SOS Tompkins Weekly

Tompkins Weekly 1/30/12
By Sarah Rubenstein-Gillis

This time of year, college seniors across the nation begin to wait anxiously by their mailboxes to find out if they’ve been accepted to the colleges of their choice.

A “Sign of Sustainability” here in Tompkins County is the interest colleges are expressing in the New Roots Charter School Class of 2012. As the first batch of college acceptances rolls in, it’s clear that a New Roots education is not only powerful preparation for college, it is helping local students to be highly attractive candidates.

New Roots is a small public regional high school founded in downtown Ithaca in 2009. The school’s mission is to be “a model of secondary education that integrates best practices in sustainability education with those proven to support educational equity.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly 1/16/2012
By Helen Slottje

The ongoing debate about fracking has people asking many questions among them: What can be done to move America toward cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions? Is there a plan out there that does not suffer from the flawed assumption that natural gas is clean? Are we really going to let industry define “clean” as anything the least bit cleaner than burning coal? Are opponents to fracking compromising jobs and energy security simply to protect their health? Isn’t it unfair for New Yorkers to dare to say no to fracking when so many others around the globe are suffering the ill effects of energy extraction pollution? Is it a foregone conclusion that we must all sacrifice our health and environment in the name of energy? Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly 1/9/2012
By Carole Fisher

Is a green home necessarily a healthy home? Recently, the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) looked at some of the national green building and indoor air quality guidelines to see how they compared against the NCHH healthy housing principles. Their report states that “while all the programs have components aimed at improving resident health, many are missing critical elements” such as injury prevention and protection from contaminants such as lead, radon, and pesticides.

Most communities rely on residential housing codes for protection of residents from health and safety hazards, but some of the factors that influence indoor air quality are often not addressed.  As noted above, even homes that pass some green building qualifications do not require builders to address all potential health hazards. Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly 12/27/2011
by Carol Mallison
McGraw House, which opened in 1971, is a private non-profit organization with 105 studio and one-bedroom apartments for low and moderate income Seniors 62 years of age or older. We are a HUD facility, governed by NYS’s Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) and managed by a volunteer Board of Directors.

The Senior Citizens living at McGraw House take a special interest in recycling, because it’s good for our planet, it’s good for personal living, and it helps reduce the cost of trash removal, paid for by resident rents. As a result, there is a growing list of ways residents participate in use and re-use practices.

Residents receive many packages, especially around the holidays. Packing peanuts can be a real nuisance outside in the trash if they start blowing around. As a result, we have a packing materials recycling bin for clean peanuts, bubble wrap, plastic pillows, and other forms of packaging.  Residents can help themselves when mailing packages. And, what’s left is donated to businesses that mail packages. Read the rest of this entry »