Hands down, the best part of my job is working with the UHN Green Team. The +700 staff across UHN volunteer their time to make their areas more sustainable. Sometimes they lead quietly by example, nudging their colleagues into eco-friendly ways. Other times, they make a big ol’ green splash! I could lavish many flowery paragraphs of praise but better yet, let’s show you … starting with the first 5 (more next week).

We’ll start with the ABI team getting rid of expanded polystyrene (aka Styrofoam). At UHN, Styrofoam is not recyclable (though it might be in your municipal collection … see why here).  Studies also show Styrofoam is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen“. ABI now uses a recyclable paper cup … I’ll drink to that!

 

Christine in the GIM team has also helped at almost every Earth Week event at UHN and in the UHN Real Food Garden (a weeding pro!). We will miss her dearly when she retires this year. She’s inspired her colleagues to keep it going.

 

Our friends in far-west Bickle Centre have really outdone themselves with GROW! You can read more about them in Adeline’s starting post and Amanda’s post from the corn roast. Amanda really keeps this team on track, but makes it fun with group gardening events.

 

The Research Green Team is always looking (and testing and analyzing … they are Research, after all) ways to save resources. We have many more research stories, like the Ice Bucket Challenge , Chill-Out, Drop & Swap and Shut the Sash.

 

Fire & Life Safety not only keeps us safe (it is even in the title), almost the entire department is on the Green Team! Not only do they incorporate MAJOR energy savings on each patrol (winning the Golden Light Switch), they also dedicate a few minutes at every staff meeting to something green. Special thanks to Perry for bringing everyone onboard.

We featured these on our Earth Week booth (made of a gigantic piece of reused cardboard from a fridge delivery). I loved seeing green teamers reading each other’s stories and saying “hey, we should do that in our area!”.

Stay tuned for more green team greatness next week, and have a look at our Facebook page for Earth Week photos. Most importantly, know that imitation is the greatest form of flattery … every one of these ideas can and should be repeated.