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Red, Black, and Gold...adds Green
Over the past few years, the National Headquarters, known as Lyrecrest to many Sinfonians, has taken on a bit of a "green" initiative. As you may know, the term "green" has been equated to anything that is considered environmentally friendly. A couple of these initiatives can be seen outside of the building, but most of it takes places within the office.
To our alumni, one of the most noticeable green initiatives is this e-newsletter, Sinfonia Resonance. Now entering its fourth year, the newsletter is e-mailed out to about 20,000 alumni every two months. To do the same thing by mail, the Fraternity would have sent out over 120,000 pieces of mail, and that's only counting the members with e-mail addresses.
In order to make a print newsletter with the same content, it would need to be about 10 pages in length. According to Treehouse, a green marketing initiative sponsored by inHouse, 238 trees would have been needed to create a printed bi-monthly newsletter starting in October 2006 to this current issue. That number reflects members with an e-mail address who receive the e-newsletters now. If we sent newsletters to every living alumnus in that same span of time, over 700 trees would have been needed. |
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"At one time, the Fraternity offered a mailed newsletter to alumni called The Gold in addition to The Sinfonian," comments Dan Krueger, director of alumni engagement. "Eventually, it was not cost effective to maintain it by itself. Sinfonia Resonance provides an effective way to maintain our financial resources, as well as environmental resources."
The Fraternity's national publication, The Sinfonian, has been given consideration to an electronic format. Advances in technology would allow for it to be delivered via e-mail. . .and still look like a magazine. The staff is still looking to determine if this would be a potential option for members in the future.
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GREEN IN STORE
The Sinfonia Store is working on a green line of merchandise. So far, there are four eco-friendly items being offered to members, as well as their families. One of the first items on hand was a black baseball cap made from woven bamboo. The store soon made available luggage tags recycled from automobile tires. Shortly thereafter, the store created a Sinfonia Family line with a black shirt made of "modal," a bio-based reconstituted cellulose from the beech tree, that says "Sinfonian Mom" in front.
At the National Convention, the store introduced an unbleached cotton shopping bag that members could use to collect Sinfonia memorabilia. These bags are completely reusable for personal use and will be available online in the near future.
"The upcoming academic year will be the 'green year' for the Sinfonia Store," mentions Tonya McGuire, controller and primary supervisor of the Sinfonia Store. "Recycled, eco-friendly merchandise is big with our demographics, so we want to give the members what they want!"
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RECYCLING OUR RESOURCES
On the Lyrecrest property, the green initiative can be seen through recycling efforts that have been into play over the last couple of years. About two years ago, staff members began staff members began looking into recycling bins for paper. The National Headquarters is the central hub of communication to chapters, colonies, alumni associations of Phi Mu Alpha, as well as individual members, and goes through a lot of paper. Not only does correspondence make its way through this building, but members use the building on a regular basis on weekend visits.
"It was amazing how much paper we just throw out because of a messed up print job or because we printed more than we needed," Krueger recalls.
It was determined that a small step could be taken by purchasing some blue garbage cans and placing them around various work areas for paper recycling. It didn't take long to realize that these small recycle cans did not have the capability to hold the amount of paper that was considered garbage. Larger bins were purchased with an oversized paper bin placed in the work room by the photocopier.
"On average, I probably do a paper run once a month," comments Will |
TREES USED FOR OTHER PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Other publications:
The Red and Black
About 20 trees needed to produce 5,000 copies four times per year.
The Sinfonian
About 90 trees needed to produce 20,000 copies twice per year.
General Printing
The National Headquarters goes through approximately 24,000 pieces of paper per month for photocopies and printing jobs. That is the equivalent of about three trees per month or 36 trees per year. |
Lambert, retreat coordinator and program associate. "It depends on what's going on. After the convention, I think I was going every other day."
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Additionally, recycling containers can now be seen in the kitchen to allow weekend retreat attendees to recycle tin cans, plastic containers and aluminum cans. What started out as a couple of extra garbage bins, has now turned into containers that are more aesthetically pleasing.
Krueger states, "We are not trying to change the world, but we do feel responsible for what happens to it. We just want to be able to do our part to make the world a little better for everyone." |
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