AFSCME to 'go green' at national convention

[Omaha Steve]

Posted by a proud AFSCME member!

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_3724

23 July 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the 1.6-million-member public service union, is planning its "greenest" convention ever July 28 to Aug. 1 in San Francisco.

The union, known for its distinctive green t-shirts and rally signs, is making a major effort to host an environmentally-friendly convention when 5,000 delegates and guests arrive at San Francisco's Moscone West for the biennial, weeklong gathering of union activists.

"We know the challenges posed by global climate change and other threats to our environment," said AFSCME International President Gerald W. McEntee. "That's why we decided to forego bottled water and cut down on paper products."

AFSCME will provide every delegate with small computer flash drives containing most of the documents that in previous conventions have been printed for distribution.

"We won't be printing 5,000 copies of the flyers that we've done in the past," notes McEntee. "We're saving 3.3 million sheets of paper. That’s a lot of trees." The union estimates that at past conventions, each delegate received nearly 700 pages of printed documents and materials.

"We still need to print some of the documents for our 2008 convention, but the flash drives are cutting our costs substantially," said McEntee.

FULL story at link.