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My SMART goal has been to walk to school and work 5 times a week. Unfortunately this is the first time I DID NOT complete my goal.
This week I came across several challenges and few successes, completely backwards from my other weeks, here are soem of the challenges I faced this week. Well first of all I was home in the cities most of the week, because of the holday break. So that severly hurt my chances for completing my goal. But that wasn't the only thing that caused me to fail. I have also been pretty sick, came down with the seasonal flu. So I had to miss both school and work. Despite all of these challenges I did come across a minor success. I recently purchased a new pair of gloves and they kept my hands very warm the few times I did walk.
My feelings this week were somewhat disappointed in myself, that I didn't complete my goal. It has just been frusterating being sick, not being able to do anything as the semester winds down. But I am not getting too down, I know this is a new week and I am starting to feel better. Therefore, I am going to keep my SMART goal as it is and hope that I recover and am able to succeed next week!
blogged for the Eco-chic Lifestyle Change Week 9 hosted by http://ecochicwithamy.blogspot.com/
For My photo essay I decided to a theme of things I found that are environmentally friendly around my work, St. Luke's Hospital
St. Luke's has been a tobacco free campus since September 1, 2007. It has been a very positive change, but some employees have been mad and are forced to walk 200 feet away from the building if they wish to smoke.
This is a donation box in the cafeteria. You can donate old glasses or hearing aides here to others who can not afford them.
This sign is displayed next to the water/ice machine and this stack of plastic glasses. It says please help St. Luke's in reducing waste by using these re-useable water glasses and please return them later.
This little bin sits atop the garbage cans in the cafeteria. The cafeteria sells Yoplait yogurt, and they ask you to leave the lids in this bucket. Once it is full they send it in to Yoplait, because for every lid they receive Yoplait donates money to breast cancer foundation.
This is a food recycling bin used in the kitchen. All of the food waste each night goes into the bin. A local farmer picks up the bins twice a week and uses it as feed for his pigs.
This is a confidential paper shred-it bin. The small print reads "each time this bin is filled, half a tree is saved in the forest."
This is located near the cash register in the cafeteria. These re-useable water bottles are for sale to employees, and the sign encourages employees to re-use, recycle, and use less.
This is a flyer for the Pint for a Pound program St. Luke's is running through January 16th. For each pint of blood that is donated at St. Luke's, they will donate 1 pound of food to local food shelves. So get out there and donate before it's too late!
In taking these pictures throughout the hospital I noticed a common theme. St. Luke's is promoting the concept of re-using items a lot, including donating and re-using. There was also a sign in the cafeteria that said they go through over a thousand paper cups for the fountain soda machine a month, so they sell sturdy plastic soda cups that the staff can keep in their locker and reuse.
I have been reading Silent Snow by Marla Cone, for this read 'n' seed I finished the book reading pages 191-233.
This section of the book was all about solutions and predictions for the future. A chapter was all about a gathering of hundreds of scientists from all over the world at the Polar Environmental Centre in Tromso, Norway. They all had to decide what kind of harm arctic contaminants are doing to the artcic animals and people, then later present their findings to the environmental ministers of the eight arctic nations. This was a very long grueling process, since they had to condense such a high magnitude of information and thousands of pages of research down to just a few pages.
This section of the book also explained new contaminants that have been rising around the world in the last decade. These include fire retardents that are being used on electronics and household item, especially furniture. Many countries have begun to ban the production of these new items, a small positive step taken, but they are still parts all over the world. A lot of popular furniture manufacturers, including IKEA, have vowed themselves to no longer produce any of these materials.
There are a lot of implications to society for this section of the book. First, the U.S. was one of the original countries to develop the country-wide ban on the many fire retardent materials. However, once it was finshed they did not sign it, and became the one arctic nation that had not signed it. It was said that Preisdent Bush personally made the decision not to join in. Also, many scientists are dismayed that scoiety has learned nothing from the toxic legacies of the past and appears destined to repeat them over and over. Only the names of the chemicals change.
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