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Julie Wernert
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Last modified: Wednesday, September 2, 2009

IU announces green campaign for campus directory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 2, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- When the 2009-2010 campus telephone directory arrives on the IU Bloomington campus this fall, recipients will notice something fundamentally different: It encourages them to look elsewhere for directory information; namely, to its virtual counterpart at phonebook.iu.edu. In fact, the cover asks that recipients recycle the archaic paper directory straightaway.

Go Green image

"On the face of it, choosing the online directory over the paper directory seems like a small thing," said Kim Milford, special assistant to the IU Vice President for Information Technology and CIO. "But, if enough members of the IU community make that change, we can contribute significantly to our sustainability efforts. This doesn't even take into account the energy and environmental savings related to decreasing the print demand."

• For every 116 IU staff members who move from the paper directory to an online directory, one tree* is saved.

• Institution-wide, over 30 trees* (the estimated harvest for producing this year's anticipated distribution) could be saved each year by moving to a virtual phone directory.

"With the implementation of the online directory, we have been able to reduce the number of printed directories distributed on IU campuses from 50,000 during the 2006-07 school year to just 7,500 for the current year," said IU Call Center Manager Kaye F. Davidson. "In addition, the online directory offers significant additional benefits over its printed counterpart," noted Davidson. "It's more current and comprehensive than the print version, and can be used to find people quickly, look up international dialing codes, and locate campus- and department-specific information."

Plus, online directory users can tap into such advanced features as:

• Self-updates that are live within 24 hours

• Reverse look-up for phone numbers

• Interactive campus maps

• Links to Knowledge Base calling instructions

• PDF export options

Visit and bookmark the online directory now at https://phonebook.iu.edu.

For more on how to go green on campus and at home, check out the Conservation Tips section of the IU Energy Challenge web site at https://energychallenge.indiana.edu/Conservation_Tips.html.

The IU Office of Sustainability web site also offers resources such as the "Bloomington by Bike and Bus" map and the Indiana Sustainable Student guide, as well as information on IU sustainability courses, internships, and volunteer opportunities. Get involved at https://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/.

* According to HowStuffWorks, a Discovery company, the average tree used for paper production will generate around 80,500 sheets of paper. The paper used for IU's 500-page paper directories contains recycled content. These figures have been reduced accordingly.