At Briscoe Elementary School in Fort Worth, students are learning the importance of protecting the environment.
“Today we are learning to help the environment,” said Broshayla Mosely, 4th grader.
They are also learning about how important it is to volunteer and give their time back to their community to help others.
All over the world, NBCU & GE volunteers are getting together to make a difference this week.
In Los Angeles, employees returned to Griffith Park on Earth Day to
plant trees and clear weeds and brush. Ron Meyer, President and COO of Universal Pictures, announced a long-term commitment to support a specific canyon in the park, in
partnership with the NBCU Foundation grant organization, Los Angeles
Conversation Corps (LACC), and the City of Los Angeles Recreation and
Parks. NBCU will be responsible for providing service to the area at
least twice each calendar year.
It’s our pleasure to announce the launch of the national “Green Your School” contest, funded by NBC Universal Foundation and in connection with Green is Universal.
If you’re a high school student in the U.S., submit your school’s best green-related project for a chance to win a $5,000 grand prize.
The contest is awarding prizes for conservation service projects designed by high school students that improve, restore, beautify and/or conserve their school’s environment. Project examples include transforming a school parking lot or yard into a community garden, implementing a recycling or compost program in the school cafeteria,
using reusable and recyclable products on campus or establishing a system to
reduce water and power usage.
A panel of qualified judges, including NBC News’ Anne Thompson and environmentalist Simran Sethi, will award a Grand Prize winner with $5,000 and two First Prize winners
with $2,500 each.
The “Green Your School” contest runs from April 1, 2009 until 11:59 p.m. EST on
October 9. Entries may be submitted online by visiting www.thesca.org/green-your-school or a registration form may be requested by mail and sent back to SCA headquarters at 689 River Road, P.O. Box 550,
Charlestown, New Hampshire 03603. Winning schools will be notified by email, phone or mail by mid-November, 2009.
Just in time for spring and straight to your iPhone Green is Universal is proud to present our latest digital application (and first iPhone application): iBloom.
With iBloom, you can virtually plant a seed and watch it grow. You’ll water, feed and protect your seedling from pollution to grow your sprout into a happy flower and make it to the
next level.
An added Earth Week bonus: Green is Universal will be
donating 10,000 trees to local parks and schools throughout the U.S. in
partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.
Download iBloom now at 
I recently received an email from a friend with all of this recycling advice from The Nature Conservancy and I thought I’d share:
Aerosol cans: pull off the plastic cap, empty the canister completely and recycle with other cans.
Antiperspirant and deodorant sticks: Many brands have a dial on
the bottom that is made of a plastic polymer that’s different from the
plastic used for the container, so you might not be able to recycle the
whole thing (look on the bottom to find out). Tom’s of Maine makes a
deodorant stick composed solely of plastic No. 5.
Backpacks: The American Birding Association accepts donated
backpacks, which its scientists use while tracking neotropical birds (americanbirding.org).
Batteries: Drop off at the recycling center. For car batteries
- almost any retailer selling them will also collect and recycle them.
Bottle Caps: Visit Recycle Caps with Aveda for more information.
Carpeting (nylon fiber): Go to carpetrecovery.org and click on “What can I do with my old carpet?” to find a carpet-reclamation facility near you, or check with your carpet’s
manufacturer.
Odds are you’ve come into contact with a plastic jewel case, whether at work or at home. Each month over 100,000 pounds of CDs and DVDs become obsolete in the U.S., with a majority headed for the landfill, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While reusing the cases for future CDs and DVDs has traditionally been a good way to divert the pesky plastics from being thrown out, NBC Universal is now using an innovative closed-loop recycling process to make 100 percent post consumer recycled paper cases from the 30 Rockefeller Plaza office trash.
So how does it work? With the help of the NBCU facilities team, a compactor in the basement of 30 Rockefeller Plaza has been isolated specifically for NBC Universal paper trash. One week yields approximately 10 tons of paper, which is then picked up by NBCU’s recycling company, IESI, and brought to Pratt Industries on Staten Island. While at Pratt, the paper is sorted, bailed, and pulped. The pulp then enters warm water where it will be deinked, drained, dried, and wound onto a reel. Pratt then takes the material and uses their on-site box plant to create NBCU’s customized DVD cases.
