Learning in LEED spaces

It seems like UNC-Chapel Hill always has some sort of building under construction. Many other schools and universities are going through construction or remolding as well, and also starting to design with sustainability in mind. Da Vinci Arts Middle School in Portland, Ore. is one example that was mentioned in a recent New York Times article. An architect firm designed a classroom in the school to include natural daylighting, solar panels, and other sustainable features. This school has designed the classroom in such a way to try and receive a LEED-Platinum certification.

Speaking of LEED-Platinum certification, the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Education Center, opening later this year, has also been designed for LEED-Platinum certification, which only a dozen or so other buildings in the country have qualified for including three in North Carolina.

Check here to read the complete New York Times article:
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/shining-a-natural-light-on-green-schools/?scp=3&sq=green&st=cse

Check here to see more information on the Education Center:
http://sustainability.unc.edu/Buildings/CampusBuildings/NCBotanicalGardenInConstruction/tabid/112/Default.aspx

Sustain-a-FUN!

Did you know NC has one of the highest rates of power consumption in the US? Or that the average American throws out 4 pounds of trash every day? Or that coffee is the second most heavily-traded and highly-traveled commodity in existence (after oil)?

You can learn facts like these and discover more about your personal ecological footprint by playing “Consumer Consequences.” This fun online game lets you input data about your lifestyle—like the foods you eat, your electricity bill, and how you get to work—and witness the corresponding effect on the world. With each question comes a new sustainability-related fact, and a new change in the digital environment. See the world stay green, or watch as coal plants and factories take over the horizon, landfills and highways fill the neighborhood, and pollution clogs the air—that is, if you’re living unsustainably!

In the end, a final calculation shows how many Earths it would take it would take to sustain the world’s population if everyone lived just like you. A graph further pinpoints areas to work on. I tried it: turns out I use up 1.7 Earths!

Can you beat my score? Or should we start heading to Mars?

(Click here to play!)

Higher Fuel Economy Standards

Big change is about to hit the road. On Tuesday, May 19^th, Obama announced new standards for fuel efficiency and emissions, which will start taking effect in 2012. The new rules will require all cars to get at least 39 mpg and trucks to get 30 mpg, which averages to 35.5 mpg (as compared to the current average of 25 mpg).

On the national end, these new standards will save the US almost 2 billion barrels of oil from 2012 through 2016. Also, the newly efficient vehicles will prevent 900 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted throughout their lifetimes, which is akin to taking 177 million cars off the road. Auto industries are happy too, because now they have a single nationwide standard that helps national security, air quality, and general public approval. Sure, this means new cars will cost more—an average of $1,300 per vehicle—but at current prices a consumer can make that money back in gas savings in about 3 years.

Obama couldn’t have said it better: “In the past, an agreement such as this would have been considered impossible. That is why this announcement is so important, for it represents not only a change in policy in Washington, but the harbinger of a change in the way business is done in Washington.”

For more information on fuel economy, visit http://www.fueleconomy.gov/.

A New Green Movement: Transition

England native Rob Hopkins saw how oil dependency and the climate
crisis could be particularly devastating for the future’s well being.
That is why he and others began forming the Transition Initiative which
focuses on making communities resilient in a post-carbon world,
basically making them sustainable communities. In Hopkins’ book, The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, he offers
a change that communities could make to generate their own power, to
grow their own food, and more in order to prepare for what happens when
oil runs out. The Transition movement is gaining momentum here in the
U.S. with training conferences in Minnesota, California, Florida, and
Maine occurring throughout the summer.

Check out the flyer below for information on what a training conference
would consist of and go to the following website if you want more
information about the Transition Initiative in the U.S.

http://www.transitionus.org/about-us

UNC's RESPC makes the news!

A recent online news blog entitled "GREEN FEES: College Students Demand To Pay Their Own Way To Renewables" has a list of universities with on & off campus green energy student fees. No surprise that UNC was included on that list! Here is the complete list, courtesy of Dave Burdick at The Huffington Post:

ON-CAMPUS AND OFF-CAMPUS PROJECTS
The Evergreen State College
Middle Tennessee State University
Tennessee Technological University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Auraria Campuses: University of Colorado at Denver, Metro State University and Community College of Denver
University of Oregon
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse

ON-CAMPUS PROJECTS ONLY
The College Of William and Mary
Northeastern Illinois University
Northland College
Appalachian State University
Bemidji State University
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Read the complete news blog here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/12/green-fees-college-studen_n_201978.html

Read more about UNC's green energy student fee here:
http://respc.unc.edu/

One man's trash is another man's Tar Heel Treasure

Are you in need of some cheap summer clothes? A gently-used mini-fridge? How about a lamp and a shelf to put it on?

If you said yes, you’re in luck! A new initiative on campus called Tar Heel Treasure has saved these and other used items from the annual end-of-semester trash heap and will soon sell them back to the community at yard sale prices. By collecting everything from futons to flip-flops, they have diverted a huge volume of perfectly usable items from the landfill.

Best of all, the proceeds will be donated to good places—the Eve Carson Memorial Fund and the UNC Children’s Hospital—so you can shop with the knowledge that you’re helping our environment and our community!

The sale starts this Saturday, May 16th at 7:30 AM and lasts until 3 PM (cash only). It will be located indoors on Municipal Drive off of MLK. For details and directions, please visit their website, http://tarheeltreasure.unc.edu.

Come see what treasures you can find!

Recycled art fund-raiser for Carolina Family Scholarship program

These whimsical "Techie People" were the table centerpieces for the recent annual UNC IT Awards. Diana Woodhouse, artist and web guru for Housing and Residential Education on campus, created these, and they are now for sale, with the proceeds going to next year's IT Awards ceremony and the Carolina Family Scholarship Program. Check 'em out! Auction closes Friday, May 15th, at noon.

Check them out and bid at:
http://fuji.ovcsa.unc.edu/techies/

New reclaimed water system brings water savings to UNC and the community!

This past Monday, May 11, UNC-Chapel Hill held a celebration and unveiled their new reclaimed water system that includes a 600,000 gallon concrete storage tank and will be able to have an output the equivalent of 10% of the surrounding community's water demand. UNC-CH partnered with Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) and received grants and funding from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fun and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All parties involved were represented at the event as Roger Perry, UNC-CH Board of Trustees Chair, Ed Kerwin, OWASA Executive Director, Philip A. Baddour, Jr., Clean Water Management Turst Fund Board of Trustees Chair, and David Price, U.S. House of Representatives, spoke at the ceremony. A tour of the facility followed. Check out the pictures below!

For more detailed information about the reclaimed water system, visit:
http://www.owasa.org/Documents/DocView.aspx?IDX=1095

April in North Carolina

The past month, North Carolina has been full of nature-related events! Environmental Education Week was April 12-18, then Earth Day on April 22, and finally Arbor Day on April 24. How did communities all over the state celebrate these events?

The NC Office of Environmental Education set up a website with event pictures from all across the state. Check 'em out at:
http://nceeweek2009.blogspot.com/

LEED Platinum, 100% Solar Powered, Affordable Housing

Sounds too good to be true?
Well, it's true! And it just opened in San Diego, CA. According to the press release:

"Los Vecinos Apartments, a $17.6 million, 42-unit complex in Southwest Chula Vista, was designed and built to achieve LEED* Platinum certification for energy savings and efficiencies. The project features an extensive solar power system that will provide nearly 100 percent of the development’s electricity.

"Other design features include the heavy use of ceiling fans and natural ventilation instead of air conditioning. Tankless hot water heaters, Energy Star appliances and high-efficacy lighting fixtures will keep energy costs to a minimum. Landscaping and irrigation techniques and low-flow fixtures will minimize water use.

"Los Vecinos consists of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units on three floors as well as a 1,500-square-foot community center, where residents will have access to programs on health and wellness, finance and computer literacy and “going green.” Families earning between $16,600 and $58,800 will reside there."

Remember - "sustainability" means environmental, social, and economic prosperity. I would say this concept for affordable housing does pretty well on all fronts!

You can read more about this project at the following sites:
http://www.wakelandhdc.com/news/
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/los-vecinos-first-platinum-leed-certified-solar-powered-affordable-housing-in-san-diego.php

NC’s Offshore Energy: Is it Worth the Pursuit?

WNCT-TV, a Greenville CBS affiliate, did a news report on the potential for drilling offshore in North Carolina for natural gas. UNC-CH researcher Pete Peterson weighed in, saying:

“There’s no question that there is a threat. Quantifying that threat is always difficult. But that threat exists. And the real point is that, the heavy industrial development associated with landing the oil and gas product is simply incompatible with the existing uses of North Carolina’s coast. It’s incompatible with its parks, with its tourism, retirement and fishing industries—commercial and recreational both.”

Watch the report or read the transcript at:
http://www.wnct.com/nct/news/local/article/ncs_offshore_energy_is_it_worth_the_pursuit/36901/

Too bad the conversation on "offshore energy" did not include offshore wind power - something North Carolina has in spades.

Pollution of Jordan Lake

If you don't live near Jordan Lake, lake litter may not seem like a big deal. However, Jordan Lake is an active reservoir that provides drinking water for thousands in the area - possibly even you.

Recently, the News & Observer published an article on the costs to clean up Jordan Lake. In response, Prof. Francis DiGiano, of UNC's Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, wrote a brief "Letter to the Editor" regarding the issue of pollution and water quality in Jordan Lake.

"Pollution of Jordan Lake is worthy of front-page coverage. However, you failed to distinguish between control of litter and nutrients from stormwater runoff.

"The two photos of trash on the shoreline imply runoff as the source. In my opinion, careless users of Jordan Lake account for a large share."

You can read the full letter here:
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1513414.html

How to stop junk mail and SPAM!

I don't know you, but I'm willing to bet you get junk mail. With more than 110,000 tons of junk mail each year in North Carolina, that's a lot of waste that goes straight into the landfill. Rather than send all the junk mail to the landfill, stop it at the source!

The North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance has some great steps to take that will dramatically reduce the volume of junk mail you receive in the mail. Check out their tips at:
http://www.p2pays.org/junkmail.asp

Junk emails (a.k.a. SPAM) also has a direct impact on the environment by overburdening computer servers that use lots and lots of energy. Some good tips for limiting junk mail can be found at:
http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/

Good luck!

How environmentally-friendly is the stainless steel water bottle?

Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris have an excellent article in The New York Times assessing the hidden life cycle costs of the increasingly-popular stainless steel water bottle. For example, they assert that producing stainless steel requires a global supply chain involving more than 1,400 steps that impact the environment. However, 1 reusable container can replace hundreds in the landfill. So how green is your water bottle?

It's a quick read and might open your eyes to the value of life cycle assessments for the products you purchase. Read the full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/19/opinion/20090419bottle.htm

18 Beautiful Edible Landscaping Plants

The beautiful, warm spring weather is finally here! Celebrate by starting an edible garden at your home or work. Here are some suggestions from Sami Grover of Carrboro, NC:
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/04/18-beautiful-edible-plants.php?page=1