Did you know?

by Melanie Stewart

photo credit: freeimages.com/bobsmith

LiveGreen has been getting some great questions lately, so we wanted to share the answers with all of you.

In our Little Free Library’s first 2 years of existence, LiveGreen placed more than 5,000 books on the shelves, and that doesn’t count the books all of you have placed!  We stopped counting at that point, but we’ll always need more books.  Feel free to bring books in whenever you can.  If you have a large donation, email livegreen@unmc.edu and we’ll help!  Doing so prevents books from being wasted, promotes reading, keeps bored kids busy, and helps patients and visitors distract themselves while here.

Did you know you can properly dispose of medication on campus?

If your space is cool/warm, set the thermostat to the temperature you want…don’t overshoot.  The system will put out the same amount of cooling/heating whether it is trying to raise the temperature 1 degree or 6.  Changing it 6 degrees only means you’ll be uncomfortable in the opposite direction in the near future…and you are wasting more energy.

Revolving doors are more efficient than other doors.  When standard doors are opened, the pressure of the building causes us to lose the air that we just heated, humidified, or cooled.  Revolving doors are always sealed on the edges, so while some outside air may creep in, it’s substantially less.

ADA buttons are there if you need them, but if you don’t, we’d prefer you not use them.  They use energy and cause the door to stay open longer than needed.  Opening the door without hitting the button will not break the ADA mechanism.  Check out this Nebraska Medicine video for a funny take on the ADA button.

Cardboard recycling includes all grades of cardboard, not just corrugated, incorporating what is commonly referred to as chipboard or paperboard (glove boxes, frozen meal boxes, etc). Break down these boxes and leave them for your EVS rep between the wall and another recycling container.  Don’t place cardboard in paper recycling bins.

Turning items like lights or monitors off when you aren’t using them is a great (and easy) way to save energy.  It may not seem like much, but when everybody does it, the impact is incredible.

Have you visited the LiveGreen Supply Exchange lately? There are lots of free research and office supplies waiting; you save money when you help them find a new home.