What will you be doing this Fall? Discovering new things about yourself and the world around you? Developing plans for your future? Doing something new, great, exciting?

Every fall at C.O.D. 3D works with students, staff, faculty and the community to kickstart conversations that can help you achieve these goals. 3D– and you guessed what those three Ds stand for, right?– challenges you to think critically about the important issues which effect us all.

This year’s 3D focus is Nurture|Nature—Enriching Our College Community through Shared Ethical Values. Throughout the academic year, 3D will be promoting discussions and activities which will encourage exploration of the explore the values cited in College of DuPage’s Institutional Priorities: Integrity, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility.

To spark the conversation, this year’s One Book, One Campus selection is This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Mean and Women. Here’s a description of the book from the website GoodReads:

Based on the NPR series of the same name, This I Believe features eighty Americans from the famous to the unknown; completing the thought that the book’s title begins. Each piece compels readers to rethink not only how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs but also the extent to which they share them with others. . . The result is a stirring and provocative trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of people whose beliefs; and the incredibly varied ways in which they choose to express them reveal the American spirit at its best.

We hope that This I Believe will inspire you, too.  Borrow the book from the Library (more copies will be arriving soon), visit the This I Believe website (http://thisibelieve.org) and keep an eye out for 3D activities throughout this semester and next.

Interested in sharing what you believe? Tell your stories here on the blog!

You already know Wikipedia– the sometimes controversial, collaborative online encyclopedia. With it, you can find information (true, false and all the shades in between) about everything from the Danish movie “Stealing Rembrandt” to “East Fife (UK Parliament constituency)” (Wikipedia’s Random Article button is a lot fun!). If you have a quick info need or some info to share with others, Wikipedia is the place to go.

Now the Green Wiki (http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_Green) does the same for the environment and sustainability that Wikipedia has done for, well, every topic out there!

You can use the Green Wiki as a resource for information on environmental issues, sustainable living, the local movement and many other green topics. The article on Renewable Energy, for example covers the basics and gives some background on eight types of renewable energy. To further your research, the Green Wiki provides sources and external resources.

The Green Wiki is fairly new, so you may find some empty entries. I was surprised to find that no one had yet provided any information for Composting. Of course, this is where the collaborative nature of wikis kicks in. Instead of information about composting, you get a request: Help out Wikia Green by writing a definition of this word! And why not? If you feel that you have something to say on a topic in the Green Wiki, go ahead and register and contribute! Like any social software, a wiki like the Green Wiki is made better with each contribution made by its community members. You can learn more about how to contribute and what the Green Wiki is looking for on their About page.

So dive right in– start browsing, do some research and share your own green knowledge with the community!

I’ve found that the best way to keep a challenge fresh and new is to get regular doses of inspiration. Going green or making lifestyle changes that positively impact the environment is definitely one of those challenges that benefit from getting occasional boosts of creativity to stimulate action.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to subscribe to a few good blogs. Reading a few tips and tricks or getting insight into how others are making a difference in their lives or in their communities can be just the little boost I need to take that additional step—an incentive to convince me to turn off my work printer and computer speakers at the end of the day; a spark of insight into how to make my home garden more sustainable; a nudge to replace my not-so-Earth-friendly cleaners with homemade natural ones.

Here are a few green blogs you might enjoy as you make and meet your own personal and professional challenges.

Treehugger
http://www.treehugger.com/
TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream.

EcoGeek – Clean Technology
http://www.ecogeek.org/
EcoGeek devotes its pages to exploring the symbiosis between nature and technology.

The Daily Green
http://www.thedailygreen.com/
Environmental issues, global warming news, green living tips

Environmental Graffiti – for environmentalists that don’t take themselves too seriously
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/
Environmental Graffiti is a UK-based blog, focused on providing the most useful environmental knowledge and debate.

New Scientist Environment Blog
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/
Environmental commentary and analysis from New Scientist magazine.

Lazy Environmentalist
http://www.lazyenvironmentalist.com/
The blog for a nationally syndicated (US) talk radio show about easy green living.

Gristmill: The environmental news blog
http://gristmill.grist.org/

Here’s a couple tips for finding more blogs on any subject:

1. Got a favorite blog?  Take a look at that blogger’s “Blog Roll” or list of personal favorite or related blogs.  This list is a “readers of this blog will also like these” seal of approval.
2. Use a blog search engine to find blogs or posts on the topic of your choice.  Tools like Technorati, and Google Blog Search will help you limit your search to just blogs.

Do you have any green blog favorites you’d like to share?

Every office has its struggles with going green, whether it’s breaking people of bad habits (no, gum does not go in the blue bin) or encouraging new ones (Bring Your Coffee Mug to Work Day).  What most workplaces will tell you is to start small– even the most well-intentioned among us can’t transition from slovenly wastrel to Al Gore overnight.

Here in the Library, we started with something very simple and pretty uncontroversial:  getting rid of the Styrofoam cups in the break room.  Styrofoam, is of course, the bete noir of ecology movement, but despite its bad rap, it’s still widely used and seen as indispensable.  The cups are cheap and an easy solution for a workplace that wants to keep their employees well-caffeinated (and, despite the complete non-biodegradability of Styrofoam cups,  they are actually a more environmentally sound choice than paper cups, which take significantly more energy to make).  But who doesn’t have two, three, twelve extra mugs taking up space in their kitchen cabinet (if you don’t, let me know– I’ve got a few to spare)?  We used up the last of our Styrofoam cups and moved easily into drinking our beverages of choice out of our own cups, mugs and Mason jars.

That’s the behind the scene change in the Library– we have even more happening out in public for the benefit of our students, faculty, staff, and community members.  Here’s a few highlights from our own little Green movement:

• Save the world, save some cash. The Library and our coffeeshop, Arbor Vitae, are now selling reusable travel mugs.  These cups not only help save the environment by reducing the number of paper cups in the trash, but they also help save our patrons money!  With every purchase of a stylish mug, the customer gets a free cup of coffee and a lifetime of $1.00 refills.
• We’ll show you where to stick it. When we asked our students what they wanted for the Library, many of them told us they wanted more recycling bins!  We listened and added dozens of new paper and container recycling bins as well as additional garbage cans.  The new bins are clearly labeled and not hidden in off-the-beaten-path places like our old ones were.
• Carry-home luggage. For our library patrons who like to read more than they can carry, we’ve always provided a sturdy plastic bag with our logo on the front.  Do any of those bags get reused or recycled?  Maybe just a small percentage.  Following the lead of supermarkets everywhere, the Library will be stocking up on reusable cloth bags.  Like our great new travel mugs, these will be available for sale in the Arbor Vitae Library Cafe.  We also hope to purchase some sturdy canvas bags that can be checked out at the Circulation Desk and returned with your books, CDs and DVDs.  Keep an eye on the Library blog to find out when these great bags will be available.

We’re pretty excited about these fairly simple changes that we’ve made– and we hope our patrons are, too.

What simple changes can you make that can have a big impact on the environment– at home or at C.O.D.?