SeeingGreen ™

My first job was working as a page in the library in the town where I grew up. Shelving books, mending torn pages and showing patrons how to navigate the Dewey Decimimal System was my simple charge. It was then that I developed a love for libraries that has never vanished. I find that our past and present libraries are outposts for inventive architecture, civic engagement and the increasingly uncommon notion of collective ownership.

With 16 branch libraries and one downtown hub, Multnomah County does Portlanders right. Most every neighborhood has a branch library where you can read the daily newspaper, browse through a select collection of titles and reserve and receive any book in the County through the computerized hold system. Branches range from a 2,000 square foot retail storefront to a LEED certified landmark in a SW neighborhood.

In terms of SeeingGreen, you can’t beat a library for its wise use of natural, economic and human resources. If you add up all the inputs of creating one book (from tree growing to processing to printing to transporting and so forth), there is a great amount of embodied energy stored in each page. When that same book gets read by hundreds of people, the life of all those inputs is extended over and over again. Ditto for all the CDs/DVDs and other various items you can borrow from the library (maps, posters, etc.).

If you haven’t been to the library since your high-school research paper on the history of Delaware, dig out your card, find your local branch and unlock the key to a greener mind.