Green Sprouts

Sustainable practices from Pinterest
By Heather Wentz
April 3, 2012 - 11:47am
Pinterest, the online pinboard, has easy and innovative ways to recycle and make your life more sustainable.

Pinterest is my new favorite time-waster. If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, Pinterest is an awesome online pinboard where people can post anything they want, whether it’s a quote or a recipe or a DIY craft for your five-year-old daughter.

I’ve found that Pinterest is also great for simple home solutions on recycling and other sustainable practices. Here is a list of my top 5 sustainable tricks so far.

Combating the winter cold
By Erin Carson
February 24, 2012 - 4:33pm
The winter cold is virtually inevitable, but luckily, G-Fit writer Erin Carson compiled a list of ways to combat the cold and limit the time you're stuck in bed.

Every winter there’s that fateful moment when the droopy, sniffling guy next to you on the bus sneezes to the high heavens, and you just know it’s all over. You’re going to get sick. Sadly, there’s no cure for the common cold, but there are a few ways to fight back and mitigate your misery.

Recycling in the winter
By Erin Carson
February 11, 2012 - 9:12pm
In the third G-Fit series post, a recycling specialist from OCRRA shares her advice on recycling in the wintertime, giving students no excuse but to use the blue bins.

There might not be much around Syracuse that’s green these days, but that doesn’t mean your recycling habits have to hibernate for the season. Recycling specialist Sarah Stewart from the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) shared some tips on recycling during the winter.

Snowshoeing in Central New York
By Bridget Daley
February 5, 2012 - 2:02pm
In the second installment of the G-Fit series, Bridget Daley uncovers a lesser-known winter activity called snowshoeing, which has been gaining national popularity in the past few years.

Though the snow is far from plentiful so far this winter, odds are it will come soon enough in the tundra we call Central New York. And when it does, it comes with a vengeance. No need to stay inside watching re-runs of the Bachelor and complaining though. Skiing and snowboarding are all well and good, but some people are not able to handle the icy East Coast slopes and rigors of balance that come with those endeavors, not to mention the average lift ticket is 50 dollars. An active alternative you're looking for then? Snowshoeing!

Winter comfort food
By Erin Carson
January 27, 2012 - 4:14pm
In the first edition of Green Sprouts' G-Fit series, Erin Carson highlights some comfort food favorites with modifications to make them easy on your figure without losing the taste.

In 20-degree weather, the last thing anyone wants to eat is a cold, tasteless celery stick, no matter how healthy a snack it may be. It’s winter. Time to bulk up, right? It’s not like anyone will notice under your ankle-length, down-stuffed, fur-lined, abominable snowman-resistant jacket.

But, before you resign yourself to a season of warming your hands over pizza boxes and endless orders of Wings, here are a few easy ideas to keep you healthy and warm.

SUNY-ESF's Illick Hall to receive new roof and greenhouse complex in 2012
By Lauren Stefaniak
December 11, 2011 - 3:15pm
After being deemed a "critical maintenance project," Illick Hall is set to receive major environmentally-friendly renovations starting in May 2012.

A few green thumbs and a dire need for repair pushed the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to start the renovation process on one of its campus highlights: Illick Hall. Deemed a “critical maintenance project” by campus administration, a new roof and greenhouse complex will replace the original roof system starting in May 2012.

Toss your styrofoam in the right place
By Michele Maciejewski
December 2, 2011 - 11:04pm
Syracuse University partners with local company to repurpose styrofoam packaging.

Styrofoam is common on campus. In fact, it's common any place where biomedical, chemical or other biological research in being conducted. Tomorrow, and on the first Tuesday of every month, Syracuse University's physical plant will be making stops at five buildings on campus to collect the myriad styrofoam containers.

What is it?

SU Zipcar use triples in the past 18 months
By Erin Carson
November 30, 2011 - 11:04pm
Students and faculty are utilizing Zipcars a lot more than when they first arrived on campus, which is not only better for the environment, but it's economical, too.

You may have places to be and things to do, but you don’t necessarily have to have your own car (or a Centro pass) to do them.

In the past 18 months, the number of people registered for Syracuse’s Zipcars car sharing program tripled, bringing the number of members up to 1,150. Of that group, 1,077 are students.

Rick Martin of SU’s Department of Sustainability attributes the success to people catching onto the idea that they can use the Zipcars and not necessarily have to depend on having cars of their own on campus, whether it’s students, faculty or staff.

Syracuse buses go paperless
By Erin Carson
November 8, 2011 - 4:28pm
Parking and Transit Services did away with printed schedules now has all their schedules online.

Students and faculty looking for campus bus schedules need not look further than the palms of their hands.

This semester, Syracuse University Parking and Transit Services decided to go paperless, doing away with 13,000 printed bus schedules.

“This was huge for us,” said manager Scot Vanderpool in an email. The schedules can now be found on the SU Parking and Transit Service’s website in PDF form, giving students and faculty the option to print the schedule themselves or pull it up on their mobile phones.

Two campus buildings receive LEED gold, platinum ratings
By Michele Maciejewski
October 12, 2011 - 9:32am
Two SU buildings received the campus' first LEED certifications from U.S. Green Building Council founder Monday.

The founding chairperson of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Richard Fedrizzi, blew into town Monday and handed out Leadership in Energy and Environmental Designs, aka LEED, certifications like they were candy. Well, not really since Syracuse University staff and administrators, architects, builders and community supporters worked really hard for nearly 3 years to get the buildings up to the USGBC standards.