akronheim's blog

College Students -- Take Action!

akronheim — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:23:17 -0400

Students care a lot about the environmental sector and environmental issues. For those who not only care but want to take action, I have found a great resource. I recently stumbled upon www.campusactivism.org and have not searched anywhere for new topics since. Any issue you can imagine is here -- from fair trade, HIV/AIDS testing and awareness, LGBT issues, farmwork justice, homelessness, economic equality, racism, campaign finance reform, and the environment, environmental justice, global warming, and even the Green Party's issues.

In those issues, there's hundreds of campaigns to network in and work on like Greenpeace's Kleercut campaign, The No Dirty Gold Campaign, and even a Starbucks Union Now! campaign. You can help on these campaigns, hook up with people who are working on them, and then put your own campaign up if you start to work on one.

On top of all that, with the issues you're interested in and individual campaigns, you can put your network or group on the website in order to keep in contact with them and/or find new ones to join. You can join with a school, organization, or just small group of friends. I don't know about you, but I am excited. I hope you find it as valuable as I do. I've been looking for a website like this for a long time, and now that I found it, I will probably be on it all the time. This kind of connection makes it so much easier to accomplish campaigns. I cannot wait to use it next year when I'm getting petitions signed for Green Corps and beyond.

IMAGE: University of North Carolina Library

Green College Funds: The New TGIF

akronheim — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:55:39 -0400

After over a year of tough campaign work, students at UCLA passed The Green Initiative Fund. This referendum means that over $2 million dollars will be allocated towards student-led sustainbility projects.

The TGIF referendum has already been passed at both UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley, and similar green funds have been established at colleges and other institutions across the nation. The UCLA fund allows students to apply for money to begin projects that will reduce UCLA's ecological footprint. Some potential projects, and examples of past projects include dorm retrofits, water conservation work, sustainble foods, and internships and research. This year at Ithaca College (my alma mater), students worked to get dorm rooms to be 1 degree cooler in the winter and thus saving the school thousands in energy costs. When in effect, that leftover money will be used towards green research and other sustainable initiatives.

According to the 11th Hour Action website, "Getting TGIF passed at UCLA required hard work and dedication from a small group of undergraduate students who worked together to write policy, meet with administrators to get policy on the ballot and legalized, fundraise for the campaign and to finally get the word out to students during the election! However, the large success rate of the referendum (passed by 76%) indicates that students were willing to increase their student fees for the environment. The students that passed the referendum at UCLA hope that students at our schools are inspired to pass similiar referendums at their schools in order to empower the student body to be able to start their own projecst to protect the environment and increase awareness!"

The increase discussed is something like a $5 increase to tuition. Again, Ithaca College is attempting to charge for the use of a shuttle around campus which would reduce our carbon footprint and open up parking. I hope initiatives like this continue in California, upstate New York, and all over the country. I'll keep spreading the word about TGIF and more students will introduce it at their schools too! Way to go UCLA!

Perez Hilton

akronheim — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:30:14 -0400

Perezhilton.com is the #4 site visited by college females today. First is CNN, #2 or 3 is facebook.com, then it’s Perez. I have to admit that he’s bookmarked on my personal computer; it’s so addicting! Who else takes pictures of celebrities and puts white marks from paint on them? His comments make or break celebrity stardom, and that’s quite a phenomenon. Now the site is using its popularity to promote various activist causes. At the top of each of these posts its titled “A Worthwhile Cause,” and then it goes into a little detail and a link on how you can help.

The site has been promoting everything from animal rights, the housing crisis, brothers and sisters programs, hunger, poverty, and now the We Can Solve It Group to fight climate change. This post has already received 34 responses from excited perez readers just today so far.

In case you haven’t seen the popular ads from the organization, they put political opposites like Nancy Pelosi and Pat Buchanan on major television networks to promote the idea that no matter what other political views you have, it’s an issue we need to unite on. They describe themselves as: “The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. Their aim is to halt global warming. Specifically we are educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.”

I believe in the We Can Solve It goals and that Republicans and Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals, and everyone else in between need to unite on this issue for anything to get accomplished. The ads are great from the group and I can’t wait to see more. It’s fantastic that Perez is promoting these causes intermittently through his laugh out loud celebrity gossip posts. More blogs should do the same like The Superfical blog with the same premise as Perez somewhat, or TMZ from AOL Time Warner with the latest in entertainment news. If these are the kinds of sites college students and all kinds of people are going to daily, the writers should definitely try to plug important causes like the We Campaign. Way to Go Perez!!

School's Out -- Recycling's In .

akronheim — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:14:54 -0400

At the end of any kind of event, year, program, there is cause for celebration. There’s bound to be confetti, beer cans, and maybe even pizza boxes if you’re lucky. But, how much is too much waste during this time of year when school’s out for summer or in my case forever?

At Ithaca College (IC), this is the most intense time of year for recycling/waste management persons. Mark Darling, the Director of the Resource and Environmental Management Program at the college said the following to a few other sustainability compatriots here at IC:

“The one thing I wish for is more time to focus on getting the message out to students about their wasteful behavior this time of year. Man, do they consume! We will see very high numbers on beverage containers this weekend, and trash numbers because they will trash the containers, hundreds of dollars in unredeemed deposits! This is nothing compared to the last two days they can be in the dorms. If you look at the numbers in the waste management analysis on campus…how much goes in the trash in May, more than any other month of the year! It is all my crew can do to keep the dumpsters and recycle bins empty. Yes we are recycling a lot but all at once maxes out our collection system. TIOLI helps divert some things unfortunately, so much of what gets thrown away, should be thrown away, nine months at college and it is trash, cheap plastic crap intended make ones life better. Yeah right! If only we could make these kids look at the Story of Stuff and make them understand that they are doing it right here right now. This is the most challenging time of the year for college and university recycling managers. What can we do to make this better?”

Any thoughts? Maybe if you’re going to consume a lot, consume local, organic alcohol/food when you can. I’ve worked on this a bunch. Last summer, I worked with Mark on educating incoming freshmen about what to bring to college, what you’ll throw away, and how to be more sustainable during their time at IC. We worked with them and orientation leaders…and hopefully made an impact. But, in TIOLI this year, there are just as many silly plastic containers and ridiculous Halloween costumes than ever. And of course, more beer cans for the recycling staff to deal with than any other time of year as per usual. It’s just something to keep in mind while you’re livin’ it up with everyone who’s graduating or finishing up school. Keep your waste down, and the celebrations crazy!

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

akronheim — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The Ithaca College Environmental Society (ICES) found it absurd during move-out time at the end of the academic year when the amount and quality of garbage sky rocketted. They found clothes, mini fridges, hangers, food, microwaves, working electronics, computers, you name it, they found it in the dumpsters at school.

So, they started Take It Or Leave It (TIOLI). They put large bins in every dorm room where students can leave things worth donating or selling. ICES members go around campus, pick up the stuff they want for themselves, donate food and clothes, and then store the school/dorm room supplies to sell at the beginning of nxt year.

It really reduces the waste from the campus at that time of year; a full tractor trailor gets used for sorting the stuff. Plus, you get free stuff for helping out, and it raises between $500-$1000 for the club that year. When I ived in the Boston University dorm in D.C. while interning for Greenpeace's Project Hot Seat, there was a collection for similar things in the basement. I took a purse and some noodles from down there. Everyone donated and much less waste was thrown out than could have been.

It is easy to get people to put their stuff in a different place when it is advertised. It's also easy to collect, take what you want, and donate and sell the rest. It is am amazing way to divert some stuff out of the waste stream into the re-use system and I think it should be implemented at every residential college/university. It just makes sense. And that picture is of me doing it freshmen year...I found a sweet halloween costume!

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

Green Jobs and One Cool Sustainable Skateboard Company

akronheim — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Have you heard about a sustainable skateboarding company in Ithaca, NY, called Comet Skateboards. This company uses materials for the board and adhesives that can be grown in a year, locally, sustainably, and safely. I read about it recently in an article my fellow Ithaca College (IC) senior, Michael Berlin, wrote "Sustainable Punk," which has appeared in The Nation, Campus Progress, and IC's own alternative magazine, Buzzsaw Haircut.

Not only does the CEO of Comet Skateboards, Jason Salfi, worry about profit, but about the environment and keeping the local economy of Ithaca intact; instead of "Sucking from the oil nipple..." because that "...isn't going to help anything," said Salfi. "Having a bio-based solution that isn't influenced by a crazy geopolitical climate is a good solution."

In Berlin's article, he also talks about green jobs. He explains also that congress worked on green-blue collar jobs in the Green Jobs Act of 2007 to appropriate $125 million for new green job training and implementation. But that's not going to make enough of an impact because we need white-green collar jobs too. We will need them for the people who get the new training and for people already in white collar work that need a push in the green direction.

If you google: Green Jobs, you'll find about 6,930,000 hits and many opportunities that I am sure could be great for you. It's a start, but that's not enough. Legislators need to step it up and make more blue and white green collar jobs ASAP because the climate crisis and many eco-systems on the planet really are in their 11th Hour.

The presidential candidates have promised things along these lines. Hillary has promised at least 5 million new green jobs by 2050 and Barack has promised similar goals and will need those jobs for all of his other energy promises. John has promised dramatically less money than the Democratic candidates towards green research and implementation, but still discusses green jobs.

Law makers and small business owners alike need to be part of this journey towards environmental justice with green jobs in the white and blue sector in order to combat climate change. Well done Berlin, more education about this will put us that much closer to the solution.

8 Steps to Organize a Clean-Up Day in Your Community

akronheim — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Eww, there's trash everywhere, and somebody's gotta clean it up. Ever wanted to organize a group of people to do just that? I've done it at Ithaca College (IC) and many others have done the same. The IC Environmental Society has Green Teams who clean up after home football games and keep the good stuff (free unopened beer, sweatshirts, etc) recycle what we can, and throw out the rest. Even a group of high school students cleaned up their local park in New Haven recently and younger kids did it last year for Earth Day.

Here's 8 easy steps to get on your way to cleaning up your campus/park/area:

1. Find 5-10 loyal friends/sustainable companions to take on this endeavor.
2. Pick a day and time that works for all of you.
3. Decide where exactly on your campus you want to focus on for this first clean up day...where's the trash?
4. Create advertisements to recruit extra volunteers for the clean-up day. Make sure there's contact info for RSVPing, the date and time for the day, and a meeting place that everyone would know about.
5. Compile the list of volunteers.
6. Buy enough gloves, garbage bags, and maybe even plastic body suits if you want, for everyone for the clean day. You can ask departments on your campus or student organizations for money for these kinds of purchases easily. (If you really need help, with that, let me know!)
7. Send out a reminder email or phone call to every volunteer the day before the big day.
8. CLEAN UP! And maybe even start a group with all these extra people that wants to do this every week/month.

Reflections on Earth Day

akronheim — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:53:30 -0400

This week at Ithaca College, and at many colleges around the country, there were Earth Day events on Tuesday. Ithaca College hosted a screening of the 11th Hour that night and during the day hosted a free luncheon with Brooke Hansen discussing Native American Environmentalism. For the entire week we had events and dubbed last week: Earth Week.

Monday we had the Deputy Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, Bill Richardson, (no, not THAT Bill Richardson...) speak, Wednesday we had a vegetarian teach-in catered by a local co-op in Ithaca, Green Star, and Thursday we hosted another free luncheon to discuss Natural Beauty Products as well as a presentation that night from Benjamin Dangl, author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia. Phew!

These events were somewhere ideologically in the middle of the hay-days of Earth Day with ideals about less consumption and the new capitalistic green movement that has come with the evolution of Earth Day. Bradford Plumer discussed on The New Republic's Energy and Environment Blog that in its beginnings, Earth Day was simply promoting less consumption and being eco-friendly, while today large company's like Toyota, Macy's, Lexus etc are teaming up to promote their new green products around Earth Day. I was even on hulu.com where you can stream many popular, commercial media for free, and they publicized that they support Earth Week. Who doesn't support Earth Day? Maybe Hummer? Their still only up to around 14 city/18 highway mpg...pretty far off of the recently proposed 35 mpg fleetwide standard in the Energy Bill this past fall.

Hummers and companies alike aside, I think capitalism has the opportunity to really take off with the green sector and create fewer obsolete products, products that use less energy, renewable energy, and use energy more efficiently. If they do that, and the grassroots sector continues to educate and mobilize people around these issues, the supply and demand will be there; and we'll be that much closer to fighting climate change.

Two College Students to Cycle Across US, Planting 1 Million Trees

akronheim — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

What are you doing this summer? I'm going to hang out in LA and work at some silly job until my Green Corps position starts in August. But, that does not exactly compare to what these two college students are doing...they are riding their bikes across the country and planting one million trees! Grant Gardner from Virginia Tech, and Matt Cortina from Rutgers University, will be planting the trees with schools, organizations and communities in the 56 towns in which they will be stopping. It's a relatively common thing to bike across America, and to plant a bunch of trees, but I think these two have a serious insight into a healthy, sustainable movement that could really take off.

Grant and Matt founded Planting America Inc .a non-profit organization a little over a year ago in order to fund and/or create large scale environmental projects across the United States and promote active, earth-friendly lifestyles, more sustainable transportation and environmental stewardship. This 4200 mile journey across the country will be the kick off event for the organization. They're getting plenty of press including CBS and NPR, as well as working with two award-winning filmmakers to make a documentary about the trip and the overall message of environmental maintenance and social responsibility.

You can go to their website: www.plantingamerica.org, and donate, get educated about their campaigns, see their trip itinerary, and even get Free Tree Seeds! Or you can read about them at: http://11thhouraction.com, the website from the film The 11th Hour which is going on a campus screening tour including Ithaca College, Earth Day, at 7:30pm (shameless plug yet again...) But, maybe if people keep seeing films like this and hearing about Grant and Matt types, more campaigns and films will pop up all over the place...so keep spreading the word!

Shuttle the Students

akronheim — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:43:37 -0400

Since Ithaca College signed on to The Presidents Climate Commitment Committee, part of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, everyone in the campus community has to figure out how to get our carbon emissions down in order to be carbon neutral. The Student Government Association (SGA) has proposed using a shuttle to take students from the Circle apartments to the campus for class. It's a 20-30 minute walk, so a shuttle would be very useful.

This would definitely benefit the traffic congrestion and reduce the college's carbon emissions. The shuttle might even use biodiesel instead of regular gasoline. In fact, current personal transport numbers would be cut in half if 100% of circles residents used it everyday instead of driving. University of Maryland has a free shuttle in that if you show your student I.D. you can ride the public bus for free. Penn State provides a free shuttle that travels all around campus. Penn State also facilitates carpooling to campus in making available interested parties and their schedules in the Student Affairs Office for students to check out. Even nearby Cornell has a shuttle and an online resource for carpooling students to connect.

If all of these schools can get a shuttle and/or a carpool parking option, IC can do the same. SGA sent out a survey to gauge how valuable a shuttle from the Circles would be and with these results we'll see if they can persuade the powers that be. If you read my previous blog entitled "Generation Quiet?" you'd know that I was working on a proposal for a carpool lot on campus as well. And just so you know, Parking Services is looking into the carpool lot due to our call-in day, and two school newspapers have opinion peices about it. Thanks a bunch if you called! SGA was responsive to the carpool lot idea as well, but more keen on a shuttle because it would service so many people concretely. Either way works for me! But both the carpool lot and shuttle would be best. That way on and off campus students could participate in reduce the IC carbon footprint. And if all of those other schools can do it, we definitely can.