ACET, Inc. Blog

Kermit the Frog always complained that it’s not easy being green. Well, we have found that it’s incredibly easy to be green – environmentally, at least! In order to reduce costs and be environmentally conscious, ACET implemented many green initiatives last year. What are some ways that you and your company can initiate green practices?

1. Reduce printing. ACET adopted printing reduction guidelines from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency through REDUCE.org in order to reduce waste. We save and view files on our computers whenever possible to reduce the amount of printing. When we do print, we take note of factors such as margin spacing and duplex options to reduce paper and ink usage.
2. Use real dishes and silverware. In other places where I’ve worked, companies provide Styrofoam or plastic cups and dishes. At ACET, staff members brought in extra dishes and real silverware for the team to use instead of throwing away harmful products. This immensely cuts down on waste and cost!
3. Recycle. Our building doesn’t provide a recycling service, but we still make sure to set up recycling bags in our break room. When the bags are full, ACET staff take turns bringing the bags to their home and recycling them. It’s an easy way to keep wasteful products out of the landfills.
4. Compost. Along with recycling, we have a bucket set up in our break room for compost. When the bucket is full, Kirsten or Heather, who both have compost bins, take the bucket home and adds the contents to their bin. By composting appropriate food items, we provide more nutrition to our plants and gardens. Last summer, Heather accidentally grew a cantaloupe in the flowers she potted on her deck. It came from un-decomposed seeds in her compost bin.
5. Walk to work. Not all of us live close enough to work to walk, but Joseph does! He rarely takes his car to work, unless it’s below zero or he has a meeting. Using public transit or carpooling also drastically reduce car emission rates, so keep that in mind if you don’t live close to work.
6. Green up your space. Our office is decorated with plants. Having plants in office spaces has been shown to decrease stress, increase productivity, and filter and clean the air.
7. Learn from one another. At ACET we have lots of conversation about the environment, recycling, and being good to the earth in general. We are always sharing what we learned from what we read, what we see on TV, or what we practice in our daily lives. For example, Kirsten took a straw bale gardening class last spring and shared what she learned with the rest of the staff. Heather participated in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA or bought a share of a local farm) last summer and shared produce with the rest of the team. Joseph became a vegetarian. All of these examples have inspired numerous conversations and reflections about sustainability and environmental impact.

In what ways does your company stay green? We’d love to hear more ideas!

Cassie

At ACET, we love to pass good reads amongst each other and decided we want to share them with you! Below are our top reads of the year thus far:

Cassie’s pick:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

You may have heard of this bestselling novel from Stieg Larsson’s “Millenium Trilogy” – and for good reason! We read this for my book club and I instantly loved it. It’s a crime mystery dealing with financial fraud and a cold case murder. Throughout the novel, Mikael Blomkvist, a besmirched journalist, takes on a 40-year old cold case with the help of Lisbeth Salander, an asocial hacker/researcher. They soon find, however, that delving into past secrets could get themselves killed. I particularly loved Salander’s character for her social deviance and extreme intelligence. I even skipped my book club meeting so I could finish the book without having the end spoiled!

Joseph’s pick:
The Plague by Albert Camus

Camus won the Noble Prize for literature in 1957. He is known for his highly existential works and his works gave rise to what become known as absurdism. In The Plague, a small French city finds itself in the midst of a resurrection of the Black Plague, and characters are forced to reconcile their lives with this seemingly absurd event while facing death. The story delves into the ways in which characters must “make sense” of a life directly confronted with death and isolation, and they must question their beliefs that had been used to create meaning in their life before the plague.

Kirsten’s pick:
Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II by Stuart E. Eizenstat

Stuart Eizenstat served in a number of government positions for both President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton. While serving as an official in the State Department for President Clinton, Eizenstat helped negotiate several major agreements to bring some measure of closure to those who survived Nazi persecution during World War II. Eizenstat was on the forefront of encouraging museums to return stolen or looted art to their original owners (or their heirs), negotiating with Swiss banks to reveal accounts belonging to victims of the Nazis and return their money, and, after the fall of European communism, providing financial compensation to Eastern European victims who did not receive any compensation from settlements arranged shortly after the end of the war. I found Eizenstat’s window into this period of history particularly revealing, especially the negotiations that took place in Berlin. A very interesting read for history or World War II aficionados.

Emily’s pick:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This book came highly recommended to me by both a close friend of mine who is an English graduate student at Baylor, as well as from my mom – and rightfully so! The book is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s amidst the civil rights movement, and follows Skeeter, an Ole Miss graduate, as she sets out to collect the stories of the black women, “the help,” in her community. The story shows life on both sides of the racial divide, highlighting the fact that “the help” were essentially trusted with raising Southern children, yet were not trusted to clean the family’s silver. I loved this book – the characters are deep and the story moves quickly – it’s a fast read that I’d highly recommend – I’ve also heard that a movie version is coming soon!

Heather’s pick:
Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive by Bill Lofy

As a bleeding heart liberal and macro practice social worker, I have been continually moved by stories of the Great Paul Wellstone. I, however, had little knowledge of his life or his work because I moved to Minnesota after his tragic death. This book has provided a great introduction to Wellstone, why he stood out from other legislators, and how he was able to have such a lasting impact on the lives of so many. What I have enjoyed most is learning about Wellstone’s use of grassroots community organizing; quite similar to our President Obama. Next on my reading list is Wellstone’s autobiography, The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda.

Stella’s pick:
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn

This book discusses the experiences of two journalists, a husband and wife team, who travel extensively through China and report their interviews and observations. It was an enlightening look at China’s history and past culture and how those factors have influenced current day China. I learned a great deal of various historical events and political views of China through this book; events that were not described or taught in World History classes growing up. The two journalists have written extensively on China and were honored with a Pulitzer Prize for covering the 1989 Tiananmen protest in China.

StrengthsFinder 2.0
By Tom Rath

A friend of mine referred me to the StrengthsFinder 2.0. The idea behind this resource is that individuals spend more time in their professional careers focusing on addressing their weaknesses rather than enhancing their strengths; however, by focusing on their natural strengths instead, people have higher job satisfaction and increased quality of life. In an effort to help people discover their strengths Gallup studied human strengths for 40 years. The latest version, StrengthsFinder 2.0 includes 34 of the world’s most common talents and how they can be applied to a wide variety of roles. The 34 themes represent Gallups best attempt at creating a common language or classification on talents. (Of course there are hundreds of additional themes but they wanted to keep the list manageable so that it can be easily applied.)

The resource works like this: First, take the online assessment. (www.strengthsfinder.com) It’s a timed assessment; you have 20 seconds to respond to each question. The assessment takes about 30 minutes to complete. The analysis of your assessment will reveal your top five talents. The book offers descriptions of each theme, ideas for action, and suggestions for working with others who have the same theme.

For those of you that are interested my top themes are: Learner, Responsibility, Input, Empathy, and Arranger.

Heather

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released their 2011 budget brief, which details federal funding allocation for the 2011 fiscal year. This budget was designed to protect the health of all Americans and provide essentials, especially to those who are least able to help themselves. The HHS Budget does this by investing in health care, social services, science and research and more. The HHS also has a portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) and allocates some funding to address critical problems in the health care and human services systems related to the Recovery Act.

The 2011 HHS Budget totals $911 billion in outlays and $81 billion in discretionary budget authority, both of which are an increase over the 2010 fiscal year. The Budget will be used to support and respond to many areas, including reducing health fraud; improving quality of and access to health care; promoting public health; protection from public health threats and terrorism; improving the wellbeing of children, seniors and households; and investing in scientific research and development.

If you would like to read the Budget Brief in its entirety, which includes detailed information about each program and charts of financial figures, go to http://www.hhs.gov/asrt/ob/docbudget/2011budgetinbrief.pdf.

Cassie

We at ACET are pleased to announce the arrival of our spring intern, Emily Spangler! Emily hails from Waco, TX, where she is working to earn a Master’s in Public Health at Baylor University. During her internship, Emily hopes to further her knowledge of evaluation and research in order to provide strong programs in a community health or health education organization. Emily has previously assisted with research related to sexual assault prevention in the central Texas area. She has also worked a variety of other jobs including serving as a camp counselor, providing patient care in a home for persons with Alzheimer’s, and working in a surgical research lab. Emily’s career interests include community health programming and health research. In her free time, Emily enjoys reading, live music, travel, and running – she plans to run Grandma’s Marathon in June!

Please join us in welcoming her to our team!