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