UNMC LiveGreen, Energy Advocate Team pool efforts









picture disc.


UNMC LiveGreen and the clinical enterprise’s Energy Advocate Team have joined forces to become known as LiveGreen, an enterprise-wide sustainability initiative.

The new group — featuring a new logo — will collaborate, pool resources and contacts and focus on the issues that matter to employees and students at the clinical enterprise. The group will now be known as LiveGreen.

Although the groups have been working separately for their respective institutions, they have communicated on some items, collaborated on some projects and have always worked on Earth Week together.

With the OneTeam initiative under way, both groups began exploring a more collaborative dynamic.

“The Omaha campus is completely connected, we integrate on many issues, and we’re already trying to send a unified message, so why were we working separately?” said Melanie Stewart, a member of the LiveGreen committee.

“Perhaps most importantly, we wanted to use everybody’s time more efficiently. We are all volunteers. Instead of two groups working independently on the same endeavor, now one larger group can do more, with less time, and better results as all the ideas are in the same room.”

As a result of the collaboration, all facets of the clinical enterprise — including visitors to the medical center — will receive a unified message about sustainability efforts and events, leading to more efficient results and better communication.

“We’ll have a bigger volunteer pool for events, so we won’t be asking too much of anybody,” Stewart said. “We know there are lots of events around campus for you to spend your time on.”

An example of the new collaboration are the new, green metal/plastic recycle containers. The containers are placed throughout the medical center, and the same items can be placed in every bin. There’s no confusion of recycling something in one building, but not another, making it easier to recycle.

“If anyone is curious about what our group does, you are more than welcome to attend one of our meetings,” says Gregg Dahlheim, LiveGreen committee member. “The more colleagues we can get involved, the more we can accomplish.”