Sunday, December 11, 2011

GreenPrisons Gears Up for 2012

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post but I thought this would be a good week to share with you what we're planning for the new year before everyone got caught up in their holiday festivities.

First and formost I met in Indianapolis last week with representatives of the Indiana Department of Correction, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, the Bluegrass Recycling Center (KY) as well as Johnson Controls, WESTCO Distributors, and Designaire Engineers for the purpose of initiating planning for next year's National Symposium on Sustainability in Corrections. Following on the heels of our very successful innaugural event we will return to Indianapolis for 2012.

So mark your calendars for October 29 - November 1, 2012, for this important event. A call for presentations, participant registrations, and exhibitors will be available on www.GreenPrisons.org shortly after the first of the year.

In addition to planning next year's conference we have also been busy preparing for the first issue of a new quarterly journal on sustainability in corrections. We will have copies available online and at ACA. Be sure you are on our mailing list to be able to download your free copy! Advertisers and contributors for stories for future issues are also wanted. Send me an email at Tommy@GreenPrisons.org for more info.

Also be sure to look for us in the NAAWS suite at ACA in Phoenix.

I was recently contaced by a vendor who has a large quanty of CFL lightbulbs available at deep discounts. If you can use them send me an email and I will put you in touch with the vendor.

Finally, as we approach the holidays I want to thank eveyone for your support. GreenPrisons is barely six months old but we have managed to become the voice for sustainability in corrections. While it would be impossible to identify all the individuals, agencies and companies who have lent their support to get us started. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the support we have gotten from the Indiana Department of Correction and Commissioner Bruce Lemmon. Both in his former life as the warden of the Pendleton Correctional Facility and now as Commissioner of the Department he has been a leader in this movement. Our vendors, particularly Johnson Controls, I-CON, Energy Systems Group, Solaris, and Portion-Pac have been with us since the beginning and continue with their support and we sincerely appreciate it.

I also want to acknowlege all the members of the Clean and Green Committee of ACA and particularly Former Commissioner John Rees and former Secretary Richard Staler for giving me the opportunity to get invloved with this important work. The contributions of Paul Sheldon have been incalcuable. His expertise in this field continues to boggle my mind every day.

Finally, I have to acknowledge the contribution of my daughter Ann as the Marketing Director for GreenPrisons. She is the one who inspite of a full time job in a totally different field, regularly Tweets about our activities, maintains our Facebook page, publishes the newsletter and all other things electronic. GreenPrisons would simply have no voice with out her, and I am very greatful for her contributions.

2012 will be a big year for us. Hopefully we will achieve 501 (c) non profit status with the IRS, expand our webinar offerings, activate our vendors data base, and host another stellar conference.

Merry Christmas and a Green New Year!!!