Since our center opened, we have been trying to encourage students and staff to recycle. Michael's resolution gave us the incentive we needed to rally students and staff and get organized.

Bloomington staff began by making a conscious decision to support the greening initiative. To start, we decided that our holiday gift to Michael would be a donation in his name to the Bloomington Center for Sustainable Living.

We presented this gift at the January All Student All Staff Meeting. A board representative from the Center for Sustainable Living came to accept the gift and deliver a short presentation. She gave us information about how our center could get involved with community environmental groups that promote sustainable living and education. She invited us to come up with our own community project and offered support and guidance.

Since then our center has put a lot of energy into the Greening of CIP. A representative from the city recycling center came to a life skills class and taught us about proper recycling techniques, and how we can personally reduce unneeded waste of un-renewable resources, and unmindful consumption. We have increased our recycling station and student involvement with recycling.

Recycling has increased so much we may need to get larger bins to hold it all! In addition, most students now carry reusable bags when they go to the grocery store. To encourage center education on global warming the staff hosted a Friday pot luck lunch and movie event where together we watched the documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

The students and staff in Bloomington have been raising their own personal awareness by turning off light's, computer's, fan's and adjusting the central heating and air system to save resources for the center and to do our part to reduce carbon emissions on the planet. This spring we hope to have our own garden plot and get involved in a community initiative that encourages gardeners to "plant a row for the hungry".

Here in Bloomington, the Greening of CIP has taken hold and we are getting greener all the time.