Bike-Related Opportunities in LA

As our final project, the Alternative Transportation group finalized a proposal for a bike sharing program at Oxy as well as a proposal for funding from the Renewable Energy and Sustainability Fund. However, because we weren’t able to actually start up a bike sharing program during our semester in the class, we decided to also make a website that would not only track our progress on the program, but also be a resource for people who already have bikes on campus. The page includes bike safety tips, bike maintenance, a map of safe streets to bike on, and fun bike routes.

If anyone is interested, I did some research about up-coming bike-related opportunities in Los Angeles.

*Pasadena Vintage Lightweight Ride: happens every 1st Sunday of the month. It’s a slow-paced 25 mile ride around Pasadena, San Marino, Temple City, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Altadena. The ride will end at the Rose Bowl with a picnic and bike talk.
-meet at Rose Bowl in Pasadena at 10:30, ends at 2:30
-contact Chuck at chuckschmidt@earthlink.net for more information

*Bike Oven Community Bike Repair: Tuesdays, from 7 – 10 pm, come into Bike Oven to get assistance repairing your bike to just to hang out with fellow bikers.
-3706 N. Figueroa St.

*Cruz With Us: the last Saturday of every month. It’s a cruiser bicycle group that rides around to local bars, clubs, beaches, parks, picnics, Old Town Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Sunset Blvd.
-meet at the corner of N. Hollywood Park (5211 Tujunga Ave & Magnolia Blvd) at 9 pm
-contact RoadTocketz@yahoo.com for more information

*In addition, there is a great link on the C.I.C.L.E. website to maps of bike routes in the LA area, as well as nearby scenic/recreational routes.
http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/pivot/entry.php?id=698

Happy biking!

Consumer culture: peer-pressure buy?

I read an article the other day which took a look at the sorry state our planet's oceans were in. Fish and sea creatures from all levels of the food chain (first affecting planktons, then working up to sea mammals--whales and the like) were becoming less able to find food, procreate, and in every other way, function naturally, due to rising levels of carbon-dioxide (pollution too, but this wasn't specifically addressed). 

Top scientists from across the globe have been wracking their brains to come up with efficient, creative, and sustainable solutions to this. One of the many proposed was to diffuse the carbon-dioxide effects by dumping tons of limestone into specific points of the oceans, a measure that has been proven to work in localized examples, but would cost upwards of $45 billion. Annually. 

Another proposed solution, while not nearly as glamorous (nor expensive...) was the oldie but goodie: cut down on carbon dioxide emissions.

I think that this is a good philosophy to carry past the end of the class, and especially into many people's holiday season. While looking for mutually inclusive solutions that allow us to go throughout our day in such relatively comfortable lifestyles without giving up any of our habits is a positive approach, it is also one that takes the longest time, effort, and $.

Cutting back and cutting down on harmful/un-neccesary practices is fast, cheap, and relatively simple. Most people know all the usual techniques, unplugging laptops and other electronic devices when not in use, changing to fluorescent or LED bulbs, keeping tires full, not wasting water...etc., etc. 

It's pretty great that this knowledge is out there, and beginning to become a part of the main culture.

I can't help but believe that people WANT to live sustainably (as long as it doesn't hugely inconvenience them), but one the REAL hurdles standing in the way is....

Etiquette.

Yep. We are ingrained at a young age that certain expressions, or symbols of intent, like cards, presents, paper invitations be present in order to assure an event's propriety. It is almost an unwritten rule that for something to be taken seriously, it must require more resources. Formal essays, business letters, proposals, etc. are almost always single-sided sheets of heavy paper. 

None of this makes any practical sense--double sided essays, proposals, or letters are just as readable as their single-sided counter-parts.

In terms of gifts, cards, etc.--there's nothing inherently wrong with those, but the fact that a number of us are brought up to believe these are our right, is what's the killer.

It is that belief, as well as several other "well, that's just the way things are Done", which peer-pressure many into buying meaningless trinkets and scraps of paper in order to fulfill as social requirement, rather than out of sentiment. 

These social requirements build up--the backbone behind many of today's very successful holiday enterprises--cards, toys, clothes, and on and on.

But most of this is, most likely, very old news. As is what can be done to combat.

Bite the bullet. Be rude.

Use paper with only used sides. Give gifts of effort, thought, if you give at all. If you can only think of a generic, awkward gift to give, maybe don't give one. If that's pushing it too far, try to buy (or better, make) less resource-hogging items, or some that support another cause--it's not hard to think of something.

So this year, maybe mull these thoughts over along with all your other earth-saving plans.

Feed-in Tariffs

Germany produces half of the world’s solar power. That’s kind of funny seeing how cloudy it is there. This has been made possible because the German government restructured their Feed-in Law in 2000. A feed-in law or feed in tariff is a system where common citizens produce electricity with their own solar panels and sell it to the utilities. With the restructured law, people are guaranteed that their solar energy will be purchased by the utility companies for 20 years at a fixed price based on the production cost of solar at the time of installation. The price paid back to independent producers is set to reduce each year according to the expected cost reductions of solar panels. For instance theoretically if I put some solar panels on my roof in Germany in 2007, I would be guaranteed 53 cents for every kw I produced for 20 years. People can in fact turn a profit by taking out loans to buy arrays for their homes as an investment. One reporter that writes for Reuters made a blog entry detailing his extensive exploitation of this feed-in tariff system in Germany.
http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2009/11/27/catching-rays-cutting-emissions/

This program has made electricity more expensive for German consumers; an increase of approximately 4 Euros a month. However, as more electricity is produced by solar panels, less needs to be produced by more traditional methods such as burning natural gas, this in turn decreases the demand, and therefore price of electricity. As the amount of relatively cheaper wind powered generators increases and the price of solar panels continues to decrease, the average price of electricity will continue to fall.

California signed into law a feed-in tariff program early in 2008 and amended it in Oct. 2009. Small energy producers- people with solar panels on their roofs- can enter into 5, 10, or 15 year contracts with the utility company to sell electricity to the grid. So hurry up, buy some panels, and sign up before the 750 megawatt combined statewide cumulative capacity fills up!

Future of the Oxy Bike Program?

As of now, the Bike Sharing Proposal on Occidental's campus is pretty much finalized and ready to be submitted for approval. As the semester comes to an end, the alternative transportation group has gone as far as it was able with the time allowed. As a member of the alternative transportation group and being part of the creation of this proposal from the beginning, I believe I can represent my group with feelings of concern for the future of our hard work and efforts. Since none of us will be apart of the class next semester, not to mention a handful of us being abroad or distracted by a new class load, I know we will not be working as closely with this project as we have for the past few months. So the question is, how do we keep the momentum going with this project and who do we pass it on to?

We can probably guess that there will be another alternative transportation group in this class next semester. Will they be interested in continuing on with our proposal? Will they be required to? If so, will they be able to work off from our proposal without any of our research knowledge/knowledge we have required from meetings we attended? How will a completely new group's take on our proposal effect the bike sharing program at Occidental? The key to the success of the program actually happening is how we pass on our project to the new group taking on the responsibility.

I'm sure we will all be more than happy to pass on our information to be contacts for the new group should they have any questions, but if they need further assistance if we are too busy or abroad for example, I think it would be a good idea to have an original person involved with the program who will would be willing to attend their meetings upon their request/be a supervisor. Professor Vallianatos could probably answer and guide most of the group but for some reason if there is some confusion within the proposal, one of us would need to explain.

Another idea is that should they need to meet with anyone else again (e.g. library staff) one of us could go with them for the first meeting to introduce everyone and guide the meeting. We could pass on contacts with people at the Bike Oven etc. since most of their efforts in the program will be to get the bikes in proper condition to be used. Since it is not listed, we should also put together a suggestions list for next steps such as advertisement, passing on our website to them and urging them to meet with tech to make it a possible link to the library, making the safety video we sadly never got to make, finding a student worker, list of contacts we have created during the semester etc. Here are just a few ideas to ensure the successful future of the bike sharing program at Oxy and I'm sure I'm missing A LOT so please leave feedback and suggestions!!

Time to "Rethink Green"

Too often in my own experience “environmentally conscious” has carried some sort of negative connotation. In high school, as president of the conservation club, I was often labeled as the “granola-eating,” “tree-hugging,” “crunchy,” “save the whales,” girl could be found stomping around in recycle bins to make room for the excessive amounts of paper that went to waste in classrooms. The way people looked at me when I spent my free periods sorting aluminum cans from non-recyclables made me feel as if I should be ashamed of what I was doing. Saving the planet just wasn’t cool.

Thankfully for my and the earth’s sake, being green has become increasingly “hip” lately, yet there are many that remain in denial about the impending environmental crisis that we are creating for ourselves. Some simply won’t acknowledge the scientific evidence that’s out there, others, in the face of economic turmoil, have swept the environment issue under the rug, and then there are those that admit that we do have a problem, but insist that sustainable alternatives to our current ways would be too late, too costly. And that’s where we’re going wrong.

Instead of asking, “What can Brown do for you?” I suggest we adopt the question, “What can green do for America?” In his most recent book, Our Choice, Al Gore describes the opportunities that alternative energy can provide as a chance to develop a profitable industry which will create millions of new US jobs that cannot be outsourced and which will reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. Sounds pretty good for being green.

The poster hanging in my room reads: “When you think green, think money. Economic and environmental progress go hand in hand.” We can spend the next few years coming up with excuses, or we can take advantage of the short time we have left to redefine green as not only an environmental solution, but as a promising tool to ensure America’s future success.

For more info about redefining green check out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15green.t.html?pagewanted=2

Ramblings on Our Societal Condition

Recently, I got a headache after eating in the Marketplace. It wasn't the type of headache I was used to, and I had been feeling perfectly normal before the meal. I was well-rested, had even worked out the day before, the sun was shining; everything was great. So it puzzled me when a half hour later I was lying in bed, feeling crappy. It wasn't until then that I began to wonder what could have caused the situation. I thought back to what I had eaten; nothing terribly unhealthy as far as I could remember. The only thing unusual had been soy sauce. Dun dun dunnnn, the soy sauce. That's what had done it. I looked up the ingredients and low and behold! one of the byproducts of the fermentation process is mono-sodium glutamate (MSG). I knew that MSG and I don't typically get along, but I just hadn't thought about it before deciding to pour soy sauce all over my meal. The incident got me thinking about food and what it is we're putting into our bodies.

Even the most basic aspects of our lives are removed from our awareness. For instance, I don't really know anything about the food I consume. Who grew it? Where did it come from? What chemicals were used on it? I'm sure even as little as one hundred years ago (ok, maybe two hundred), this kind of ignorance was unheard of. People used to grow and raise their own food. Yes, I realize that things have changed in the name of progress and convenience, but I wonder if it has been a good thing. What have we really gotten out of this system? As a country, obesity levels have increased at an alarming rate. Only Colorado has a prevalence rate of less than 20% (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html). Childhood diabetes is common as McDonalds. It's getting scary.

And it's not just food. Think about clothing, toiletries, notebooks, computers, the list goes on. Essentially every material object we possess came from somewhere. Every single item has a back story, from being grown overseas, shipped somewhere else to be processed, sent to a warehouse, and then distributed to stores, where people can drive over and pick one up for themselves (Yay!). How much CO2 was produced for me to have the pen sitting next to me? What rain forest was cleared, how many animals displaced for me to have this notebook? It's funny, but I wish for the time when people made their own things. I don't know if it's possible to be nostalgic about something I've never actually experienced, but that's as close as I can get to describing the feeling.

The other thing that keeps coming to mind is the Western concept of waste. Generally, people of Western cultures see time in a strictly linear way. You're born, you live, you die, the end. People see trash the same way; once you're done, you throw it away and it's gone forever. Wrong. When you throw something away, it's simply being sent somewhere else. It is still just as much in existence as you or me, it's still taking up space. This contrasts to a more Eastern philosophy, especially prevalent in Hinduism. Though I myself am not Hindu, I've learned a little bit about it and can really appreciate its teachings on reincarnation and the cyclical nature of time. This results in much more balanced (and sustainable) practices when it comes to consumption and waste. (In theory, at least; I'm not going to tell you that places where most people are Hindu aren't polluted). The Iroquois also had similar notions. Within their rules for governing it was stated that before a decision could be made, it's impact on the next seven generations must be reviewed. This kind of thinking is ideal when it comes to sustainable practices. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, or how this can be utilized, but I've just been thinking about it a lot recently. Overall, people need to stop placing so much importance on convenience now, and start looking at the big picture.

A New Campus Tour Route

Most current Oxy students have taken the campus tour that takes you from the administration building to Newcomb Hall, past Weingart and to the Library. The second half of the tour includes the quad, sometimes the marketplace and back to the administration building. While Oxy students are quite exceptional, I have been thinking that Oxy can create a "green tour" that can be used in the future once more and more green projects are in place.

The "green tour" can include heading up the hill to see the garden. If the solar array is implemented on campus, that could be another stop. Also, if more sustainable lanscaping takes place, a stop to see that is also a good idea. While this tour would be best for the future, with more physical green projects on campus, it is fun to think of a new route for the tour guides.
Perhaps there could be an option of what tour you want to take. So, if you are more interested in sustainability you are able to see the campus from that angle rather than the new wing in the library.

This not only will allow students who are interested in sustainability and a green campus to understand Oxy's environmental endevors and unque glimmers of cretivity in greening the campus, but it could also spark interest in students and families that come to Oxy not interest Oxy's sustainable efforts. A new route could represent a greener future and a different way of presenting the school to futre students and parents.

The alternative transportation team has spent the past week finalizing our proposal for the bike sharing program. It is so nice to finally have our brainstorming, debating and drafting all neatly compiled into one word document. Though this proposal is only the first step towards the implementation of the bike sharing program, it is very satisfying to physically see the work that we have done this semester.

Our proposal is outlined in the following way:

1.The introduction discusses the need for the bike sharing program at Occidental and the benefits of implementing such a program. It includes our survey responses regarding approval for the program and community participation.

2. Section I outlines the suggested budget for our bike sharing program. The budget is primarily composed of the costs for repairing the twelve abandoned bikes we obtained and the costs of biking accessories, such as helmets and locks.

3. Section II describes the general logistics of our proposed program, including details about check out procedure. As of now, we are hoping to have a check out system through the library. This involves placing a new bike rack outside of the library.

4. Section III lays out information regarding the liability policies of our bike sharing program. We are planning to have fixed fees for damages and late/no returns based on the estimated worth of the bike.

5.Section IV provides resources for bike maintenance and safe riding in Los Angeles. We are hoping to provide links for fun routes in the area of Occidental College.

6.Section V is a supplement to our proposal. It contains letters of support for the bike sharing program and examples of successful bike sharing programs in other academic institutions.

I am using this blog post as an opportunity for seeking input from members of the two other groups. Please leave suggestions, comments or criticism. We would love to hear if any of you have anything to add or a different approach. Also if any of you have links to resources we could use for our safety and supplemental sections, it would be great! Thanks for your help everyone.

Art for the Environment

In this day and age, blogging has taken over the world. Personal blogs, religious blogs, political blogs, and blogs related to everything else under the sun exist. They come in all shapes and sizes and are efficient ways to spread opinions and information. A unique breed of blog addresses what happens when environmental issues and art are fused together.

The Eco Art Blog (http://ecoartblog.blogspot.com/) focuses on the cross section of art and ecology. Recent posts have discussed the use of wildflowers for public landscaping and temporary public installations of mini gardens in sidewalks. As a source of information, the Eco Art Blog provides international examples of ecological works of art.

EcoViz (http://ecoviz.org/) is an art review site. It reviews pro-environmental art and design projects. Recently reviewed is a campaign by the group Tappening. Tappening fights against the use of plastic water bottles. Modeled after the smear campaign by bottled water companies against tap water, one poster proclaimes "Bottled water causes blindness in puppies."

Most importantly, these blogs act to connect like minded people and similar blogs to one another. Each blog includes links to other blogs and links to websites of activism groups and artists. The blogs emphasize the recent re-articulation of enviornmental activists and serve as interesting places on the internet peruse. I suggest looking through both of these and clicking on some of their many links and seeing where it takes you.

How to turn Oxy's C into an A!

In the last few weeks, I've been getting more and more excited about Zipcar and bike sharing programs.  Despite quite a few bumps in the road, we're finally nearing the end (or the beginning?) of the Zipcar saga.  With the support of risk management and several other key administrators, the only step left is to get approval from the Cabinet.  With amazingly positive survey results and not many reasons to say no, the future is looking bright for car-sharing!  Although there are a few more hurdles for the bike sharing program, that's looking good as well.  It's incredible that after just a semester of hard work, we can potentially get both alternative transportation programs on campus.  

It seems that the rest of the campus is moving towards sustainability on its own, as well.  After installment of bike racks, the number of bikes on campus has exploded.  In addition, a large number of my friends are considering bringing their bikes to campus next semester (or, hopefully, will be avid users of the new bike sharing program!)  This snowball effect could easily turn Oxy from its current car-centrism to a campus where Zipcars, bikes, and good old-fashioned legs are the new norm for transportation around our urban environment.

But as much as I want to celebrate the work that has been done by both my group and individual Oxy students, I'm amazed by how much work is yet to be done to make this college truly sustainable.  As important as it is to recognize the current accomplishments of the College towards a 'green' campus, we also need to begin to plan what the next steps will be.  Judging by how long it took to get Zipcar, pre-existing program, approved at Oxy (thus far, unofficially approved), brainstorming and work for future projects should begin as soon as possible. 

What other projects could Oxy students pursue in order to improve our college's sustinability?  Here's my brainstorming below - feel free to post your own ideas in a comment!

- Start a composting program.  We could start with just the Green Bean, and perhaps slowly expand to the Cooler, Marketplace, and even the dorms.  I started a composting program at my high school, and it was surprisingly easy, even for a school of 700 students + faculty/staff.  Composting usually involves an extra receptacle for non-animal product food scraps, compostable cups and plastic containers, and food-soiled paper products, like napkins.  Our contracted trash collecting company likely works with composting as well; if not, there are a good number of other compost-collecting companies in the LA area.

- Add hand dryers to all bathrooms on campus (including dorms).  This may seem like a small gesture, but I always hate seeing the thousands of paper towels thrown into the garbage each week.  

- Make our landscaping more sustainable.  Replacing water-sucking non-native plants with some local, natural growth would decrease our water usage, which is currently astronomical (70% of our total water usage on campus comes from watering!)

- Keep working towards getting solar and more local and organic foods at our dining halls.

-Get rid of the leaf blowers!  They're pretty much pointless, and awful for the environment.  If the administration insists on getting rid of fallen leaves, would it be so awful to use a rake??  

- (this is a little wishful, but...) Turn Rangeview into an energy-generating gym!  We could also do this with the gym they're planning on installing in Alumni gym.  If people are already working out, we might as well get some free energy from it!  

Judging from the level of excitement surrounding local foods month, the potential solar array, Zipcars, and bike sharing, Oxy students are willing to help make campus sustainability a reality.  Post your ideas below OR, better yet, apply for funding to make it happen!

http://clubs.oxy.edu/asoc/sustainability.htm

 

US Temperatures: Yup, Still Rising

A few years ago global warming was a highly debated topic but in recent months, perhaps the past year, the discussion has fizzled. Clearly the state of our economy has captured President Obama's attention while environmental issues have been pushed aside, but global warming has not dissapeared and is not improving.

A recent article in TreeHugger provides findings from a new study, conducted by The Weather Channel and the non-profit Climate Channel, declaring that "we're now seeing more record high temperatures and fewer lows in the US than ever before." Andrew Revkin, a contributor to Dot Earth of The New York Times, explains that while there have been an increased number of record high temperatures the most noticable shift is in the reduction of record low temperatures.

I find this study interesting because so much debate focuses on day-time temperatures and very rarely on night-time temperatures. The study also states that by the end of 21st Century when the temperatures have increased by 3ºC there will be even fewer record lows. As this is the most recent study done on climate change I hope that it reignites the global warming debate and pressures the Obama Administration to take action on the environmental issues the US is facing.

Below is a video describing the work by Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research:

Oxy Bike Culture

As the transportation group is dutifully tackling the task of getting the bike-sharing program off the ground, I have been thinking about what some of the needs of this club are going to be in the long and short term. Aside from all the logistical concerns of renting bikes up, making repairs, assembling bikes etc., one of the biggest challenges I believe the club will face is how to establish itself, much like FEAST is currently trying to do, as an institution at Oxy -- among the ranks of the Oxy Weekly, KOXY and the new Green Bean Cafe. In order to make the new bike-sharing program more visible as well as promote a more permanent bike culture at the school, I think it would be wise to engage in an ad campaign promoting the various cycling events and groups in Los Angeles in conjunction with the club's start.

Oxy's location is prime for introducing students to Los Angeles bike culture, as Northeast LA is currently a hotbed for emergent avant-garde art and cycling culture. In addition to the plethora of bicycle shops in the area, there are a number of easily accessible organizations and monthly events that promote sustainable transportation, friendship, fitness, festivity and the arts. Here is an overview of a few of those groups and events:

C.I.C.L.E. - Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange is a Los Angeles (Eagle Rock!) based nonprofit organization devoted to advocating and campaigning for the bicycle as an environmentally, physically and cost efficient means of transportation in the city. They promote bike use through instructive riding courses on bike handling skills, traffic reading and planning rides.

more info at: www.cicle.org/


Midnight Ridazz - While C.I.C.L.E. appeals to your conscientious side and teaches riding skills, the Midnight Ridazz are here to show you how fun cycling is. The party-on-wheels that is the Midnight Ridazz travels around our fair city on the second Friday of every month as well as at most major Los Angeles bike events. They take to the road in packs for monthly art rides, as well as sight-seeing tours and pub crawls.

more info at: www.midnightridazz.com/


Downtown Art Ride - This ride that takes place on the second Thursday or every month coincides with the Downtown Art Walk. The ride is guided and the route is semi-regularly modified to keep things interesting for riders month to month. Almost every gallery that participates in the Downtown Art Walk is on the route of the ride, making it a nice way to get out and see the city and plenty of art. As most galleries that participate in the Downtown Art Walk have DJ's or bands and wine, these rides serve as great social events -- fellow riders are friendly! -- as well as an opportunity for some evening exercise.

more info at: http://downtownartride.com/


Spoke(n) Art Ride - Much like the Downtown Art Ride, but even closer! This ride through Highland Park and Eagle Rock on the second Saturday of every month coincides with the Second Saturday Gallery Night hosted by all the business in Northeast Los Angeles that are a part of NELAart. The ride begins at Ave. 50 and Figueroa and travels up Ave. 50, west on York, north up Eagle Rock and finally east on Colorado Blvd to the edge of Eagle Rock -- hitting every art gallery on the way. Rides usually conclude with an after-party at the Bike Oven on Figueroa.

more info at: http://bikeoven.com/spokenart/

Hopefully if we, as a class, can get the word out on these highlighted organizations, events and more along with out bike sharing program we can create not only effective transport for our fellow students, but also establish a more permanent bike culture on campus that directly contributes to building friendship, fitness and ties to our community.

Half-Yearly Garden Report

Hi Everyone,

This is the longest blog-post of all time. It is the half-yearly report to the admin on the progress of the garden. It includes qualitative and quantitative data on the garden operations as well as some of the food group's findings from our survey. It still needs some work-- specifically Bruce Steels will provide some information on water-usage and I need to include more data on the number of volunteers. Overall its all good news though :)

Garden Report to the Administration, November 2009

We are happy to report that after 8 months of work FEAST, along with many academic and administrative partnerships has established an organic vegetable garden on Occidental’s campus. The garden is located on the lawn in front of the Urban and Environmental Policy building and consists on 17, four by eight raised beds. We are in the midst of harvesting our second crop—radishes, lettuces, pumpkins, butternut squash, kale, chard, brussel sprouts, broccoli, peas and various herbs with more on the way. For more moment-to-moment information, pictures and videos please visit our blog: occidental-feast.blogspot.com

In this report we aim to share what we have accomplished—how on track we are with our original mission, how we have accomplished it, long-term goals and specific needs of the organization.

Original Mission and Success

The reason the club was founded was to answer the question, “We know the food systems in this country are bad for our health and the environment but what can we do about it?” The mission outlined in our founding documents is, “to learn about sustainable, local, and organic food through hands on experiences and to teach the cultural, environmental and economic impacts of food systems. Our overarching goal is to create awareness about sustainable, healthy food on the Occidental Campus and ultimately in the Los Angeles community.”

The educational aspect for club members as well as for other students who have come to some events has been substantial. Members who consistently come to weekly meetings have learned how to compost (that special ratio of straw, to food-prep waste to grass trimmings) as well as which seeds to plant at which time of year and watering and harvesting techniques. To reach out to the broader Oxy community we have been in the quad at lunch with informational fliers, served pumpkin pie from the garden at A Taste of Oxy, done a free-screening of Food Inc. in Johnson 200 and opened our garden to all community members regardless of their club membership status.

In terms of the “green-ness” of our project we have had 33 days of composting since the beginning of our project. Every week we use 6 bins of food-prep waste from the Marketplace each weighing about 10 pounds. That equals 1,980 pounds of waste that we diverted from a landfill (as well as the amount of CO2 it would take to cart it there). We also use 3 full garbage bags of grass trimmings every week (provided by Facilities). That makes 100 bags of grass trimmings diverted. There was some alarm when the first water bill came at the beginning of the fall but there were two reasons for this—neither of which had to do with the student garden (see attached spreadsheet for more information).

The produce generally gets distributed between club members or used in meals provided by Well Fed, the new student-run “restaurant” (oxywellfed.blogspot.com for more information). As of November 1 we have all the raised beds staked in and from now on can measure the productive capabilities of the garden and look into new food distribution programs.

Community-Building

The community-building aspect of the club has been integral to the success of the garden. What started out as one or two people clamoring for an on-campus garden has turned into an organization with over 300 members, 20 or 30 of who attend events on a regular basis. There are no guidelines on who can be a member and as a result students of all classes and all backgrounds have met each other as well as professors from different disciplines, various staff members and even supportive community members. Events range from our weekly Thursday meetings to turn the compost pile, plant and harvest to trips to the beach to collect kelp to improve the quality of our compost, to potluck dinners and brunches to baking 20 pumpkin pies (with pumpkins from the garden!) to share at A Taste of Oxy. There are just as many freshman involved in the program as there are seniors which not only makes for a friendly atmosphere but also ensures the sustainability of the effort.

On some days we have had so many volunteers and not enough jobs for all the hands. As a result we have had collaborative programming on some Thursdays. One afternoon we had a certified yoga instructor (and fellow student) teach a yoga course. Another Thursday we had a student-band play. We’re hoping to have permanent student art in the garden installed next semester (a bench as well as mosaic stepping stones). The garden has morphed from a sustainability project into a platform to host student-projects--all the while maintaining our original mission of awareness and hands-on learning.

Leadership Development

As graduation approaches for current club leaders we are looking closely at leadership development for next year. Luckily we have very dedicated underclassmen involved in the project and are developing an executive board around them. We’re hoping for more collaborative management and have five elected positions for the spring: Presidential Team, Chicken Guardian(s), Gardening/ Composting Expert, Events Manager/Fundraising and Treasurer. Elections will be held the first week of December and we already have 10 candidates on the ballot.

Key to the success of future management is strong partnerships with faculty, administration and staff as they can monitor successes and failures from year to year. Currently we have strong links with the UEP department (specifically Professor Vallianatos and Heng Lam Foong), Facilities (Bruce Steele) and various administrators (Dean Avery, James Tranquada), Campus dining (Amy Munoz).

Organization Needs and Long-Term Goals

We have a few pressing needs that we hope the administration will help us with. Currently we store all our tools in the basement of the UEP building. This is not only a pain for us but also a burden on Campus Safety whom we must call to let us in and then again to let us put the tools away. We need a tool-shed in the garden. We believe that we could build one for around $300.

This semester we completed research and a proposal around the idea of getting chickens. We met with Rebecca Dowling to hear her perspective and the final proposal is attached this report (covering avian flu concerns, maintenance, and neighbor concerns). We are looking at the leadership for next year to determine whether we are justified in implementing the program.

Looking more long-term we hope to be an established organization on campus much like the Oxy Weekly or Koxy (radio). While our operations do not require a large budget we do need straw every week for composting, updated tools, seeds, transportation and some other basics. It would be more efficient to not consistently apply for funds from ASOC or the Sustainability Fund. Perhaps we could automatically get 20% of the Sustainability Fund each year, giving an incentive for FEAST members to recruit students to donate to the program.

Sustainable Food At Oxy

The issue of sustainable food is something students and faculty alike are passionate about. In partnership with UEP 247, FEAST put together a survey to gauge students’ desire to have more local and organic foods available in campus dining facilities. 64.2% of the 205 survey respondents stated that they care about both local and organic food being offered on campus. 82% of respondents said they eat lunch in campus dining facilities more than any other meal. Fruit was the most important item that students wanted to see local/ organic closely followed by dairy and vegetables. 34.8% of respondents said they would be willing to pay extra money for local food along with 53.4% who stated it depended on how much extra. Of that 53.4%, 51.4% said they would be willing to pay 5-10% more. During Local Foods Month, hosted in October by FEAST, UEPI and the ORSL the Marketplace offered all local foods. When I asked Amy Munoz (head of Campus Dining) how much that program increased the budget the answer went well with our findings—just over 10%. Given our data we recommend providing more local and organic fruit, dairy and vegetables during the lunch hours.

HWY 710 Expansion

While I have been focused on food and sustainability here at Occidental this past semester, I have come across a different topic that both involves the Occidental community as well as the surrounding community that is equally as important--the 710 freeway expansion.

The 710 freeway is, as most of you know, very busy and congested. It serves as a main driving route for trucks coming and going from the LA and Long Beach Ports inland to warehousing facilities. It also serves as the cause for numerous environmental and health impacts on the surrounding communities (like Wilmington) that are built so close to the freeway. For instance, when the trucks idle, the community breathes in the toxic fumes. Children playing in parks are also vulnerable to the polluted air. Basically, there is no escape because there are so many trucks that pollute the environment.

The expansion of the 710 plans to connect the 710 and the 210, which runs east and west. However, in oder to do this, the freeway tunnel would have to be constructed through Pasadena. Our new neighbor would be the 710. What does this mean? Occidental faculty, administration and students, as well as community members, would also endure increased truck traffic, increased noise and increased pollution. This site has great information about the project: http://www.710freeway.org/

This expansion project is a direct contrast to the goals of so many who work toward a greener built environment and a more bike/pedestrian friendly neighborhood. In addition, the project also represents the values of our city--are people or business more important? It is also a matter of convenience. We are used to efficiency and expediency in all aspects of life--internet, food, communication, etc. However, if you stop and look, this "efficiency and expediency" does not always benefit everyone. Just as the Wilmington community has fought against the LA/LB port, we now are part of the fight, connecting people from different walks of life due to a common concern.

Please attend the informational meeting TOMORROW (November 12th) at 11:45 am in Fowler 302. Occidental puts forth energy to make this area more pedestrian friendly. However, are we willing to fight for the cause?

kylie dennis

In addition to East Yard Communities For Environmental Justice's success in the No Vernon Power Plant Campaign, EYCEJ had a major victory regarding railroad emissions reductions.  Since EYCEJ's conception in 2001, the organization's primary campaign has been railyard emissions reduction.  EYCEJ is located in Commerce, which is a community five miles east of Los Angeles that is physically defined by the 5 freeway to the north, the 710 to the west and is home to large BNSF and Union Pacific railyards as well as other businesses involved in the goods movement.  Diesel emissions from the railyards, rail equipment, and trucks that pass through the community have caused the residents of Commerce to be 1000 times more likely to get Cancer than anyone else in Los Angeles.  After EYCEJ sued the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) for not exercising their regulatory power over the railyards, AQMD finally acknowledged their power and agreed to hold a public hearing in which one of the two main agendas would be railyard emissions.  The day before the meeting the LA Times released a front page story about EYCEJ's campaign.  This was extremely exciting because it is the best media exposure the organization ever received and proved to be very timely.  The article serves as evidence to AQMD that this is a serious issue that many people are concerned by.  Furthermore, it made it almost impossible for AQMD to ignore the issue because the issue is under media scrutiny and the public are waiting for AQMD's response.  Before the meeting EYCEJ and our coaltion partners from throughout the state held a rally outside of AQMD headquarters.  We then entered the meeting and testified to ask AQMD to instate rules and regulations for emissions reductions at the railyards.  We had hoped that the rule making process would begin immediately and that AQMD would accept our suggestions for rule making, but AQMD agreed to reconvene in 140 days to then begin the rule making process.  EYCEJ still regards this as a victory because at least they agreed to begin a rule making process.

No Vernon Power Plant

The organization I am currently interning with, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, had a major campaign victory this past month.  EYCEJ and our coalition partners such as Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) had been working since 2006 to combat the City of Vernon's proposal for a new 943-megawatt power plant.  According Vernon's own studies that power plant would have been directly responsible for at least 11 deaths every year and thousands of tons of fine soot particles linked to cancer, heart disease and other illnesses would be emitted into the air.  Independent studies projected the yearly death-rate as high as 25 people.  In addition to the environmental and health impacts of the proposed power plant project, the emissions would exacerbate cumulative impacts that are already extremely dangerous.  No studies of the proposed plant accounted for cumulative impacts but emissions levels in the region are already severe and additional toxic emissions can not be tolerated.  Although Vernon is almost entirely industrial, it is adjacent to residential neighborhoods in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Maywood and Commerce.  Furthermore, the power plant would have been located within a mile from many sensitive receptors.  It was a difficult campaign because Vernon is exclusively Industrial so the biggest obstacle for organizing was figuring out how to apply pressure to a city that had no residents and has no legal obligation to its neighboring communities.  The community organizations ultimately won the battle in large part because they successfully mobilized residents from all five of the surrounding communities and lobbied the South Coast Air Quality Management District, an offshoot of CARB who has jurisdiction throughout Southern California, to shutdown the proposal based on the proposed plant's own emissions levels and the exacerbation of cumulative impacts.  Environmental activists, community members, religious groups, community organizations such as EYCEJ and CBE marched in victory through the streets of Vernon to the Vernon City Hall.  A rally was held outside the City Hall as many of its employees were leaving work and had to walk through the rally.  We shouted "Shame on you!" and other rallying cries as we let Vernon know that we weren't going to take any more pollution from them.  The rally was not only a victory rally; however, because Vernon has plans to submit a new proposal for a smaller 330 megawatt plant that will still kill five people a year from toxic emissions.  Therefore, the rally had the dual effect of celebrating our victory and showing Vernon that we aren't going away and will fight their next proposal. 

Sustainable Lawns?

I am a firm believer that change is made from the bottom up, starting with small problems and moving on to bigger problems. One small environmental problem that I was not aware of until very recently is lawns. In the U.S. lawns cover of 40 million acres of land and the average homeowner uses hundreds of gallons of water and burns 18 gallons of fuel per year to sustain his/her lawn. From an economic standpoint during the summer months irrigating the average household lawn could use up to as much as 60% of the total households water consumption. I won’t lie, I loved having a back lawn to play on when I grew up. My Dad is very fond of his lawn as he mows and cares for it every week, and some of his passion for gardening yard work rubbed off on me in my high school years. So for people like my Dad and I who like having lawns but want to enjoy our lawns in a more sustainable and environmentally healthy way there are other like us out there. SafeLawns is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting natural lawn care and grounds maintenance. The website offers a number of tips on how to fertilize, mow, and water your lawn in a more sustainable manner.

For example, SafeLawns suggests spreading tea or coffee grounds on your lawn as a substitute for chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers can often be harsh not only on the environment as only about 35% of the chemicals reach the plants roots, but they can also damage the plants root system and weaken the plant. The website also recommends switching to electric or even old school push mowers from the old noisy gasoline mowers. The website also gives some places to buy affordable, high quality push mowers because they are not that easy to find. Another very interesting tip is before planting your lawn cover it with a thick layer of mulch which will allow the lawn to soak up an exponentially higher amount of water, allowing for less water being wasted and in the end saving a bundle of money. I am sure the gardening group is probably amazed at how far behind I am on the usefulness of mulch. Would it be possible to use any of these tips at Occidental? I wonder how much money we as a college could save? And at the same time keep our nice lawns and reduce our environmental footprint. Again, the college may already be using more environmentally sustainable methods of lawn maintenance and I am just oblivious. Anyway, in the midst of this drought in southern California at the very least I think it would make a huge impact if just a tiny fraction of homeowners adopted some of these water saving tips on SafeLawns.org. If you are interested, check out the website at www.safelawns.org.

Bigger Isn't Always Better

What is the infatuation with building the biggest solar array of any private college in America? Why not start with a smaller prototype project that can bring the same awareness of sustainability? These questions were asked by other colleges in the past and are now should be considered at Occidental College.
Arizona State University is located in an area with a plethora of sun and opportunity for solar energy, so it is no wonder that they started working on this source of renewable energy decades before most colleges. However, they started their programs small in order to test solar energy on their campus and to learn from their mistakes early on. In taking this approach, they have continued to add solar projects that are better able to perform and they have capitalized on the ability to learn from the mistakes that were made in earlier projects. As they have learned the best ways for their college to utilize the sun as an energy source their projects have grown in size. After years worth of projects, testings, trail and errors, Arizona State University has installed and currently operates more than 1.8 megawatts of solar energy. http://solar.asu.edu/

What does this have to do with Occidental College? Yes, we want to install solar and take advantage of rebates offered now, but rushing into a project may not be the best thing for our institution. There is no denying that the idea of solar energy is a great thing, especially in a place like California. What the example of ASU brings up is that learning and understanding your particular setting through testing of smaller projects might be more effective in the long term use of solar energy. Instead of spending millions of dollars on an enormous start-up project and then finding out there may have been better placements, technologies, or other opportunities, it may actually be better to start small and expand on the best practices that are found.
Since Occidental is currently having trouble funding an array of 2 megawatts they need to consider different possibilities while still maintaining the idea of sustainability. I don't believe that giving up on solar should ever be considered on option but installing a smaller array and working to build on it might be a plausible option for Occidental College.

Vandalism and Theft: Resentment of Trendy Urban Middle Class

An article in The New York Times this week called “French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality” describes the setbacks facing Vélib’, Paris’s bicycle rental system. The system, which operates similarly to the BIXI set-up in Montreal that I mentioned in my previous blog, has seen the consequences of public good abuse. Since its introduction in 2007, Vélib’, a government-run program, has seen 80 percent of its initial 20,600 bikes stolen or damaged. One reason for theft might be the fact that even though the rental process includes a $250 deposit, the cost of each of Vélib’ bicycle, which is specially designed, is actually $3,500. Another cause attributed to theft and vandalism has been the bicycle’s role as a symbol of the trendy urban middle class and tourism. Resentful youth in France, which are known for making their opinions known through action, have made the bicycle out to be a target of vandalism and abuse.

Similar concerns were voiced in our group’s meeting at the Rangeview courtyard a few weeks back. If we painted the shared bikes a certain distinctive color and made them out to be recognizable to act as a symbol, they might receive more negative attention than positive. The youth of Highland Park and surrounding neighborhoods might not take well to “Oxy” bikes. We can use the Paris case as evidence for potential issues.

Also, as the Alternative Transportation team writes our proposal, we need to remember to include appropriate and enforceable punishments/penalties for damages, etc. If we launch our program with too much of a relaxed policy, we could see the abuse of our program even by our own Oxy students because they see it as a resource they can do whatever they want with.

Calculate your Carbon Footprint

I find it fun to complete online surveys and quizzes so here is a little tool I found that made me more aware of my impact on the Earth on a day-to-day basis as well as on a broader scale: http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/. For example, I should work harder to turn off lights when they are not needed, use cold water when doing laundry, compost my food and unplug any appliances when not in use. A big impact of mine that raised my greenhouse gas emissions significantly was transportation (about half of my emissions). Although I do not own a car and rarely even ride in other people’s cars while at Oxy, I travel across the country to come to school here. I make multiple long flights during the year to attend Oxy and for my own personal travel.

Overall, I was disappointed with my results because I like to think that I care to do my part and be green. It was interesting to see my estimated emissions compared to the average American and compared to the world average individual. As expected I was in the middle with a score of 20 and the U.S. average at 27. I would expect the world average to be lower but was surprised at how much lower it was at only 5.5!

I encourage you to take the quiz and assess your carbon footprint. I challenge you to decrease your footprint and set goals of how you can go about doing so. What can we all do more or less of to lower our CO2 emissions and help the environment?

The first step to maker the world a greener place is to start with yourself and change your habits. Then you can set an example for others and encourage them to do the same. I plan to start a compost box in my house and persuade all my housemates to compost their food scraps.

Tweeting Your Way to Local and Organic Food in LA

With the absurd amount of taco trucks, Los Angeles has created its own mobile food industry. Offering cheap food almost anywhere, taco trucks have served our late night munchies well. Recently, with customers following the Koji Korean BBQ truck like groupies on twitter crack, a new market of alternative mobile food is being created. Along with this increase in alternative taco trucks, there has also been the introduction of sustainable mobile food providers through out the greater Los Angeles area. These eateries are making me wonder, should we tweet to our next free range beef burrito?

Let’s take a look at the sustainable food trucks showing up around LA:


Let’s Be Frank: It’s goal: to change the world one hot dog at a time. It’s method: Selling only locally raised grass fed beef hot dogs and sausages. Follow Let’s Be Frank on twitter @letsbefrank

Green Truck on the Go: Serves organic/local food, uses compostable to go plates/cups/utensils and uses vegetable oil as fuel. These Green trucks have been showing up in New York and Los Angeles. Follow Green Truck at @green truck

Border Grill: Brought to you by the founders of Sustainable eatery Border Grill and Ciudad, this taco truck serves sustainable Mexican cuisine. follow them on the twitter @bordergrill.

Cool Haus: Can’t hear the music of the ice cream truck? Look no farther! Cool Haus offers handmade ice cream sandwiches with locally and organically sourced ingredients. Follow Cool Haus @COOLHAUS

Sprinkles Mobile: Your favorite cupcake is on the go and green friendly! The mobile truck offers Sprinkles’ famous cupcakes with packaging and wrappers made from recyclable material and donates leftovers to food banks each day. twitter @ http://twitter.com/sprinklesmobile.

Divine Nourishment: Committed to minimizing use of plastic bags and prepackaged foods, using all organic ingredients, buying local produce and using biodiesel to fuel the vehicles, this truck provides tasty and sustainable food on the go. twitter @organicgoodness

Are these trucks truly sustainable as they drive around Los Angeles selling to an upper class taco truck customer? Some use bio fuel while others simply commit to reducing waste, but all of these trucks are spreading the word about the importance of sustainable food practices and representing the growing demand for healthy food choices in Los Angeles. Though these gourmet trucks may in the future compete with current taco trucks for customers, it seems more likely that a new market of mobile food is about to develop with the inclusion of sustainable eateries. Will we see Leo’s offer a free range chicken quesadilla in the future? Only time will tell. Until then, tweet your heart out and enjoy some environmentally friendly food on the go.

The Bike Program Update

Oxy's bike rental program seems to be making slow but steady progress. Though the whole process is fairly complicated (new issues to address seem to pop up every class), things are gradually shaping up. For me, what has been most interesting, is seeing the various steps a program like this goes through to be properly implemented and approved.

Initially, I was pretty pumped about the whole idea, and genuinely thought that we could just fix some bikes, put up some signs to alert students, and we would have a fully functioning program. Obviously, things are not that simple. Thus far, we've been working figure out the numerous waiver/insurance issues, basic things such as where to store the bikes and how to check them out to students, student outreach, and, of course, maintenance. Each of these topics requires a good deal of thoughtful planning, especially since they need to be approved by the Administration before any real action can be taken.

In response to these concerns, we've been reviewing past proposals and waivers in use at other schools with bike programs (such as Pitzer). Also, we're exploring the possibility of producing some sort of bike safety video to further ensure cautious riders. The group has held a number of meetings with several Oxy administrators, such as Rebecca Dowling, to address financial matters relating to the program. In terms of storage and check out systems, we've been in contact with the library, which, as some of you may know, is trying to integrate with the Oxy community in a more interactive way. This week there was an open forum in which library officials and students (including a few bike rental group members) discussed ways in which to renovate the library to promote their new aims. We're hoping to be able to piggyback on this idea of a more interactive library, and slip the bike rental program into the developing plans. As far as student outreach goes, we're also working on a survey that will give us an estimate of how students would react to this kind program. This to me, seems extremely important, seeing as there is no guarantee the program would be used, even if it is instated. Maintenace is still not totally figured out, although we've been in contact with local bike advocacy groups, such as the Bike Oven, and have thus far gotten a lot of support.

This is just a bit of what we've been working on. So, all in all, looks like things are progressing gradually.

Solar Information Session

When professor Snowden-Ifft first presented his slide show to the solar ambassadors in our class, I was incredibly excited about how fast the solar array would cover its construction costs. At the solar information session yesterday it was revealed, as Maddisen blogged, that Oxy would be forced to incur the costs of retrofitting our hook-ups to the county grid to the tune of $1.3 million. Snowden-Ifft also said that other costs that have only become apparent in the last week bring the total unexpected additional costs of the project to $2.5 million. This makes the project a bad investment(strictly financially)as it won't cover the costs of its installation and make up the amount lost to the endowment within the guaranteed lifetime of the panels. Instead of being solely paid for by the Oxy endowment, it is now necessary for the school to find a private donor(s) who can support us by offsetting these additional costs. The school has previously looked for donors to support a solar array however they never had clear plans or contracts for what the array would look like. Now that we are in the last stages of planning and getting the legal authority to build an array, it would seem that finding a donor should be easier.
If the project gets held up for too long in this stage of looking for a donor, the value of the Department of Water and Power subsidy that we would receive from constructing the array can greatly diminish. Maybe this coming alumni weekend we can find some financial support for our solar project to get it off the ground while we still can.

Is Oxy Running Out of Time?

Yesterday Professor Snowden-Ift conducted a campus-wide solar energy briefing at Oxy. Although he started strong with numbers, charts, and, if I may say so, wonderful undertones of excitement and entrepreneurship, before he finished his presentation it was very obvious that something was not quite right. Had Occidental jumped on this solar bandwagon a month ago costs would not include an extra $1.3 million. Prior to yesterday projected costs were much lower. Although a change in numbers is frustrating, it is unnecessary for this to be an end all to Oxy’s solar project. What is most unfortunate about this change in numbers is the timing of it. Within the next week Professor Snowden-Ift will be presenting these projected costs and projected benefits to Oxy’s Board of Directors. An additional $1.3 million will not go over well.

Do not fret! This by no means signifies an end to Solar at Oxy, but it does emphasize the time restraint set upon us. With every day, week, and year that goes by Oxy is losing out. Not only losing out on a more viable economic decisions, but also missing out on so many other opportunities. In a few years it will be impossible for Oxy to find such competitive rates on solar arrays. In a few years it will be impossible for Oxy to boast the largest private solar array in the L.A. county. In a few years it will be impossible for Oxy to claim the largest private solar array of any U.S. private college. In a few years it will also be too late to take back the great number of tons of CO2 Oxy will have contributed to our atmosphere due to regular usage of electricity.

Before yesterday’s briefing I understand the importance of Oxy using solar energy, but I had no idea on the importance of this limited time frame. What can we do? As faculty members we can continue to support this project, as students we must begin to show that this is what we need, and as individuals I think we all need to step up, speak out, and make it known that this is what we want and need.

The Green Collar Economy

I have no reservations in admitting that last year, when the Dow Jones tanked, when innumerable banks failed, when the housing and just about every other market went under and the American economy was consequently sent into chaos, my first thought was: "Shit, there goes the environment." I feared that all of the exposure global warming had gained, both public and political, and the progress being made to take steps toward reducing carbon emissions would be tossed far out of mind given the new economic situation. I feared all the public pressure for improved mileage standards, greater energy efficiency, and more sustainable food would be diverted to preventing bankruptcy, fixing the economy, and preserving jobs. My great concern was that people would see the urgency in economic recovery—which is, indeed, extremely pressing—and forget the urgency of our environmental troubles. I worried that the loss of momentum at such a critical time (a time at which action must be taken, or else it would be too late to reverse the damage of climate change) would ensure that no progress could ever truly be made.

At the same time, however, I recognized that meltdowns are the catalysts of transformation. This economic downturn could provide the American public with the perfect opportunity to rethink how they live. We might realize that the capitalistic, self-interested consumer society we operate by does not support sustainability and happiness; we would see it could, in fact, fail (horrendously). Now is the perfect time to remake the American economy and lifestyle. Great examples have already been provided by states like Oregon, where the government has stressed and supported the creation of “green/sustainable jobs.” Oregon’s Green Jobs Initiative seeks to establish a thriving clean energy sector and to provide workers with the skills necessary to use sustainable practices in their field of work. Such jobs could include construction—Oregon has drafted legislation that ensures that local jobs will be generated renovating homes and redesigning buildings to improve energy efficiency. Wedding economic recovery and the green movement together, Oregon has already planted the roots of a green society. I hope this is just the beginning of what will become a nationwide green collar workforce and sustainable economy.

Check out:

http://www.greencollarblog.org/oregon_green_jobs/

http://oregongreenjobsnow.blogspot.com/

http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/RENEW/docs/Workforce_LegConcept_draft--8-06.pdf

Expanding Oxy's Solar Endeavors

I continue to be excited with the progress that professor Snowden-Ift and the solar committee are making on this project. I just learned in class that there will be a campus wide briefing on Wednesday October 21st at 4:30-5:30. So please let your friends know about this meeting, and hopefully you can attend. Getting the word out to the greater Occidental Community is a huge part of this project and will be instrumental in rallying some support for the project. I do feel that the Occidental community is very concerned of the environmental issues we face in the world and will be very supportive of the project. President Vietch has also begun to talk with some of the surrounding community members about the project and this is also a very good sign.

As we begin to move into the phase where this plan is becoming a reality I believe that the Occidental community needs to put great effort into teaching people about benefits of solar power. Once constructed this array will be used as a teaching point for physics classes here at Oxy and local public schools public schools will be allowed to come and use the array to teach their students about solar. I also think it is very important that we outreach to the homeowner community and teach them why solar is important and how it can make their lives better. Outreach to both the community and local homeowners has been discussed and programs are in the making to make this outreach possible. However, outreach to other colleges, universities, large business, etc. about the benefits of installing solar arrays right now has not been discussed. Part of the rationale behind this whole project is that the cost of installing solar panels is at an all time low and the government subsidies are at an all time high, making the choice to go solar a no brainer. So why doesn't Occidental take a leadership role in the greater community and alert other large institutions to the benefits of crossing over to solar at this point in time? Part of me thinks that most colleges and universities probably are aware of the ability to install solar for very cheap and some institutions will find it feasible and do it and others may not take advantage of the situation. In which case our solar array may not be the biggest of any private college in the country for long, but in my opinion that really is unimportant. The other part of me says that maybe these larger institutions don't realize what a great deal installing solar would be at this time and may miss the opportunity. For institutions like these I believe that Occidental needs to be proactive in the greater community of private colleges and universities and show them what we are doing here, and in a sense spread the word about solar. I don't believe that Occidental is the type of institution that will let pride keep such a great secret from helping other institutions switch to more sustainable energy

Food System Reform Compliments of First Lady Michelle Obama?

Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food?

Michelle Obama has planted a garden at the White House, made speeches on eating healthy and is holding "secret meetings" with her policy team and USDA officials. This sounds like a recipe for a food system reform. While most First Ladies do not attempt to make policy recommendations or fail at doing so (i.e. Hillary Clinton's Health Care Plan of 1993), I think Michelle Obama may have a chance at being successful. Nowadays everyone, regardless of socio-economic status, race and age, is paying attention to the quality of food. As we know it is a hard-hitting issue on college campuses across the nation and most are trying to change where college's get their food from or at least educating the student body about food options on campus (plug for food survey, if you have not taken it, take it NOW!). Her policy team consists of White House Food Initiatives Coordinator Sam Kass and Policy Director Jocelyn Frye, who are compiling a new set of national food and health initiatives. Mrs. Obama is developing her "policy" around former FDA chief David Kessler's new book, The End of Overeating. The book states that sugar, fat and salt are addictive and America is addicted to them. I think it would be amazing if the First Lady rather than the President reformed our food system that affected not only the infrastructure in schools but also in households. It will be interesting to see how this takes form throughout Obama's term and if Michelle is not successful, I hope someone is.

The future of sustainability at Oxy

In thinking about the future of Occidental's campus greening movement, I find myself focusing on the "little things" that the college could do to achieve sustainability. While I am happy that our administration has proven to take some initiative to make our school more eco-friendly, namely by supporting the solar array proposal and agreeing to have all new buildings and renovations meet the silver standard of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green rating system, I wonder if we, as an educational institution, shouldn't be spending more time trying to instill a greater sense of responsibility among the members of our student body--aka the future leaders of this country. After all, how does Occidental plan on becoming a leader among other green campuses, if the very members of its student body are unwilling to shut off their lights?

I think one of the roots of our environmental crisis is our general unwillingness to change our ways. It's easiest to jump onboard in support of large projects like the installation of solar panels or green building designs, especially since showing your support these days is just a click away by accepting a group invitation on Facebook. But would we go so far as to give up parts of our comfortable and somewhat selfish lifestyles just for the sake of the planet? Some may say Yes, but the answer of many is unfortunately probably not.

We live in a world where incentives govern our actions. If the benefits of our actions aren’t tangible-if we can’t reap them immediately—then it’s unlikely that the majority of people will be willing to incur the costs of changing our ways. When people, who live less than a block from campus, drive to school they are not thinking about their carbon footprint, but something more along the lines of “I’m so late for class.” When we fail to turn our lights off before leaving the house, we comfort ourselves by thinking “at least someone will think I’m home so no one will break in.” How many people do you know actually unplug their appliances when not in use? Something as simple as that could curtail 5% of America’s energy use.

I looked at these sites to learn more easy and low cost ways on how to reduce our footprint:

http://ase.org/section/program/greencampus

http://energy.gov/energysavingtips.htm

Some of these “little things” are way too easy to accomplish, but what sort of incentives is the college willing to give us to do them? Will our efforts to conserve energy reflect themselves in lower tuition? Probably not…so the question remains, how do we change the attitude of not just Oxy students but of the world at large?

Marketplace Reform!

So, talking about all the energy, effort, and money that is going into the solar panel got me thinking about ways to make our school green. Of course the solar panel is a huge project that will have a big impact environmentally as well as economically. It will also bring attention to our school and maybe make it more appealing to future students.
However, I think small efforts should also be welcomed, efforts in which the students can have a say and a part. I was recently reading an article about ways in which some colleges have tried to go green, and I found a particular thing that caught my attention: Biodegradable utensils and reusable to-go containers. This caught my attention, because it is such a simple thing, that must of us don’t think about it, even while we are pouring food on our plastic containers. Currently the market place has plastic utensils and plastic to-go containers. On average people get food to go at least two times a week, making use of these plastic containers and then just throwing them away. This is a huge waste, both environmentally and economically.
As a solution to this problem, one of the colleges introduced the use of the Eco-Clamshell. This is a plastic container that can be reused, put in the microwave and the dishwasher. Students are given one box, and each time they go to the cafeteria they have to bring it with them, they exchange the used one for a clean one at the front and then get all the food they want. Now I realize that this system might need a lot of work to begin with (purchasing the Eco-Clamshells, changing the marketplace structure to accommodate the new system, etc), but once implemented the benefits will start to show. Another thing being implemented across campuses is the use of “Tater-Ware.” Like the name suggests, the Tater-Ware coffee lids are made from potatoes. The lids, as well as the Ecotainer coffee cups, are petroleum-free, and can break down over time in compost piles. And given the fact that we already have a compost pile on campus, the use of the “Tater-Ware” would be a great idea.
Also, the use of trays at the marketplace, wastes a lot of water. It would not be that hard for students to survive without trays and we would be saving the school a lot of money in electricity and water and helping the environment.
Now, I think all these ideas are GREAT! And easy to implement if we have the support of the students. Now, I’m not going to lie, it might be a little bit of a pain to not have trays at the marketplace or to have to carry your to-go container, but I think we would be able to publicize and promote these changes in such a way that instead of feeling like a pain they feel like something new and innovative that our school is doing. We can make the students feel like they are part of a progressive movement and make them feel excited about it.

*Kliah*

Campus Dining Suppliers

Another great couple weeks of eating. Wellfed the saturday before last was UNBELIEVABLE!

I did some research on the websites of the companies our campus dining patronizes. There is definitely room for improvement. As far as I could tell Driftwood Dairy has a pretty good ecological reputation and they are located pretty close to Oxy. Meyer Natural Angus Beef is hormone free (but not free range or grass fed), most of our seafood is sustainably harvested, and a lot of the other websites claimed to be 100% organic. However, it's really difficult to a) sort through all the misleading bullshit on the websites and b) figure out how the relative proportions we buy from each supplier. So while a lot of our companies claim to be organic, sysco is not, and I have a feeling they are the most major source. I looked at Pamona college, they got an A- on their green report card and their main supplier or Cysco equivalent is Sodexho which has one numerous green ethics awards. Also, none of our coffee is fair trade and I couldn't figure out where we get our poultry and eggs, so I don't know if they are cage free or not.
Here are the suppliers:

Cakery Bakery (Special Events
Dr. Soda

Dreyers Grand Ice Cream
Driftwood Dairy
EnviroTech (Green Cleaning Products)
Farmer Brother's
First Class Vending (Vending Machines throughout Campus)
Fosselman's Ice Cream (Tiger Cooler)
Gavina Coffee (Tiger Cooler)
Goldberg & Solovy Foods
The Growers' Collaborative
HannahMax Baking
Healthy Baking Company (Tiger Cooler)
The Individual Group (Paper Products)
Kikka Sushi (Tiger Cooler)
Le Chef Bakery
Meyer Natural Angus Beef (Marketplace and Tiger Cooler burgers)
Mutual Trading Company
Naked Juice (Marketplace)
Nature's Best
Oliver's Artisan Breads (Marketplace)
Organic to Go (Coffee Cart)
Otis Spunkmeyer
Pura Vida Coffee (Coffee Cart)
Rossmoor Pastries (Special Events)
Sparkletts Water
Swiss Chalet
Sysco
Taylor Maid Farms Coffee (Marketplace)
Trellis Earth (Corn-based Plastics)
United Natural

Also, I found that nutritious vending machines are on the rise. I wonder how difficult it would be to make a switch to something like this:

Forbes Vending machine snacks Click the links for more details on calories, fat and carbs. • GOOD • BAD Food Example • Bottled water • Baked chips Baked Cheetos Crunchy • Dried fruit Dried apricots • 100% fruit juice Red Jacket Orchards Juice • Nutrition bars Balance Bar • Nuts Almonds • Pretzels Rold Gold Classic Style Sticks • Skim milk • Tea Diet Arizona Green Tea • Vegetables Baby carrots • Yogurt Dannon Light 'n Fit Nonfat