Overflow: A Guide to Greening your Life

The information below is a guide I put together as part of a class project to help each and every one of you GREEN YOUR LIFE. There are specific categories for home, yard, transporation (automobile and public), recycling and advocacy. We provide specific details and links that explain to you what you will save in terms of money, energy, etc. by implementing each of the methods identified. In addition, we provide links to imporatnt web sites which explain where to drop off recyclables, learn more about recycling and to introduce to your children so that they can have fun by playing games that teach them about the environment. There isn't anything in this guidebook that everyone of us cannot employ in our life to some extent. Please join forces with me and help to make a difference.

Overflow: A Guide to Greening Your Life

Home / Residence

A. Bathroom - about 75% of the water we use in our homes is used in the bathroom and 1/3rd of that water is flushed down the toilet

1. Put weights or other objects in toilet tank to use less water
Put a half gallon jug half-full of water or a brick into every toilet tank in your home to make your existing toilet a low flush toilet and you will save up to 75 gallons of water per person per month

2. Don’t shower for longer than 5 minutes and you can save an average of 1/3 on water used in the shower
Only use water in shower to wet down and rise, turn water off when lathering up with soap and shampoo

3. Turn off the water when brushing your teeth
The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of 2 gallons per minute. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and at bedtime can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, which equals 240 gallons a month

4. Put a low-flow aerator on faucets that don’t have them or replace older aerators to reduce water usage by 20-40%

B. Kitchen

1. Only run dishwasher when full
You will run fewer loads and this will reduce water usage and energy consumption to heat the water

2. Put a low-flow aerator on faucets that don’t have them or replace older aerators to reduce water usage by 20-40%

3. Put a filter on your faucet or refrigerator so that you can fill up reusable water bottle instead of buying more plastic water bottles. You will cut down on your use of plastic and save money.

4. Use your microwave for warming up or defrosting small amounts of food as it uses 50% less energy than a conventional oven


Home / Residence

C. Other

1. Use cold water while doing your laundry and save up to 90% on energy cost

2. Fix leaking faucets immediately as a leaky faucet can waste up to 11 gallons of water a day

3. Open windows at night and keep your shades drawn during the day when the sun is out in the summer to save 20-50% on cooling costs

4. Install a programmable thermostat and use energy efficient settings to save 10-20% on cooling costs

5. Turn off lights and unplug electrical devices when not in use. Don’t forget that cell phone and laptop!
75% of electricity on home appliances is used when they are off and lighting consumes up to 34 percent of electricity in the United States.

6. Use compact eco friendly fluorescent light bulbs
Compact fluorescent light bulbs produce the same amount of light, use one third of the electricity, and last up to ten times as long. If every household replaced its most often-used incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, electricity use for lighting could be cut in half.

7. Shut all doors in your home

8. Line dry clothes and use drying rack instead of dryer and you can save 75$ per year on electricity and gas costs

9. Put a water heater jacket on your water heater and you can save 4-9% on water heating costs

10. Replace air filters in furnace and clean condenser coils on refrigerator and air conditioner regularly to increase efficiency and reduce maintenance costs

11. Insulate your house properly
Improperly sealed / caulked windows can account for 25% of total heat loss from a house


Yard / Garage


1. Capture rainwater in rain barrels using water captured to water the garden and lawn. It is possible to do all outdoor watering from rain barrels.
The typical single-family suburban household uses at least 30 % of their water outdoors for irrigation. In some cases, more than 50% of landscape water use goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff caused by overwatering!

2. Grow your own garden w/out using pesticides
Examples can be found at http://www.extremelygreen.com/fertilizerguide.cfm

3. Grow your own fruits, vegetables and herbs to save money and eliminate transportation costs and pollution. Also, they taste better.
Plant plants native to your area – these grow naturally in your area and require little to no irrigation. They also usually come back every year, reducing maintenance.

Transportation

A. Automobiles

1. Drive more efficiently
Drive the speed limit
► Lower speeds saves gas with average savings of 12% when driving 50 miles on the highway with the cruise control set at 65 MPH as opposed to 75 MPH

Use cruise control on the highway
► As an example: the first time cruise control was set to 70 mph; the second time, with cruise control off, speed was varied between 65 mph and 75 mph. This provided an average savings of 7% with a high of 14% when using cruise control.

Avoid excessive idling
► If you are stopping for more than a minute, turn the car off as avoiding excessive idling can save up to 19%.

2. Drive less
Almost half of all trips are less than two miles and could easily be accomplished by biking, walking or using public transportation.

B. Utilize car sharing programs
1. The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated the annual average cost of operating a vehicle in 2006 was $5,586, including vehicle depreciation, insurance, finance fees and standard maintenance.

I-GO research from 4 years of data:
► Each I-GO car replaces 17 cars on the road
► 25% increasing their walking
► 14.5% increased their biking
► 17.6% increased their public transit usage.
► 45.9% gave up or postponed purchase of a vehicle or considered selling a vehicle because of joining I-GO.
► Members report driving only 9.6 miles/week, or 500 miles/year, whereas the typical car owner in Chicago drives 10,000 miles/year.
► Of those who did not own a car at the time of orientation, 56% postponed buying a car because of I-GO or gave up a car prior to joining I-GO
► http://www.igocars.org/
► http://www.zipcar.com/


Transportation

C. Use public transportation

1. Using conservative assumptions, the study found that current public transportation usage reduces U.S. gasoline consumption by 1.4 billion gallons each year. In concrete terms, that means 300,000 fewer cars filling up every day and a savings of 3.9 million gallons of gasoline per day.

2. The average household in which at least one member uses public transportation on a given day drives 16 fewer miles per day compared to a household with similar income, residential location and vehicle ownership that do not use public.

3. Households who use public transportation save a significant amount of money. A two adult “public transportation household” saves an average $6,251 every year, compared to an equivalent household with two cars and no access to public transportation service.
“Public transportation household” is defined as as a household located within ¾ mile of public transportation, with two adults and one car.

D. Walk or bike whenever possible

1. Walking and biking produce no emissions, are safe and easy, promote good health and community

Recycling

Please refer to the following links to find information about recycling initiatives in Chicago including recycling drop off centers, blue carts and an A-Z list of how you can recycle everything from appliances to computers to tires to shoes.
http://www.chicagorecycling.org/
http://www.bluecartschicago.com/

On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 to incinerate it.

Source: http://members.aol.com/ramola15/funfacts.html

Recycle everything you can and focus on the easy ones you use everyday which include paper, plastic, glass, aluminum and junk mail.

Review the following list for some easy tips.

Recycling

1. Paper
Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution! If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!

Here are a few easy things to do:
► Read more documents online and print them less often
► Print documents on both sides of paper
► Decrease the margins so that more of the paper’s surface is used when printing
► Sign up for e-statements of credit card bills, “no catalogues” mailing list and utilize online cards and electronic magazine subscriptions

2. Aluminum
Aluminum can be recycled repeatedly with no limit. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours or a 100 watt light bulb for three hours – or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline!

3. Plastic
According to Earth911, if everyone in NYC gave up water bottles for one week they would save 24 million bottles from being land filled.

Here are a few easy things to do:
► Bring your own fabric bags when shopping (put them in your trunk for grocery store visits). It will be much easier to carry and you won’t end up with a large stock of plastic bags under your sink!
► Buy reusable food containers, water bottles, eating utensils and coffee cups. Carry them with you and bring them to work to reduce the use of disposable products.

4. Glass
Glass never wears out -- it can be recycled forever. The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.

5. Styrofoam
Styrofoam is un-recyclable- you can't make it into new Styrofoam. The industry wants you to assume it is - don't BUY it!

6. Batteries
Where do I take old batteries?
► Twice a year, the City of Chicago Household Hazardous Waste Collections will take batteries. You can call the Department of Streets and Sanitation at (312) 744-4611 for more information.
► They also can be dropped off at any City of Chicago Library or Walgreens drugstore.
Recycling

7. Household hazardous waste (HHW)
This includes materials such as oil-based paints, strippers and thinners, pesticides and herbicides, automotive fluids, mercury thermometers, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, drain cleaners, aerosols, and antifreeze. (Note that latex paint is not considered a hazardous waste.)
► Reference Chicago Recycling Coalitions web site (listed at top of section) for more details on how to recycle HHW.

8. Shoes
Where do I take old shoes?
► Sneakers of any brand name can be brought to Niketown in downtown Chicago and there is a list of shoe stores that accept old shoes on Chicago Recycling Coalitions web site (listed at top of section).
► Nike has created a Reuse-A-Shoe program. Over 2,000,000 shoes have been recycled and transformed into basketball court surfaces in low-income urban areas and/or into fluff used in carpet pads. Reference their web site for more details.

9. Junk Mail
The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.
The average American still spends 8 full months of his/her life opening junk mail.
What can I do about Junk Mail?
► Simply writing "refused" on the mail envelope is not enough, instead, register with the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Services using the link below. They can also remove you from many mailing, telemarketing, and e-mail lists. You can register free online, or in writing by a mail-in registration form (this will cost you$1).
http://www.dmachoice.org/consumerassistance.php

Advocacy / Education

1. Teach your children about recycling.
It is important to instill these habits in your children at a young age. Here a few easy things to do:
► The environmental protection agency has a list of games and children friendly web sites that help teach children about recycling and the environment. They can be found by following this link: http://www.epa.gov/kids/
► Include your children in your recycling efforts around the house.
► If your child has too many toys and clothes, encourage them to select some of them and bring them to a shelter to donate them.

2. Watch An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.climatecrisis.net/

3. Send this toolkit, Overflow: A Guide to Greening Your Life, to everyone you know

4. Buy items like reusable grocery bags and water bottles at:
http://www.reusablebags.com/
http://www.nubiusorganics.com/

5. Do an energy audit on your home
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_audits

6. Buy produce at farmer’s market or through CSA

7. See what the world gains by recycling by looking at the facts
http://www.oberlin.edu/recycle/facts.html
http://members.aol.com/Ramola15/suggestedlinks.html
http://www.pacebutler.com/blog/recycling-facts/

Business Education - Meeting Preparation and Brainstorming Techniques (Idea Quota and Idea Production)

The following techniques are useful to use to help have more effective and productive meetings and brainstorming sessions.

The 1st technique, Idea Quotas, involves setting an Idea Quota and writing down ideas immediately after the brainstorming session. The 2nd technique, Idea Production, involves forcing participants to brainstorm about the problems and issues before coming to a meeting. Specifically, each meeting participant would review the agenda topics and bring 3 ideas for how to solve the issues or problems to be discussed to the meeting.

Idea Quotas

• Intention / Concept - Create a more effective brainstorming environment by:

• Being open
• Withholding judgment
• Setting an idea quota
• Writing ideas down immediately after the brainstorming session
• In this instance, we had a 40 minute brainstorming session during which we were to come up with at least 40 ideas regarding ‘ways to make our wedding unique’

• Lessons Learned

• Open mindedness and writing things down has a positive effect on brainstorming
• Having a target number idea quota number to hit is definitely useful as you are guaranteed to walk out of the session with a specific number of ideas
• It is very difficult to not want to immediately evaluate ideas instead of just writing them down. We needed to remind each other not to judge many times throughout the experiment.

Idea Production

• Intention / Concept - Prior the meeting/brainstorming session regarding sorority recruiting, the meeting organizer sent a message to each participant asking them to:

• Read the agenda / request
• Come up with 3 new ideas for how to improve the recruitment plans that were made last spring
• This is a straightforward technique that forces participants to brainstorm about the problem before coming to a meeting, so that everyone has already thought about the topic and is ready to participate in the brainstorming session.

• Lessons Learned

• It is great to have people come with ideas to meetings so that time isn’t wasted getting everyone’s minds warmed up. People are already engaged before they step into the meeting and are therefore more likely to participate.
• This process allows them to gather their own thoughts before providing them to the group and building off of the group ideas.
• It made for a much more fruitful brainstorming discussion because the “idea production” gave everyone the opportunity to participate by forcing them to put some effort forth and prepare prior to the meeting. As a result, everyone already had “skin in the game.”

Business Education - Keep your Mind Open and Harness your Creativity

During one of my MBA classes, we studied creativity. One of the keys to creativity is to always keep an open mind. This is easier said than done, but the tips below offer some tips that may help you along in this process.

• It is important to go through the whole creative process because the best ideas often show up when you are writing the presentation

• Don’t hang onto the idea you have in your head which you have cultivated and worked on like it’s a diamond.
• You need to be open to new and better opportunities that offer a better solution all the way though the process and beyond. It is important to remember that you needed to go through the whole process to get to where you are.

• Be open at all times for opportunities to be creative

• Don’t ignore the unexpected as it may provide an opportunity to turn chance into a creative opportunity.
• It may be a book someone lent you or a restaurant you went to when your reservation got cancelled. The key is to be open at all times.

• We tend to impose strong, subtle pressures on us to see the world as fixed, fragmented and static. Yet,….

• Everything in life is in a state of flux and change and it always will be. This is the only constant we can count on.

• In conflicts, it is often assumed that there are only 2 sides

• In reality, there are multiple sides to a conflict and all perspectives need to be considered in order to grasp the whole problem.

• Do you season your food before you taste it?

• Thomas Edison always thought in terms of challenging conventional thoughts by reversing them and trying to make the reversal work. Whenever he interviewed a job applicant, he invited them to lunch and ordered the applicant a bowl of soup. If the applicant seasoned his or her soup before tasting it, he would not hire the applicant. He felt the applicant had so many built in assumptions about everyday life that it would take too much time to train them to think creatively.

• The key to establishing dialogue is to exchange ideas without trying to change the other person’s mind.

• People tend to confuse dialogue with discussion. Frequently, people engaged in personal relationships crave dialogue. Instead, however, they almost immediately switch to a discussion, judging other person’s ideas and points of view. Precious time is then wasted on trying to persuade the other side how brilliant their own ideas are and how wrong that other person is about everything in the world. If people could fully understand the fundamental difference between a dialogue and a discussion, many personal and professional issues could be resolved much easier.

• In a conflict, start with the assumption that all sides are correct.

• I have found it useful to never try to decide the right answer.
• When you start with respect instead of presuming that someone is wrong (or off) from the beginning, this is the 1st step to creating together. Otherwise, you immediately begin to build a hostile environment and make people defensive.

Business Education - Listening and Paying Attention

Can anyone dispute how important listening and paying attention are to so many aspects of our lives?

Read through these points below to refresh your memory and find some methods that can help ensure that you are listening and paying attention when you should be.

• Communication is 80% listening and 20% speaking

• Many people never actually listen. Instead, they wait for the other person to
  stop talking so they can talk. Even worse, instead of listening, they are
  usually thinking about what they are going to say when the other person is
  talking.
• There is no way to quantify how important being a good listener is and it impacts every aspect of one’s life.

• In groups, there is a nonverbal level where you can pick up or sense the energy by observing participants behavior, posture, tone and animation of voices and attentiveness.

• It is important to pay attention to this so that you know how attuned and focused the group is.

• Being in a group is about speaking and listening, but especially listening.

• There is a big difference between listening and waiting to talk. It usually becomes evident later in the meeting because the people who were waiting to talk usually bring up something that has already been discussed or decided upon.

• The basic rules of dialogue for the Greeks were “don’t argue,” “don’t interrupt,” and “listen carefully.”

• Everyone would be happier if they applied these rules to their lives

• Psychologists talk about how reward and punishment are at the root of learning, but in fact we often learn by observing how others are rewarded and punished for their behavior.

• For example, if you are new to a group, and someone in the group does a behavior that triggers a negative nonverbal reaction in the other members of the group, you learn immediately, and often unconsciously, not to do that behavior.
• It is important to pay attention to catch these things

• Be aware of the energy level of the group

• During a monthly utilization management meeting, we often have a hard time getting committee members to attend the meeting. The problem is the facilitator is not aware of the energy level of the group and does not make sure that all participants are engaged. This has caused many of the committee members to feel like they do not need to attend the meeting because they do not offer value. I am trying to tactfully get the facilitator to recognize this and change the way she runs the meeting.

• Listen to each person you come in contact with as though he or she is the most important person in the world.

• The irony is that the conversation you are having is indeed the most important one at that moment. Listen as though your life depends on it.

• Be a better listener. You owe it to yourself and anyone who spends time communicating with you. It is the one lesson you can take from this guidebook that will benefit you the most in every aspect of your life.

Business Education - Brainstorming

One of my MBA classes was focused on creativity. One of the key methods used to generate creative ideas is brainstorming. Review the points below to help create a more effective brainstorming environment (at work or home) whenever you are looking to find solutions to a problem.

• The brainstorming environment is a relationship of honesty and earned trust. Building that relationship amongst the participants is essential to success. It is important that group participants and organization leaders embrace this concept. In order to get valuable insight from members from all levels in the organization, there needs to be a truly open environment void of criticism and judgment.
• Include someone in your brainstorming session who is not an expert, but an intelligent outsider. This will open up creativity and flexibility. They are not tied to what they “think” is already in place or has already been decided. New team members often provide this team dynamic since they are not familiar with the processes and procedures and have a “fresh” view of things
• Once an idea is judged, all creativity stops. After judgment, few worthy ideas are generated and people have a tendency to migrate towards weak, safe and conservative ideas. Judgment draws an immediate line in the sand and people then refrain from crossing the line and presenting something too “out there.”
• Visual brainstorming is an attempt to use drawings and sketches to conceptualize and capture ideas. Draw a sketch of how the problem might be solved and then review it and modify it until you come up with a final solution from one of the sketches or variations of the original.
• During any brainstorming session, the rule is not to skip judgment but to postpone it. In some of my classes, I noticed that sometimes students became too cooperative during the brainstorming sessions. Such total absence of criticism was just as bad as premature judgment. As a result, at the end of the session the whole group was overwhelmed with many irrelevant ideas which had little potential.
• Sometimes it is useful to keep these brainstorming sessions informal. Do it over a pizza lunch, or without Sr. level managers. This may allow junior employees to open up. Often, junior employees understand the situation the best and offer the best ideas. Finding a way to get them to speak up is critical.
• Have fun! Brainstorming sessions are about being creative. Fun and creativity go together. The environment should be loose and relaxed so that people have fun and open up.
  Having fun means eliminating criticism. Criticism is a big hindrance to creativity.
• Trust is essential to the brainstorming process so that all participants can voice their ideas without fear of being judged. When people are self-conscious of what other group members will think of their ideas, they contribute less to group work.
• Idea finding is the most critical step of brainstorming. Collect and write down all possible ideas by thinking in all aspects. Write down silly ones and brilliant ones. The thinking process should be a diverging one. The process is important. The problem solving process helps make people more effective and creative.
• Often during brainstorming sessions, people tend to skip or completely ignore the objective finding stage. They jump right into problem finding or even solution finding. Without a clearly stated list of goals and objectives any problem solving process becomes lengthy and complex.

Identity Theft - How your identity gets tracked online

How much can Internet companies learn about you while you're surfing? They can actually learn a lot about you, your likes and dislikes, habits and purchase history. Here is how they can find this information:

1. You go to http://www.google.com/ and do a search on electronics stores.
2. You click on www.circuitcity.com
3. Whether you register or not, browser information and cookies can be retrieved from your PC by web sites that you have visited. The following Internet Explorer option, AutoComplete, is automatically turned on by default on home versions of Windows. Most companies configure Internet Explorer security features so that this option is turned off. When this option is turned on, personal information is automatically populated when conducting a transaction (e.g. purchasing a CD form Circuit City). In order to turn off this option: Within Internet Explorer, navigate to Tools menu, click Internet Options, click the Content tab; Under Personal information, click AutoComplete; Deselect any boxes that are checked; Click OK
4. Circuitycity.com now knows that you came to their site from http://www.google.com/. They know that your IP address is 168.105.79.52, (if using a firewall can translate to 192.168.20.7). Your IP address might also reveal the surfer’s ISP, town, company or school.
5. You navigate to http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/. This is a site you visit regularly to browse for news, but you are not a registered user. You have visited this site 6 times in the past month. You typically spend 30 seconds on the home page before clicking on the sports and business pages before leaving.
6. You navigate to http://www.cnn.com/. A banner ad network which is CNN’s partner recognizes you (not by name, but by computer) CNN uses technology that maps IP addresses to real-world locations. As a result, they are able to determine that you live in Schaumburg, IL.
7. You now register at the http://www.sweepstakesonline.com/ contest Web site. Sweepstakesonline.com now knows your name, address, phone number, gender, birth date, work phone and personal tastes. This information can now be sold or shared many times over. This information can be mapped to any additional information gleaned from cookies, such as previous Web sites visited. Hackers can break in and steal this information. If the Web site is acquired, the new company owns the information
8. You now navigate to http://www.amazon.com/ and buy a book. Amazon now knows all of your prior purchases, any product you have ever searched for, and all of your personal information. In addition, using a technique called collaborative filtering, Amazon is able to determine what other types of book you might want to purchase

Identity Theft - 10 Ways to Protect your Identity

1. Burn or shred, with a cross shredder, any mail or financial papers with your personal information on it. Never recycle them.

2. Call 1-888-5OPTOUT and ask to stop credit card companies from sending pre-approved credit card applications to your house. They are ticking identity theft time bombs.

3. Ask your credit card firm to cease delivery of "convenience checks." They, too, are ticking time bombs.

4. You're entitled to one free credit report each year. Get it as soon as possible and review it carefully.

5. Order a credit report a month or more before you make a big purchase or apply for credit, to be sure there are no surprises in your history.

6. Hassle companies that ask for personal information, such as your phone number at a checkout line. The harder we make it on companies, the less they will be inclined to continue the practice.

7. Its impossible to tell what's real and what's fake online. Just delete any e-mail that asks for personal information.

8. Just hang up on telemarketers, particularly ones who seem to be fishing for personal information, like your birthday.

9. Limit the number of credit cards you hold, and religiously inspect your financial statements each month. Consumer rights quickly fade over time; the sooner you discover an identity theft incident, the better.

10. Most of the time, you can't prevent an ID theft incident from occurring, because two-thirds of the time, some company that leaked the data is to blame. So be prepared, and be organized. Save paper bank records for a year, at least. You'll need them to prove your account balance in the event of an ID theft incident.

Identity Theft - What to do when your Identity has been stolen?

Step 1: Protect your finances

Contact the fraud departments of each of the three major credit bureaus:

• Equifax
  1-800-525-6285
  www.equifax.com
• Experian
  1-888-397-3742
  www.experian.com
• TransUnion
  1-800-680-7289
  www.tuc.com

Get a copy of your credit report, which is free to ID theft victims. Ask that your file be flagged with a "fraud alert tag" and a "victim's statement." That will limit the thief's ability to open new credit accounts, as new creditors will call you before granting credit, generally. Insist, in writing, that the fraud alert remain in place for seven years, the maximum, according to PrivacyRights.org.

Step 2: File a police report

You will need a police report to dispute unauthorized charges and for any insurance claims. Be persistent; your local police department may suggest that this isn't necessary, because they don't want the paperwork hassle. Also, fill out an online ID Theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission or call 1-877-ID-THEFT.

That enters your case in the FTC's "Consumer Sentinel" database, a nationwide list of ID theft cases which can be used by law enforcement officers to find patterns and catch criminals.

Step 3: Close all compromised accounts

The list may be wider than you realize. This includes accounts with banks, credit card companies and other lenders, and phone companies, utilities, ISPs, and other service providers. Dispute all unauthorized charges - The FTC offers a sample dispute letter on its Web site. Disputes may require a sworn statement and a police report. The FTC also offers a form affidavit which can be used for the sworn statement at

www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/affidavit.pdf

Other Useful Sources of Information regarding Identity Theft

• "When bad things happen to your good name" - FTC document full of sample dispute letters and other recovery procedures
  www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm
• U.S. Department of Justice ID Theft kit
  www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
• Identity Theft Resource Center
  www.idtheftcenter.org

Top Frauds, scams & mishaps
1). Internet Auctions (16%)
2). Shop-at-home/Catalog Sales (8%)
3). Internet Services & Computer Complaints (6%)
4). Foreign Money Offers (6%)
5). Prizes, Sweepstakes & Lotteries (5%)
6). Advance-fee loans & Credit Protection (3%)
7). Business opportunities & Work-at-home plans (2%)
8). Telephone Services (2%)

Planning Assumptions for your Pandemic Implementation Plan

Pandemic are unpredictable. While history offers useful benchmarks, there is no way to know the characteristics of a pandemic virus before it emerges. Use the following assumptions to assist you when developing your pandemic implementation plans.

• Multiple employees will be out on extended sick leave at the same time
• Universal susceptibility to the pandemic influenza
• Clinical disease rate will be 30% in the overall population. Illness rates will be highest amongst school-aged children (about 40 percent) and decline with age. Among working adults, an average of 20% will become ill during a community outbreak.
• Risk groups for severe and fatal infection are likely to include infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and persons with chronic or immunosuppressive medical conditions.
• Ensure systems are in place for receiving and disseminating reliable health information
• Assume that there will be 2-3 waves of the virus over a 12-18 month period of time
• Each wave will last 8-12 weeks long
• People will be ill for 2-4 weeks
• Cumulative absentee rate will be 25-40%
• Build your plans based on the fact that a virtual workspace is the only real solution that could really be effective during a pandemic outbreak
• Strategies to Promote Employee Wellness that can begin now that would benefit a company during a pandemic outbreak include encouraging sick employees to stay home, conducting health education campaigns (including Hand washing and Cover your cough) and encouraging routine health maintenance (e.g. Annual flu shots, Employee wellness programs)
• The typical incubation period (interval between infection and onset of symptoms) for influenza is approximately 2 days
• On average, infected persons will transmit infection to approximately 2 other people
• Some common non-medical intervention and prevention procedures include
  · Hand washing and Purell dispensers in every bathroom
  · Frequent risk communications
  · Personal Protective Equipment (e.g. Surgical Masks)
  · Limit spread of infection by decreasing amount of domestic and international travel

How is a pandemic virus spread?

• Pandemic influenza is spread from person to person primarily through “respiratory secretions”. The virus may also be spread through contact with respiratory secretions on hands or any other object or surface.

• Influenza viruses are known to survive on non-porous surfaces such as steel and plastic, for up to 24 to 48 hours and on cloth, paper, and tissues for up to 8 to 12 hours.

• Influenza’s incubation period is 1 to 5 days and it is contagious 1 day before symptoms appear and up to 7 days after.

Why should I be concerned about a Pandemic?

According to the W.H.O. (World Health Organization), the world is “now overdue” for an influenza pandemic, since mass epidemics or pandemics have occurred every 20 to 30 years and it has been nearly 40 years since the last one.

All signs point to the world being on the verge of another influenza pandemic. The World Health Organization has encouraged every country to develop a plan to deal with the up-coming global health crisis.

In 1918, it took 4 days to cross the US and 2 weeks to cross the Atlantic and both trips were

Today, it takes 4 hours to cross the country and 8 hours to get to Europe and both trips are common. Simply put, the virus can spread quickly and an outbreak on the other side of the world can quickly spread to every other region of the world if precautionary measures are not followed.

While vaccine is the primary method of prevention, a vaccine is hard to produce due to the fact that the strains of the virus mutate frequently.

US Emergency resources are limited and a pandemic outbreak could result in:

• Overwhelmed medical and civil services
• A partial to complete breakdown in civil services
• Riots

What is a Pandemic?

What is a Pandemic?

Pandemic Influenza – a large, worldwide epidemic of a new human influenza strain; an outbreak of a new viral strain that spreads rapidly around the world.

An influenza pandemic is a public health emergency that rapidly takes on significant political, social, and economic dimensions.

As with other emerging infectious diseases, the course of its evolution is governed by factors – including the properties of a new causative agent – that cannot be known in advance and require some time to understand.

In the phases moving from the pre-pandemic period to a full-fledged pandemic, health authorities will need to make a series of emergency decisions in an atmosphere of considerable scientific uncertainty and fragile public confidence.

A pandemic is cyclical occurring every 20 to 30 years
A pandemic comes in 2 or 3 waves often months apart
It may take as long as 24 months for a pandemic to run its course

For the most part, the bird pandemic is not currently impacting the average person. On the other hand, if you are a bird or poultry farmer, the current H5N1 strain of avian influenza has already had a significant impact on your profession. If the virus mutates to humans, there will be an impact to pretty much everyone.

Bird Flu or “avian influenza” is not a concern to humans. The concern is that the virus mutates to humans and becomes a pandemic that then affects humans.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza first surface in Hong Kong in 1997.

In the 20th Century, Spanish influenza (1918), Asian influenza (1957) and Hong Kong influenza (1968) were all Avian influenzas.

It is worth noting that the Swine Flu in 1976 and SARS in 2003 were epidemics and never reached pandemic proportions.

As of 3/20, there were 177 human cases that resulted in 98 deaths

As of 7/4, there were 229 human cases that have resulted in 131 deaths in 10 countries but there has not been sustained human to human transmission

IT Execs Take Different Routes on Bird Flu Threat

Fears of an outbreak prompt continuity planning by some; others see no need

APRIL 17, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The answer to the question of whether corporate IT departments would be ready to respond if an avian flu pandemic hit the U.S. is: Maybe.

Based on interviews last week with 13 CIOs, business continuity directors and IT management consultants, U.S. companies continue to hold widely divergent views on the risk that a flu outbreak could force school closings or broad quarantines in hard-hit areas.

Some IT leaders, mainly at large companies, said they are preparing for the worst in an effort to avoid being left short-staffed or unable to support vastly increased numbers of telecommuters on their networks if a pandemic strikes.

For example, Beneficial Financial Group in Salt Lake City "is seriously looking into the pandemic issue," said CIO Steve Terry. "Since we are a life insurance company, [being prepared] makes sense for us. We have to have the capability to continue doing business if there is a pandemic."

In contrast, several other CIOs said the possibility of a major flu outbreak isn't that big of concern for them, despite warnings dating back to early last year from the federal government, international groups and consulting firms such as Gartner Inc.

"I don't view [pandemic preparations] as that important," said Amy Fowler, president of the Colorado chapter of the Society for Information Management and an IT management consultant to large companies. "What are the odds of [a long quarantine] happening? We have bigger issues in IT than that one."

Dave Berg, CIO at O.C. Tanner Co., a provider of employee-recognition products and services in Salt Lake City, also hasn't made planning for a possible flu outbreak an action item. Berg noted that most of his employees have secure, high-speed computer access at home and that most operations can be done remotely. "I do not think we would have a serious problem here with keeping our computers and applications services available," he said.

Gartner has issued several advisories about a possible pandemic, urging IT shops to prepare for the need to upgrade broadband and virtual private network connections to the homes of key workers and beef up their online ordering capabilities for customers.

In a 31-page report issued March 7, the consulting firm listed in stark detail three scenarios for a global spread of the avian flu or another virus, from mild to severe. In the most severe scenario, several million people would die and the pandemic could last for a year or longer, despite strict quarantines. Many businesses would cease to operate, travel would be restricted, and workplace communications would often be done via phone, videoconferencing and e-mail.

But Gartner analyst Ken McGee last week rated overall corporate preparation levels at only a 2 or 3 on a scale from 1 to 10. "Maybe pandemic planning isn't the most important thing facing a company, but it should be in the top two," McGee said, suggesting that tight IT budgets might be keeping some companies from moving more quickly to prepare.

The biggest mistake companies are making is assuming that their existing continuity plans will work in the event of a pandemic, McGee added. "Unlike earthquakes and hurricanes and bombs, which are geographically confined, a pandemic is not," he said. "At Gartner, we can't comprehend what IT is thinking on this, because a pandemic is the gift that keeps on giving."

Kevin Desouza, an assistant professor at the University of Washington's Information School in Seattle, said he knows of "only a very few companies" that have systematic plans for monitoring whether a crisis is coming and for responding before a pandemic hits. "The chief complaint of CIOs is that they walk a fine line between saying, 'The sky is falling' and educating people [about] the inherent risks associated with a pandemic crisis," he said.

Small and midsize businesses in particular are "way down the list" in terms of preparedness, Desouza added.

Some IT managers said they're working to adapt their companies' business continuity plans to a potentially widespread and long-duration pandemic.

"In a pandemic, people would have to stay at home to prevent the spread of whatever the virus is, so we need to find ways to [support] that," said Ellen Barry, CIO at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority in Chicago and president of that city's local SIM chapter.

For example, to limit the amount of data traffic that moves across network pipes, Barry is considering putting the bulk of the authority's applications on centralized servers, following the concept behind WAN optimization products from vendors such as Citrix Systems Inc.

Barry said she has been planning for a pandemic for six months and recently attended two conferences where the topic was addressed.

Another potential problem, Barry said, is that even if workers have appropriate broadband connectivity and good PCs to use at home, they probably won't be as productive as usual if they are sick or involved in caring for someone who is ill.

Just in Case

Lawrence Robert, director of business continuity at a large financial services firm based in New England, said his company, which he asked not be named, has begun expanding its planning processes to include a possible pandemic.

The company is brainstorming disaster scenarios internally and sending detailed questionnaires to its telecommunications carriers seeking assurances that they will be able to handle network loads in residential areas efficiently and securely if a pandemic occurs, said Robert, who is a director of the 1,200-member New England Disaster Recovery Information X-change.

Some carriers have said that if broadband customers who need to work from home sign up in advance of a pandemic, there should be enough network capacity in the event of quarantines.

But "that's not necessarily true," Robert said. His company is taking into consideration the distances between the homes of critical workers and the central offices of their broadband providers. One goal of the ongoing research is to help company officials decide how many more laptops and VPNs need to be deployed.

Robert doesn't care whether the odds of a pandemic occurring are low or high. "Business continuity planners don't look at cause so much as effect," he said. "So whether there's a fire or a bomb or a pandemic, [if] the building is out, the workforce has to be disseminated." The biggest difference might be that the period of disruption could last longer during a pandemic than it would during another event, he added.

However, Desouza noted that a pandemic could produce "things that we did not predict, which can combine to cause problems we didn't imagine."

What IT managers should do to prepare for a possible avian flu pandemic:

· Make your workforce aware of the threat and what you’re doing to prepare for it.
· Establish or broaden work-at-home policies that include the use of broadband services,
appropriate security and network access to applications.
· Expand online transaction-processing and self-service options for customers and business
partners.
· Invest in videoconferencing technology to use if travel restrictions are imposed.Work with
customers and partners to minimize disruptions by coordinating crisis-response
capabilities.

Pandemics - A Brief History

A Recent History of Pandemics

• The Spanish Flu of 1918-19
  A pandemic of influenza A (H1N1) in 1918-19 that caused the highest number of known flu deaths. More than 500,000 people died in the US, and 20 to 50 million people may have died worldwide. Many people died within the first few days after infection and others died of complications soon after. Nearly half of those who died were young, healthy adults.
  The Spanish flu pandemic is the catastrophe against which all modern pandemics are measured. Many people died from this very quickly. Some people who felt well in the morning became sick by noon, and were dead by nightfall. Those who did not succumb to the disease within the first few days often died of complications from the flu (e.g. pneumonia) caused by bacteria. One of the most unusual aspects of the Spanish flu was its ability to kill young adults. The reasons for this remain uncertain. With the Spanish flu, mortality rates were high among healthy adults as well as the usual high-risk groups. The attack rate and mortality was highest among adults 20 to 50 years old. The severity of that virus has fortunately not been seen again.
• Asian Influenza of 1957-58
  A pandemic of influenza A (H2N2) in 1957-58. First identified in China in late February 1957, the Asian flu spread to the US by June 1957 where it caused about 70,000 deaths.
  Immunity to this strain of influenza A (H2N2) was rare in people less than 65 years of age, and a pandemic was predicted. In preparation, vaccine production began in late May 1957, and health officials increased surveillance for flu outbreaks. Unlike the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, the 1957 pandemic virus was quickly identified, due to advances in scientific technology. Vaccine was available in limited supply by August 1957.
  The virus came to the US quietly, with a series of small outbreaks over the summer of 1957. When children went back to school in the fall, they spread the disease in classrooms and brought it home to their families. Infection rates were highest among school children, young adults, and pregnant women in October 1957. Most influenza-and pneumonia-related deaths occurred between September 1957 and March 1958. The elderly had the highest rates of death. By December 1957, the worst seemed to be over. However, during January and February 1958, there was another wave of illness among the elderly. This is an example of the potential "second wave" of infections that can develop during a pandemic. The disease infects one group of people first, infections appear to decrease and then infections increase in a different part of the population.
• Hong Kong Influenza of 1968-69
  A pandemic of influenza A (H3N2) in 1968-69. This virus was first detected in Hong Kong in early 1968 and spread to the US later that year where it caused about 34,000 deaths, making it the mildest pandemic in the 20th century.
  There could be several reasons why fewer people in the US died due to this virus. First, the Hong Kong flu virus was similar in some ways to the Asian flu virus that circulated between 1957 and 1968. Earlier infections by the Asian flu virus might have provided some immunity against the Hong Kong flu virus that may have helped to reduce the severity of illness during the Hong Kong pandemic.
  Second, instead of peaking in September or October, like pandemic influenza had in the previous two pandemics, this pandemic did not gain momentum until near the school holidays in December. Since children were at home and did not infect one another at school, the rate of influenza illness among schoolchildren and their families declined.
  Third, improved medical care and antibiotics that are more effective for secondary bacterial infections were available for those who became ill.
  

In terms of natural disasters, there is some good news and bad news.
The number of people dying from these types of catastrophes has decreased over the years. However, the locations affected and the costs associated with planning and recovery are increasing.

For more information on pandemic terminology and history, access the following web site. http://www.pandemicflu.gov/