Recycle:
We have been making some small changes here at the studios that we hope will make a difference both for us and for the environment. We would like to invite all of our clients to help us impliment a recycling program here. You will find a blue recycling bin in each of our studios for glass bottles, plastic bottles, and cans. Toss your stuff in the recycle bins and your little act of kindness will go a long way!
Reuse:
I have a storage area here at the studios that most people don't ever see. It's kind of like your garage at your house--you keep lots of things there that you think you might use sometime, just hanging on to things that you really don't need (or haven't used in forever). I recently decided to let some things go hoping that other people will get better use out of them than I was getting. It felt good to get rid of things and know that they won't end up in a landfill somewhere. I gave some acoustic panels and soundproofing to a friend of mine who is adding on to his mastering studio. He donated a new unused water heater to me to return the favor. (more energy efficient than my old one!) I had been keeping 20 or so cracked and damaged cymbals, not wanting to just throw them in the trash bin--hoping to eventually find something to use them for. I finally realized I wasn't going to do anything with them and decided to find them a new home. I put an ad on craigslist. One guy came by that evening to pick up about 8 of the cymbals, he was a beginning drummer who just needed some stuff to bash on. The second guy was also a drummer, but was an artist looking for cymbals for an art project--how cool. I was thrilled to have the rest of the cymbals be used in such a way that others will get to enjoy them too! I also got rid of a ton of used drum heads that I had been hanging on to for no good reason.
We have traded out many of our light bulbs for the compact flourescent ones where we can. We are hoping to continue do do things such as putting in some additional skylights over our hallway areas, and anything else that we can think of that will help the environment. Would love to do solar panels!!!
For tips on going green and recycling here are a couple of websites I like...
www.planetgreen.com
www.treehugger.com
Personal Tip on a way to go GREENer:
I've already started to refuse the plastic shopping bags for things when I shop. Especially if I just get one item, or something(s) that is easy to carry to the car without a bag. If I'm out at the mall (which doesn't happen often), when I go to the first store and buy something I usually get a bag. Typically it's a fairly good sized bag and say I only bought 1 pair of jeans--when I go to the next store I politely ask the clerk to put my items in the bag from the first store. When I get done shopping instead of a single bag from each place I shopped I have one, maybe two depending on how much stuff I got. When I first started doing these things I got funny looks, but I get them much less now. More often than not I ask the clerk to save the bag for someone else!