Emily: At this time, I would like to formally begin today’s webinar and introduce Katie Newcomb.

Katie: Thanks so much, Emily, and thank you all for joining us. We have a great lineup of speakers today. The topic of today’s presentation is waste prevention and recycling, but before we dive into that topic we have something great to share with you all. We’re going to start by showing you the new Sustainable Operations demonstration website, and then we’ll talk about retaining recycling proceeds, how to conduct a waste stream analysis, recycling awareness activities, eliminating waste from construction projects and composting. Then, what to do with waste prevention and recycling beyond the scorecard.

First, I’d like to introduce Meghan Oswalt. She’s the program analyst of Sustainable Operations in Montana, and she will be walking you through the new Sustainable Operations website, which I’m very excited about. Meghan, I’m going to share my desktop and then we can walk everyone through the website.

Meghan: Great. Thank you, Katie. Today, I’m going to share with all of you the Sus Ops demonstration site, and we’re calling it a demonstration site because we’re in the process of seeking approval to have the website be a Forest Service-wide Sustainable Operations website. The site is available [inaudible 0:01:32] and ready for people to use, but at this point in time I guess our URL is probably going to change once we do have approval as an official Forest Service website.

I’m glad that all of you could join us. What I’d like to do is not take you through the entire site, but rather highlight your key components of what I view as strengths of our website. These strengths include the availability of tools and resources, the encouragement to employees through our shared accomplishments, and access to contact information specific to a location.

What you’re seeing now is the homepage for our website. I’m not sure if it’s getting cut off on the right hand side, Katie. I don't know if that’s happening for everyone.

Katie: Let me know, Meghan, if that changed at all. It might be because I have a giant monitor.

Meghan: Yes, it changed a little bit. Now I can see the scroll on the right hand side. Thank you.

Our homepage is really an excellent demonstration of all of these strengths. You’re probably noticing the rotating images on this page, and each of these images is connected to a success story that we wanted to highlight from this field. The next item that you’re probably noticing is a list of tools down the right hand side of the page, and here we wanted to provide you this with an easy way

to access several sustainability tools that we’re hoping will assist them in their work towards sustainability success.

Where I’d like to go now is to the stories page, Katie. Each of the rotating images on the homepage connects us to a story, but you can also click on the Stories tab at the top and get to the same location. We’ll give it just a minute to load. Katie, can you go back to the website and click on Stories next to About?

Katie: Yes, I think I got there. Is this right, Meghan?

Meghan: Okay. Yes. Thank you. If we scroll down on this page, we’ll actually see all of the stories rotating on the homepage listed here. You can either visit here to view all of them at once, or you can click on an individual rotating image on the homepage to get to the story. What I’d like to do is encourage each of you to explore these stories and then submit your own using the Sustainability Stories link on the right hand side.

This is just a great example of everyone sharing their success and sustainability with each other. We also have a link where you can search more of our [inaudible 0:04:38] sustainability stories from this page.

Now I’d like to go to our Resources and Tools page, Katie. Our Resources and Tools page, we tried to organize these various tools in several different ways with the understanding that everybody may search differently for tools and training. The first way that we tried to organize our Resources and Tools was by footprint area. You’ll notice there our footprints areas that are listed down the left hand side of the screen. If we select energy, for example, the middle section of the screen is actually going to populate with a list of resources and tools. We also have a definition to what we mean by energy, and this should give you an idea of the kinds of documents that are probably going to be listed in this area.

We’ve also categorized our resources and tools by areas of interest. It’s a very similar layout. The areas of interests are mostly down on the left hand side, and if we select climate change, for example, those resources and tools are populated in the middle along with the definition for what we mean by climate change.

We’ve also organized the tools by title, so alphabetically, A to Z by title. This is just to give everybody another way to search through our tools. If you selected any of the letters, all the items that start with that letter would be listed below. Of course then you can search our resources and tools, just to use this search on the right hand tool bar, and this will actually search the entire website. That’s just the fourth way for us to search.

We also listed here a Training tab, and under the Training tab we’ve tried to

come up with a few categories to divide our trainings into. Again, if you selected any of those categories, the trainings associated with that particular category will populate in the middle. You can select them and either get the PowerPoint from that training, or a document, or get connected to a recording of that training.

The last tab that we have in our Resources and Tools is the Communications tab, and we’re still populating this section of the website. Here we’re trying to put all of our [inaudible 00:07:14], files and things such as Earth Day. Any of those kinds of communications in this section so that everybody has a place to go for that kind of information that you can take and use on your district or unit or research station. This is the section of the website that we worked probably the hardest on and really wanted to make sure that it was a one stop shop. With some letters along the right hand side of that feedback survey, if you’d go to the website and you notice that something’s missing or you’d really like to see something added, we’d greatly appreciate your feedback. We’ll try to get those tools and resources added to our page.

Now we’re going to visit the Green Team next. Katie, it’s under Green Teams. Yes, great. This is another section of the website that we’ve spent a lot of time on. We wanted Green Teams to be able to find each other and connect, especially on projects that you’re working on or maybe you know a Green Team that works on a project that you really want to get an idea of how to do it so you want to know who to contact on that Green Team. We created a map where you can add your Green Team, and you can also modify the information associated with your Green Team.

[Inaudible 0:08:32] from this presentation. Katie, can you scroll down just a tad?

Katie: I think that’s the closest I can get. Do you want me to try to ... oh, wait. Here we go.

Meghan: Perfect. Thanks. The way the Green Teams show up on the map is there’s a slide associated with each Green Team, and we’ve sort of teed up towards the left hand side of the screen. Right now we have our Green Teams divided into five different categories, so various colored slides means various categories such as red is our regional Green Teams, yellow are our stations or area Green Teams. If you actually click on one of the slides, the noted Green Team will pop up along with the contract information if you select the down arrow.

We’re hoping that this really helps our Green Teams connect with each other, especially if you’re working on projects where you just want to get to know your neighboring Green Team. Another great thing about this I guess scenario is that as your Green Team evolves and change, you can go in and actually modify the information associated with your Green Team. You can change your contact

information, maybe your combined Green Teams. You can change the name of your Green Team. I like it because I’m a visual learner and a very visual person, so I find it very helpful to me visually, and I hope the rest of you find it helpful as well.

Then also I’d like you to go to our Key Contacts section. Just click on the About tab at the top. [Inaudible 00:10:12] trying to list out key contacts not only for Sustainable Operation but also an individual for each region and station or research area. At the top, we’ve got listed out are Sustainable Operations contacts, and if we scroll down the regional contacts are listed in order. Region 1 is [inaudible 0:10:31], and Region 10 is listed towards the bottom along with our research areas. [Inaudible 0:10:40] we hope is here. If you have a question and you’re not sure who to contact, this is who you reach out to and that can put you in touch with an appropriate person or they may have an answer themselves.

That’s all I’d like to share with everyone today. I really hope that I’ve encouraged you to come to our site and explore more on your own. There’s definitely a lot more to see and a lot more to share, and I hope you’ll take the time to go to the site and also take the time to leave us your feedback. We really want to make sure that our site is useful to everyone within our agency.

Thanks, Katie.

Katie: Thanks so much, Meghan. That was a great overview. The website is really exciting. I do think if people have questions about this topic we can take them at this time, just before we move on to waste prevention and recycling. If you have a question, I believe you press star one.

Female: Yes, that’s correct. If you press star one on your phone, then you will be notified when your phone is unmuted. You can just state your name and then your question. If your question has been answered before we get to you, just hit star one, one more time and that will take you out of the questions queue. If anybody has any questions at this time, go ahead.

It doesn’t look like we have any questions yet.

Katie: Okay, I have one question over the notes on the webinar, and it’s just about what is the URL for the website. I’ll add it in the notes to everyone. Like Meghan mentioned, it’s not the permanent URL. It’s for the demonstration site. You could use it for now but we’ll let everyone know when we have the permanent URL. Is that right, Meghan?

Meghan: Yes. Thanks, Katie.

Female: Okay. I still don’t see any questions yet.

Katie: Okay. That’s all right. I think we can move on. We can have this really quick.

Female: It looks like we have one.

Male: … about how she sees the Green Team map helping facilitate the discussion. I think it’s great having the contact names for all the different Green Teams, but I’m just wondering if you have specific ideas as to how having that contact would really facilitate that.

Meghan: Yes. I think that’s a great question, actually. The map provides you with a visual and also provides you a contact information, but one way to link your team to another team would be maybe you’re searching through the success stories and you see that a certain person has concluded maybe a recycling effort that you want to mimic. Hopefully, you can go to that map and find that contact information. It’s also listed under the success story, I believe.

Another idea that we had and discussed in length was this idea that I think a lot of Green Teams aren’t sure where another Green Team is. They don’t know if one exists within their forest or in a neighboring town. I’m hoping that by [inaudible 0:14:36], you can actually zoom into the map almost to street level and then be able to see there’s somebody 10 miles or 20 miles away from me and maybe we could connect and figure out how they’re getting all their recycling done. Maybe we can also do something similar.

Hopefully that helps answer your question. We were just trying to put the information out there and let people take it and use it as they wish, where they see most fitting.

Katie: Thanks, Meghan. Sounds like his line might have gotten muted again. Is that the last question, I think?

Female: I believe that is it. I do not see any other questions.

Katie: Okay, thanks. Thanks so much, Meghan. That was a great presentation, and I appreciate your patience with me clicking the buttons on the website.

This is Katie Newcomb, and now I’ll be talking to you guys about retaining recycling proceeds, which is something that’s fairly new to the Forest Service and a great opportunity to get some money for Sustainable Operations programs. What can the Forest Service do? We can retain or receive revenue resulting from waste prevention and recycling programs, and energy and water rebates. I’m going to be focusing today on the recycling program, but if you want more information about the energy and water rebate, please just send me an e-mail.

You can use the revenue from waste prevention and recycling programs for a number of things such as repurchasing recycling bins, [inaudible 00:16:25]

keeping, proper disposal of hazardous materials, things like this. Units have used the funds in many creative ways, including as a source for amassing funds for grants to further their Sustainable Operations work.

What is involved is using two job codes. One is for the waste management and one is for the green purchasing, which is the energy and water rebates. The job codes are on your screen. You still have to request spending authorities from your budget, with your budget staff and create a Sustainable Operations program. One hundred percent of the waste management proceeds are available to your unit, and they roll over so you don’t have to spend them the year that you collect them. They will stay in that fund.

I’m not going to go over this slide very closely, but I just wanted to make sure that we captured it so if you guys reference these slides later you have the authority and the policy. It’s just in the Forest Service Handbook, section 6509.19, and then in the Forest Service Manual 6460 is where you can find the authority to retain recycling proceeds on your unit.

How do you get started? The first step is to establish a Sustainable Operations waste management program. If you don’t do this, all of the money is supposed to go back to Treasury, but if you establish a program you can keep all of the recycling proceeds on your unit. A Sustainable Operations waste management program can look different from unit to unit. It can be at the regional level or the forest level or at the district level. The regional forester directors or forest supervisors direct the formation of the Sustainable Operations waste management program. It could be a Green Team, one individual unit recycling coordinator, or a recycling team. - whatever works best for your unit. It can be as formal, as informal as you like, as long you have a line officer signature on a letter or a charter that includes a plan of work and some way to track and document what you’re doing. There are plenty of other elements that can be part of your sustainable operations activities, and there’s more guidance available in the manuals and handbooks and online, specifically on the website that Meghan just shared.

Recycling of any materials possible is allowed and encouraged. Waste management is managing change in the purchase and use of products to reduce the amount of solid waste entering the disposal facilities. Scrap metal seems to be the most common recycling item that the Forest Service raise funds from. For example, if metal is dumped in the forest and your unit recovers it, if you are able to sell that metal to a recycling center you can retain that funding. Aluminum cans are another common source of funding.

The disposal and excess rules for property still apply. If you check with your acquisition staff for GSA rules and processes, then you’ll make sure that you’re following all the regulations. This does not include Forest Service or GSA vehicles

or computers. There are separate programs for both of those. Otherwise, as long as you can recycle it and sell it, then you can retain the proceeds.

Specific opportunities for this will depend on the community and vary greatly. Your current waste management services provider is a good place to start. Often I’ve heard stories of people that just call their waste management provider and asked if they have certain recycling, and it’s something that is available to them but they just didn’t know and it’s not advertised, so that’s always the first place to start. Otherwise, there are websites such as Earth911.com or your local country or state website where you can find recyclers.

You might wonder if this is working, and there are a few examples already of success stories. The [inaudible 0:21:10] Ranger District wrote a brief plan outlining in how they were going to implement a recycling program, who would manage the details and how they would account for using funds, and a proposed project list that they would use the fund for. Their motto is just do it. Set it up, use it, and it must be clear. They have been able to leverage the funds that they received from the recycling proceeds to get R2 grants and to {zero-scaping 00:21:37} around their ranger district.

One common question is what are examples of acceptable expenditures? What can you spend the money on? The handbook and manual is actually pretty open for this, so any sort of activity that reduces your environmental footprint is encouraged. You can use the recycling money to purchase recycling services or containers, to train employees for sustainability, to purchase devices that will help with your energy efficiency. It’s not limited to just recycling. You can use it for anything that will help your unit reduce their environmental footprint.

That looks like it’s the end of my slides. Hopefully that helped and was a good overview. I will be sharing these slides, though if you guys wanted to see the authorities listed out or you would like the job codes that you used to retain these proceeds, we’ll be sending out a PDF of these slides.

Thank you very much. Now I’m going to turn it back over to Meghan Oswalt, who will be talking about waste stream analysis. Meghan, whenever you’re ready.

Meghan: Thankyou, Katie. Now [inaudible 00:22:58] to talk only about trash and how we can reduce our trash [process inaudible 0:23:01] cross unit, and maybe that’s not the best way to think about it but performing a waste stream analysis and then using the results of that analysis to determine what we can reduce, reuse and recycle.

My goal today is to give you an overview of conducting a waste stream analysis, and as soon as you start to do an analysis it’s very important to understand why

you’re doing an analysis and what you hope to gain from it. Our purpose with the analysis is really threefold. We want to find out what we’re throwing away, and in order to do that we’ll use the analysis to calculate a waste composition estimate. This is really just an approximation of the proportion of all collected materials in the waste stream. Finally, you want to use the information or that waste composition estimation to help you develop an action plan for reducing or eliminating excess waste. That’s really the purpose of the analysis. Next slide.

Actually I think I’d like to backtrack here for a second and say that if you are recycling, a waste stream analysis is a great way to expand your current recycling efforts or take your waste reduction a step further and start to purchase items differently, or maybe start reusing some items that you weren’t reusing before. Before you begin the actual analysis, it’s a good idea to know what might be in there. I’ve done several waste stream analyses in private camps and a few furnished offices and I found that plastics, papers, food, aluminum, newspapers, magazines, packaging, those are all common items that I found in those places. It’s a good idea to just be aware that that may be in there. Next slide, Katie.

Once you have an idea what you may find in your dumpster at your office, you’ll need to start gathering the tools to perform the analysis. You’re going to want to have gloves. This is mostly for picking out the trash bags out of the dumpsters and also occasionally to get some waste trash. You also have to have a tarp so that you can lay out all of the waste and organize it without having to lay it in the grass or on the pavement. Just from experience, I strongly recommend having boxes. In doing some of these waste stream analyses I actually pulled boxes out of a dumpster and used them for my analysis, or if you have boxes that are about to be recycled grab those and just use them for the day and then recycle them.

You also want tongs. These are really those large garbage tongs that you see ... they’re typically using them on the sides of the highways. They’re probably the best way to pick and go through the trash probably without having to pick it up by hand. You’re also going to want a scale so that you can weigh all of the waste, and then you want a [inaudible 0:26:08] paper to record your data. Next slide, Katie.

Now you’re ready to start the actual analysis, and I think three people really works best for this. I’ve also done it with three, and three’s a great number as well, because doing it by yourself can be kind of tedious and actually a little bit difficult. What you’re going to want to do is determine where the waste receptacles or dumpsters are located at your office or unit. You may only have one dumpster, and so you’ll only perform the analysis on that dumpster, but if you have more than one dumpster you’re going to want to do the analysis on each one of them. The thing to keep in mind is that you’re not actually going through all of the waste in the dumpster. You’re just sampling a portion of that

waste.

What you may want to do is also keep in mind to try to find out the garbage pick up schedule and arrange to do your analysis the day before when it’s probably the fullest. If you are unable to do it the day before, just keep track of when you did it and when the garbage is collected in terms of how many days prior to you doing the analysis till it’s collected and so forth.

What you want to do is process each dumpster at each location individually and one at a time. What you typically do is go to the dumpster and you’ll just want to count the number of bags located therre, and sometimes that can be rather difficult. What I’ve actually done is climbed in the dumpster and gone through it, but sometimes this isn’t always easy to do. If you can’t actually count the bags, just try to do a good estimation of how many are in there. Then what you’ll want to do is select a portion of those bags, and this is really up to the individual. I usually try to take at least 25%, but sometimes if there’s only 10 bags in there I’ll go ahead and take five out or something like that. Just do what makes the most sense for your particular location.

Once you pull out your portion of the bags which is your sample, then you’re going to open each bag and then divide the waste out into categories. You’ll put all your plastics in one category, all your food waste in another category. Packaging always seems to be a really big one, so any of that [inaudible 0:28:45] plastic wrapping all go in one category. You’ll just separate all of it out.

Once you’ve separated all of your waste, you’ll want to go through and calculate the weight and volume for each type of material. The best way to do this is to use a garbage bag, maybe a 55 gallon or something like that, and transfer each category of material waste, so transfer all your plastic bottles into that garbage bag and then weigh the garbage bag and also approximate the volume from that bag. You will do this with each of your materials. That way you have a common item that you’re weighing your materials in and a common item that you’re using to help you to estimate the volume of each material. Next slide, Katie.

Once you’v [inaudible 0:29:48] the weight of each of your materials and the volume, you’re now ready to calculate your waste composition estimate. I tried to give an example, and this may be a little bit more simplified than what it would actually is turning out, but I hope this gives you an idea of what to do next. Say that therre are 24 total bags in a dumpster and you sampled eight of those bags, you’ll take the contents of those eight bags, search through all the plastics from those eight bags and weigh them. Take the weight of those plastic bottles and you’ll want to multiply that by 24 over eight. What you do is you sampled approximately 33% of the dumpster, and now you want to get an idea or estimate the weight of what would be in the dumpster if you had sampled all of the bags if you try and get a 100%.

Then I think this is an area where you just need to be cognizant of the percentage of the dumpster that’s actually full. Say now your dumpster’s only half full, just keep that in mind and you can either have that be part of your calculation or just note the dumpster is only halfway full when you did this analysis.

Now that you’ve gathered that information, you’re ready to develop your action plan, and one suggestion that I have here is that you now want to order your waste composition estimates by category and weight and then go to [inaudible 00:31:23] that way. Maybe you’ll see, oh our plastic recycling isn’t really going that well. People aren’t actually recycling the plastic. How can you improve that? Or we have a lot of newspapers in the trash. How can we avoid all of these newspapers? So on and so forth, and try to develop some kind of plan to eliminate or slowly reduce the amount of waste that you’re seeing. Next slide.

Actually I just want to point out that there are some safety issues that you need to maybe plan ahead about and communicate about. There are some risks associated with this. There can be needles, band aid, that kind of stuff in the trash, so just be aware of that kind of stuff that’s in there. You may want to acquire training in the bloodborne pathogen program prior to doing this. You also want to wear long sleeves, gloves, tennis shoes or boots, and long pants or something like that. Then you may want to have the people that you’re working with as well as yourself fill out a JHA prior to doing this, so just keep that in mind.

That’s all. Thanks, Katie.

Katie: Thanks, Meghan. That was a really good overview of the waste stream analysis. I know one forest here in Region 6 conducted a waste stream analysis and realized that a lot of their paper wasn’t being recycled and they were able to increase their paper recycling a lot just because they were making an assumption that it wasn’t being done, but it wasn’t. It’s a great activity. Thanks, Meghan.

We will take questions for everyone at the end of the presentations, so if you have questions for the speakers at the beginning please just note them and you’ll have an opportunity to speak with them at the end.

Now I’d like to introduce Lara Polansky. She is the Region 5 Sustainable Operations coordinator and will be talking about the America Recycles Day competition. Whenever you’re ready, Lara.

Lara: Great. Thank you, Katie. Go ahead and advance to the next slide, please.

Many of you may be familiar with the concepts of America Recycles Day. It’s been around for a while. Actually since 1977, communities across the country have come together on November 15, so next Thursday, to celebrate America

Recycles Day. There’s various ways that a unit can get involved, the most basic of which is to encourage their employees to simply take the pledge that’s available to that URL in the America Recycles Day website. The national recycling rate has increased every year since 1980, and the current recycling rate is 34%, and so the pledge is to personally continue this upward trend.

Another great resource that’s provided about America Recycles Day is this recycling go to guide. This is actually a great guide, and not just for America Recycles Day but also if you’re thinking about implementing the retaining recycling proceeds program and thinking about what resources you might want to be going after to recycle versus reuse. There’s a lot of good information here, but this site is really intended for an individual or a local group or green team that’s planning an America Recycles Day community event. It lists reasons for doing so, resources, materials such as outreach materials, ways to spread the word, and then it has a great list of interactive recycling activities. That to me is probably the best session to go to if you’re starting from scratch with just a week to go before America Recycles Day. Let’s look at some of those interactive recycling activities and maybe think about what you could replicate at your own home unit. Next slide please.

Why recycle? Recycling is the easiest thing we all can do every day of the year to save energy, conserve natural resources and create green jobs. It’s also a multibillion-dollar industry. It employs millions of Americans. As I mentioned previously, the national recycling rate is at 34% annually, and what does that mean in terms of resource reduction? That saves the energy equivalent of nearly 229 million barrels of crude oil, or nearly 20 days of all U.S. oil imports. It avoids greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing more than 36 million cars from the road each year. Just think about that during your morning commute. Next slide please.

Region 5 decided to take a unique approach to America Recycles Day and promote engagement through a region-wide competition. One of the reasons that we chose to do this is because it had a direct connection to scorecard element 10, waste prevention and recycling action item number 13. Specifically, that action item reads, “Does your unit regularly share methods for waste prevention and recycling with all employees, seasonal and permanent?” Of course one way to share methods for waste prevention and recycling is to promote it through a competition.

It turns out that 63% of units that have responded so far to Appendix G have responded “yes” for this action item. This is one that a fair number of units have been able to accomplish, but yet there’s still roughly 40% that are working on it, and an ARD competition is a great way to go to get the “yes”.

This opportunity didn’t come out of the blue. It was actually an idea that was

extended from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest’s very successful model. There, back in 2011, there was a champion whose name was Mike McFadin. Mike was the Wilderness and Trails Program Manager on the Trinity River Management Unit, and he used the lumber that was found in old scrap piles to make all new feeders and mangers for the pack stocks there. He did everything from even using water troughs that were damaged by horses as raised-bed planters, to using scrap horseshoes as tack hooks for hanging bridles and reins. The list goes on and on and on. One of the ones that sticks out to me is that even stock manure was recycled to the volunteer garden at the Wilderness Barn onsite which yielded 400 pounds of produce in 2011 - so recycling in so many forms.

When I saw this opportunity at the Shasta-Trinity and saw that it had worked so well between districts, I thought we could probably scale this up and make it region-wide. Of course one of the reasons we want to do this is to harness the power of competition and fun. It’s one of our greatest drivers. Next slide please.

A little bit about Region 5’s America Recycles Day competition, this is an example of the announcement that went out, so very basic. Really, we’re not asking for very much from folks because we want them to focus on the actual project design rather than project reporting. We’re just asking individuals or groups or teams to present most creative culture and structure - all we used for recycled materials - and then just to submit a paragraph with very detailed photos, preferably [inaudible 0:39:27] from all angles so I can best see what they have created. Then the regional office Green Team is sitting as the review body, so we’ll gather all the information just before America Recycles Day and we’ll announce the winner just after. To throw in a little bit of an incentive, we’re giving the winning forest or district a $500 Sustainable Operations micro- grant to further Green Team incentives. Next slide please.

So one example that’s been submitted so far was again from this Mike McFadin on the Trinity River Management Unit. This is just one example that had the most photos, so I thought I would share this with you today. This was actually a new tool shed which was built from leftover lumber from other projects from the district, and what they communicated was that if they were to receive the $500 Sustainable Operation micro-grant, it would be used to purchase solar-powered motion detector floodlights to ensure safe loading and unloading of livestock in the evening. So it would allow them to get another facility upgrade on site and to ensure that that was a sustainable facility upgrade using those solar-powered lights. Next slide please.

This is the final slide and I just wanted to show two pictures of the inside of this tool shed. You look at the shot of recycled tool racks and the [inaudible 0:41:04] were made from scrap lumber, and then the recycled grease barrel that is actually used to teach kids how to make packing hitches. So the list goes on and

on. You see horseshoes that were converted into handles. We see bridge stringers that were [inaudible 0:41:25] that are now skids for the foundation of the tool shed so that it can be moved around. Again, a great example of creativity and reuse.

That concludes the case study.

Katie: Thanks, Lara. That is a great example of a fun and creative way to raise awareness about recycling. And like Lara mentioned, America Recycles Day is only one week away, but you could use that date to launch an awareness activity rather than conclude it. So thanks, Lara.

Now I’d like to introduce Matt Ehrman. He’s the recreation planner on the Willamette National Forest and he will be talking about another recycling awareness activity so whenever you’re ready, Matt.

Matt: Thanks, Katie. You can now move to the next slide.

This is our supervisors’ office. It’s an interagency building that we share with the BLM. This picture is from before it was completed, so that’s why the sign looks kind of weird. One of the key factors about this building is that it’s managed by the Oregon Military Department, which means that we have to follow some visual guidelines set by their adjutant general, which means that even though this is a LEED-certified building you can see the bike racks in the front by the door, and there are a lot of other great things about this building. There wasn’t a whole lot of recycling opportunities and [inaudible 0:42:52] and other areas. You can go to the next slide.

One of the things that .. we have an interagency Green Team that consists of BLM folks, some Forest Service people, then also a couple of people who work for the military, either, you know, one of the armed services or the National Guard or something like that. They’ve participated in ... and I believe we have a couple of meetings every year or quarterly, and one of the things that came out of those meetings was proposed by [inaudible 0:43:25], who’s a BLM front liner who serves both the Forest and the BLM. He’s come up with this poster that’s 11 by 17, that is put near your trash cans or other areas that are frequented by people, just let them know where they can recycle different things just because, you know, paper is pretty common in a lot of areas, and things like cardboard and glass aren’t everywhere. So this is a way to try to get people to stop throwing things in the trash that is pretty easy to recycle. Please go to the next slide.

This is a sampling at some of the locations. One of them you can tell is by a vending machine, just to let people know. We also have it in our break room. Then the area in the middle is their recycling area, the BLM put together in their

workspace. Then also we have ... the one on the far right is a picture of a trash can in a meeting room where there aren’t recycle bins, and so that is one of the places that we’ve really focused on just because we saw like just through observing people and other folks when they’re having meetings, that people would throw away pop cans and things when they could just walk in the hall a few feet to recycle it. Please go to the next slide.

One of the ways that we addressed that issue is that our Green Team applied for a regional micro-grant to purchase recycle bins that would be up to the visual standards for our building. These are kind of two pictures of ... they’re the same bins, but four of them were purchased by that micro-grant and two were purchased by the BLM, I'm not sure out of what funds. Five of those six are in our office, but the last one is on one of the districts to help with their recycling. I believe it’s in their front desk.

One of the issues that kind of surrounded these bins and why we applied for the grant is they were prohibitively expensive without the grant. As far as the hand go evidence, it seems that people are not throwing away as many things that are easy to recycle around cans, papers and plastic in these meeting rooms. One of the reasons that we try to get these is these rooms aren’t just used by the Forest Service and the occupants of the building. There are a lot of public meetings where folks go and do that, so they might not be aware of the other recycling options. There are also a lot of those “Recycle Here” signs near these. Next slide, or I think that’s the end of what I have.

Katie: Thanks, Matt. That’s a great example of something that you guys can do after you conduct your waste stream analysis and identify areas that you could improve your recycling. Matt sent me their poster. I believe it’s a Word document so I will add that for our SharePoint site and it will be available for you guys to customize for your unit if you would like to. Thanks so much, Matt.

Now we’ll move on to the topic construction material recycling. Michelle Ellis developed this PowerPoint for me, but she’s unable to be here today so I will do my best to represent her well and I’ll go over their project where they were able to recycle a lot of their construction material.

She works on the Okanogan-Wenatchee up in Washington State, and they had a fire warehouse that was constructed in the early 1930s and it was originally an office and then a garage and horse barn. Over many years, it’s been remodeled with bathrooms, more offices and engine base. Recently it was selected for a major renovation, and I enjoyed Michelle’s story about how she was able to find the recycling opportunities. She actually saw an advertisement in the local paper for the Habitat for Humanity. She realized that there was a lot of material from an 80-year-old building that is no longer usable, but certain items or materials can be used again.

Because she saw this advertisement in the Habitat for Humanity store, she was able to talk with her contractor and demolition subcontractor during their pre-work meeting, and she addressed the recycling options before the construction and demolition began. The contractor was very open and willing to help sort out the materials from their demolition in order to be recycled.ne of the keys to her success was that early communication with the contractor. Tycon, the contractor, was willing to set aside items for Habitat for Humanity. They were familiar with the process because they have done this before for a previous project, and the local Habitat for Humanity store was actually able to come to the site and collect all of the items. Once the contract have been signed and they’re conducting the demolition the contractor owns that material, so it’s very easy for them to set it aside and donate it or recycle it if that option is available.

These are just some great photos of the Habitat for Humanity store coming to work with the Forest Service employees to load up their truck with all the recycled materials, and I believe they’ve collected cabinets and doors. I think lumber, anything that could be reused or sold for reuse.

Habitat for Humanity, which I believe exits in many of our Forest Service communities, will accept any construction items in good condition to sell in their stores. They don’t actually use the items into the homes they build, but they sell the material to people and then purchase materials for the homes they sponsor.

Another part of the story that I really liked that Michelle told me was that their ranger district was able to salvage some cabinets that were still in really good shape, and they stacked the cabinets in a warehouse that have some room, and they will be using it on site in a different remodeled building. Some of their construction debris was donated to Habitat for Humanity and then some of it was actually reused on site. It was a very good way to avoid all that construction debris from entering the landfill.

Since Michelle couldn’t be here today, she put her contact information up on this slide. She’s a wealth of information and if you are interested in talking to her about communicating with your contractor about recycling, she’s a great resource, so I encourage you to contact Michelle.

Okay. Now I'm going to turn it over to Katie Isaacson. She’s a Public Affairs Specialist on the Milford Ranger District, and she will be talking about the composting at their unit. Katie, whenever you’re ready.

Katie: All right. Well, thanks everybody, and sorry my photo’s so blurred. I was asked for a photo and that’s all I had. I'm sitting in for Molly [inaudible 0:50:52]. She’s actually the one that kind of spearheaded this and started it up over two years ago. She wasn’t able to be here today, but I also compost. It’s a pretty easy thing to do and free is what we found.

Mainly, I think the requirements are having a place to do it. As you can see, there’s three bins that appears as just palettes that they had lying around that weren’t being used. She put it together with the YCC and Botany, I think early 2010, and she set it up where there is a space for dry material like yard debris, woody stuff like thats going in one bin. Then another bin that you start putting your food waste which you then mix with a little bit of the woody debris and like leafy stuff. Then, once you fill it, then you have another bin to continue that process. So yes, it’s a pretty easy thing to put together. You can ease up to the next slide.

It’s just using it, and the way we’ve set it up here is that we have a plastic bucket sitting outside of our break room which is luckily ... it’s very handy to have that break room access to outdoors, so we just have the bucket outside and made people aware of it that they can throw their scrap food into this bucket. Then, when it’s full, we have people that ... we don’t really have a schedule set up but there’s enough people that are doing it that they will just carry it over to the bin and dump it in. Sometimes people ask how far it is. It’s just across the parking lot. It’s not very far of a walk ... in less than a minute you’re over there, so very easy to do.

Molly said that when she started it she let people know about it, and I haven’t heard anybody complaining about it or not liking the visual of seeing food out, and the bucket outside, anything like that. I actually did a quick little survey when I realized I’ll be giving a speech and asked people to send an e-mail, asking people if they were aware of it and if they used it, and I got about 50% of the people in the office that responded, do use it and only 25% don’t, and they say that because they eat all their food. Or they don’t want to walk from their desk with their banana peel and throw it away. Then we have had a couple of new people join our unit, so they were not aware of it, and they seemed interested in doing it.

I don't know if people are aware of how composting works or what you can and cannot do, like you’re not supposed to put meat and bones in the composting. They also have a lot of guidelines, but if you put the ... you have percentages of how much food, like the food debris you have versus the green, grass clippings or whatever, they have guidelines for that on the web. They’re easy to find. I compost as well at home, and I’ve read a few things on it and it says even if you do everything wrong, like you don’t mix it right or you don’t cover it, and it isn’t warm enough, that eventually it will compost. Eventually it will be able to turn back into dirt. Then, after that, when it does become dirt, we put it on our garden, which is also really close to the bins. It’s just an employee garden that is set up that if we do produce enough produce we give it to the Lane County that has these free lunches for the students during the summer months, so we will give them some of our food if we do produce enough.

Yes, it really is a very simple thing to do. I just think it takes somebody that’s willing to spearhead it and then continue with the management of moving the food to the bin and finding the logistics of how to do that in a way that doesn’t concern some people. I know that some people find it ... they’re worried about the smell or some thingslike that. The food bin itself, like the one that’s in the picture, it can get smelly if it’s just food, but when you get it to the bin and mix it with the leafy material, the smell is pretty minimum. You can’t tell it’s there, so yes.

I guess another thing that we have going for us here is that our district office has a fence around it, so we don’t cover the bins in the summer time just to get as much heat as possible and we don’t have issues of animals in there. Then it’s covered in the winter because of the rain. Yes, so it’s been going on for a while and it’s very easy to do, and I would encourage other people to do it as well.

Katie: Great. Thanks so much, Katie. That’s a great example. I know other units that accomplished it in the same way that don’t have an employee garden. The employees take it home to use on their own gardens at home, so there’s several ways to use your compost. Thanks for sharing.

Now last but certainly not least, I’m happy to introduce Ashton Hargrave. He’s a forester on the San Juan National Forest, and he’ll be talking about one of the exciting projects that the Sustainable Operations collective experience of the Net-Zero team. Ashton, whenever you’re ready.

Ashton: Thank you very much, Katie, and greetings, everybody out there. Thanks for tuning in. My name is Ashton Hargrave and, as Katie mentioned, I’m a forester on the San Juan National Forest located in Southwest Colorado, and also the current chair of the Net-Zero Team of the Sustainable Ops collectives.

I think I’d just talk briefly about the net-zero concept, which is really one option for units looking to move beyond simply getting the yes on the climate change scorecard. Before I really begin, I want to thank all of our prior speakers for doing a great job of really setting me up here in my portion. what I mean is we’ve heard a lot of very common sense and powerful approaches to dealing with the waste stream at your unit in a very environmentally-friendly way. Each topic and strategy and technique that we’ve talked about is a great place to start to yield very satisfying results very quickly. In fact, there are a lot of units across the Forest Service that have done these things to date and had a lot of success. There are some units that have had those successes that are now asking themselves, “What can we do next?” One possible answer of what you can do next is pursue a net-zero goal.

What exactly is net-zero? Well, truth be told here, it can have several operational definitions based on a particular site, a particular footprint area of

focus, and a particular timeframe of your analysis. In other words, net-zero in and of itself can be unique to a particular unit.

1. Now, the conceptual framework, however, is fairly well defined, and that’s what the graphics here is referring to. A net-zero system in its conceptual definition explicitly recognizes that we as humans in our social and economic systems, need what nature provides, and it recognizes that the natural world is able to replenish itself over time. The net-zero challenge is therefore to ensure that the rate of use and the rate of replenishment come into balance, and when we can achieve this balance, which is obviously a goal, our ecological footprint is neither positive or negative and we’ve achieved really what we’re going for a net-zero ecological impact. Can I have the next slide, please?

In addition to achieving this ecological balance, input/output balance, there’s some other very important, fundamental human behavior aspects that we believe must be explicit net-zero goals. They include the list here, incorporating and maintain long term programs, practices, tools and policies by removing barriers, and removing barriers is key here in inspiring and empowering employees to make a difference. It involves instituting a culture that emphasizes education, rewards, positive actions, and recognizes achievements with long lasting impacts. In other words, incentivizes people to do things and institutes a positive reward culture as opposed to a negative punishment culture.

It integrates environmental footprint activities into daily decisions, habits, planning and operations, and it simplifies the process and standardize the process of getting to net-zero. Finally, it increases capacity and capabilities at and between all levels of the organization, effectively decentralizing decision making and localizing decision making to sort of personalize and tailor needs to specific situations. Can I have the next slide, please?

There’s a question of how do I get started? Well, our team is very diverse and very well versed in sustainability, and have studied and conducted several projects on their respective units and forests. One of the real recurring themes of successful sustainability efforts is that, whether it’s explicit or not, the process similar to the one illustrated in this graphic, was executed. Kind of its elegance is in its simplicity, yet it’s powerful enough to redo in the right direction, and the process of getting to net-zero is really no different.

The simplicity, of course, does not try to indicate that there aren’t a lot of details and a lot of complicated sort of roads or bridges that you’ve got to cross, but its simplicity makes it at least straightforward and a place to get started instead of something so convoluted and complicated that it’s overwhelming at the get go. The other beautiful thing about this particular process is that it’s scaleable and, maybe even most importantly, it’s repeatable. Next slide please.

This is my last slide or my last graphic. One of the other keys of a net-zero system is that you have to broaden your perspective on where your material is coming from, where it’s going, and identify your respective place in a complete product lifestyle cycle and system of material flows from the point of their extraction from the natural world in their raw from, through the manufacturer use and disposal. Now, too often net-zero is boiled down to conservation or using less because clearly if you don’t consume anything you don’t have an ecological impact, but this really ignores the basic tenet that we as humans have needs and nature does replenish itself over time. At this particular diagram, which we call a systems diagram, really helps us understand where or what can be put back into the system and where we can have an impact either upstream or downstream from our activities. Next slide.

Thanks, everybody. That was very brief, and I really appreciate your time and attention. I’ve really just given a conceptual overview of getting to net-zero. In fiscal year ’13, our team is working really hard to illustrate the net-zero process in practice, and we hope to have some concrete results and success stories in the future. I would please encourage any of you to contact me at any time if you’re interested in these ideas and I’d love to discuss them. Anytime I’m open and available.

Thanks very much for your attention.

Katie: Thanks, Ashton. That was a great overview of net-zero.

That was our last speaker. I just wanted to highlight two upcoming Sustainable Operations learning opportunities. The first is the open mic on ... excuse me. I didn’t update the date. The next open mic is scheduled for November 21, about waste prevention and recycling for an area. The next peer learning webinar is Wednesday, December 5th, and that topic will be sustainability leadership.

It looks like we have about 20 minutes. I think all the speakers are still online, so I would encourage you guys to ask any questions that you have. Again, if you have a question, please just press star one.

Amy, are you there? Do we have any questions?

Amy: Yes, I am. I believe we have one question. [inaudible 1:05:09].

Chris: My building is leased. We’re really interested in composting, but I was wondering if any of the presenters had ideas as to how we could work with our lessee to possibly start composting.

Katie: Yes. Hi, Chris. This is Katie. I’ll take the first stab at that, and then any of the other speakers please jump in. Here in the regional office we have composting

built into our agreement with the lessor, so we’re very fortunate in Portland that we have commercial composting. As part of our contract, we collect composting and then the janitorial staff empties them and takes it away somewhere to the trash.

I would imagine, if you don’t have that opportunity, that you could just try to work with the lessor and ask if there’s a place on site that you can keep a small bin both in the break rooms and outside to have your composting. They just might ask that the employees be in charge of taking care of it and making sure that the compost then gets composted and taken off site eventually.

Katie or any of the other speakers, do you guys have something to add?

Katie: Yes, I think you’re right. I think that, I mean, a small bin – and this is Katie again – that shouldn’t really ... I mean, even if they have a lawn that’s been ... unless it’s like a golf course, it’s not going to really scar the ground where you have your bin. You put the bin on top and just start pouring things in and mixing it, and you can get some types that are already ... some bins that are already manufactured. They’re like plastic, black kind of thing where they’re half of an egg-shaped, things like that. It’s something that you put on the ground, you open the lid, and start filling it up, and it’s surprising how much it can take as you start adding food and adding the lawn waste, whatever. It compacts down so fast, even if it’s not composting as fast maybe like the factory, it still really does allow for a lot of space.

I can’t imagine too many people having an issue with it, unless their lawn was so nice that they’re worried that when you leave in that area there would be a bare spot. Theoretically, you would think that would even be the nicest part of the lawn, with all the compost on top of it. So yes, I think talk to your lessor.

Female: Thanks, Katie. Yes, I think [inaudible 1:08:12] communication is key.

Lara: This is Lara Polansky, and this is another idea. The regional office in Region 5 has a composting system, and we do it on the building so we’re not in the exact same situation, but we’ve opted to put our compost tumblers, two large tumblers, on a paved surface with small plastic bins underneath to catch any drips from the composting material. That’s been one way to get around any concerns at all about the landscaping, just don’t put it on the landscaping and maybe put it in a part of the parking lot that is off the site. That worked well for us.

Male: Great. Thanks so much for the suggestions.

Katie: Thanks for the question. I’ve got a question that was typed in through the notes, and Carol was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for bear aware

composting bins or systems. Carol, I do know they exist. They have metal composting bins that are bear aware. I don’t have any specific examples so I’d have to search for you, but I thought I’d open it up to the other speakers to see if they have any specific examples.

It doesn’t sound like it, so Carol I’ll follow up with you and send you some links to composting bins that will work in areas where bears are.

Are there any other questions on the phone?

Amy: I do not see any other questions.

Katie: Okay. We’ll just take one more. We’ll give one more minute in case people haven’t pressed star one. As a reminder, just press star one if you have a question.

Amy: Okay. It looks like we have another question.

Bev: Hi. This is Bev Young in Region 1. My question is about the recycling proceeds, and you said that they could be used for hazardous waste disposal, or at least that’s the way I interpreted it. I just wanted to confirm that.

Katie: Hi, Bev. Yes. That was one of the examples that was given that is an acceptable use for the recycling proceeds. It’s anything that will reduce your environmental footprint and not sending hazardous waste to the landfills ... will reduce your environmental footprint, so that is an acceptable expenditure.

Bev: Okay. Another question just related to these budget codes. I'm assuming that these are pretty new, they are the YPPYY, or not?

Katie: Yes. I believe they’ve been in place for a couple of years but they just weren’t widely advertised. But, yes. I don’t ... it just depends on if they’ve been set up at your unit. For example, in Region 6, the regional budget shop set up those job codes for all the units, but I think you just have to request that your budget officer set it up for you and then you’ll be able to use them.

Bev: Okay.

Katie: Does that answer your question?

Bev: Yes. I'm just wondering if the other regions is ... gets through the fiscal [inaudible 01:11:48] that they’ve done any training on this, or whether if we go and ask it’s going to be news to them? (laughs)

Katie: Yes. It probably is pretty hit or miss. I know that myself and one other employee on the Forest that have set this program up, we gave a talk to our budget officers

in Region 6, and I think they did the same thing in Region 5, but it hasn’t been ... I don’t believe there’s been any nationwide training.

Bev: Okay. Okay.

Katie: Yes. If that’s something that you’re interested in, just let me know and I can send you a copy of our presentation or we could even arrange to give a presentation to your unit.

Bev: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Katie: Yes.

Lara: Katie, you’re absolutely right. This is Lara again. Region 5 did present to our budget officers. I believe Region 4 might have given ... I don't know if it was region-wide, but I know Lisa Machnik did provide some consultation on this topic throughout the region before she moved positions. I will say that Sheri Elliot, who’s our director of budget, I think that she was part of initiating this entry into the Forest when we came in the new direction in 2010, if not one year earlier. It has been around for a while. Katie was right.

Katie: Thanks, Lara. That’s good information. Are there any other questions on the phone?

Amy: I do not see any. Might one ... okay, it looks like we have two more.

Katie: Okay. So who finally opened first?

Amy: Margaret?

Margaret: Yes. I was wondering, you did mention that we were going to be able to get copies of this information in the website locations in the slides. You said something about sending them out?

Katie: Yes.

Margaret: I don’t know where to get them, the information.

Katie: Yes. That’s a great question, Margaret. So when you guys entered in your e-mail address for the webinar it was saved for me, so I will use those e-mail addresses to send out all the materials. They exist on a SharePoint site, but the URL is very long and cumbersome to write down, so I’ll just send it out via e-mail.

Margaret: That would be great. Thank you.

Katie: Yes. The next question?

Amy: It looks like ... I think that was just Chris again so I think that was the only one.

Chris: Yes. I'm sorry to ask so many questions. I'm just really excited about this. I just revitalized our Green Team. It was sort of dormant for a couple of years and I'm having a really hard time sort of getting employees motivated and excited about the projects that we’re trying to promote. I was wondering if any of the presenters had any suggestions or success stories of ways of getting the involvement of employees at the various districts and offices?

Katie: That’s a great question, Chris, and please don’t apologize for asking questions. We really appreciate it.

I think Lara’s example of the America Recycles Day case study was a great way to get people involved. As she noted, there was a $500 micro-grant award for the end of the competition, and I think that’s one way to get people excited is not only if they’ll get an award at the end but there’s a sense of competition. Lara, did you want to add anything to that?

Lara: Certainly, that works well. Another thing that of course makes a difference is if your unit leadership can be tapping the local Green Team visibly and endorsing their efforts and supporting the charter, participating at all employee meetings, that kind of thing. That seems to really pique interest, when you know that it’s a priority.

Chris: That’s great. Thanks so much.

Katie: Yes. Thanks for your thoughtful question. Did any of the other speakers have anything to add from their experience on their units?

Ashton: Excuse me. This is Ashton. I do think it’s important to try to kick out a project or some activity that kind of yields results quickly. For a start, just based on our experience, there was a lot of kind of excitement built just by ... we organized a roadside cleanup. If that’s everything that was recyclable, separated it from that which wasn’t recyclable, weighed it, and publish those results and it ended up about I think 75% of the total waste that we collected was able to be recycled. It was a team building experience for the office and also kind of a quick [inaudible 1:17:23] that got people fired up.

Katie: Thanks, Ashton. That’s a great example. I just wanted to open it up to the rest of the speakers, if you guys have anything to add. Or, Amy, if there’s any more questions on the phone?

Amy: Yes. We do have one more question. It comes from Laurie. Her question must have been answered. I don’t see any more.

Katie: Okay. I guess the last call, just press star one. In the meantime, we’re waiting

for that last call, I just wanted to thank all of our speakers. You guys presented wonderful case studies and it was all great information that can be implemented at other units. I really appreciate your time. Amy, no more have come in?

Amy: No. I do not see any.

Katie: Okay. Any last words from any of the speakers?

Male: Thank you, Katie, for inviting me.

Katie: Yes. Thanks for participating. All right. Well, it sounds like we’re good to go.

Again, I thank all the speakers for the wonderful information. This webinar was recorded, so if you guys want to reference it again or hear what the speakers have said, I will send out links to that in the e-mail with all of the other follow up information.

It looks like Laurie, the person who had a question, just typed in to me, and she said we have a presentation by the recycling vendor at their locations for all employees to share changes in their recycling program, and it was very well received. It sounds like she just wanted to share another great idea about how to get your Green Team engaged and get people fired up, and that was to have an outside speaker come in. Thanks for sharing that, Laurie.

Okay. Thanks everybody again for your participation. I appreciate your time and engagement, and have a good day.