Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

We would like to copy what the information flyers say to promote re-usable mugs in stead of paper cups... The flyers were distributed at the MUG DRIVE, but we would like more and more people to read this information!


STUdents for Sustainability hope that by using reusable mugs instead of disposable cups, you will become aware of where these items are coming from, how they are getting to you and where they are ending up.

Help reduce waste on campus, save our trees and become part of the solution for our environmental future.

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Paper cups make up an estimated 40% of the mass in municipal landfills. Starback alone throws away 1.9 billion cups a year.

(and STU Tim Hortons alone throws away 1200 cups a day!)

Every year almost 2% of N.B. Acadian Forest is cut,
with 70% of the cutting is done through clear-cutting.

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Paper cups are lined with plastic to stop the leaking of hot liquids; oil is used to make the plastic, which makes biodegradation of the cup virtually impossible.

If the cups are not paper, then they are Styrofoam. Styrofoam contains chemicals like benzene and styrene which are carcinogenic and hazardous to both human health and the environment.
One Styrofoam cup can take up to 500 years to decompose.

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Thanks, and enjoy your (reusable) cup of tea or coffee!!

Mug Drive -Fall 07-

October 24 & 25

**2nd Annual Mug Drive **

This Mug Drive definitely was a great success!

During the two days we had distributed more than 200 travel mugs (both donated and brought) on campus, and also promoted Fair Trade coffee!

Yuki :)

Bake Sale on Oct. 3

We had a bake sale on Oct. 3, as a fundraising for coming Mug-Drive. We had a great deal of sweets, including many home-made, organic and/or dairy-free products! It went awesome and was definitely great fun! We earned about $160 and the money is used to support Mug-Drive, which is our bi-annual event for the team!

Neat-o Podcast

Helloooooo Sustainable ladies and gentlemen!

I found this podcast today and thought it might be of interest to some of you fine people. A nice distraction from reading perhaps, or something to generate some new ideas for how we might transform that itty bitty parking lot by Edmund Casey (or any parking lot for that matter)into a magnificent garden plot one day.

Ahhh to dream!

Here's the link:
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww070918transforming_parking

Enjoy.

LNH

Our beautiful beans!

Here are some pictures of the beans we grew! They are so beautiful!

campus online carpool

group shot

Hey guys,

Sorry everything is taking me so long. I'm running in about four directions at once.

What a good looking group - and salad!!!

Ideas?

Hi all,

I'm in Texas! They actually have a really, really great recycling program here in Houston. There is recycling for paper, plastic, styrofoam, electronics (!) and glass. But! Here I am in a residence where recycling isn't happening. I'd like it to be happening.

I'm not, though, sure of how to start that up. Who do you talk to to figure out what the barriers are? Likely there are reasons it isn't happening already, so how do I figure that out? You're all initiative takers, here. Advice? Clearly I'm only here for 4 months and so I can't change things alone. . . but it should start to happen somewhere! There is no 'environment club' and the environmental studies program is floundering. Where to start?

Have fun at your eco-village Sarsies, and good job [aside from potential molding] with the pickles! Yay!

Best from the state of high heels and recycling potential,

Tricia

Here they are, the super awesome pickle pictures.

Enjoy - and here's hoping we can still enjoy the pickles.

-Meredith

The beginnings - boiling the jars.

A little out of focus but still evidence that laura is actually a pickle pusher - keep you children indoors.















Sorry I had to leave the red-eye. It just adds to the crazy cook image.














Too many cooks in the kitchen???













Ready to be sealed.

The finished product!

Pickle this.

The autumn chill is inthe air. it is time. we've plucked the goods and now they have to be maintained. some the zuchinis were huge! (pictures to come) so we grated them and now they're in merediths freezer, ready to be transformed into bread, or muffins that we can sell at the sustainability event. we can also sell our pickles!! we'll have around 7 jars when we're through. if anyone who didn't take part in the process wants to learn how it was done -just ask, nothing you can't do, I assure you.
we were thinking that we'd get rid of the veggies by giving them away/selling them at the event in september. we can suggest an amount for donation-that way people can feel free to give what they can- and we can get some money for this year's planet saving initiatives.
there's lots to be talked about- so lets make one of these next meetings a big one. how does the first week of september look for people?
(green) peace.
sg

I took these a few weeks ago, and then quickly forgot about them. Anyway, here they are:

-Josh

Kick-off to Father K.

On Friday evening we gathered, perhaps for the last time, with Father K. in his backyard. We arrived late, all of us. Even Father K. was en retard, seeing as we'd not really planned well and weren't aware that he had a wedding rehearsal. Fortunately, Father Keith is also fairly wonderful and allowed us to stay in the backyard and to use nearly every cooking utensil in the house [hyperbole].

Chloe, Mike and Tricia had a wonderful conversation with Father Keith, the new chaplain at STU, and it seems like he's got some really innovative ideas about sustainability. He will, hopefully, pass along some great information about preserving our veggies! We're in much need of help in that department. After a chat with Keith, Meredith arrived and we started to pick the veggies.

Since we didn't know much about spinach, we let it go to seed and so couldn't use it. We've put the stocks in the shed, though, to see if we can get some seeds off of it. We also picked some carrots that were a fair size and some peas, beans, cukes and added in the lettuce, cheese and cherries brought by people in the group. We also added some lovely tomatoes when Sarah arrived and proved her love for them by eating one like an apple.

Father K. arrived home just in time, accompanied by Father Dan. The kick-off to Father K., therefore, didn't happen without Father K.! Keith took a group picture and then we all enjoyed the salad together, on the lawn. Assorted group members also threw some meat and meatless treats on the BBQ and it was a heck of a good time!

I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow, guys, and so I wish you all the best of luck with keeping it real in the garden. Don't forget to hoe!

Tricia

P.S- The email for Erin, the lady who loves our veggies in her cafe,is doodlescafe@gmail.com. If you'd like to give more, just email her or stop by the Charlotte St. Arts Centre.

From the soil...

From Barren...

To Bountiful!

Doodle's Cafe!

Hi all,

Just a quick note, for blogging's sake, about the zukes and cukes. I've picked one zuke and about 10 cukes [they were on their way to rotting] and I'm bringing them down to Erin at Doodle's Cafe! She's going to use the veggies in her soups and/or give them away to customers who might want them. We'll certainly get some publicity there [and it doesn't hurt that her cafe is Fair Trade]. Hopefully this jives with everyone's vision of where the fruits of our labour should be going. Veggies are reaching the masses! Well, at least those masses that are visiting the Charlotte Street Arts Centre. Yesssss!

Also- Dave Dunbar is going to take a look at our plants today and give us the scoop on what we should be doing.

tricia

Green Campus Summit

Hi All,

Andy Secord sent this over the other day and I thought I'd pass it along in case some of you/all of you/any of you might be interested in attending.

Acadia University will be hosting the Green Campus Summit from Sept. 21-23. Here is their website:
http://academy.atlanticwebfitters.ca

Here is the text from their invitation email:

Hello Potential Green Campus Summit 2007 Participants:

As you may remember, my name is Kathleen Ernest and I'm contacting you on behalf of the Arthur Irving Academy for the Environment at Acadia University regarding the upcoming Green Campus Summit (GCS) this September 21 - 23, 2007. As per my previous communication, the Green Campus Summit is a student-lead, student-run conference on environmental sustainability at the university/college level, looking at ways to "green" the university campus and reduce its ecological footprint. This conference will attract both student and (accompanying) faculty participants from universities and colleges across the Atlantic provinces in the northeastern US states. The overarching theme of this year's conference is "Closing the Green Gap: Moving from Concern and Knowledge to Behavior and Action".

The GCS organizing committee is officially putting out a "call for workshops" for this year's summit. As per our program available at www.acadiau.ca/academy , all workshops will take place on Saturday, September 22nd at the KC Irving Environmental Science Centre on the Acadia campus. The workshops will encompass the following themes surrounding greening university/college campuses: Leadership, Assessment Frameworks, Education, Food Action, Energy, and the Ecological Footprint. Please note the list below of the already established workshops for the summit. Anyone planning on attending the summit and wishing to put on a workshop relating to one of the aforementioned areas but on slightly different topics, please advise as soon as possible. We would love to have faculty and/or students from other univerisites participating in this aspect of the conference!

Current Green Campus Summit 2007 workshops:

The Natural Step - Frameworks for Sustainability (in the university context)

Getting Off the Grid: Exploring Alternative Energy Sources + Infrastructure Changes for Universities

Food Action and Environmental Sustainability on University Campuses

Leadership for Environmental Change in Organizations

Converting the Un-converted: Creative Ways to Educate and Engage Students and Faculty in Sustainability

Counting, Measuring, and Calculating the University's Eco-Footprint

Innovation Toward Sustainability in the Academic Curriculum

Private Sector University Partnerships to Reduce Ecological Footprints

Moving Forward: Interuniversity Cooperation in Environmental Sustainability

I won't be back until the 13th of Aug. but this could be something to talk about at the next meeting.

Wish I could be eating fresh cucumbers... :(

See you in a couple weeks

LNH

Hey everyone,
Courtney here. I just wanted to let you all know that we have confirmed the date and time of the event.YAY! It will be held Sept. 14 from 1-4pm. We may not need that much time, but you never know. One of the things that I was thinking about was a name for the event, Future of Food 2007 or something haha I don't know. I just thought it might make it easier when we are promoting it...let me know if you guys have any suggestions. I'm going to do up some flyers, and I'll bring some copies to the next meeting if I can. Also, I prefer to meet on Tuesday if it's possible, because I might be going away. if you have any questions before that, send me an email gznzk@stu.ca.

Thanks guys. This looks like it's going to be a great time!

Court

News from the meet

Hi everybody! We had a great meeting last night. The garden is thriving! Josh, Courtney, Tricia, Molly, Olga, Meredith and I were present. We hoed the garden with are hands (as recommended by Dave) to help out the roots, and we harvested some of the sweet fruits of our labour (delicious dill, zuchini, peas, and cucumbers). The peas were unwieldy so we staked them with some sticks. We thinned out the carrots a bit to ensure they have their neccessary space to flourish and the ones we did pull, although small, were scrumptious! It is so amazing what some seeds, water, sunshine, dirt and love can produce. yumm. We thoroughly enjoyed getting our hands dirty!

In other news, Courtney Mills, our newest member, has provided us with some exciting opportinities. She became interested in agricultural issues after taking Rusty's course, and Rusty pointed her in the direction of our group. She has been researching ways to take action on the issue of sustainable agriculture and has become involved with USC Canada. USC is an organization that promotes sustainable and democratic agricultural practices. Courtney is currently preparing for a sustainable agriculture awareness event she plans to hold the second weekend in September at STU. This is where we come in. Because I know we'd all love to help and to be involved! The movie "Future of Food" will be shown at the event and there will be a speaker from USC as well as a speaker from Falls Brook. I was thinking that we should get up and say a few words about our group and our initiatives as well. I think that this event would also be a great opportunity to get rid of some of our delicious greens. We could offer some sort of garden snack and take donations for the group. In the meantime, Courtney's waiting to hear back on getting the auditorium booked. Once that is done, we can start spreading the word to get as many people as possible out to the event. A lovely kick start to what I expect to be a kick ass season of sustainability!!
i'm beaming about it,
sg

Ah yes, the watering sched:
Tues-me
Wed-Court
Thurs-Josh
Fri-Tricia
Sat-Molly
Sun-Molly

see you all next week---its a holiday, shall we meet Tuesday instead?

Today's meet

Folks,

I'm hoping to see some of you at the garden tonight? The sun is out now-at 3:30-but it threatens to go back under. How about we plan to meet-if it's pouring we can meet at JD and make sure the garden will get watered this week. we'll also discuss anything else that needs discussing!

sg

BBQ!

Hello folks, Tricia here.

We recently had a wonderful BBQ at the garden. We began, a wayward and cautious group of people. We were a mixture of old and new gardeners and we were worried about rain. We were in luck, however, and old and new blended well and rain was fended off. I'll provide a "hoe-by-hoe" of the whole experience, now:

We gathered and Mike Cameron, gardener extraordinaire, decided sausages were in order. He left to purchase them with Sarah and Josh. Meredith, Tricia and Chloe remained behind to prepare a salad. Chloe insisted on using the cucumbers growing in our humble garden, since we saw so many about to fill out. We clipped the cucumbers, tore the spinach and pulled the chives. We then got down to the business of piling it into a bowl provided by Father Keoghan. We held off on the delicious can of chickpeas, because of an unfortunate allergy held by one in the group. They were, however, enjoyed later with pita.

Mike, Sarah and Josh returned and BBQed on the BBQ provided by, again, Father Keoghan. Chloe and Tricia played on the lawn and attempted several balancing games. Meredith took photos and laughed a plenty.

The sausages and veggie burgers were done! We ate them, along with the salad! It was delicious.

The boys washed the dishes with the soap and sink provided by, alas alack, Father Keoghan. . . Chloe, Sarah, Tricia left to pursue wetter pastures, at the Queen's Square pool. It was, however, closed, and so they were reunited with Mike [who provided them with much cause for laughter in his shorts and with a ride to the lake].

And thus ends the story of the BBQ. It's got a moral, though. In fact, it's got two morals. One: Veggies taste better when you grow them yourself. It may just be the pride you get to feel that they were a result of your labour. They may, however, also just genuinely taste better. No matter the reason they taste better, the point is that they do and that eating locally is a wonderful thing. The second moral: Father K is a wonderful man who has provided us with much support [and BBQing materials] for this garden.

watering schedule this week

Alright - a new way of communicating ! below you can post when you will be able to water the garden this week

~~
A couple of the shots from a few weeks ago.

Let's hope this blog thing works out. I've got a good feeling about it.

-Josh