It's so easy being green!

The Interlibrary Loan department was recently asked to participate in a study about ILL "green" practices. The study, conducted by Dennis Massie, the RLG SHARES coordinator for OCLC and California Environmental Associates, a consulting group, hopes to get a snapshot of what Interlibrary Loan departments across the nation are doing to make their day-to-day business more environmentally-friendly.

The concept of a "green" ILL department is still evolving as an idea, considering how much potential there is to overuse resources. In the past, ILL departments everywhere have been unkind to Mother Earth; there are still departments out there that use paper forms for everything. Yet there is a growing interest in using less, not only to save the earth but also because many ILL departments are feeling the economic pressure to cut down and cut back.

For the study, I was asked to describe our current "green" practices. We've taken the typical measures to "green" the department: re-using scrap paper, saving digital files instead of printing, reusing shipping materials (boxes, bubble wrap, etc.), scanning more and photocopying less. Those conducting the study were very interested to hear what we've done so far. They also raised the issue of our shipping practices, something that did not immediately occur to me as a concern for the environment (other than reusing our shipping materials).

So, the study also concerns itself with the "carbon footprint" of our department, the distance our shipments have to travel and how that impacts the environment. To gather this data, I conducted a little study of my own to see how our shipping stats look.

I looked at data for three months (September - November 2009) and here's what I found:

Of the 3,753 packages we shipped in the three-month span,

• 46% of them were sent to the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut)
• 35% are shipped through METRO Courier (the delivery service administered by the Metropolitan Library Council)
• less than 3% go to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or countries overseas

What does this mean? We borrow and lend locally on a very frequent basis; many of our packages don't have to travel far. Nearly half of the books we obtain from other libraries are coming from the tri-state area, resulting in faster service for our patrons and less impact on the environment.

We're starting to think about our "green" practices as extending beyond our paper consumption. The next step is possibly to look at our individual impact on the environment in conjunction with our departmental impact:

• "How come we always seem to run out of plastic water cups when I want a drink? I should really keep a reusable cup at my desk."
  
• "Do I really need a paper bag for my takeout lunch, or can I just carry the container?"
• "What if I just saved my sturdy plastic plate for my one cookie and reused it at the next meeting instead of getting a new plate?"

I wonder if any of you have ever thought about perhaps seemingly unconventional ways to reduce/reuse/recycle in an office environment? Do any of you see a need for a "green" practice in your departments? Is there a workflow or job task that is particularly not "green" and how do you think it could be made more environmentally friendly without sacrificing the quality of work?