【推荐2】Some mothers and daughters like to go shopping or walking together or picnicking as part of their bonding experience. Others become firefighters together. That’s the route that Montgomery County mother Betsy Gekonge took with her 17-year-old daughter Mokeira. The pair recently graduated from the Montgomery County Fire Academy together and received their Firefighter certificate.

The rising high school senior says she thought she’d be going to the fire academy alone. She never expected to have company. “This is quite out of my expectation because I never expected her to do it with me,” said Mokeira.

“Taking classes with my mom was fun because we could study together but also joke around. We share a lot of funny stories at family events,” Mokeira told the Montgomery County Fire Chiefs Association. “Montgomery County is a great place for new volunteers because you learn a lot from knowledgeable, professional firefighters in a positive environment. It teaches you a lot.”

Mokeira is one of the first individuals to gain her Firefighter certificate at age 17 since Pennsylvania’s law changed, making 17 —the youngest legal age to become certified instead of 18.

The pair will work as volunteer firefighters for Barren Hill Fire Company in Lafayette Hill. According to the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute, there were 300,000 volunteer firefighters across the state in the 1970s. That number dwindled (减少) to 38,000 in 2018.

“It’s really fulfilling to volunteer and learn about fire safety that helps us and others in our daily life,” Betsy added. “I’ve built a lot of relationships in our community through volunteering.” “Our decision was primarily motivated by this, and now I have gained great satisfaction from it. It gives me a sense of purpose and I’m helping to contribute to the solution,” said Mokiera.

【推荐2】Many companies are expanding their mental—health benefits(福利), but getting employees to take advantage of them can be challenging. Puget Sound Energy is—on a mission to change that.

Last year, 98% of its employees watched a 20—minute mental—health training video, and managers were offered a two—hour live mental—health training. The sessions included tips on how to recognize and respond to mental—health issues in themselves and others, information on what mental—health resources the company offers, and personal stories from PSE workers who had experienced mental illness.

PSE is one of many companies expanding mental—health benefits and talking about mental health in the workplace in new ways. Workers are suffering from it, and companies recognize poor mental health among employees which is linked to lost productivity and higher medical expenses. Most companies already offer some free mental—health counseling(咨询) through an employee assistance plan, or EAP, to provide a certain number of counseling sessions annually for free.

The problem is that EAPs are often not made full use of. While research indicates that 20% of the adult population experiences a mental illness each year, less than 8% of employees take advantage of their company’s EAP, says Darren Brooks.

In some cases, workers don’t know their employer has an EAP because it isn’t well—promoted. In other cases, workers fear there could be repercussions if their employer finds out their depression or another mental illness. Still others face long waits to book an appointment with EAP due to a national shortage of counselors.

With that in mind, some companies are improving access to mental—health services. It requires training managers to recognize signs of mental—health illness and to speak about specific challenges that people experience in their daily lives. Another part of the challenge is convincing people that it is OK to use them. To make employees more comfortable asking for help, some companies are encouraging managers and workers to share their own mental—health stories.

【推荐3】In the United Kingdom, coffee consumption is on the rise. But beyond just fueling Londoners as they make their ways to work, coffee is also fueling their buses while fighting climate change.

It is reported that London’s buses will soon be powered in part by a newly developed biofuel, one that mixes diesel (柴油) with oils removed from spent coffee grounds, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (排放) from its bus transport system. Recycling technology firm Bio-Bean collects used coffee grounds from major coffee producers across the UK, and removes the oils from them. Then it’s mixed into B20 biodiesel, with 20% biofuel and 80% conventional diesel.

With B20, the buses don’t require any adaptions to run on it. Bio-Bean founder said that, if the UK could use all of the 500,000 tons of coffee waste it produced each year, it could power the city of Manchester for a year. London uses other biofuels to support its effort to cut emissions from its bus system. Coffee is just the latest source, joining used cooking oil and animal fat from meat processing plants, but those old coffee grounds have to go somewhere, and fueling the city’s labor force is preferable to sending them to a waste yard. Bio-Bean’s B20 is an easy way to save businesses money on waste removal, and using the biodiesel in buses cut carbon emissions by 80%.

Coffee waste is becoming an almost unlimited resource, considering London’s citizens alone create 200,000 tons of coffee grounds every year. As more and more Britons switch from tea to coffee, that number will only elevate. The use of coffee grounds as a biofuel source has the added benefit of improving air quality in the city but sadly, it does not give off the pleasant coffee smell one might expect.