What Can You Do To Help?
Do you have information about other active “green” initiatives at MCC?
Have an idea you would like to share? We want to hear your stories!
Please email GRiT@mcc.edu
If you know someone who is going the extra mile to recycle, or implementing cost saving programs that help reduce waste or provide educational outcomes related to green initiatives we'd like to recognize these efforts on our website and for the individual. By doing so we hope to inspire others to take action.
Nominate an individual or group for the Greeny Award.Automating payroll and HR elections forms and more. Thank you to the entire HR Team including Stephanie Pomper, Amy Sweeney, Rhonda Brinch, Kristi Dawley, Sylvia Green, Susan Praski and Laura Tripp.
Going Virtual and paperless as we moved to support employees working remotely the ITS Department implemented countless measures to give students, faculty and staff the tools they needed to be successful.
Elizabeth Fitchett,Student in IA, takes it upon herself to monitor and empty recycle bins, break down boxes she sees that are just set by the bins in the hall. This student is motivated and took the initiative on her own to maintain our recycling bins in the office. This helped to allevia te the work of others shows a level of care and support that is deserving of recognition. And is above and beyond her expected role in the department and is greatly appreciated. This support makes it easier for staff to perform their assigned duties in particular the custodial staff who are charged with emptying bins.
Because it was done without asking and she does everything with kind heartedness to be helpful to those around her she is our Greeny Award winner.
Sierra Club, Ruth Mott Foundation-Applewood Estate, Flint River Watershed Coalition, Keep Genesee County Beautiful, Genesee Conservation District, UM-Flint, Kettering University, City of Flint for the years of service and helping co-host events such as the Annual Earth Day Celebration and Bee Symposium. Our sincere appreciate for your years of service and education to the Flint and Genesee Community through out reach programs.
Approving the expenditure to install the hydration stations showed a commitment to staff and students on safe healthy drinking water, during the Flint Water Crisis. With courage, integrity, and commitment to the greater good the group addressed and acknowledge the problem when it was realized and took proactive steps to mitigate the damages. This directly contributes to the health and well being of all students, faculty, staff and visitors of the college. The long term implications of lead exposure to the community have yet to be realized, but taking this step certainly helped to reduce lead exposure and provide essential safe drinking water.
We are a safe haven to those in the community without safe water. It's an unprecedented situation, and they made an impressive move to fully fund the hydration stations. While this expense was great, the benefit in terms of health and safety are immeasurable.
Greeny Award winners are Michele Traver and Bermicia Parks. Michele worked with ITS to identify criteria needed to develop a system to go paperless with the CPSC and Subcommittee Agenda packets and Bermicia integrated it with the portal. Based on figures from 2013, this effort saved approximately $5,000 in printing costs, helps reduce copier wear and is saving countless hours of staff time. The Green Initiatives team sends a thank-you to Michelle and Bermicia for their hard work and creative solution to reduce waste and help with sustainability efforts at Mott College.
Laura is a true advocate for recycling in the Human Resources Office. She not only recycles, but encourages others in her area to do so. As one fellow employee described her, "Laura is a recycling/shredding cheerleader!" Laura instituted a "no styrofoam or disposable cups policy" in her office. She has "trained" everyone to bring in their own mugs and cups to use for beverages -- thus saving money and reducing HR's waste stream. Not only does Laura set a good example in the HR office, but she is an active member of the AQIP Green Initiatives/Recycling team and contributes to the College's overall goal of reducing waste and initiating sustainable practices. Thank you Laura, keep up the green work!
Any Mott College employee, student, or group is eligible to win a "Greeny Award."
Congratulations to Environmental Club members Brian Silker, Tamera Goetz, Katina Shaw, and Paul Mattern pictured above with Custodial Supervisor Tim Broomfield, presenting a Greeny Award to the club for research and making a case for more sustainable food containers through food services at MCC. Product research was performed by members Aime Neumann and Nadaly Marchi, not pictured above. With guidance from co-advisors Lisa Poma and Rebecca Gale-Gonzalez, the club completed the project in the Winter 2013 semester.
Custodial Staff: Beverly Arnesen, Lucy Powell, Tim Broomfield, RaeAnn Gatenby, Gail Blanton and Duane Langston pictured here are the heart of the recycling program at MCC. They maintain the recycling bins and deployed additional bins with a grant from Keep Genesee County Beautiful to include bottle container recycling. Custodians make our work environment beautiful and pleasant and are always friendly and attentive to the needs of students and staff. The new effort is really going the extra mile to provide the much needed recycling services on campus. By providing recycling they are mitigating the amount of trash that winds up in the landfill and the college hopes to realize cost savings as the program expands. Congratulations and thank you to all custodians for their efforts to make our campus buildings safe and clean places to work.
In September 2011 Stephen Shubert was hired as coordinator for the language program at MCC, Stephen Shubert has contributed to environmental awareness and saving trees by replacing student workbooks with online e-books for all MCC taught Spanish and French language courses. Because of his desire to see student improvement and retention, Stephen undertook the initiative to migrate to the e-curriculum. The program would have had limited success had Stephen not taken the time to assign and pace out exercises throughout the curriculum thereby facilitating its adoption from other language instructors. This effort has saved students approximately $60 from the traditional hardcover and paper-edition course materials. Migrating to this new e-learning curriculum has meant that instructors can better monitor student success and retention and focus on pedagogy instead of correcting exercises. Congratulations Stephen for moving the Spanish curriculum into a digital era, and for helping to preserve trees and other resources at the college.
Congratulations to Vikrant Ahuja, Instructional Designer with MCC Regional Technology
Initiatives, chosen as the winner of GRiT's Greeny Award for July 2012.
Vikrant Ahuja joined the Green Initiatives Team at its inception. He has participated
in the UM-Flint recycling program tour, clean ups, This Is Litter Too Campaign and
MCC's annual Fall Rally. He has also met with students numerous times to implement
student recycling initiatives. One of the biggest supporters of the "College Recycling
Challenge," Vikrant most recently participated in the community beautification effort
at Kearsley Park, as the team worked to weed, and clean up debris on Robert T. Longway.
"Vikrant is most deserving of this award because of his dedication, congeniality
and creativity in working on GRiT initiatives," said Rebecca Gale-Gonzalez, Marketing
Assistant/Web Content manager who also co-chairs the Green Initiatives Team. "He attends
every GRiT function or offers to help with some aspect of it whether it be research-based,
or actually getting his hands dirty picking up trash. He doesn't shy away from the
challenge. He also looks for ways that his department or others can contribute and
has shared others' achievements -- a true quality of a leader. "
Jon Eddy, Gary Hayward, Jennifer Follett, Debbie Adams, Jason Slade, Matthew Sullivan, Matt Roda, Dave Butke, Dennis Hughes, Dan Losano, Chuck Briedenstein, Bud (Charles) Swett, Charlie Lafayette are awarded the March 2012 Greeny Award for curriculum development related to sustainable systems including alternative energy, energy efficiency and consumption.
Tim Broomfield, Physical Plant presents the February 2012 Greeny Award to campus Manager, Desiree Londrigan at Lapeer Extension Center (LEC) while staff, faculty, and students gather around paper recycling bin. The nomination by Chris Hiben notes the many varied green activities implemented from paper recycling to bottle collection helping fund green effort at LEC.
The first Greeny Award in January 2012 was presented to Clark Harris, Dean of Technology by Tim Broomfield, Physical Plant who is in charge of recycling on campus and works with the Green Initiatives Recycling Team (GRIT). Various staff were cited for their recycling efforts including Jim Jennings, Matt Roda, Dave Butke, Dave Roach, Jerry Staley, Jason Slade, Matthew Sullivan, Bill Holloway, Gary Hayward, Jennifer Follett, & Debbie Adams.
