Earth Day 2010 – April 22nd

This year, 2010, heralds the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd, which means it’s a great day to take action to help save the planet. There are lots of ways to get involved in Earth Day this year, so no one should let a lack of ideas prevent them from participating. Help preserve the earth by engaging in any of these ten easy activities at work or at home:

1. Change out the light bulbs in your home to energy efficient CFL bulbs
2. Organize a recycling drive for that day or week – if you don’t know what you can recycle in your work or home – do the research – check out your waste haulers website. Continue this program after Earth Day also. (paper, cardboard, glass, metal and plastic are easily recyclable)
3. Use social media to help create the awareness and post something about Earth Day and suggestions on how to celebrate on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other pages.
4. Start or participate in a Community Garden or any other community programs to promote sustainable living. Ask your friends to join you.
5. Ride your bike or walk to work or somewhere where you would normally drive your vehicle
6. Conserve electricity – turn off lights when not in use, if you can see without lighting – don’t use, make sure when you run your dishwasher that it is full, run full loads in your washing machine and dryer.
7. Conserve water – change out any aerators on your faucets to low-flow (they are very inexpensive to replace), take a shorter shower, drink tap water instead of purchased bottled water (this saves energy also).
8. Collect batteries and recycle. Several of the big-box retailers accept batteries to recycle (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Batteries Plus, Radio Shack)
9. Buy local – locally owned restaurant with locally grown food, locally owned hardware stores, drug stores, etc.
10. Replace disposables: water from the tap instead of purchased bottled water, real plates and silverware instead of paper or plastic, take your reusable bags to the grocery store (or any store), use cloth napkins instead of paper.

Earth Day is a great time to spread awareness about environmental concerns while personally making an impact. Don't let the opportunity escape in 2010!

The U.S. Green Building Council recently announced a new toolkit called “Green Existing Schools”.

Green schools create healthy environments conducive to learning while saving energy, resources, and money. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed The Green Existing Schools Project Management Guide to help schools and school districts green their existing facilities and achieve LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. The guide outlines the process for navigating LEED certification for existing schools and provides details on how to conduct organizational assessments, educate and train staff, initiate the certification process, and manage a campus-or district-wide plan. It is designed to be used in concert with additional resources contained in the Green Existing Schools Toolkit (www.usgbc.org/k12toolkit). The toolkit includes:

• Green Existing Schools Implementation Workbook for Schools - Project teams should refer to the workbook to assist with the evaluation and improvement of current O&M practices and policies. The contents of the workbook include sample policies, programs, and plans; data collection forms, worksheets, and tables; and sample surveys.
• LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance Project Checklist - Project teams can use the LEED Project Checklist as a scorecard to track the credits they are pursuing toward certification.
• “LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance Rating System” - The rating system summarizes the intent, requirements, and technologies/strategies for each credit.
• “LEED 2009 Green Building Operations & Maintenance Reference Guide” - The reference guide contains detailed information on the implementation of prerequisites and credit requirements. It can be purchased at www.usgbc.org/store.

Implementing an initiative to green existing schools across a campus or district requires a comprehensive plan that integrates two processes: one focused on how each school facility will meet the LEED building performance requirements and the other on adopting sustainable operations and maintenance policies and best practices. Coordinating these two processes, along with the LEED documentation requirements, calls for dedicated, informed champions who are capable of leading an integrated project team and improving operational effectiveness.

You have two U.S. Green Building Green School Advocates in Michigan ready to assist you in understanding the benefits and challenges.

Renae Hesselink, LEED AP, Chair and Green School Advocacy Circle Chair for USGBC West Michigan Chapter
Vice President of Sustainability, Nichols Paper & Supply
Renae.hesselink@enichols.com
(231) 799-2120 Ext 117

Peggy Matta, AIA, LEED AP
USGBC Detroit Regional Chapter Green Schools Advocacy Circle Chair
mmattaarch@gmail.com
(248)227-3134

Don’t Miss Our 5th Annual Green Facilities Conference – 27 hour-long workshops on all aspects of maintaining a green building including a LEED EB O+M track!

In its fifth year the Nichols Green Facilities Conference will offer a full day of education about features, benefits and cost management of green buildings. Participants can expect a keynote speaker and a variety of workshop topics including Lean 5s in facilities management and case studies of LEED buildings (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.)

Keynote speaker Alan Bigger, retired facilities director from Earlham College and Notre Dame University and author of the book “Frugalisms: Creative Ideas on Leadership in Facilities and Housekeeping Operations” will bring a front line message to conference participants.

Tuesday March 23, 2010
Prince Conference Center at Calvin College
1800 East Beltline Ave SE, Grand Rapids, MI
Time: 7:30am - 4:00pm
Registration: $80.00/person
Includes continental breakfast and lunch

www.enichols.com/greenconference

January 22, 2010 — Renae Hesselink, Nichols vice president-sustainability and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED-AP), has been elected to the chair position for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) of West Michigan.

Hesselink has been with Nichols for 16 years in various roles. Two years ago, she was selected to fill a newly created position of vice president-sustainability to focus the company on sustainability both internally and with its customers. With Renae in the lead, Nichols submitted an application and is currently awaiting certification from the USGBC for LEED Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance. The LEED certification process led Nichols to many positive results with the two most prominent being a 34 percent reduction in energy usage and a 90 percent reduction in waste hauling fees.

LEED Green Associate Accreditation:

For professional who want to demonstrate green building expertise in non-technical fields of practice, GBCI (USGBC) has created the LEED Green Associate credential, which denotes basic knowledge of green design, construction, and operations. USGBC West Michigan Chapter is offering a study group session to prepare for the exam beginning in March.

Click here for details.

EPA Energy Start Portfolio Manager:

Portfolio Manager is an interactive energy management tool that allows you to track and assess energy and water consumption across your entire portfolio of buildings in a secure online environment. Whether you own, manage, or hold properties for investment, Portfolio Manager can help you set investment priorities, identify under-performing buildings, verify efficiency improvements, and receive EPA recognition for superior energy performance. This is the first step any building owners should take if contemplating pursing LEED EB O+M. This is a free tool and all you need to do is gather your energy and water consumption data for as far back as possible (at least one or two years), create an account and input your data into the tool.

www.energystar.gov - Portfolio Manager Overview

Upcoming Nichols Workshops:

APPA Guidelines-CleanOpsStaff User Trainin
April 26, 2010 – Grand Rapids, MI

This full day training class is designed for users and interested users of the APPA CleanOpsStaff Custodial Operations and Staffing Software. The session is designed to improve your understanding of the features, functions, benefits and upgrades of the program and will provide you with the basic and advanced skills needed to become a proficient user. Whether you are a beginner or a skillful user this class will be your ticket to further success. Current software program users are encouraged to bring the book "APPA Custodial Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities" and a laptop with the CleanOpsStaff program. This is a great tool to also use for Green Cleaning Audits.

More information.

APPA Custodial Staffing Guidelines and CleanOpsStaff
April 28, 2010 – Macomb Community College

An Effective Weapon in Today's Budget Battle Managers responsible for cleaning services have been asked to reduce the cost of operations or justify budgets and staffing levels with no efficient and effective analytical tools to assist. Competing in today's budget battle is about having the ability to collect and verify space inventory data, determine required staffing levels, create efficient schedules, determine cost and budget requirements, and identify the actual level of cleanliness achieved by the cleaning organization. Such tools should also support your organization's sustainability goal by assisting in measuring green building and LEED standards for cleaning. This workshop will be an overview of tools available to confidently reduce costs and optimize all aspects of your custodial operations.

Lean 5S for Custodial

Learn About Lean 5S for Custodial Operations by reading and participating in my blog: renaehesselink.wordpress.com

Nichols & JohnsonDiversey Partner to Service Commercial Cleaning Industry

Industry Nichols, a Great Lakes distributor of products and solutions for clean and healthy facilities, announces a new distribution partnership with Diversey (formerly Johnson Diversey), a leading global provider of commercial cleaning, sanitation and hygiene solutions. Effective immediately the Muskegon based distributor will supply commercial facility service organizations with products and support for the Diversey line.

Diversey is a category leader in floor and building care products and dispensing systems. Both Nichols and Diversey demonstrate a strong commitment to quality, sustainability and training. The principles and styles for providing cleaner healthier facilities are complimentary of one another and make the companies a good match.

The ability to manage contracts, provide service & delivery excellence and communicate with the marketplace made Nichols a choice distributor for Diversey. Both companies serve customers in the building management, healthcare, education, lodging and retail sectors. Nichols services the Michigan and Northern Indiana markets. Diversey has a very strong sustainability commitment and we will be sharing more of that with you soon.

Other Educational Opportunites:

Sustainable Business Conference of Michigan, April 28 -30, 2010
http://www.nwm.org/stateconference.asp

Michigan Recycling Coalition Annual Conference, May 17-19, 2010 http://www.michiganrecycles.org/index.php?option=com_content...

USGBC Greening the Heartland Conference, May 19-21, 2010
http://www.greeningtheheartland.org/

Other News:

USGBC releases updated LEED statistics Commercial office projects LEED the way with more than 12,000 registered projects.

Read more.

Your resource for sustainability education and information.

Customer Service
888-NIC-U1ST
(888-642-8178)

renae.hesselink@enichols.com

Contact Nichols
www.enichols.com

800-442-0213
231-799-2120