"The disease of overconsumption is on its death bed," proclaimed Simple Living host Wanda Urbanska during her Auditorium Speaker Series speech, sponsored by American Libraries. As evidence, she cited three primary indicators, which she nicknamed "Heat, Feed, and Speed." "Heat" refers to decreasing energy requirements for the heating and cooling of homes, which have been getting smaller since 2007 after a 60-year growth trend. "Feed" speaks to food choices, as gardens and farmer's markets grow in popularity. "All of a sudden we're waking up wondering why we're so heavy," Urbanska noted. "Speed" covers transportation choices, where people are driving less and buying smaller cars. Libraries are inherently green, Urbanska argued, because of their role in helping to reduce consumption. Nevertheless, Urbanska urged the crowd to make green choices in their libraries and their lives. "Reclaim your role as eco-role models and exemplars in your community," she said. "Change is happening rapidly. Let libraries continue to be at the center of it." She offered a host of examples:
- Timer systems for heating, cooling, and lighting systems.
- Eliminating phantom loads by unplugging electronics when not in use.
- Discouraging printing to reduce paper use.
- Recycling of paper—including paper from discarded books.
- "Freecycling" of magazines and books by having swaps at the library. "In today's economy, that's a big deal to folks, to be able to take home a book and mark it up and not have to return it," she noted.
- Buying locally made products whenever possible.
- Reducing the use of disposable materials. Urbanska used her travel mug as an example, claiming that "In 20 years of carrying a travel mug everywhere I go, I've saved 7,000 cups from landfills."
- Using green cleaning products.
- Bike or walk to work, errands, or meetings.
- Host green programming, such as a workshop on making useful materials from plastic bags or a vegetarian cooking class.
- Purchasing products made from recycled materials.
This last point proved to be one of the most commonly shared challenges as audience members asked how to purchase recycled paper when they're locked into a bidding process that requires them to buy the cheapest materials without regard to whether they're recycled or not. Urbanska suggested treating the process as a campaign rather than a single instance and seeking partners, both among colleagues at the institution and through the use of petitions and letters to the media. Suggestions that emerged from the brief audience discussion included seeing if other savings could be applied to the green initiatives and creating demonstration press releases for proposed changes, which would let the decision-makers see how the change could be announced—and how it would make them look like heroes.