With the recent one-year anniversary of the opening of its new state-of-the-art museum facility, the Virginia Museum of Natural History is expanding its ongoing “VMNH Green Initiative”, a comprehensive program that includes recycling, public education, and eco-friendly facility management.  With the expansion of the program, the museum has named VMNH Educator Robin Jensen as its first-ever green initiative coordinator.

Jensen’s role as green initiative coordinator includes coordination and supervision of all museum recycling and environmental education programs.  A member of the VMNH education staff since 2006, Jensen is currently the museum’s youth education coordinator.

“Since I was a child, I’ve had a strong respect for our natural world.  I loved playing outside, hiking in the woods, and learning about all of the plants and animals that surrounded me, and I still do.  I hope to share this information with others, and to show them what they can do to help protect our environment,” Jensen said. “The Museum’s recycling and environmental education efforts have enormous potential for growth, and will serve as a catalyst for potential future programs and new collaborations with area individuals and organizations.”

Existing programs of the “VMNH Green Initiative” include recycling of paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, and printer ink cartridges.  Since moving to its new museum facility in March 2007, the museum has recycled over four tons of paper. That is equal to over 352 yards of paper recycled, with 120 trees saved.

“At the Virginia Museum of Natural History, we have long believed that each of us has an obligation to preserve and protect our environment.  Our ‘Graham-White’ exhibit in the ‘Uncovering Virginia’ gallery features a trash pit that shows evidence of Native Americans and their ways of life both before and after contact with Europeans. In this exhibit, we use trash so that our visitors can glean information on how European contact affected the way of life of these native people.  Visitors can see tools and beads that were made from animal bones that were salvaged from food refuse.  This is just one of the ways that Native Americans turned something that we might think of as trash into a useful object and it provides a valuable model for reuse and recycling today,” said VMNH Executive Director Timothy J. Gette. “As the Commonwealth’s natural history museum and as an agency of the Secretary of Natural Resources, we recognize that VMNH must lead the way in protecting our environment and that it is our everyday choices and actions that can have a huge impact.  I am very pleased with the efforts that the museum has achieved to date and we look forward to doing more.”

In addition to staff recycling programs, the museum currently has plastic bottle recycling bins available for use by patrons of its New Moon Café.

Long-term goals for the “VMNH Green Initiative” include expanded recycling programs, along with new educational programs focusing on environmental education for participants of all ages. 

The 2008 Virginia Environmental Education Conference will be held at VMNH on September 17 and 18. Details of the conference will be announced soon.

	•	CONTAINER RECYCLING TIPS			•	PAPER RECYCLING
	•	RECYCLING FACTS			•	VIRGINIA GREEN