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Green Star E-News
Green Star E-News Vol. 7, No. 2 February 3, 2006
Recognizing Alaska organizations committed to environmental responsibility.
In this issue:
* Shining Stars
* Green Star Hosts Energy Star Training for Healthcare Sector
* Electronics Recycling Event Scheduled for April
* Alaska Forum on the Environment Starts February 6th
* Canada’s Scrap Arts Music Comes to Anchorage
* IRS Provides Guidance on Tax Credits for Efficient Vehicles
* A Growing Number Of Employees Are Staying Away From The Office
* This Month’s Hot Link: Rocks, Minerals and Your Computer
* Thank you 2006 Sponsors
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SHINING STARS
Three new enrollees joined Green Star in January. Chugach Optional School and Aquarian Charter School both signed on to earn a Green Star Award, as did Snow City Café. Chugach Optional and Snow City Café also plan to work toward an Air Quality Award.
Green Events this month include the Ski for Women (Feb. 5), the Alaska Forum on the Environment (Feb. 6-10), the Library Association Conference (Feb. 23-26), and the Alaska State Hockey U16 Tier 1 Tournament in Eagle River (Feb. 23-26). Please recycle if you attend any of these local events!
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GREEN STAR HOSTS ENERGY STAR TRAINING FOR HEALTHCARE SECTOR
On March 15th, Green Star and the University of Alaska Anchorage will host an ENERGY STAR training for healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities include hospitals, medical office buildings, and dental offices. The training, “Rating the Energy Performance of Healthcare Facilities,” will begin with a brief introduction by Green Star. Then, an ENERGY STAR instructor will teleconference in from Maryland while being hooked up to an Internet feed that allows participants to view her PowerPoint presentation. Her presentation demonstrates the many functions of ENERGY STAR’S Portfolio Manager, such as energy benchmarking, energy management, and investment prioritizing.
* Energy benchmarking
Benchmarking allows managers to rate their building on a scale of 1-100 in comparison to other similar buildings nationwide. The predetermined formulas embedded in the Portfolio Manager spreadsheet take into account climate and other issues. If your building is rated 75 or higher, it may qualify for the ENERGY STAR award.
* Energy data management
Energy data are organized in predetermined headings for easy input, with predetermined calculation formulas for easy conclusions.
* Investment prioritizing
Identifying long-term and short-term trends from these data will help managers prioritize energy initiatives.
More than 2,500 office buildings, schools, hospitals, and public buildings, representing 482 million square feet, earned EPA's ENERGY STAR for superior energy and environmental performance in 2005. These buildings are saving an estimated $349 million annually in lower energy bills and are preventing 1.8 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the emissions from 540,000 vehicles. ENERGY STAR qualified buildings use up to 40% less energy than typical buildings, while providing the required comfort and services. See www.energystar.gov for more information.
With the price of oil and gas on the rise, tracking energy use and performance is of increasing importance. The free training session lasts about two hours and will be at UAA. However, participants can teleconference in and view the Internet PowerPoint presentation from anywhere in Alaska. For more details about the training, please contact Jean Marie Guzzetti at jeanmarie@greenstarinc.org or 278-7869.
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ELECTRONICS RECYCLING EVENT SCHEDULED FOR APRIL
It’s time again to start locating all of the electronics you’ve set aside throughout the year in anticipation for Green Star’s annual Electronics Recycling Event. This year’s event will be April 28 and 29. Friday, April 28 is drop-off day for businesses and Saturday, April 29 is drop-off day for households. The drop-off hours on both days are 10am to 4pm.
The fees at the annual event will remain the same -- $10/vehicle for households (including up to three TVs or computer monitors and $5 for each additional TV/monitor) and 30¢/lb for businesses (including all electronics items).
This year, businesses with pre-palletized loads can schedule a pick-up before the event. This service is available on a first-come first-served basis. Contact Jean Marie at 278-7869 to schedule an appointment. This service is provided in conjunction with Total Reclaim, Inc., the recycler that processes all of our waste electronics in Seattle. Total Reclaim recently opened a warehouse facility in Anchorage to ease recycling of several items, including electronics, fluorescent lamps, and refrigerants, make it more cost effective for Alaska residents and businesses.
For updates and details about the event, visit www.greenstarinc.org/electronicsevent2006.php
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ALASKA FORUM ON THE ENVIRONMENT STARTS FEBRUARY 6TH
The Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) will be held in the Egan Convention Center, February 6th through 10th. Nationally recognized speakers will be featured in seven keynote events and more than 80 breakout sessions will provide educational opportunities and the latest research information on Alaska’s environment. To see the agenda, go to www.akforum.com/agenda.htm.
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CANADA’S SCRAP ARTS MUSIC COMES TO ANCHORAGE
Anyone interested in recycling their junk might take another look after attending the February 10th performance of Scrap Arts Music in the Atwood Concert Hall. Five hyper-kinetic performers will play instruments crafted from salvaged and recycled junk. Scrap Arts Music is a dizzying show of beats, full-on gymnastic agility, and intricate, eye-catching choreography.
Catch this mesmerizing performance Friday, February 10, at 7:30 PM in the Atwood Concert Hall. Tickets range from $15 for youth to $25 for adults and are available from CenterTix by calling 263-ARTS or going to www.centertix.net.
The show is presented by Alaska Junior Theater.
As a special treat for participants of the Alaska Forum on the Environment, Scrap Arts Music will launch this year's Alaska Forum Opening Ceremony with excerpts from its hit show "Phonk!" The event is at 9:30am on February 6th at the Egan Center.
“A treat for both eyes and ears, the large-scale mobile instruments take the stage in a stunning combination of new-world artifacts, transformable sculpture and whimsical music-makers. Discarded aluminum, brass artillery shells and giant springs are artistically transformed into delightful invented instruments,” says Forum organizers.
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IRS PROVIDES GUIDANCE ON TAX CREDITS FOR EFFICIENT VEHICLES
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a notice on January 13th that provides initial guidance on claiming a federal tax credit for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle or a vehicle with an advanced lean-burn engine. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 allows a tax credit of as much as $3,400 for buyers of the most fuel-efficient vehicles.
The new IRS guidance describes how manufacturers can certify to the purchasers of these vehicles that the vehicles are indeed eligible for the tax credit and what size tax credit they will earn. This certification removes most of the burden from the purchaser: if you have the manufacturer's certification in hand, you can claim the tax credit. The only exception is if the IRS finds that a manufacturer's claim is incorrect, in which case the IRS will announce that the manufacturer's right to issue certifications has been withdrawn. Even in that case, certifications received before the IRS announcement will still be accepted for a tax credit.
For each manufacturer, the new tax credit stops after it sells 60,000 eligible vehicles, with the count starting at the beginning of this year. As noted by the IRS, buyers can claim the tax credit until the end of the first calendar quarter after the quarter in which the manufacturer reaches 60,000 sales. So for manufacturers that are selling high volumes of eligible vehicles, such as Toyota and Honda, people seeking to earn the credit should act quickly.
"Advanced lean-burn technology," by the way, is a clean-burning diesel engine that operates with more air than is necessary for the complete combustion of the fuel. According to the Diesel Technology Forum, the emissions requirements included in the tax credit means that eligible vehicles will probably not be available until the 2007 model year.
The Energy Policy Act also provides tax credits for fuel cell vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, and hybrid heavy trucks. The IRS will issue guidance on certification procedures for these vehicles in the near future.
For more information about the tax credit program, see the IRS news press release at www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=153172,00.html. IRS guidance can be found at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-06-09.pdf, and the Diesel Technology Forum fact sheet can be found at www.dieselforum.org/fileadmin/templates/Resources/LDTax.pdf.
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A GROWING NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES ARE STAYING AWAY FROM THE OFFICE
Excerpts from an article by Stephen Barr, Washington Post, 12/12/2005
According to the latest count, 140,694 federal employees worked at home or at a telework center last year. Through the magic of computers and telephone lines, these lucky souls avoid snarled traffic, jammed subway trains and lousy weather.
The tally of federal telecommuters, sent to Congress last week by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), showed an increase from 2003, when 102,921 government employees were counted as working away from the office at least one day a week.
As federal agencies update plans to ensure that essential operations are not lost during emergencies, "telework must continue to be an integral part of agencies' business practices," Linda M. Springer, the OPM director, said in a preface to the report.
The tally was based on survey responses from 82 federal agencies with more than 1.8 million employees. Only 7.7 percent of that workforce is telecommuters, but the 140,694 employees represented 18.6 percent of the workforce deemed eligible to work from home or a telework center near their homes, the report showed.
The majority of the agencies said they had adopted policies to determine which employees could qualify for telecommuting. Forty-three agencies specified occupations that were eligible for telecommuting; 43 agencies excluded employees with past disciplinary problems from telecommuting; and 52 agencies permitted employees with health problems to telecommute, for example.
Most agencies -- 53 -- said they allowed employees to telecommute and participate in an alternative work schedule, such as longer office hours during certain days of a pay period in exchange for Friday as a day off.
Agencies also appeared to be more flexible in helping their employees work from home. Twenty agencies purchased equipment for their telecommuters, and 31 agencies said they provide surplus equipment to telecommuters.
According to the 2004 survey, agencies said office staffing was "the most prevalent barrier to the successful implementation of telework." Previous reports have indicated that managers fear that they will not be able to handle sudden increases in workload or cover their hours of operation if they participate in telecommuting programs.
Agencies also said the nature of their work and data security concerns made it difficult for them to support telework.
Still, 35 agencies reported that they have incorporated telecommuting as part of their "continuity of operations" planning in the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other major disruption. An additional 37 agencies indicated that they are considering including telework in their emergency planning.
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THIS MONTH’S HOT LINK: Rocks, Minerals and Your Computer
This site provides interesting facts about the precious metals found in your computer and their value when recovered through recycling activities.
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THANK YOU 2006 SPONSORS, GRANTORS & CONTRACTORS
Green Star could not exist without the generous financial and in-kind support of many individuals and leading local businesses and organizations. To become a Green Star individual member or corporate sponsor, please call (278-7827) or visit our web site at www.greenstarinc.org. A huge thank you to our 2005 sponsors!
Platinum ($10,000+): Alaska Conservation Foundation, Alaska Energy Authority, Anchorage Department of Health & Human Services, Anchorage Solid Waste Services, BP, Bullitt Foundation, ConocoPhillips Alaska, FedEx Express, Oak Foundation, Peak Oilfield Services, Rasmuson Foundation, Total Reclaim, Inc., Totem Ocean Trailer Express, University of Alaska Anchorage, Weaver Brothers
Gold ($5,000-$9,999): Anchorage Media Group, Carlile Transportation Systems, GCI, Harriett Fenerty, Horizon Lines of Alaska, Ivan Moore Research, Lynden Transport, Weaver Brothers
Silver ($2,500-$4,999): Airport Equipment Materials Handling Division, Anchorage Daily News, Denali Commission, Graphics Solutions, KTUU - Channel 2, Lynden Transport, Princess Tours
Bronze ($1,000-$2,499): Alaska Laser Wash, Alaska Public Interest Research Group, Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, Alaska Waste, Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, Arctic Ice Productions, Cellular One, Chugach Electric Association, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Interior Wiring and Field Maintenance, Municipal Light and Power, Teamsters Local 959, United Freight, , Wal-Mart Wasilla
Green ($500-$999): Action Sign & Graphics/Warning Lites of Alaska, Air Van Lines, Alaska Power Association, Alaska Support Industry Alliance, Corporate Express Alaska, Delta Airlines, Dick Wilson, From the Fair Corners Photography, Independent Lift Truck of Alaska, Kotzebue Electric Association, Mettler Toledo Scales, Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria, Northern Air Cargo, Sierra Club, Thompson & Associates, Wal-Mart “A” Street
Supporter ($250-$499): 21 North Designs, Anchorage Maintenance & Operations, Arctic Circle Air, Northern Air Cargo, Smurfit-Stone Recycling Company, Spenard Builders Supply, Yukon Equipment
Contributor (up to $250): Alaska Center for the Environment, ALPAR, Anchorage Publishing, Coca-Cola Bottling of Alaska (Odom Corporation), Costco Debarr, Great Harvest Bread Company, Green’s Enterprises, Habitat for Humanity, Hot Licks Ice Cream, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, VendAlaska
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The staff of Green Star, Anchorage:
Sean Skaling, Executive Director
Jeanne Carlson, Program Director
Beth Verrelli, Program Director
Jean Marie Guzzetti, Member Relations Coordinator
Tara Callear, Office Manager/Program Assistant
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