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Energy Ambassador
Kim Osmonson is an HR Program Analyst & Office Manager in the Office of Administration. In addition to analyzing programs and managing offices, she has become an energy ambassador for the office. She compiles and distributes monthly hints and tips about energy saving and sustainability.
Q) What motivated you to start sending out your Sustainability Hints & Tips?
A) I like the idea of bringing up sustainability on a regular basis hoping that some hint, tip or kudo will start someone thinking about some way to conserve energy or come up with a more sustainable method to our madness (be it work or pleasure). If sustainability is a repeat topic, at the very least I can tickle people’s minds and maybe they’ll believe that it’s not going away and that we really need to do something about it.
Q) Where do you get your ideas?
A) I check UC websites, sometimes I google, sometimes I stumble over an idea when reading the paper or watching a program.
Q) Is this part of your "official" job or something you do on the side?
A) I believe I was asked to take up the cause at some point – to spearhead action on the part of our office – very vague recollection – must need a higher dose of fish oil. Then, when Stan [Nosek, VC, Administration] commented favorably on my Hints & Tips and action items, I thought – aha! Something good I can do for our office! So I consider it official.
Q) What kind of response have you gotten from people?
A) What response? ONLY KIDDING! Stan has commented favorably and a couple of people have come to me with ideas. |
Kim's Sustainability Hints & Tips
Four tips courtesy of The Nature Conservancy:
- Travel light. Walk or bike and you’ll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.
- Recycle glass bottles. You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
- Check your automobile monthly to ensure that the tires are fully inflated. Follow this tip and save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive.
- Plant a tree. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use it as their energy source, producing oxygen for us to breathe. A tree in the temperate zone — found between the tropics and the polar circles—can remove and store 700 to 7,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. A tree that shades a house can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.
Turn off the water while washing hands and brushing teeth.
Set your printers to print 2-sided by default.
Take a reusable container to campus food vendors when purchasing your next cup of coffee.
Save someone a trip across campus (and gas and time) – scan and email items that someone needs to review (if appropriate). This is particularly handy on nasty rainy days. (Contact Reprographics about printers with scanning and emailing capability.)
Office inhabitants - use curtains and window shades to minimize energy use.
If you have the option, use forms that can be distributed and completed online.
Treat your workplace as if you were paying the utility bill.
Event planners - make all your events and meetings zero waste. Sodexho contacts the R4 program automatically when they cater, but if you contract with another caterer you should contact R4 for assistance ahead of time. for a nominal fee, R4 provide's utensils, plates, cups and napkins as well as receptacles for recyclable's and compostable's. At large events, they send staff to set up, clean up, and make sure the recycling and composting actually happen. For more info on Zero Waste:
- Visit the Zero Waste website.
- Email Lin King, ltking [at] ucdavis [dot] edu.
- Call 530-752-7456.
Specify 100% recycled content for tissue paper and paper towels.
Adjust documents to fit on one page. (Don't you just hate those three lines hanging over that cost you an extra page?)
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