Sustainable Peralta

Green Seal certified cleaning products await distribution from the District Warehouse

Beginning in summer of 2008, the District Warehouse began purchasing Green Seal™ certified cleaning products for use by custodians at all Peralta sites. Now, everything from disinfectants, glass-cleaners, grout cleaners, general purpose cleaners, and even handsoap have been verified to be environmentally healthful, meaning they have low VOC-content, low odor, low toxicity and/or PH-neutral.

The process for instituting green cleaning supplies started in 2006 with Warehouse Supervisor Shawnee Martinez arranging a to discuss the topic with college head custodians. District Office Head Custodian David Russell was the first to test the products from local small business supplier Starline Janitorial Supply. Starline provides green cleaning chemicals manufactured by Buckeye International.

Rainmaster DX2 controller receives weather information and limits irrigation watering.

This September, the Department of General Services Ground Crews, lead by Grounds Supervisor Sergio Angel, completed installation of modern irrigation controls that ration irrigation watering based on current weather conditions. The system garnered a $40,000 rebate from the Irrigation Upgrade Program through the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).

On a daily basis, the Rainmaster software collects and analyzes data from monitoring stations at Laney, College of Alameda, and Merritt Colleges, then remotely programs the controllers at the colleges with that days irrigation allowance and schedule.

The system helps Peralta save water by … continue reading »

Recycling bins at College of Alameda

This past August, nearly $250,000 of indoor and outdoor recycling bins purchase by Peralta’s Department of General Services began appeared at all the Peralta Colleges’ in outdoor walkways and in classrooms. General Services had been collaborating, for over a year, with college custodial supervisors and business managers in designing a recycling protocol that would work with the staffing levels available in the District.

With a draft system agreed upon in August, General Services staff followed through on their long-standing intention to purchase and deploy the bins.

Sustainability Organizer Jack Lin and 10 temporary student employees — with funding by Director of Maintenance and Operations Bob Beckwith and with the support of Warehouse staff and the colleges’ custodial staff — spent three full weeks placing bins in every classroom, lab, and commons area. The work crews sorted and delivered nearly 1000 indoor recycling bins to … continue reading »