Month: March 2018

Looking ahead to the 12 week:

A few new projects & progress:

1. Recycling & Aramark: There has been a major misunderstanding among Aramark employees about recycling on campus. The belief was that any recycling bin or bag with non-recyclable material in it had to be thrown in the trash. However, our recycling company, Waste Management, operates with a single stream process, where they expect a certain amount of non-recyclables to be present. Thus bags and bins of recyclables with non-recyclables should still be recycled.
   1. educational material for Aramark staff, and gift?
   2. educational material for staff and students
   3. promotion during Green Week; video?
   4. trip to Waste Management to see single stream process
   5. potential for news release to counter “OWU does not recycle” rumors.
   6. academic and residential campus: get WCSA to purchase additional recycling bins (Emily survey)
   7. Expand to frats: pledges and newer members responsible for white bagging recycles and placing them by garbage bags on appropriate days. Contact Aramark for white bags.
2. May Move Out
   1. pods delivered April 16-17
   2. additional banners being made
   3. start promotion effort soon
      1. video promo
   4. check posters, large and small, and website
3. Student Research Symposium
   1. Noah: draft of presentation (Google Slides)
   2. share with class when basic presentation is done.
4. Reusable Food Containers
   1. Peyton: promotional video
5. Bucket Mobile Garden
   1. photos for blog
   2. planting photos
6. Promotional Video Shorts: Merrick, Ham Wil, Smith, Library monitors
   1. Green Screen: “talk to Chuck”
   2. Reusable food containers
   3. May Move Out
   4. Composting
   5. Branch Rickey rain gardens (April 23)
7. Composting: Next steps
   1. Have: amounts of food scraps: general plan is to take them to Blue House Worm Farm and Price Farms
   2. Kristina Bogdanov: “my husband, Aleks Ilic with Blue House Worm Farm would be very happy to meet with you and talk about worm composting and worm casting. You can reach him at bluehousewormfarm@gmail.com or you can email me. April 10th, 14th, and 29th are days where he has scheduled events but other days, including weekend, should work very well if you are interested to come by our house and see the farm and process.”
   3. Write a one-page memo with a proposal to collect and transport food scraps.
   4. Green week: schedule Blue House Worm Farm, Price Farms, Allie Niemeyer (auto composter)
8. New: Food Waste Collaboration:
   1. Price Farms, Stratford, MTSO, city of Delaware, OWU
   2. Entrepreneurial Center: develop a viable business plan?
9. New: Summer Environmental Practicum
   1. live at MTSO (or ?) and work at MTSO, Price Farms, Preservation Parks, Stratford, etc.
   2. faculty and professionals from region: engage with students as they complete their work
   3. funds via participating companies, orgs. (who get labor)
   4. attend to OWU and city and regional sustainability projects (rain gardens, etc.)
10. New: Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge: Collaborate with Caroline Cicerchi (Delaware Sustainability Coordinator) and Annie Vitti (E&S) and Tree Håus.
    1. Info: http://www.oncampuschallenge.org
    2. Noah & Juniper: Report on feasibility by next week Thursday
11. Branch Rickey Arena (BRA) Rain Gardens are a go!
    1. April 23: work starts
    2. Promote with signs, press release, info during Green Week
12. New: Solar Stuff
    1. OWU Solar Array Exploratory Trip: Trip to Denison (Friday) to visit their campus solar array for background on a similar array on or near the OWU campus (in collaboration with the city of Delaware): Friday, March 30: 12:30 to 4pm.
    2. Message to STF or ? about the potential for a solar array?
    3. Venture Solar. Jobs? Alumni Alex Giles ’11 of New York City: Alex is the co-founder of Venture Solar, a home energy company based in Brooklyn, NY. Since its founding two and a half years ago, Venture Solar is a $32 million dollar business, with more than 100 employees. Alex would like to hire OWU grads, as early as this summer. He also would like to come back to campus to speak with students about his company and industry. Via Jim Buggy, OWU Development Officer (located in CT).
13. dSpace Open Source Archival software: for our database of OWU and regional sustainability and environmental projects?
    1. Emily
14. Blurry

 

We are making progress on a series of projects, but I would like to use our last meeting before spring break (Thursday, March 8) for a summary of what everyone has accomplished, where the project stands, and post-spring break plans.

• We need to be thinking ahead to the actual May Move Out (including volunteers, revising promotional materials, and prepping for the meeting with B&G, Goodwill, and Res Life Brian.
• We need to schedule the meeting with Res Life Brian so we know what kind of an outline he would like for the sECOnd Floor proposal.
• We need to make sure that our relationship with Seminary Hill Farm continues, regardless of who our dining provider is. Peyton and I are heading there for a meeting with OWU Money Boss Lauri on Friday at 1 pm.
• We need to revisit recycling efforts. We have not yet received a response from B&G about Aramark’s duties when it comes to getting recycles in the recycle cycle.
• We need to fill a few holes in the recycling bin landscape (Emily’s survey) and look into getting bins for the on-campus frats. This may be something WCSA would fund. If we can get Aramark to pick up the recycles.
• We need to get info on food waste (lbs per week) from Smith so we can get an estimate from Price Farms.
• We need to get signed up as a group, with an abstract, for the 2018 Student Research Symposium. Draft by week after SB.
• We need to make a plan for Green Week involvement, including promoting many of the projects we are working on. Schedule meeting with E&W (during class time, or E&W meeting).
• The bedamned emotionally-infused SLU garden
• Additional projects for the 2nd half of semester.
• What am I missing?

Please also remember:

In order to emerge from the mundane details of your sustainability projects, if only for a moment, please look at and add some comments to Emily Howald’s description of sustainability efforts here at OWU.

Please add your comments by our first meeting after spring break (Tuesday, March 19).

How to Make an Environmental Sustainability Plan for your Institution 

Certainly, note any typos or related issues, but add some more content-oriented comments, to help improve the document. If something does not make sense, note it, or if you feel like Emily has made an amazing point, note that too.

Please jot down thoughts in your journal of ideas you are supposed to be keeping for this course. We ill come back towards the end of the semester to revisit the ideas we read up front and attempt to come up with some additional concepts and ideas about sustainability, based on work this semester.

Please also remember Also:

Starting Point Document & Updates

Remember that you need to continue to add information to your Starting Point Document. This can be related to your specific work on the project, or broader issues in the 10 readings we did to start the semester.

In addition, I asked you to ponder the issues under Pearls of Wisdom on Week 3 Update 1: in particular “Some Solutions”:

• Social: use the power of social networks.
• Supportive: employ frames that support the message in a positive way.
• Simple: environmentally friendly behaviors easy and convenient.
• Story-based: meaning and community created by the power of stories.
• Signals: use indicators for feedback on societal response.

Please also remember Also please remember:

Recall some additional ideas that should be worked into your Starting Point Document and related to the practical work in class.

• We have already discussed “Scrappy Sustainability” but what about:
  • Subliminal Sustainability
  • Subversive Sustainability
• How does Identity play out in issues you are confronting this semester?
  • example: “Is Eco-Friendly Unmanly?”
• Opportunities
  • co-taught interdisciplinary courses: what do students want?
  • Alumni contacts (subversive?)
• Individual Issues of Interest: in my comments on your starting point docs; follow-up on these in particular as the semester progresses. There are a lot of ideas in the first 10 readings; I would like you to address all of them a bit, but you should focus on a few that resonate with you or start to seem more important as the semester progresses.