i’m baaaccck

After three months away from Portland, you think I would have many stories to tell. Oh, the horrors of Styrofoam containers in Canton, Ohio, the green initiatives in super-cool Burlington, Vermont, our frozen wind turbine at the hut I was stationed at that caused us to briefly live in the dark without music when the rime ice hit…but not yet. For now I am here to share with you a page from the Continental Airlines magazine that I resorted to reading on my way back from Boston when the suduko puzzle on the back page got too intense for me.

The article was about greening parks, which seems like a duh statement at first. Aren’t parks inherently sustainable? Shouldn’t they be the champions of environmentally-friendly features? Well, yes, but anywhere the masses visit inevitably creates waste, requires restrooms and facilities to be built, etc.  Case in point, the National Park Service (NPS), which Ken Burns and I both agree is one of America’s best ideas. As much as I sometimes wish I could have every park to myself, I’m super pumped by the amount of visitors (approximately one jillion) the parks get a year. Some of these folks don’t get a chance to get out much, so getting away from the city helps them appreciate the awesome spaces in this country that should be preserved, and not turn into victims of environmental impact. While visitors are out and about enjoying the parks and nature when their minds “are much more open to hearing an environmental message” why not kill two birds with one stone and show off some easy sustainability practices and cool green tech features? The NPS is starting to do just this by implementing solar power, recycling stations, gray water use in the restrooms, and myriad other features.

The most heartwarming quote of the article was not about what the park is doing for itself, but rather how the park hopes to influence its patrons to make sustainable decisions once they leave the park. “The NPS’ goal is to have 10 percent of visitors reduce their carbon footprint by 10 percent…we have a powerful brand that enables us to convey important climate change information to visitors, specifically about their behavior.” Ding ding! That is awesome. I assume that the 10% figure would be a hard figure to collect accurate data on, but I think a great part of any sustainability plan should include inspiring others to make changes in their own lives.

The article mentioned a few initiatives that different park services around the country are taking, my favorite being NPS’ Climate Friendly Parks Program, launched as a pilot in 2002. The website offers an action plan for other parks (including your local ones, I assume?) guiding them to become a climate friendly park. I thought for sure Portland Parks and Rec would be all over this, but upon checking out their website I didn’t see much mention of sustainability. After searching for the term, I found a Sustainability Plan from 2007. That’s good that we (Portland) were on this then, but where are the updates? Why don’t we (me?) work on some updates and work to become official Climate Friendly parks?

Perhaps these are questions to explore as I am Professionally Unemployed and am itching for a new project…

http://www.nps.gov/climatefriendlyparks/index.htm..l

farewell for now

I’m not necessarily throwing in the towel, but with the obvious discovery that my future living situation (middle of the woods) will not include much computer or internet use, I must leave this blog at home in Portland while I travel east.  Sustainability is always somewhere in  my mind– I don’t actively seek out learning as much about sustainability these days, and my enthusiasm toward it has softened into a part of my every day life. I’m upset that when I visit Ohio I won’t be able to do everything I want to do as my family has two cars and four people who can drive. I find that ridiculous, to some degree, what I find absolutely appalling is that in suburban Ohio everyone almost must have their own car to get to work, get their errands done, get to school. I understand people live in the suburbs, but why should that ever have to be the case? Why can’t roads be bike friendly? Why can’t stores be more accessible to pedestrians, or rather the whole city be oriented so patrons can visit without a motor vehicle? Why do I feel so powerless at making these changes occur?

That being said, I’ve become more interested in community development lately. Part of this is my roommate, a PhD student at PSU, sharing some of the neat things they have going on along with her own interests in community development.

For now my main interest with sustainability is the outdoors. Living in it, playing in it, enjoying it, and preserving it.  I’ll be doing this every day for a couple months, along with helping people stay overnight in the outdoors, and showing them how a hut in the middle of the woods can run off of the elements.

I’ll be back in a few months, hopefully with some good stories to share, and a clearer direction of where I can find my role in an environmental field. Take care.

I’m a real blogger! Sort of!

Back in ye old blogging days (aka a month ago) I never disclosed where I worked, but one of my first assignments here at seven planet was to write a blog post about a dry cleaning bags article in the NYT they sent to me. And even though it is not the best blog post ever, by any means, it’s still something that is on an official blog that lots (?) of people read. From around the country! And I’m going to blog more!

Here’s the post: http://www.sevenplanet.com/seven/planet-timeline

Yes, it says written by Derek. He’s our web dude who has been doing all the blogs up until this point, and he has all the programs/knows the wonky computer codes to post everything.  I would be posting regularly, but I’ll actually be leaving in a short two weeks for a seasonal job on the east coast. Basically I’m going to live in the middle of the woods in a hut with solar and wind electric, a composting toilet, and other fun green features. I’m going to cook food for people and educate them about the green things that make the hut run.

Anyways, now that I’m disclosing work stuff, here’s some other environmental jobs I’ve had:

• Helping builders to make their new homes greener
• Encouraging consumers to go efficient with new washing machines
• Energy Conservation (with utility companies)

call for topics

Considering the absence of my blogging lately, I just made a bold move: I signed up to blog for my company (just one time– we have to rotate). Actually, I was the first person to sign up for the year, which entitled me to a mysterious prize. I’m excited and terrified at the same time to blog for a larger audience (every time I blink, we have at least 10 new employees, so I think there are over 300 now…) of business people. Eeek!

So here’s my mission that I need help with, dear readers: my topic. This is my “15 minutes of fame” so I better make it good. My first thought was a new personal challenge/measurement (along the lines of the meat challenge, or the waste monitoring). What do you think would be interesting to hear about, or a challenge I could take on?

give a little bit

I am continuously impressed with the caliber of innovated, talented people and groups in Portland. Not to diss more on my longstanding relationship with Ohio, but I can’t think of near as many neat non-profits there as there are here. And I can’t think of any papers that would create something like the Willamette Week’s Give!Guide.  

For those not in Portland, the Willy (as we call it) is a free news and culture paper that comes out once a week. They often put together these really well thought out, 50 page guides (restaurant guide, Give!Guide, etc…) that are not only informative and have nice aesthetics, but help plug really great things (local, independent restaurants and non profits championed by young entrepreneuers). The Give!Guide not only gives some well-earned media attention to these non-profits (and credits some people my age who have started their own non-profits!), but is an easy-to-use source to donate to many non-profits of your choice in one smooth, easy motion. I don’t know how they do it– I am a cheapskate who will gladly donate my time and energy to a good cause, but rarely do I actually think about shelling out cold hard cash. But after picking up the Give!Guide and eating my burrito over a long lunch (this put me in a good mood) I was really getting pumped about which ones I should choose.

The Give!Guide divides up the featured non-profits into categories. Of course I love puppies and don’t condone unjust death all over the globe, but I gotta root for the cause I am most passionate about: the environment.

I was familiar with most of the non-profits under the environment category, but after reading some more about them here are a couple I’d like to highlight:

Zenger Farm- In the past year or so I have really started thinking about where my food comes from, and have become increasingly interesting in learning about sustainable farming. All year I talked everyone’s ear off with how I wanted a garden, and now that I finally have one I… sorta don’t know what to do with it (put seeds in the grow and they turn into food, yes?). Not only does Zenger farm show citizens how they operate and how to grow food, but they also hit another topic I have spent a lot of time thinking about: children and sustainability. Zenger Farm offers field trips for schools, education programs, tours of the farm and other activities that give kids the hands-on opportunity to see where the food that lands on their plate comes from. I love this idea, and giving kids a visual can help them appreciate farming and want to eat local foods– not just Kraft (BOO!) bright orange mac n’ cheese. Hands-on learning is super for kids– once they believe farming is neat it can help open the door to other sustainable-minded things, too.

Friends of Trees- I volunteered with Friends of Trees last year and am returning this year as a Crew Leader. Friends of Trees assembles groups of volunteers who plant trees in community spaces and personal yards. Basically, if you decide you want more trees in your yard (which increases your property value, beautifies your neighborhood, and cleans the air) FoT will send out a professional to help you decide what reasonably-priced  type of tree will fit in your allotted space, then send a group of volunteers from your community to plant the tree with you, and come back and help make sure you understand how to nurture the tree. It’s a win-win-win situation for everyone. 

Bicycle Transportation Alliance- I’ve had nothing but good interactions with the BTA since moving to Portland and deciding, like everyone else in here, I should ride my bike to work (during the sunny warm months, that is). The BTA holds free workshops, and will even travel to your place of employment to do these workshops. They taught me how to change a flat tire in one of our conference rooms here, which was great. They also provide  free bike maps, and have also worked to make bike commuting safer and less confusing.

My honorable mention goes to the Portland Parks Foundation. I admittedly don’t understand a lot about the tax system and where my money goes (yes, I know, I know) but I feel pretty good knowing that some of my money goes to support the parks. It’s amazing how many parks Portland has. Almost every single neighborhood seems to have one, and they really are clean, well-maintained, and have some nice programs for kids. Kudos to whoever set up these spaces from becoming more houses and providing wonderful dog parks, jogging paths, and big green areas for me to do cartweels on in the summer. 

So perhaps you can save some money this year making gifts for friends and family (or not buying them a tacky sweater they will never wear) and donate to some of these groups, or you can ask for your family to donate to these groups in lieu of your usual presents.