Edition 1, July 2008

The Strawberry Festival has come and gone, and here is the sustainability newsletter you asked for! The objective of this newsletter is to familiarize people with ideas, tips, and tricks to help create a greener lifestyle. With that said, here is the first sustainability newsletter, distributed by the Sustainability Division of Energy and Computing Management at Syracuse University.

One of our most important natural resources is dwindling. You see them every day, and many people take them for granted: our national forests and the trees within them. Trees do more for our planet than just look nice. They provide habitat for wildlife, suppress noise pollution, produce fruit, stabilize the soil, act as windbreaks, help cool our homes, and most importantly, produce oxygen. What can you do to help? Are you ready to save some trees? Ask yourself this question:

Do I really need my SU paystub?

If you are an employee at Syracuse University, you receive a familiar green envelope each pay period, with either a paycheck or a paystub enclosed. If you are still receiving a paycheck, rest assured that it is very convenient and extremely safe to have your pay automatically deposited into your checking and or savings account. Just fill out a direct deposit form, available from the Payroll Service Center or on MySlice. The interesting thing is that if you utilize direct deposit, you most likely still receive a green envelope with a paystub inside. Why worry about a single envelope or paystub? Think of all the employees working at Syracuse University who receive these documents and the amount of paper it takes to create them. Are they necessary? For anyone who has computer access, your paystub and green envelope are no longer necessary!

Payroll Service Center now provides a sustainable way for everyone to receive their paystub: electronic pay notification, an alternative to the paper copy. When our paycheck is deposited into our account(s), instead of a green envelope and paystub delivered to our work address, we receive an e-mail message telling us the deposit information is available for our review. The e-mail provides instructions for viewing your complete pay details online. If you need a paper record, you may print the online information.

Sign up for a paperless paystub through the My Slice web portal, https://myslice.syr.edu. Follow the directions at the left, and start saving our forests today. With this small lifestyle change, you will be helping our community and yourself become more sustainable. For more information about saving our American forests and why we need trees, visit http://www.americanforests.org/.

For more information on sustainability efforts and activities across campus and in our community, please visit our web site at

http://greenuniversecity.syr.edu/.

At any time you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to sustain@syr.edu. If you know of anyone who would like to receive this monthly newsletter, please forward this letter to them and have them e-mail us to add their name and address to our list.