Save energy and recycle.

Be an Environmental Steward

What can you do in your own work environment to help the cause? Here are easy, everyday choices employees, students and volunteers at the U-M Health System can make to be an environmental steward.

To recieve news and information to help make your area environmentally friendly, sign up to be a UMHS Environmental Steward. Email BeASteward@umich.edu to join.

In the laboratory

1. Close down the glass window sash on fumehoods to keep air trapped inside.
2. Turn it off: This includes everything from the lights to coffeemakers, freezers, refrigerators and computer monitors when not in use--especially overnight and during weekends.
3. Turn it down: raise or lower your thermostat overnight and during the weekends to save on air conditioning or heating use.
4. Reduce the number of freezers and refrigerators by consolidating contents when possible and save on energy usage .
5. Recycle all paper, including color paper, glossy paper, phone books, magazines and newspapers, brown envelopes and stapled pamphlets.

In patient care areas

1. Take ownership of your area. Turn off the lights in conference rooms, boardrooms, patient rooms and bathrooms when not in use.
2. Know what's red bag waste. Red bag materials include any fluid blood, blood-saturated items, suction canisters, hemovacs, chest drainage units, intravenous tubing, bags containing blood products or hemodialysis products. These should be properly disposed of.
3. Keep recycle containers biohazard and garbage free--no latex gloves, needles, medication, hazardous waste or specimens.
4. Save energy and be healthy--take the stairs instead of the elevator.
5. If your unit has a coffee maker that has a hot plate, replace it with the kind that brews directly into an insulated carafe.

In the office

1. Set the thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter and 75 in the summer. Dress appropriately for your work environment. I
2. Consider using desk lamps (so-called "task-lighting") and reduce the use of multiple lights.
3. Turn off any lights and your computer monitor when you leave for the night and weekend.
4. Recycle all paper, including color paper, glossy paper, phone books, magazines, newspapers, envelopes--including campus, and even stapled pamphlets. Save paper too: use scrap paper for notes, make sure you have a final draft before you print and post information in a central location instead of making duplications for everyone.
5. Reduce use of plastic: Use a favorite mug instead of Styrofoam, and keep a set of silverware handy instead of overusing plastic utensils.
6. Get rid of your personal refrigerator that fits under your desk or counter top--they use about $30-$40 per year in electricity. Consider sharing refrigerators with others in your area. If a refrigerator is half-full, it will use more electricity to maintain temperature than if it's 100 percent full.

Direct your questions and comments to John Wolski, utilities manager at johnew@med.umich.edu or call maintenance at 936-5054.

The U-M Health System currently has in place a number of eco-friendly programs that address the need to sustain ourselves in an environmentally friendly and cost efficient manner. Many of these programs also are available to the public for participation.

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