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E-News: Green Star's Electronic, Environmental Newsletter!
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Shining Star: US Air Force 3rd CRS Propulsion Flight This Air Force division is the first group to receive Green Star's new Air Quality Award. On September 7, 2000, the Green Star Air Quality Standards Committee conducted an on-site visit. The Flight completed all eighteen of the Air Quality Standards, even though only twelve are required for the Award. Examples of their committment to air quality include two "green" energy reclamation units. The first is an oil burner which disposes of waste oil generated during day to day operations--over a thousand gallons annually. The second is the Smart Ash Burner, capable of reducing a number of hazardous waste byproducts--hundreds of pounds annually--to harmless ash residue. Both these units were selected for their ecologically-friendly features, such as reducing the amount of hazardous wastes routed to local disposal sites, extremely low levels of emissions, and the ability to save tens of thousands of dollars in disposal costs while providing a valuable resource used by all our employees. The US Air Force 3rd CRS Propulsion Flight will receive their Air Quality Certificate at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon on November 13, 2000. Congratulations! Free Advertising for Members FREE ADVERTISING FOR MEMBERS So what has your Green Star membership done for you lately? Green Star's Look for the Star Campaign has kicked off with ads in the Anchorage Daily News, KSKA, and KUAC in Fairbanks. We invite awardees to display Green Star decals and logos in your workplace and on your company vehicles. Also, if your business is interested in sharing an advertisement with us, let us know. Remember, Green Star members not only benefit from waste reduction, but community support, as well. Recycled Paper 101 Recycled Paper 101: The Basics of Purchasing Recycled Paper Composting in Anchorage Composting in the Anchorage area gives citizens and businesses an alternative to the landfill. Using compost on plants helps them to grow better, increases their resistance to drought, pests, rusts, and other diseases and increases crop production at lower costs than by chemical fertilizers. Compost is easy to make, and it can be odorless and clean to manufacture when made correctly. Common organic materials used in compost include leaves, twigs, shredded branches, shredded paper, sawdust, straw, lawn clippings, kitchen scraps (including fats, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags), fruit and vegetable trimmings, manure, meat, bread, grains. Even in the cold temperatures of Alaska, composting can be done year round at home or at composting facilities. How to participate in composting in the Anchorage area: Businesses can take brush, trees, leaves, stable-waste, grass clippings and any organic food materials to the Anchorage Regional Composting Facility for a small tipping fee. The facility will grind or shred up the materials. Anchorage Regional Composting Facility has 100,000 square feet of composting pad, constructed with a 60 mil PVC liner with 4 inches of asphalt for composting surface. Residents and businesses can purchase the finished compost material in bulk or by bringing and filling their own bags. The material costs less than in stores. For information, contact: Anchorage Recycling Facility, 243-8577, or (compost@alaska.net). If you live or operate a business on Elmendorf Air Force Base, you can participate in a free curbside-recycling program that diverts compostable material to the new compost facility. The compost facility uses all organic waste as well as ground up tires and even pulverized glass. The glass sand from pulverized recycled bottles can hold nutrients by ion exchange in soil and enhances the beneficial microorganisms in composting processes. Elmendorf expects to avoid $89,720 in landfill costs and divert 50% of their solid waste normally taken to landfill. The compost product is used in Elmendorf’s landscaping efforts so their waste, essentially, never leaves the Base. For those wishing to compost at home, one technique is using earthworms. Owner Cheryl Paige’s Can-O-Worms Alaska uses recycled materials for odorless composting containers that fit under the kitchen sink. Composting organic waste from home, including food waste and newspaper, will save money on your garbage bill and provide nutrient-rich compost for household plants and summer gardens. For more information on this Anchorage-based company, see their web site (www.can-o-worms-alaska.net) or email (askme@can-o-worms-alaska.net). US Postal Service Fuel Cell Project On August 9th at the Anchorage Mail Processing Center, Green Star was happy to attend the inauguration of the one-megawatt fuel cell system now generating power at the postal facility. It is the nation's largest assured-power commercial fuel cell system to date. Chugach Electric installed the system for the Postal Service. The five fuel cells, connected in parallel to produce one megawatt of electricity, now are the primary source of power for the Anchorage facility, located adjacent to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The fuel cells are operating in parallel with the utility grid, dispatched from Chugach's power control center. Excess power from the fuel cells is fed into the Chugach grid. The fuel cells that make up the system were developed and manufactured by International Fuel Cells (IFC), South Windsor, Conn., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation. Fuel cells do not burn fuel; rather, they operate similarly to a battery. They use an electrochemical process to convert chemical energy into electricity and hot water. Each IFC PC25™ fuel cell generates 200 kilowatts of electricity and more than 700,000 Btu's per hour of usable heat. Heat recovery from the fuel cells will help provide space heating to the facility, increasing the overall fuel efficiency of the Postal Service Center. As a result, less fuel will be needed for conventional systems. New technology, developed for the project and largely funded by the DOD, Army Corps of Engineers, Construction Engineering and Research Laboratories (CERL), assures that the facility will continue to operate uninterrupted during a grid outage. If there is a grid outage, the fuel cells transition to operate as an independent system, continuing to power the Postal Service facility. The automatic transition will appear seamless, eliminating the need for conventional non-interruptible power supplies and stand-by generators. "This fuel cell project, and the benefits it brings to our state, opens the door to new and creative ways to produce energy in a cost effective and clean manner. I hope others will look into using this power source as a building block for future energy needs in Alaska and I congratulate Chugach Electric and the Postal Service on this successful venture," said Senator Ted Stevens at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. *Information for this article was provided by Chugach Electric WANTED: YOUR GREEN STAR IDEAS Do you have a unique or interesting pollution prevention solution to share? Perhaps it's a new source for energy efficient equipment, or a creative way to motivate employees to recycle and reuse items around the shop or office. Whatever it is, your idea may help other Green Star businesses run cleaner and greener. Send a write-up to greenstr@alaska.net describing what you've done and how your operation has benefited, and we'll include a link to your business's web site when we run the article! Seeking Support As a community-based non-profit, we are supported generously by caring corporate community members. To fulfil our vision and goals, there are several pieces of equipment that Green Star is seeking sponsors to fund or donate. Your contributions may be tax deductible Please let us know if you would like to sponsor an item.
New Fall Seminar Green Star will hold its first brown-bag seminar in late October. The topic will be on compressed natural gas for work fleets and personal vehicles. Please keep a look-out on our website for the date, time and location. Thank you to Green Star's 2000 sponsors Platinum: Phillips Alaska Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for future E-News topics to us at betsy@greenstarinc.org. Forward this newsletter freely. Send us any e-mail addresses you wish to add to our mailing list, and let us know if you would like to be removed from the list. Thank you! The staff of Green Star, Inc., Anchorage:
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