Ask an Expert: How Can I Go Green At Home?

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Happy Earth Day! While sustainability and being earth-conscious should always be on our minds, today is a good reminder of ways we can be going green – and saving green! Charles Marchesano over at General Services is the Energy and Sustainability Chief. Here are five of his tips that you can do at home to help out the environment.

1.       Get a free water audit

Visit WaterSmart Checkup and follow the easy steps to schedule your free audit. You’ll also be able to find rebates and incentive programs when available.

2.       Get a free energy audit

SDG&E offers a free home audit that will reveal many simple changes you can make to quickly save, as well as more extensive improvements, like additional insulation. They offer up nice rebates and incentives when available, as well as low- to zero-interest loan programs, so take a look.

3.       Sign up for a carpool

Do your part for reducing greenhouse gas emissions – and maybe just meet some new co-workers! The County partners with iCommute, where you can sign up on an interest list to be connected to other people who have similar commutes to yours. The program even offers some financial incentives.

4.       Get free compost and mulch

If you find yourself doing yard work during the spring weekends, take advantage of free compost and mulch available at your local waste disposal facility. You’ll be helping divert these materials from our landfills. Plus, mulch helps keep the soil moist longer, which means water savings.

5.       Ditch the gas guzzler

Sign up for Bike to Work day. May 20 is National Bike to Work Day and the County is sponsoring two aide stations for the event (one at the COC and one at the CAC). Challenge yourself and sign up now.

Hope these ideas help you to continue along your path of sustainability!

CECO Hits Home Run with Fundraiser

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San Diego County Employees’ Charitable Organization and the Padres celebrated a win at Petco Park on Saturday. County employees stepped up to the plate and supported CECO through a fundraiser that sold over 100 tickets and raised a total of $1,083!

CECO, funded through County employee and retiree donations, was also recognized at the Padres vs. Diamondbacks game for 60 years of giving—it has distributed more than $6.7 million to local non-profit organizations and employees in crisis since its founding in 1956.  

CECO extends a heartfelt thank you to all the County employees who supported the fundraiser and encourages them to send their pictures to sdceco@sdcounty.ca.gov for its 60th anniversary archive. 

These Donations Were Made for Walking

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HCA staff shown sorting shoes at HCAD, are From left: Alejandra Gutierrez, Esther Aranda and Roma Estrada from HHSA’s Health Care Coverage Access are shown sorting footwear donated for clients of the Third Avenue Charitable Organization.

HCA staff shown sorting shoes at HCAD, are From left: Alejandra Gutierrez, Esther Aranda and Roma Estrada from HHSA’s Health Care Coverage Access are shown sorting footwear donated for clients of the Third Avenue Charitable Organization.

HHSA’s Health Coverage Access (HCA) staff oftentimes serve Medi-Cal and CalFresh customers in nontraditional venues, such as hospitals, jails, food banks and community based organizations.  HCA works with these entities to coordinate various outreach events.

One of these groups is the Third Avenue Charitable Organization (TACO) in downtown San Diego. TACO offers breakfast for homeless/low-income folks every Friday. HCA staff is on hand at TACO to offer and process CalFresh applications onsite.

The event offers other services, including having a selection of donated clothes and shoes available to clients. This gave the HCA employees the idea to create the “100 Shoe March” effort to gather donated footwear for TACO clients.

HCA staff began cleaning out their closets and soliciting donations from other HHSA Family Resource Centers and programs.

Soon the donations began rolling in. They had set a goal of gathering 100 pairs to donate by April 30. But the response was so overwhelming that they exceeded their goal and delivered over 100 pairs by April 13.

County Vehicle Maintenance Due? Take it to Shop on Your Schedule

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What with meetings, projects and deadlines, it’s tough to take time out to get the County vehicle serviced too. With customer service in mind, Fleet Services now has a new one-hour preventive maintenance program that lets you schedule that appointment online at a time convenient for you.

So if you have a meeting coming up at the County Operations Center, you can go online and schedule the routine maintenance for the car during the same time slot. When you arrive, drop the car off at the fleet garage and then head to your meeting. One hour later, your car is done and you didn’t lose any time out of your work schedule.

The new program is convenient for you and for Fleet Services too. Prior to the program, employees would call the garage for an appointment the next day, the same day or even just drop it off when there wasn’t sufficient staff available.  

The new program saves time and money because putting off maintenance can cost more in the long run and take longer to fix.

"Performing routine preventive maintenance on County vehicles helps to ensure they run at optimum performance and decreases the potential for equipment failure and costly repairs," said General Services Fleet Manager Sharyl Blackington.

The new program is available for heavy and light vehicles at the County Operations Center. The one-hour service can also be scheduled for light and some medium duty vehicles only at the County garages at Santee and San Marcos. The service includes an extensive safety check list, oil changes and more. If technicians find a problem that will require more time, a fleet team leader will call you.  

If you have questions about the one-hour service, call (619) 578-6262.