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Written by Natalya Stanko   
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Thursday, 20 October 2011

Green Police

Even die-hard environmentalists don't demand that police officers make the safety of the environment their top priority. This is because we want and expect the police to prioritize human safety! When it comes down to it, we all worry more about our safety – and our friends' and family's safety – than the safety of a tree or a mockingbird. Remarkably, even without public pressure, police forces around the world are making big strides towards sustainability. The examples below prove that many officers don't fit the doughnut-munching, gas-guzzling stereotype.

Police Stations Going Green

The city of Boston opened up a $17.5-million, LEED-certified police station during the summer of 2011. The building makes good use of an abandoned space – an old electroplating plant that was shut down over two decades ago. The design reduces electricity use by incorporating a large amount of natural light. It also hosts Boston's first vegetative roof!1 Also, in 2010 a police station in North Norfolk, United Kingdom opened with a wind turbine and a solar heating system. They built a sedum moss roof to insulate the building, keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer. Then a solar heating system provides free hot water almost year-round!2

Police Riding Bicycles
So many U.S. departments have invested in bicycles that there's an organization dedicated to it – the Law Enforcement Bicycle Association.3 The Seattle Police Department (SPD) started the police cycling trend in the late 1980s with the formation of its bike unit. Today, Seattle's downtown precinct alone has about 60 police cyclists. Cyclists have advantages—they maneuver quickly through high-density traffic in addition to having more personal interactions with the citizens they protect. “Sometimes we can get to a hot call faster than a patrol vehicle because we can use alleys and sidewalks,” says SPD bike officer Matt Diezci. The unit outfits its bikes with PDAs, so that officers can instantly access police records, just as if they were patrolling in cars.4

Sustainably Made Uniforms
Last year, Canada's best-dressed police department award went to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC), which also happens to wear the most eco-friendly uniforms.5 The clothes are made of 35% cotton and 65% poly, which is a material made from plastic bottles salvaged from a landfill. Unlike traditional uniforms, they don't require dry cleaning, and they cost less. Canadians aren't the only ones catching onto this trend—the Penbrook police department in Pennsylvania reports that it, too, wears the same sustainable garments including material derived from recycled plastic!6

Literally, the “Green Police”
Some police officers do more than wear eco-friendly uniforms. They actually wear green-colored uniforms. New York City has a team of twenty officers nicknamed the “Green Police.” The NYC officers pull over vehicles that do not comply with emission standards, inspect markets to make sure that fish vendors do not violate conservation laws, and enforce other environmental regulations .7 The NYC Green Police officers have the authority to give out hefty fines as well—a minimum of $700 for a failed emissions test, for example. The team issues about 300 violation fines each month.8 Similarly, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection has a force of about 30 officers that issued 1,486 fines in 2009. The officers are equipped with field vehicles, cameras, and firearms.9

Vietnam has about 120 green police officers in 30 provinces as well.10 The force focuses on monitoring businesses for environmental violations. This summer, environmental police in Ha Noi discovered that a paper-making plant was dumping 2,500 gallons of untreated waste daily into the Nhue River, which irrigates about 200 square miles of agricultural land. The company faces a fine of US $5-$25,000. This is just one of 4,600 cases of environmental pollution in the Nhue River that Vietnamese police have uncovered.11

There is even discussion surrounding the United Nations forming a green police force.12 “As far-fetched as the idea of 'green-helmets' might sound, consider the tasks that the United Nations peacekeepers already perform today — e.g. emergency aid, development and recovery, state — and peacebuilding,” wrote Peter Wittig, Germany's Permanent Representative to the UN. “Repainting blue helmets into green might be a strong signal — but would dealing with the consequences of climate change (say in precarious regions) be really very different from the tasks the blue helmets already perform today?”13 Regardless of whether more official “green police” forces are formed, traditional police officers will have to continue safeguarding the environment in an effort to protect citizens and our future resources.

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1 http://bostinnovation.com/2011/08/02/roxbury-opens-17-5m-
     environmentally-friendly-police-station/

2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10610105
3 http://www.leba.org/
4 http://www.seattle.gov/police/units/bike_patrol.htm
5 http://www.policeone.com/police-products/apparel/
     press-releases/2050111-Royal-Newfoundland
    -Constabulary-Wins-Best-Dressed-with-Eco-Friendly-Uniforms-from-Perfection-Uniforms/

6 http://www.thebigredguide.com/news/penbrook-police-department-now-in-eco-friendly
    -uniforms-by-perfection-uniforms.html

7 http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/nyc-green-police.html
8 http://www.greenandsave.com/green_news/green_people/green_police_targeting
    _unsustainable_criminals_in_nyc

9 http://www.sviva.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=e_BlankPage&enDisplay=view&en
    DispWhat=Zone&enDispWho=green_po&enZone=green_po

10 http://www.csreurope.org/news.php?action=show_news&news_id=430&type=
11 http://www.dztimes.net/post/environment/police-pounce-on-polluting-pulp-plant.aspx
12 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/20/un-climate-change-peacekeeping
13 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-wittig/post_2204_b_901967.html
* Thumbnail image - Audi Green Police badge image taken from http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/audi-green-police/




Comments (1)
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1. 18-04-2012 23:31
Amazing Step...
Green Police is really a good idea to motivate others and i am sure this will reduce accident counts. 
 
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 October 2011 )

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Green Facts

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.