ACA Recap and Upcoming Events

We just finished up a super ACA conference in Phoenix and sustainability is rapidly becoming the watchword of the profession. We had the chance to speak in three different workshops along with our friend Paul Sheldon, we also provided training to ACA auditors on the new sustainability standard, and thanks to John Rees had the opportunity to speak to the policy committee of the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA).

In every presentation folks had more to share about what they were doing in their agency and were equally eager to hear what was happening in other parts of the country. There was genuine enthusiasm for what we are doing and support for the overall goals of sustainability.

We attended a workshop early on Saturday morning presented by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that focused on a model that can be used to assist agencies to determine what makes sense for them regarding sustainability when considering new construction or retrofit. It is a model I think that could be utilized by large and small institutions alike. We hope to have it available on GreenPrisons.org in the coming weeks to share with you.

We are indebted to a lot of individuals and companies who made our travel to ACA possible. First on the list is the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents (NAAWS) and their leadership Art Leonardo, Gloria Hultz and Pat Keohane, and President Daryl Vannoy. They gave us space to operate out of and encouraged their membership to check out what GreenPrisons had to offer. We will be presenting at their conference in Springfield, Mo in April along with Commissioner Bruce Lemmon of Indiana and we hope you can be with us for this very special event.

CorrectPac, Solaris, I-Con, Pabs Management, Energy Systems Group and Zone 3 all, not only helped us to get there, but were ready and willing to answer questions and informally discuss their products and services. I encourage you to visit each of their websites to learn how they can not only save you money but in some instances create revenue streams as well. All of these companies have a true commitment to corrections and in addition to their products have developed training programs that can help prepare inmates for green collar jobs. We encourage you to check them out and support the companies who support GreenPrisons.

Our next webinar is only two weeks away and registrations are limited. We have almost maxed out the number we can accommodate. Register now for any of our upcoming webinars by going to www.GreenPrisons.org and clicking on the link on the home page. February’s webinar is on Lighting and Energy. Be sure to join us!

Thanks to all of our amazing sponsors and friends!

GreenPrisons.org at the ACA Winter Conference with Sponsors and Friends, Jack Hanley of Solaris, Gregg Riphagen with I-Con Systems, Greg Johnson with Zone 3, and our friends at Portion Pac.

Thanks for making this ACA a green success!

GreenPrisons Is At ACA Winter Conference

Greetings from Phoenix! GreenPrisons arrived in beautiful Phoenix this afternoon, the weather is great and folks are starting to stream in. This year's Winter meeting will have a minimum of four workshops on sustainability. The idea is catching on. GreenPrisons will also be providing training on the new standard on sustainability giving accreditation auditors first hand information on the background of the new standard and ways agencies can demonstrate their compliance.

On Wednesday, January 18th GreenPrisons launched our 2012 webinar series with Paul Sheldons "Seven Steps to Sustainability in Corrections". Pauls "7 Steps" will serve as the outline for the series. Join us on Feb 15 to look at energy and lighting.

Our January newsletter will be delayed slightly so we can bring you all the information from this year's Winter Conference.

Registration is NOW OPEN !!! for the Second National Symposium on Sustainability in Corrections. Register early to get the discounted rate and possibly win a free registration. The call for presentations is also out and we encourage you to propose a workshop and share your experiences with sustainability. Check out the GreenPrisons homepage for registration information.

Watch for more updates from Phoenix!!!

GreenPrisons Announces New Webinar Series

As promised before we took a little break at Christmas, we are back with our popular webinar series beginning Wednesday, January 18 at 11 AM EST. This first webinar will kick off the series exploring the Seven Steps to Sustainable Corrections developed by Paul Sheldon.

This is one you won't want to miss because we will outline how you can learn ways to begin saving your institution money and resources tomorrow!!! In the following months we explore each one of the Seven Steps in depth with presentations by practitioners and providers of the technology.

Based on requests we received from a number of vendors who would like to share information with you about their products and services we will offer them the opportunity to have exclusive vendor webinars. If you would like more information on how you can schedule a webinar contact me at Tommy@GreenPrisons.org.

We will continue to offer these webinars as a free service to the corrections community if we can get support from advertisers. If you would like to sponsor one or more webinars and help support this effort please contact me.

Finally, if you are going to be at the winter conference of ACA be sure and come by the Clean and Green Committee meeting on Saturday at 1 PM in room 122B of the convention center or visit with us in the NAAWS suite and learn more about their upcoming conference in Springfield, MO in April.

If you would like to present in a future webinar please shoot me an email at Tommy@GreenPrisons.org or call me at 859-629-6116.