In an effort to raise its social responsibility and help conserve the planet's natural resources, NASW's national office is launching a green program.

An important step in this effort took place over the summer when the NASW Board of Directors decided that the association would host a Virtual Delegate Assembly for the first time (see related story). By reducing the number of people who would have to travel to Washington, D.C., for the event, from around 300 down to only four, numerous natural resources were saved, said NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark.

"Social workers have long supported environmental justice," she said. "By extension, going green is part of our ethical responsibility to help maintain the natural environment." Clark noted other green initiatives will be taking place at the association, including utilizing technology to conduct virtual meetings.

In keeping step with this initiative, the NASW Press announced it will be issuing its flagship journal, Social Work, in an electronic-only format to regular members starting with the January 2009 edition.

Unless otherwise instructed, regular members will be receiving e-mail alerts to review the latest Social Work journal online. NASW Press is a leading scholarly press in the social sciences, serving faculty, practitioners, agencies, librarians, clinicians, and researchers in social work and its many related disciplines.

Issuing the Social Work journal in an electronic format will reduce the use of paper and ink in the production process, which, in return, reduces the association's impact on the environment, said NASW Press Publisher Cheryl Y. Bradley

"We are announcing the change in our delivery in the October Social Work journal," Bradley said. "The journal will include a notice to regular members that they will be receiving future issues in a digital format."

NASW members receive the Social Work journal as a member benefit. However, they may also subscribe to the NASW Press' specialty journals, Health & Social Work, Children & Schools, and Social Work Research, at special member rates.

Some of the benefits of the online journals include:

• global, 24-hour access;
• fully searchable content of current and back issues;
• active reference linking to cited articles;
• full-text searching across multiple journals;
• live links to and from major abstract and indexing resources; and
• table of contents alerting services

Bradley said that if regular members feel they must receive the journal in hard copy, they may submit their request in writing along with their name and NASW membership I.D. number to membership@naswdc.org. NASW regular members are encouraged to verify their contact and e-mail information in their membership profiles in order to receive future Social Work journal e-mail alerts. Members can access their profiles by clicking on the "My NASW" at the top of this page.

"We're asking for members to help support our efforts to become more environmentally responsible," Bradley said. She added that the association welcomes comments and concerns at membership@naswdc.org.

Get more information: NASW Press