[padg] thought for midwinter

["Jeanne Drewes" <jdre@xxxxxxx>]

Bring your travelin' mug to midwinter to show your support
for a greener ALA!  See details below from SRRT's Task Force
on the Environment.

Jeanne Drewes
PADG member at large

---------------------------------------------------


Date:	January 2, 2008

From:	Task Force on the Environment, American Library Association

To:	All Librarians Attending the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting
 	(PLEASE ROUTE TO OTHER LIBRARIAN DISCUSSION LISTS)

Hint:	ALL Other Library Associations are Requested to Duplicate This
 	Action as Many Times as Possible

Re:	Librarians Raise Their Cups for Planet Earth

The Task Force on the Environment of the Social Responsibilities Round
Table (TFOE-SRRT) wants conference goers to bring their favorite traveling
mugs and water bottles in support of efforts encouraging the American
Library Association (ALA) to reduce its carbon footprint. TFOE will launch
this event at the upcoming ALA 2008 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia from
January 11-14, 2008. The title of this campaign is "Cup by Cup for a
Greener ALA."

The campaign will show that ALA members are ready to make lifestyle
changes for sustainable conferences and to protect the health of the Earth.

International Paper estimated in 2005 that Americans used 14.4 billion
disposable paper cups for hot beverages. Laid end-to-end, these cups
circle the earth 55 times. A Starbucks' Green Team memo appearing in 2000
stated, "If only 50 customers a day in every store were to use reusable
mugs, Starbucks would save 150,000 disposable paper cups daily. This
equals 1.7 million pounds of paper, 3.7 million pounds of solid waste, and
150,000 trees a year."

The math is simple. A typical ALA Midwinter draws over 10,000 librarians
to its 2000+ business meetings, discussion groups, programs, and events.
If every librarian attending Midwinter brought their own coffee cup more
than 10,000 paper or Styrofoam cups would not enter already over-flowing
landfills. And if the 65,000+ members of ALA did not use disposable cups
they could make an impact as significant as Starbucks' targeted per store
customer waste reduction.

TFOE designed the "Cup by Cup" campaign to be easy for all librarians to
join. There is nothing to buy, and only a few simple steps to take:

   1) Bring a reusable cup to Midwinter;
   2) Fill it with a favorite beverage;
   3) Raise your cup and tell colleagues how you are helping the planet;
   4) Drink, repeat & support TFOE-SRRT efforts toward a sustainable ALA.

The ALA Task Force on the Environment promotes awareness of environmental
issues within ALA; addresses information exchange on the world
environment; and provides services, programs and publications that assist
librarians with environmental issues in the workplace and in local
communities. TFOE is one of seven task forces in the Social
Responsibilities Round Table. SRRT works to make ALA more democratic and
to establish progressive priorities not only for the Association, but also
for the entire profession. Concern for human and economic rights was an
important element in the founding of SRRT and remains an urgent concern
today. SRRT believes that libraries and librarians must recognize and help
solve social problems and inequities in order to carry out their mandate
to work for the common good and bolster democracy.

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library
association in the world, with more than 65,000 members. Its mission is to
promote the highest quality library and information services and public
access to information. ALA offers professional services and publications
to members and nonmembers, including online news stories from American
Libraries and analysis of crucial issues from the Washington Office.


For more information contact:

 	Fred Stoss, Co-Chair, ALA Task Force on the Environment
 	Associate Librarian
 	228-B Capen Hall
 	University at Buffalo-SUNY
 	Buffalo, NY 14260-1672
 	716/645-2946 ext. 224
 	fstoss@xxxxxxxxxxx 

Press release prepared by Monika Antonelli, Fred Stoss, and Elaine Harger
for TFOE.