Skip to content

November 15, 2017

#1 MassRides – Two Events sponsored by MassRides and hosted at Whoi or MBL are in the works for Winter-Spring!

  • Meet Your Match Event - Feb 14th at Noon – Swope – Meigs Room. MassRides will provide light refreshments (but not lunch) and encourage employees from all surrounding institutions to meet others by zipcode and perhaps set up carpooling…even if you carpool once a week you are having an impact!
  • Try It Day – sometime in May. MassRides will provide free breakfast for employees who TRY an alternative commute to work that day…could be bike, carpool, walk.
  • Headlines Entry this week:

Green Commuting  WHOI is partnered with MassRIDES, a free program of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) designed to help reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality and mobility. Through MassRIDES, WHOI can now offer employees rewards for their green trips and eligibility for the Emergency Ride Home program!

NuRIDE—This free tool helps residents of Massachusetts find carpool or vanpool matches and provides rewards for green commutes. Create an account on the website to find someone to carpool or vanpool with, if you don’t already have someone in mind to ask. For every green trip you log into the dashboard, you will receive points that you can apply to redeem discounts to local and national retailers. Employees who commute green at least twice a week are also eligible for our Emergency Ride Home program, which may be used up to four times per calendar year.  MassRIDES provides you with this free commuter insurance and will reimburse you up to $100 per ride if you need to take an uber, taxi, rental car, or get a ride home with a coworker in the event of an unexpected emergency.For more information visit commute.com or contact WHOI’s MassRIDES Outreach Coordinator Kyle Bonus at Kyle.Bonus@dot.state.ma.us or (267) 210-2815.    

Action:

  • Reserve room in Swope for Meet Your Match Event on Feb 14th (SB – done)
  • Create flyer (KB- Kyle Bonus)
  • Invite all surrounding institutions (KB)- I sent her contacts at each institution

#2  WSS-  Long Pond (Glacial Moraine Hike)- 3.5 miles -Sunday, Nov. 19th 10:00 am – meet at Goodwill Park – at the Pavilion which is 1/3 mile in (off Gifford Rd)- WHOI, The 300 Committee + Buzzards Bay Coalition

Action:   

  • volunteer to lead WSS events (ALL)
  • Add Lunch and Learn – the Basics of LED lighting. Schedule for January (SM)

#3  Recycling – We discussed what we learned at the Recycling Lunch and Learn. Three main takeaways:

  • 75% of our recycling gets sold off to China
  • Wet paper is not recyclable – purchase a recycle bin with lid
  • Acceptable limits of contaminants (non-recycling items) is decreasing from 10% to 3%...so continue to do your best by rinsing out containers and jars before recycling and rip off top of pizza box (recycle) and compost or trash the bottom (with food contaminant).

We may start a separate #5 plastics collection bin (tbd)…need volunteers.

Action:

  • Set up display in Clark Lobby of what CAN’T be recycled (SM+PP)
  • Send picture from town hall depicting what can’t be recycled to Dina and she’ll post on our website (SM +DP)
  • Find others to help Pam Polloni with #5 Plastic recycling program

#4  LED Fixtures and bulb installation Update– Improving energy efficiency at WHOI by installing LEDs in:

  • Geosecs – completed Oct. 6, 2017- estimated 5 KW energy, 35,098 KWHours,and $6,000 annual savings!
  • Fye Lab – Completed Nov. 9, 2017- estimated 17 KW, 77,000 KWHours and $11,000 annual savings
  • Marine Ops – Completed Nov 10, 2017- estimated 1.4 KW, 4,700 KWHours and $1000 annual savings

#5  Vbikes – http://www.vbikes.com/

Hubless Bike Share program. We’ve been communicating with Chamber of Commerce and Bikeways Committee to determine feasibility of the program in Falmouth + Woods Hole (which would include bikes at Whoi) TBD

Updates: Falmouth Bikeways Committee may pilot the program (TBD) for 6-8 weeks in the spring. Guidelines are needed however, and details worked out such as where to park bikes, who will be the ‘manager’ and tech, should they bid out the program etc. 

#6    New Business –

  • Grafton Briggs left us the new battery powered leaf blowers to try out. They have been using these to clear leaves and paths around buildings as an alternative to gas powered units.
  • Ice Thermal Storage – we are candidates for an Eversource pilot program which involves installing Ice Bear Thermal Storage somewhere on our campus (looking at building candidates).  Cape Light Compact would provide the unit for free as part of the pilot program. For more info on how the system works: https://www.ice-energy.com/
  • Shop party!!
    • People would love the steel cups as a sustainable gift (SM)
    • Recycling bottles and cans – Make signs (SM)
    • Compost Shells – Scott Lindell and Alex B. said they would take the shells away.

Action:

  • Make Recycle Bottle signs for Shop Party (SM)
  • Buy yellow bins for shell composting (SL, SM +AB) – decorate bins/signage
  • Steel cups as Sustainability gift – if possible (SM+DD)