What is the
GREENEST
Building in PG?
When we think of a green building, we tend to think of how it's built
or retrofitted. We tend to think of renewable resources, R-values, and
use of alternate fuel sources for heating and cooling the
building. But the concept of a green building can be more
encompassing: the concept of how green a building is can include how
efficiently it performs the function for which it was built.
In view of the recent 40th anniversary of Earth Day and the upcoming
election regarding a parcel tax to support the Pacific Grove Public
Library, looking at the green implications of closing the library seems
especially important.
Right now, the library has approximately 500 visitors a day. If the
library closes, many of those visitors will go to other libraries,
probably Monterey. Let's say a quarter of the daily visitors (125) ride
their bicycles or take public transit to Monterey and another quarter
simply no longer are able to visit any public library. That still
leaves 250 round trips by car per day, four days a week, from Pacific
Grove to Monterey. That's a thousand round trips to Monterey each week
or 52,000 round trips a year. If you assume each round trip is between
4 and 6 miles, that's between 200,000 and 300,000 miles a year. Quite a
carbon footprint.
If the library is closed, some people may choose to more buy books
instead of checking them out of the library. While some books may be
bought here in P.G., many will be purchased through Amazon or purchased
as used books through the internet. For new books, that will mean
manufacturing a book that didn't need to be manufactured though for
used books, you do get the benefit of recycling.
Either way though, you still are generating the cardboard or other
packaging material, perhaps air-filled plastic, to protect the book
while it's in transit. You also have the fossil fuel consumed by
shipping the book from the seller to the buyer.
But the library offers more than books. It also offers magazines and
newspapers.
Right now the library subscribes to 130 magazines. Let's say out of all
the people who currently read the magazines at the library, ten will
subscribe to each magazine if they can't get access to that magazine
through the P.G. library. That's an additional 1,300 magazines per
month that will be printed and distributed in Pacific Grove or over
15,000 more magazines per year. While the amount of material consumed
by each magazine varies, a single copy of the September issue of Vogue
weighs about two pounds.
The library also receives 15 newspapers. Many are daily. If you
subscribe to the print version of the Monterey Herald, you know how
quickly the recycle bin fills up just from one subscription to that one
paper.
If you're someone who relies on using a computer at the library to read
papers or other periodicals, you know your habits will change, possibly
for the worse, if you no longer have easy access to that resource.
The library also lends hundreds of CDs, and DVDs each week. While not
many people can afford to buy as many CDs or DVDs as they check out
from the library, former library patrons are sure to purchase at least
a few CDs and DVDs which they would happily have checked out from an
easily accessible library. Or perhaps they'll subscribe to
Netflix, mailing across the miles DVDs they would have checked out from
the library.
The effect of no longer having a library in Pacific Grove is a green
disaster. Not having a local library discourages people from
participation in a particularly green practice, efficient voluntary
recycling, and encourages people to create an enormous new carbon
footprint or to create an artificial demand for products that could
have been reused by others efficiently and happily.
No other institution in Pacific Grove is more green than the library.
Let's keep it healthy instead of pushing people--who want to be green,
who want to use the library--into less green practices.
Linnet C. Harlan
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