Staff Notes Daily Announcements

At UCAR and NCAR every day is an opportunity to better understand the Earth’s atmosphere and related physical, biological and social systems. Sunday, April 22nd, nationally recognized as Earth Day, is a time to acknowledge the importance of the work done here at UCAR|NCAR, and it is a time to celebrate the cumulative results of a daily commitment by staff to make our impact on the Earth’s systems as positive as possible.

Here are just a few highlights from our collective efforts:

• The waste diversion rate at UCAR|NCAR has reached an impressive 68%. In FY17, UCAR|NCAR recycled 71,960 pounds of single-stream materials and composted 50,866 pounds of organic materials, which means that a total of 122,826 pounds of waste has been saved from the landfill. You may have noticed that all common area waste receptacles now have signage above each bin. Please keep the bins in your area together with their corresponding signage in order to improve waste diversion and reduce contamination. By simply throwing away your waste in the correct bin you have reduced your environmental footprint, avoided greenhouse gas emissions, improved soil quality, and you have helped to set an example for how businesses across the city, state, and nation can achieve higher diversion rates. Don’t know where to throw? Find out!

• UCAR|NCAR now composts all paper towels in restrooms! This effort is aimed at reducing the amount of paper towels being sent to the landfill, and will also help to achieve our collective goal of reaching a 75% diversion rate.

• To date, 621 employees have signed up to utilize their UCAR paid B-cycle memberships. These memberships provide all UCAR|NCAR staff with access to bikes all over Boulder, Denver and beyond. In FY17, staff rode 11,357 miles on B-cycle bikes which reduced carbon emissions by 10,789 pounds. This is also equivalent to burning 454,280 calories. Learn more about how to join the fun with your free B-cycle membership!

• In August of 2017, the new FreeCycle website was launched. FreeCycle is an office supply exchange program that now offers online “shopping”. When staff has gently used office supplies that they no longer need, they can donate them to FreeCycle by bringing them to drop-off locations available at each campus. The Sustainability team inventories the items and puts them on the FreeCycle website so that all staff can see what items are available, and then place an order with a click of a button. The best part is that it’s all 100% free. Once you submit your order, we will deliver your items right to your office within five business days. Since the launch of the new website, 3,157 items have been ordered and delivered to staff. In the eight months since the program launched, the staff members that have used FreeCycle instead of purchasing new items have collectively saved over $17,000. This is a great monetary benefit, but it also means that we’ve reduced the strain on valuable natural resources and habitats, prevented pollution caused by harvesting new raw materials, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. What are you waiting for? Start shopping on FreeCycle today! 

• UCAR’s workplace EV charging program was established in August of 2016. Since then, the stations have been used to charge electric vehicles 1,467 times. This program has helped to avoid 10,166 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. That's like planting 136 trees and letting them grow for 10 years! 

Congratulations on being part of these significant efforts, and the many more that occur on a daily basis! We look forward to supporting your continued excellent stewardship. 

Happy Earth Day!

Sincerely, 
Your Sustainability Team

Supervisory Training: Essential People Management

Requirements:

• Available to supervisors and managers
• Must be able to attend the 1.5 day training sessions
• Approval from supervisor to engage in this cohort

Schedule:

April: 25 & 26
25th: Full Day, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
26th: Half Day, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

July: 18 & 19
18th: Full Day, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
19th: Half Day, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

October: 25 & 26
25th: Full Day, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
26th: Half Day, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location for all sessions: CG1-North Auditorium

Register via Connect.

• Select "EOD Training Catalog"
• 25 participants max per 1.5 day training sessions. Registration is based on a first-come-first-serve basis.

More information can be found on the EOD website.

• View in the Leadership Development Tab.

Questions: Contact Toni Wallace, 303-497-8716.

NCL + VAPOR Workshop

July 9-12, 2018
Corporate Technical Training Center
Center Green campus, 3085 Center Green Drive (CG-2)
Boulder, CO

This 4-day workshop is geared towards new users of NCL and VAPOR. It will include a combination of introductory lectures on NCL and scientific data formats and graphics, and 3D visualization using VAPOR. Students will be encouraged to bring their own data to the workshop. There will be hands-on labs every afternoon, where the instructors will work individually with students to help them analyze their own data using NCL and VAPOR.

Registration is limited and the summer workshop tends to fill up quickly, so register as soon as possible. The deadline is June 15, 2018.

Travel support is available on a first-come, first-served basis for qualified students from EPSCoR states or minority-serving institutions to attend. The deadline for applying for funds is May 14, 2018.

See the link below for full details and a link to the registration form.

http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Training/Workshops/

Title: Ocean Heat Uptake and Dynamic Sea Level Rise: Past and Future Uncertainty

Speaker: Laure Zanna, Univ. of Oxford, U.K.

Monday, April 23, 2018 - 3:30 pm
Mesa Lab, Main Seminar Room

Abstract:
The ocean absorbs a significant portion of the anthropogenic heat released in the climate system, leading to an increase in global mean sea level rise. Observed and projected regional patterns of heat uptake in mid- and high-latitudes are controlled in part by changes in ocean circulation. Using a new estimate of ocean heat content, direct measurements and models, I will present evidence that in the Atlantic: 1) half of the thermosteric sea level trend since 1970 is due to ocean circulation changes; 2) the uncertainty in dynamic sea level projections can be explained by the ocean circulation response to uncertain air-sea fluxes (rather than from ocean model uncertainty). I will use a simple conceptual model to explain the changes and discuss the implications for climate projections of dynamic sea level.