sadism, we have our public printers set to only print double sided and we have signs pasted to all the desks that say we'll change it for patrons who ask us to, but library policy forbids us from doing so.

Anonymous said...

We have the double sided printing, but we can't turn it off, so we make patron send their documents one page at a time to get single sided. This is great fun when they are really just making 30 copies of something, like a resume.