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February 17th, 2005 Flashback to 40 years ago when the mill across from the Aiken Street Bridge was a dye house. The dye often would run into the river. A group of young boys would play ball at a near by field and place bets on what color the river would be, red, yellow, blue? It was anyone's guess. One of these young boys was UMass Lowell's own Richard Lemione. Lemione has been with the university for 28 years. Guessing what color the river would be each time he went to the ball field, sparked his interest with environmental concerns, even at such a young age. Now he is the assistant director of Environmental health and safety. Lemione has a very positive attitude about his job. "We don't have problems, we only have concerns". It is that way of thinking that helps him get through his job each day. "I really love my position here." It is easy to tell that Lemione does love his job because he speaks about it with such enthusiasm. He is proud of the accomplishments that the university has made. From 1970 until 1987 the university was producing many hazardous materials. Currently, "The University has a tremendous amount of resources to get rid of old materials and getting us at a certain threshold in which there's basically all fresh and new chemicals". Lemoine helps run the Environmental Management System on campus, also known as EMS. EMS came to UMass Lowell through a grant from the EPA "To see whether or not EMS could be incorporated into a higher education institution and promote sustainability practices within the organization". The EMS program gives various people on campus, such as Deans, Custodians to Students an equal opportunity to give their thoughts on "How their jobs could be done more environmentally friendly and possibly save the school money". Lemoine feels that the program allows those participating in it the opportunity to take on a sense of ownership in their jobs. Through EMS it has become clear that many people on campus are willing to take part in the process to help make UMass Lowell a more environmentally friendly community. Lemoine is currently active in helping the Toxic Use Reduction Institute." TURI was interested in Lemoine's help because of his work with EMS. They came to him "looking for supplemental products to replace our most hazardous products on campus" Their calibration has helped implement green cleaners here into our custodial closets. Other steps forward in sustainability have been made on campus due to this teaming. There is now metal recycling here at UMass Lowell. This is "from anything being thrown out of the dormitories." In September over a 1,000 pieces of old furniture from the dorms were sent to a third world country. This program is beneficial because it reuses resources, which is important to sustainability. Also it is an aide to those less fortunate. Lemoine agrees "TURI just happens to be an agency that is here not only to help us, but the state." |