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Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

  • 1.  Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-04-2019 08:38 AM

    There is no doubt that sustainable practices are important to our projects as Civil Engineers. You can even become certified in these fields through programs like LEED and ENV SP! What I would like to dive deeper into in this discussion is how you have incorporated sustainability into your own life.

    Personally, I have bought metal straws that I use every morning that get an iced coffee.

     

    As a company, our kitchen recently added more ceramic mugs by our coffee machine to encourage employees to use them and then wash them rather than use the single-use coffee cups.

     

    How do you integrate sustainability into your daily routine?



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    Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE
    Associate Engineer
    Pennoni Associates
    Philadelphia PA
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  • 2.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-05-2019 09:01 AM
    We are using bamboo diapers!  As with any alternative, it has to be up to the job, and I can report that these hold up!

    Compostable trash bags are not always up to the task.  You need to be careful not to overload them or get them soggy.

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    Chad Morrison P.E., M.ASCE
    Professional Engineer
    Greenville RI
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-07-2019 09:13 AM

    I wouldn't consider myself someone that tries to be sustainable for environmental reasons. I try to be sustainable because it's a big money saver. 

    I have LED's in my home because they put out more light than I need and use less energy and that saves me money on my electric bill. I have a programmable thermostat so my house is only heated when I'm home and that saves me money on my gas bill. I recycle as much as I can because the larger garage bin I use from the local trash collector the more they charge me. I take aluminum cans, copper, lead, etc to the scrap yard because those materials are worth money. I put on a garage sale every year to sell my unwanted goods and donate the unsold items rather than throw them away because I make money. I get as much good as I can from used sources like Goodwill, Salvation Army, Garage sales, and Craigslist because the stuff in many cases is just as good as new or can be made like new with a little cleaning and it saves me money. 
    The great tragedy in environmentalism over the last 10 to 15 years is not talking about the economic benefit from being sustainable. 



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    Dustin Leduc A.M.ASCE
    Field Engineer
    Sambatek
    Shakopee MN
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-05-2019 09:30 AM
    Hi Danielle, 

    My wife also got me a metal straw and I like to take it when I go to lunch with my co-workers and friends. It allows me to talk to them and explain how little steps can help us have a better sustainable environment. Something we have done very vigorously is to recycle. Our apartment does not have the service so we usually collect all the plastic bottles and recycle material and we take it to the grocery store. They usually have recycled bins at the entrance. Also, the kind of work that I do can be done in PDF with the appropriate software with the ability to do figures, lines, text, and dimensions based on the drawing scale.  This has greatly eliminated the need to print hard copies and therefore I have reduce my footprint in paper usage. 

    I am also intrigued to see how I can integrate more sustainable practice in my daily routine, and by the way, I love the idea of the ceramic mugs!.

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    Julian Valencia A.M.ASCE
    Project Engineer
    Houston, TX
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-05-2019 11:09 AM
    I've started using and encouraging others to use the reusable grocery bags.  Aside from the fact that you're not using the supplied plastic bags at the store, you can physically fit more things in one of those large bags than you can several of the plastic ones.  It may be heavier to carry in, but it's one less trip back out to the car after getting groceries.

    I also have just stopped using straws altogether.

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    Chase Henrichs , P.E.P.E., M.ASCE
    Crafton Tull
    Rogers, AR
    [Phone]
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-05-2019 11:09 AM
    Danielle, 

    Thanks for sharing this. When I moved to Colorado I was "forced" to become more sustainable. For example, plastic bags at supermarkets are not allowed in Boulder county so we had to get reusable bags. We started doing more recycling at home and I got myself a nice coffee mug that I use everywhere I get coffee to avoid getting a single-use cup. I would say that many people think they can't change the world, but image if they did? It all starts at home with small actions.

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    Luis Duque EIT, A.M.ASCE
    Structural Engineer
    Broomfield CO
    luis@...
    [Phone][Phone2]
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-09-2019 10:11 AM
    Great topic Danielle!  Sustainability is an especially important topic, not only in our work but in our daily lives.  We must lead by example!

    Personally I keep a steel extra knife, spoon, and fork from home that I wash reuse for all my lunches.  I bring a tumbler for coffee and water from home that I use every day and keep a Brita type filter in the office fridge.  I also make a concerted effort to recycle anything and everything that I can. I'll help clean up after lunch meetings to make sure that waste is dealt with likewise.  At home we mostly use reusable bags at stores.  The bags we do get we either recycle the ones we do get at the drop bin for them at the store entrance or reuse them for small trash cans and the like.  We routinely have more recycling waste than actual trash this way.  We use LED almost exclusively.  I've never been a big user of straws, but we use reusable ones whenever they're needed.  I actually recently got a programmable thermostat I'll be installing this week!

    A big change I've made in my workflow is to do all my markups in BlueBeam Revu.  It gives you a lot more control than Adobe and makes it very easy to collaborate on PDFs.  Most state DOTs are starting to require it and since I've started using it in about 2016 I've personally probably saved 5+ reams of paper each year.  Initially it was an adjustment to not being able to mark papers as fast as I could with a pen but once you learn the shortcuts it's not much slower and greatly saves me time in trips to scan stuff to send to other offices or for documenting them.

    Because of the Studio function to collaborate, we have been able to much more effectively hit mark-ups as a team.  A reviewer can make comments and the rest of the team can address them in real time.  Also marking them complete, rejected, or any other option you choose and leaving a response has greatly expedited our backcheck and allows us to deliver better plans in less time.

    Dustin makes a great point about the economical benefits to being more sustainable.  A lot of the stuff we've done was both for the benefit of having a smaller footprint and also saving money on utilities.  It just makes sense, no matter how you look at it.

    In college I took a class for a social science credit on sustainability and the environment.  We used a tool, that if I can find I'll post, but you input information about your personal habits: trash per week, temperature of your dwelling, climate region, type of utilities, amount of recycling, etc. (nothing private) and it tells you your footprint, and how little changes would impact it.  The biggest impact to me was just how much difference a person can make.  Although most of the worlds pollution falls to big business industries, each person can make a big difference.  They tell you how much of landfill you would personally fill in a lifetime with your current habits and really impress upon you how much you can actually reduce it.

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    James Smith P.E., M.ASCE
    Project Engineer
    Bergmann
    Grand Rapids MI
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-12-2019 08:39 AM
    I grew up in the 1970's with the growth of the environmental movement so learned habits back then that I've continued. Recycling aluminum cans and newspapers was something I did to earn money. I continue it today because it is a waste of natural resources not to do it. My parents used public transportation to get around and I still continue that habit. I use it to get to work and back every day as well as occasional trips or errands. Several years back I hired a contractor to build a large rain garden in my front yard to divert storm runoff into the ground instead of having it go into the combined sewer system. My wife and I compost all of our kitchen scraps in a bin in the back yard. The amount of actual trash we produce is amazingly low as a result. Often I walk or sometimes bike to get groceries even though it is a mile.

    Currently, I drink coffee from the office pot but in the past when I stopped at a cafe in the morning on the way to work I would have them fill my Thermos mug instead of using a disposable foam cup. It works much better because the flimsy lids on the foam or paper cups always spill when carried where the Thermos mug can be sealed and thrown into my bag without spilling.

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    Yance Marti P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer IV
    City of Milwaukee
    Milwaukee WI
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-13-2019 10:12 AM
    Yance,

    I'm glad to see you brought up yard maintenance. My husband and I let our grass grow a little longer in the summer before we mow. Researchers have found that allowing the grass to grow taller gives the grass a deeper root structure. In turn, the deeper roots enable the soil to absorb more water during heavy rainstorms, thereby reducing the amount of runoff. In addition, we don't put any chemicals or pesticides on our yard. We allow our areas of lawn to be more natural with multiple plant species. My husband has been trying to replace much of our yard with garden areas to reduce the amount of mowing. Like you, I compost as a way to reduce waste and keep our soil more healthy. 

    I am sad to see so many communities that have poor landscaping habits. Some HOAs place height restrictions on grass, or people hire landscapers who trim the grass too often and apply various chemicals. Many years ago, I read an article about lawns that mentioned how we work so hard to create mono-species yards with just one type of plant (grass), but that does not occur in nature. 

    I think there are a lot of things that can be done to incorporate sustainability into our daily lives, but doing so requires us to take a deep look at our lifestyles to identify those habits which need to change. 

    As far as work related habits, I also work from home 2 days a week. I think that encouraging, or at least allowing, remote working is a great way that companies can help reduce vehicle emissions and even has potential to mitigate traffic congestion. (Unlike you I do not live in an area where transit is a viable option)

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    Kelly Farabee P.E., M.ASCE
    Savannah, GA
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 12-13-2019 09:12 PM

    Great topic Dani!  A lot of good answers already here on the theme of reduce reuse recycle.

    I for one have always wanted to offset my energy bill and carbon footprint via solar panels, but as a renter that just isn't an option.

    This is a service calling themselves a digital utility that allows you to purchase individual panels in community based solar projects, and also invest in wind farms by paying a small percentage more for electricity.  

    https://www.arcadia.com/



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    James Zavoral A.M.ASCE
    TRC
    Madison WI
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 01-07-2020 01:52 PM
    Thank you all for providing your personal experiences!

     

    As Chase Henrichs , Luis Duque, and James Smith all brought up in their posts, utilizing recyclable bags instead of plastic bags is a great sustainable practice! I also try to do this, but there has been many times in the past that I forgot the bags at home. To remediate that in 2020, I have added adhesive hooks immediately next to my apartment door so that I remember to grab them before I head to the grocery store. It has helped so far!







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    Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE
    Associate Engineer
    Pennoni Associates
    Philadelphia PA
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 01-08-2020 08:10 AM
    You can really go as far down the rabbit hole as you want with personal sustainability. We recently purchased reusable canvas bags to use for garbage and recycling. I have attached photos of the bags and my garbage for one week (humble brag). Once the compost gets going, volume should be even less.

    If you have a closed trunk, keeping grocery bags in the trunk at all times works great for me. On the occasions we forget, just ask for paper. I know big cities are starting to charge for plastic bags anyway. For those who recycle, put your recycling in those paper grocery bags. No harm done.

    Start with the easy stuff. Water bottles, paper grocery bags, no plastic silverware with carryout food. Work your way up. Some of our restaurants allow us to take our Tupperware into the business to use for carry out dining. Some don't due to food borne illness liability. The ones that know us do not put plastic utensils with our food or even the little green plastic grass in the sushi rolls to separate wasabi & ginger from the roll.

    https://www.kanbags.net/

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    Parker Suess P.E., M.ASCE
    Principal Engineer (Structural)
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    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Incorporating Sustainability in Your Life

    Posted 01-08-2020 05:56 PM
    A few years ago I went on a study abroad to Ghana. One cool project we were involved with was to partner with a non-profit, Environment360 to organize a campaign to raise recycling awareness in the country's capital. trrash is scattered everywhere in the capital, and for many other cities in third-world countries for that matter. We started a social media campaign that offered rewards for submitting ideas of how they turned their trash into something sustainable (they make full-size handbags and purses out of used plastic bags; they make posters and all sorts of innovative things). The rewards were small, like a voucher for ice cream, or a book, or something from the store, but tons of youth became involved and the non-profit is now fully-fledged.

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    Kevin Sonico EIT, A.M.ASCE
    Lehi UT
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