Happy Holidays from the Sustainable Green Team!
The SGT including Mitch Gans, Kev Sullivan and Will Hill, welcomed two new members this year, Daynah Blake with the RIDER Center, and Amy Finley with CIMES. With five diverse members representing the Center for Information Management and Educational Services (CIMES), the ITS Research Computing Center, and the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering RIDER Center, the SGT is now whole, and greater than the sum of its parts.
The Logo
The shield shape: Sustainable Green Team’s logo symbolizes the team’s commitment to protecting and ensuring the success of environmentally sustainable practices.
S.G.T: Safety, Green (for sustainability) and Teamwork are of everyday concern, and universally practiced.
0/6: Though plastic rings for cans and bottles also hold other quantities, six-pack retention rings are ubiquitous, and the team, along with commercial, private and public community partners, endeavors to prevent all from reaching landfills.
2022 Florida TaxWatch Awards
On November 1, Florida TaxWatch presented the Sustainable Green Team with a 2022 TaxWatch Productivity award, for their work to make Sliger Building the first Green Office certified building on campus, and for pioneering the can ring recycling program. Mitch received an additional 2022 TaxWatch Productivity Award, for proactively saving the State of Florida $23,492.00 in data center cooling costs.
Recycle, Rehome, Reuse
The SGT has completely minimized all waste production and output at Sliger Building. Only materials for which no available recovery channel exists are sent to the dumpster and landfill: food and restroom waste, non-rechargeable batteries, and any expanded polystyrene (EPS) “styrofoam” that the team cannot convince local artists to accept and use.
Materials Recovery Facility
Since implementation of sixteen product recovery streams in October, the SGT has begun upcycle relationships for hardware and tools, plastic bags, film and wrap. The team now works with thirteen program partners in four states, including Florida (Tallahassee), Illinois, New Jersey and Virginia.
Upcycle Partner of the Quarter
The SGT gratefully acknowledges support received since August 2021, from RingRecyleMe, headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. RingRecycleMe allows the SGT and like-minded organizations to print off a United States Post Office shipping label, and affix it to a carton filled with as many can rings as possible, for free shipment to a facility in Waller, Texas, that actually recycles the can rings.
2022 World Sustainability Day
After learning that Happy Motoring suddenly closed and the venue was no longer available for World Sustainability Day, the team called around seeking other opportunities. Thanks to Jacob Fortunas with the City of Tallahassee, Will and Mitch hosted a table at the E-Bike Expo downtown on October 26, spoke to attendees about the team’s initiatives, and performed a recycling demonstration.
Keep Tallahassee Beautiful: Adopt a Street
In October, #FSUGreenTeam began quarterly pickup of litter on East Paul Dirac Drive outside the team’s offices in Innovation Park.
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We strive to promote socially responsible and environmentally sustainable practices by empowering individuals to make the right choices.
Please let us know if you would like to be included with any of our activities and interests, or if we can help you rehome unusual items.
May all your days in 2023 be sustainable!
Published by the RIDER Center
NL #002 December 2022
CC: Mitch Gans – SGT Lead Contact
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