Ecological Footprint - End Results

I'll admit I was a little nervous that my footprint wasn't going to change at all, but WOW, what a difference! I know, I know, there are many caveats and potential misinterpretations in this quiz, and honestly I think that's where a lot of my reduction came from, but also from the number of small tweaks that I've been working hard to maintain all quarter!

New vs. Old

2.37 Earths...obviously not a great thing to think about, but a far cry from 3.78. I'm especially happy about this because it's much closer to what my footprint was the very first time I took this quiz when I was about sixteen. Retaking the quiz, however, I did a number of things differently. For example, since taking the quiz the first time, I found out the actual square footage of my home, which is much smaller than my original "guesstimate". I also reduced the number of miles I fly each year after calculating the distance from Seattle to places like Durango, Co, or Sun Valley, Id, two places where I fly most often. These small tweaks and more probably made at least as much of a difference as the actual goals I set, but at least I'm more informed about the reality of my footprint now, and Im happy that the more accurate one is lower than the guesstimate.

 Almost every category went down...except for food

This was confusing for me. I feel like a lot of what I did to enhance my goals was food-related, so why did it go up?! I've almost completely converted my grocery shopping to to Co-Op, I no longer skimp on expensive organic foods and buy the cheap Fred Meyer brand instead, and I've been trying to avoid produce that isn't in season, like berries and tomatoes, and focusing on winter crops. I guess I shouldn't be too upset because in the grand scheme of things I'm still doing better, I just can't figure out what I did differently to get these strange results. I'd say i've definitely been successful in my food goal; with all the habits I've changed shopping at huge supermarkets seems unappealing and a last resort to me now, and I know I'll continue that.

The corrections I made in transportation and housing are clearly visible. While I did cut out a few short car trips here and there, overall I was least successful at this goal. I'm still just as time-challenged as ever, so I still drive to work pretty much every day. I'm not giving up though; Spring is coming and I'll feel progressively guiltier about driving around in all that sunshine when I could be riding my bike.

 Then and Now, hardly a difference

The "biome" chart has the least impact on me; it doesn't give you a lot of context, and even though I've changed a lot about my footprint, it's barely noticeable on this graph. My last goal, purchasing a power strip to turn off electronics when not it use, was the easiest one of all. Within a week of setting this goal it was already a habit. I didn't even buy the power strip; I just started unplugging my lamps instead of switching them off (it does the same thing, right?), and doing the same with my laptop charger. Once I consciously thought about doing it each and every time, I quickly lost the need to think about it at all. This is an easy goal to keep up and I will absolutely do so.

There are a few other things outside of my set goals that I've done as well. For example, I bought a folding clothes drying rack, which I now use to dry most of my laundry on instead of using a dryer. I badgered my family about using my Seafood Watch guide to buy sustainably-sourced seafood, and, though I haven't really gotten the chance to put it into practice yet, I made another personal goal to stop buying into "fast fashion" as often as I do. I know the numbers from the footprint quiz may not be totally accurate, but it's still interesting, and encouraging, to see what a few small changes can do.

Current Event - Idling

Unlike switching out lightbulbs and carrying a reusable water bottle, idling cars is a relatively new sustainability venture for me. I suppose this is because I really don't drive much compared to a lot of people; in high school I walked and rode my bike everywhere, and now as a college student I only recently started driving more when I actually got my first car. It's opened my eyes to a couple of things. First, how easy it is to become dependent on; I've talked about this in my footprint posts, but once you know the convenience of a vehicle is there, it's really hard not to take advantage of. The other thing I've become more aware of is idling. This outdated concept has become one of my biggest pet peeves in the past year, and more than once I've been that obnoxious neighbor poking my head out the door to tell people to shut off their engines.

I began to ask some of the car intellectuals in my life about idling, what it does, why we do it, if it's even necessary etc., and each one of them told me the same thing: it's NOT necessary. I even noticed once while crossing the Canada-U. S. border all of the signs that say "B.C. is Idle-free". It's actaully illegal to idle your car at the Canada border, how cool is that? A better question: why don't we have a law like that? Then I found yet another amazing infographic from Sustainable America, which really lays out why idling is such a silly thing.

FACTS

• Idling wastes gas
• Wasted gas = wasted money
• Running cars unnecessarily emits harmful pollutants into the air
• Most cars these days have no reason to be idle

There are a number of old myths about idling that lead people to believe its a good thing. It warms up your car, your car will run better if its sits for a few minutes, etc., but these concepts are no longer relevant to cars made in the last 20-30 years or so. Newer cars are now so efficient to start that idling for ten seconds uses more gas than turning off and restarting your car. TEN SECONDS. Since learning all this I have become a total idle-policer, but I admit there are times when I do let my engine run. My car is a senior citizen in vehicle-years, so unless I want to endanger everyone on the road when I drive, I have to let it defrost and defog for several minutes sometimes. But I am taking the pledge (and getting the sticker) available on Sustainable America's website; I've cut way down on letting my car idle in places like driveways and drive-thrus. I think if people realized that it's not actually better for your engine to let it "warm up", and that all they are accomplishing is wasting gas, they might start to question this habit too.

Current Event - WWU's Recycle Center

Yay Recycling! With permission from my Professor, I've decided to write a current event about my job at Western Washington University's A.S. Recycle Center. I've been working at the Recycle Center for about a year and a half, starting out as a general laborer and now working as Staff Manager. It's a great job because of the awesome work environment, but also because every day I'm there I'm doing something that aligns with my personal and professional values. While a lot of people recognize me as "that girl who drives the big trucks around campus", a lot of Western students know very little, or nothing at all, about WWU's recycling program.

The Recycle Center was founded in 1971 by a small group of Huxley students and staff members, one of the first recycling programs in the country. It was instrumental in launching Western as one of the most environmental campuses in the nation, and continues to do so today. A few years after it started the university incorporated in into a full time program under the A.S. umbrella, and we've grown ever since.

So what do we do? All those blue barrels you see on campus belong to the R.C.; our workers collect about 650 of them each week and replace them with empty ones. At our facility we hand-sort all of Western's recycling; from mixed paper to glass to plastic, we even take batteries, furniture, and electronics. Everything is broken down into it's component parts so that it can be most efficiently recycled and also most valuably recycled. Because we hand-sort everything, Western recycling (and in fact Bellingham in general), is worth a good deal more than what you would find in Seattle or most other cities. One of the things I love most about the Recycle Center is that not only do we recycle way more than most universities, we do it more cost-efficiently than just about all of them. Our barrels are reused from dairy farms in nearby Lynden; instead of going into a landfill they fuel our entire operation.

I love working for the Recycle Center because you can see the positive impacts before your very eyes. I'm not just being told that Western recycles, I'm seeing 4,000 pounds of proof every day I'm there. Also, the knowledge that, without us, Western would literally collapse is pretty gratifying as well. Before I started working at the Recycle Center I didn't pay much attention to all those blue barrels, but now I know how much the school's students and staff really do depend on us, whether they realize it or not.

Current Event - The Ruby Cup

So, this post is about a rather sensitive subject for many...PERIODS!

Still a taboo even in the most progressive and developed countries, it's something that women all over the planet live with, and it also happens to be a very significant source of waste, which, of course, means it has awesome sustainability potential. Ladies, I know we've all heard of menstrual cups before, I won't go into the details, but they aren't just for tree-hugging eccentrics anymore; menstrual cups are gaining popularity all over the world as a safe, sanitary, cost-effective (not to mention GREEN) way to manage one's period.

ENTER: The Ruby Cup.

I could have chosen any menstrual cup brand as a sustainable option, but Ruby Cup is special because not only does it embody the environmental benefits of using a menstrual cup, it's social justice efforts are through the roof. Ruby Cup has a "buy 1, give 1" program that many businesses are co-opting as a way to address social issues in poverty-stricken countries. For every Ruby Cup purchased, one is given at no cost to a girl in a developing country who cannot afford to buy sanitary products. Why is this important? Thousands of girls are forced to stay home from school every month because they can't afford products to manage their periods; they are deprived of an education because these basic products are beyond reach. Worse, many girls use harmful alternatives like rags or tree bark as a substitute, and it is not uncommon in African countries for a girl to sleep with a man in exchange for sanitary napkins. This is heartbreaking and unfair, and as I mentioned above, an issue like this often gets no help because of the cultural taboos associated with periods.

Sustainability benefits of using the Ruby Cup:

• Less Waste - The average women produces 300 pounds of waste from period products over her lifetime. Using a reusable product (lasts up to 10 years!) keeps resources from being used to make disposable products, and keeps them out of the landfill.
• Social Equality - Allowing women in developing countries to fulfill their educations is empowering and important; Ruby Cup's mission is such a wonderful way to support this.
• Cost Effectiveness - The average woman spends about $2000 on her period over her lifetime. Gals, we all know that stuff isn't cheap! Menstrual cups have a higher upfront cost but will pay for themselves almost immediately.

It's not something people like to talk about, but the "sustainable cycle" movement has potential to emanate great change.

Current Event - Food Waste

In the beginning of the quarter many of us found that a huge contributor to our ecological footprint's was our food consumption habits; this prompted myself and several others to make changes to the way we eat as one of our goals for the quarter. Buying organic, seasonal, and local foods is important, but another big factor in the sustainability of food is how much food we waste. Sustainable America is a great organization that posts a lot of helpful information for consumers (like us!) wishing to make their everyday lives more sustainable.

Recently they published an interactive article about food waste (I found it on Upworthy); it's chock-full of facts about how much food gets wasted each year by the average American, the cause of most of that waste, and the consequences. It really puts into perspective what it actually means each time you throw away that wilted spinach or rotten banana. Throwing away food may not seem as bad as throwing away plastic, but when millions of people do it every day it really adds up, and it becomes a major source of methane emissions, water consumption, and wasted money. Just because food biodegrades easier than other materials doesn't mean we should't think twice about refining our eating habits to reduce these harmful environmental impacts and save a few dollars.

THE QUIZ:
On the page dedicated to food waste on Sustainable America's website there is a short quiz you can take (fo' free this time) to see what your food waste habit's are. It asks you things like whether you eat out more or prepare your own meals, how often food tends to go bad in your fridge, etc. One thing I thought was interesting and kind of funny was the question asking if you had kids under age 18. My first thought was how much food gets wasted when you have babies and toddlers throwing macaroni and cereal on the ground at every meal-definitely a lot of waste there. I ended up scoring "medium" on the food waste level. The score itself is a bit vague, but it was helpful in giving me ideas on how to progress towards my third goal of reducing the food sector of my footprint.

Go take the quiz! It might open your eyes to some unsustainable eating habits you may not have thought of before.

Current Event - Green Music Festivals

Festival season is upon us; lineups are being released and thousands of people are handing over their dollars to this billion-dollar industry. Music festivals have been increasing in popularity over the last ten years. People come together from all over the world to share a mutual love of music - it sounds dreamy, but the reality, especially post-festival, is a little less charming when festival-goers leave the festival-site unbelievably trashed. Anyone who's seen the aftermath of a concert knows how gross it looks once everyone leaves, the lights go on, and theres trash all over the floor. Festivals, considering how large they are, take this trash heap to the next level. Here is a link to a video made by the Jellyfish Project, which tries to mobilize people to take responsibility for their trash instead of abandoning it once the music is over.

 It kinda take the fun out of it when you see this:

...turn into this.







I did a little research on green music festivals (I chose not to say sustainable, because we are really just talking about the environmental impact here), to see if any initiative is being taken to combat the incredible environmental damage that occurs. I was pleasantly unsurprised to find that there are in fact many festivals taking steps to reduce their footprints. A Greener Festival is an awesome part of the Sustainable Event Alliance; they are a non-profit committed to helping festivals around the world "green" themselves. They even have an annual award for the most environmentally-conscious festival based on a checklist that festivals must comply to to be eligible. I like this because it's a sort of third-party verification, like the ones we've discussed in class, to show the world that their efforts are genuine and not just greenwash.

A HUGE contributor to festival waste is plastic water bottles. As many of us know, a lot of shows won't let you bring any container into a concert, empty or not, so you are forced to buy overpriced plastic water bottles the entire time, and festivarians drink A LOT of water. Some smaller festivals are fixing this by providing reusable cups and bottles that people can fill at drinking stations. This past year I was a volunteer at Telluride Blues and Brews, which is sponsored by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and reusable Sierra Nevada pint glasses were supplied to anyone in the festival. In addition to this they also had an entire crew dedicated to managing the recycling and compost of the event and had vendors use compostable plates and cutlery. Steps like these are being taken by a number of festivals; it gets harder the bigger the event is, naturally, but the young festival-going demographic also overlaps heavily with the market segments demanding transparency and sustainability from their brands. It's in the best interest of the event planners to continue "greening" music festivals around the world.

Current Event - Sustainable Beer

I've been trying to take a personal approach in my current events, choosing to report on things that relate sustainability to my personal interests and things that are relevant in my daily life. To me, it is important not only to learn about sustainability as a business concept or a scientific theory, but as something that can and should be incorporated into the average citizen's life. In order to do this, public interest must be piqued in some way. Taking the perspective of the consumer and thinking, "what would make me care about sustainability?", has been helping me see how to market sustainability as an approachable and appealing concept to people outside of the university classroom.

So, with that in mind, my current event this week is about something near and dear to my heart: beer! I love drinking beer as much as the next college student, but outside of school I also bartend at a local taphouse. The microbrew industry is thus a world I am constantly exposed to, so naturally I have a very keen interest in the conjunction of sustainability and beer, two of my favorite things.

I have read many articles on the "greenest beers in America", but I chose this one to report on from Where The Wild Grows because it was published recently, and it does not rank the breweries on it's list, understanding that size, capacity, and funding can limit the scope of a business's sustainability efforts.



The Most Sustainable Breweries in the U.S.

• Bell's Brewery
• Anderson Valley Brewing Co.
• Boulevard Brewing Co.
• Eel River Brewing
• Full Sail Brewing
• Brooklyn Brewery
• Uinta Brewing Co.
• Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
• New Belgium Brewing Co.
• Great Lakes Brewing Co.

Sustainability is becoming a benchmark in the craft beer industry, and most of these breweries have adopted the basic "green" habits such as using recycled content in their packaging and increasing recyclability of their products after use, allowing spent hops to be used as feed or fertilizer for local farms, and many are also adopting renewable energy sources, most notably solar.

Sierra Nevada and New Belgium can hardly be called microbreweries; they are two of the most widely-known craft beer brands in the U.S., but both have used their success to expand their sustainability efforts to their fullest potential.

Sierra Nevada has been hailed as one of the greenest businesses in the nation, but what is notable, especially in light of this class, is that they engage in many of their efficiency and environmental efforts not because it's trendy or responsible, but because it saves them money! They have recognized that being sustainable has huge cost savings for businesses, a concept many are still slow to realize. New Belgium in particular shows effective marketing techniques in its extreme transparency; they publish their resource use and waste metrics on their website and are publicly undergoing an industry waste-stream audit.

I would like to mention Full Sail Brewing, makers of the popular "Session" lager, because they are local to the Northwest and have achieved the incredible feat of having the lowest water-to-beer ratio on the market. At 2.5 gallons of water per beer, and an onsite water treatment plant (Eel River Brewing, too!),  Full Sail takes resource conservation very seriously.

As I mentioned, I particularly love this sustainable beer concept because it is becoming not only an accepted facet of the industry, but an expected one as well, from both the brewers and the customers. Delicious beer with a small ecological footprint, it doesn't get much better than that!