In the Pacific Northwest, we recycle everything. Each week that the garbage and recycling are picked up, I can't help but notice that we have more in our recycling bin than in the garbage can. In fact, the recycling bin that was given to us by the city is much larger than our garbage can. I even met a lady that was stripping the insulation off of old house wiring so she could recycle the wire itself. Although that's an extreme example, it's part of the culture here to reuse and recycle.
On a personal level, I've been living this way for years. On a business level, not so much. Seeing that I have been remiss in my greenness, I'm changing our policies at the EESC so that almost everything we produce is also available as an online download. Not only is it good for the environment but it will save you money.
For example, The Engineering PowerPack is now available as a download. One of the most powerful aspects of this 24 CD set is that there is no limit to how much you can edit the teaching version and no limit to what you can do with it after the editing. Say that you want to give a presentation on civil engineering and you have a few notes but not enough to give a 15-20 minute introduction. Now you have a solution: Download the PowerPack, open the teacher version of the civil engineering presentation on your computer, add your slides and notes, sprinkle in your ideas, change a few pictures, and Viola! You now have a 15-20 minute presentation with full notes on civil engineering. You can give this presentation to your class, post it on your server for students to download and/or provide handouts to your audience. As long as you have customized the presentation, you are welcome to post it online for your students. You can do this with any of the 24 presentations on different types of engineering.
This set is made for middle and high school teachers but by editing the teaching version, it can suit any level of student. The download price is worth a look.
Many of my other books, The Maritime Engineer, The Fantastical Engineer, The Musical Engineer and Engineers Make a Difference are also now available as pdf ebook editions with Kindle editions in the near future. In addition, iPod versions of Engineers Can Do Anything, Women in Engineering: The Best Kept Secret to Changing the World and The Road Ahead: Choosing an Engineering School are coming soon.
One of favorite things about the Internet is the instant gratification that I've come to expect. Sometimes you just have to know something, see something, or have something right away.
