Green field trip: Connecticut Science Center

Hola, GLR fans. Melissa here with a tip for a great and green day trip, if you're a New Englander, and a nice destination for Columbus Day weekend travelers.



With Columbus Day weekend just around the bend, it seems like the opportune time to share a great possible excursion. Just off I-84 in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, is the brand spanking new Connecticut Science Center (this past summer was its first season). My kids are science nerds in the making (a big "yay!" in my book!), and one of my best friends lives not too far from Hartford, so we planned to get our boys together and check out New England's newest place to geek out for fun.

We went expecting lots of cool, hands-on exhibits for giving a fresh jolt to the kids' interest in science and were not disappointed there. There's lots to see and, maybe even more importantly, to do, from building and trying out Lego racers to designing and testing your own paper "helicopter" to building your own noise-producing circuit board. And there's a sizeable area devoted to pleasing even the smallest budding scientists...let's just say waterproof gear is provided!


But working our way through the various floors, I began to notice efforts to incorporate green thinking all over the place. Chatting with an employee, I discovered this wasn't an accident or simply a marketing ploy, but part of the Center's very fiber.

• Carpets are all made from recycled plastics.
• Ninety-five percent of the steel used to construct the building is reclaimed from cars and other objects.
• The "sand" in the river model exhibit is made of recycled plastics.
• A roof garden, when completed, will help with heating and cooling the building.
• The Center's cafe offers meals made with fresh, locally-grown and organic foods.
• The cafe's utensils are made from corn, and therefore biodegradable.
• Lights in bathrooms and offices are on sensors.
• Bathrooms have the new "up for #1, down for #2" system for water conservation.

A glance at the Center's green mission revealed even more:

• The Center is projected to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.
• Builders used locally manufactured building products, cutting back on transportation impacts and helping the local economy.
• Down the road, a 60-foot wall of solar panels and a 200kw fuel cell will supplement electrical and heating sources.

Add to that a theater running a film about climate change and a major exhibit that allows visitors to learn about and experiment with a variety of energy-saving technologies, and you've got one green field trip. Oh, and it's just plain cool to look at, and look out of, too! So, New Englanders and/or motivated Columbus Day tourists, get ye to Hartford and check it out!

Green Group Gets Better Every Month!

Last Thursday was our forth official Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting, a group which has formed due to all of our overwhelming desires to better our lives through sharing of environmentally responsible ideas among each other. It started as a neighborhood idea for my sister in law (frequent GLR contributor Melissa) and her neighbor Julie and the primary members are in fact in their community but as each month goes on, Matt and I (as well as my Mom most months) are finding the short drive out there well worth our time and small emission contribution.

This month we had a guest speaker Laurie Sabol who is the Clerk for the group MassRecycle and wow was she ever fantastic! Not only did she give us all little gifties of pencils created from recycled US currency but all of us left with a wider view of so many interesting topics.

Much of what we discussed was locally related information to Ayer, MA but all can be applied to our planet. For example Laurie discussed how she has toured the facilities of some local recycling plants to get a feel for the entire process. I thought that sounded like a pretty cool idea for a field trip and just about every state has one! Also she shared with us information on the initiative Massachusetts is undertaking to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags everywhere. This too is something worth looking into nation wide.

With MassRecycle Laurie jokes that she is ‘just a Secretary’ but she was so knowledgeable when it came to topics such as the Waste Ban (a statewide ban that legally prohibits throwing in the trash such items as glass, monitors, yard waste and a myriad of other items) and what the state has done to catch and prosecute (mostly companies) those who are non-compliant, that I knew she was far more than just a Secretary, Laurie is certainly an advocate for the planet.

She additionally shared with us some websites, one of which is informative on a national scale:
masstoss.com
cleanup.org which will lead you right over to earth911.com.
(You may have read about Earth911 on GLR back in December last year)

All in all the group was extremely chatty and full of so many great tips that it would take a novel just to talk about all of them so I will leave this post with Laurie’s amazing contribution of time and dedication to her cause.

Have you considered hosting a green group in your local community? It is fun and a great way to meet new people with a common interest!