Green City, Green Campus

SDSU's Earth Day celebration a success

2008-04-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, SDSU hosted the largest Earth Day celebration in campus history, drawing students and community members from all over San Diego.

Vendors from San Diego environmental organizations came to show students how to keep green at home, and displayed their wares for the campus community all day.

The festivities were topped off by performances on the campus green by local bands. Students camped out early to get a good spot, and stayed late, making this the greatest Earth Day SDSU has ever seen!

EarthDay08SDSU

2008-04-23T10:17:00.001-07:00

SD's Earth Day Celebration a dissapointment for some

2008-04-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Earth Day in San Diego, and the event was marked by an annual festival at Balboa Park that drew thousands to the area.
While the free festival was enjoyed by some, not everyone was 'feelin' the love.
San Diego State student R.E. Israel said the festival was not earth friendly.
"It was all about consumerism," she said.
"People trying to sell their wares to tourists is not what Earth day is supposed to be about. We should celebrate the earth by honoring it, not by trying to make a profit."
The event was marketed as the largest environmental celebration, and featured exhibits from vendors on sustainable energy and solar power, among other topics.
Israel said she will think twice before going to next year's celebration, but is excited about the celebration on San Diego State's camps tomorrow.
"There will be some bands that I really enjoy, and more information than shopping, so I really think it will accomplish what Earth Day is meant to (accomplish)," she said.

To see more about Earth Day at SDSU, go here.

Green is Going Gold

2008-04-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

The SDSU Green Campus Club will host a concert this Thursday featuring five local bands to promote energy efficiency awareness on campus. The group already works with campus programs and departments to enhance sustainable programming and efficiency throughout campus, but says the concert will be helpful in getting new students involved.

For information about the Green Campus group, go here.
For more information about the Green is Gold Concert, try here.

Paper or Plastic? Neither!

2008-04-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

Green living isn't just about one part of a person's life. It often encompasses everything an individual does, right down to the little things such as grocery shopping.
Consumers are starting to use their own reusable grocery bags, often made of cotton or other durable materials to eliminate the waste created by plastic and paper bags.
"It's a change of habit for the better, and it's the simplest thing you can do," Amanda Costa, co-president of the Enviro-Business society said.
Costa purchased her shopping bags for about a dollar each and she sometimes uses the free gift bags she has received from conferences. On April 22, Earth Day, e3 will be selling reusable grocery bags to get students involved in the trend.
"It's hard to remember at first, and I've left my bags in the car before and had to go back, but if you are around people who do it too, they can remind you," Costa said.
Erica Johnson, co-president of e3, reminds Costa to bring her bags because they are roommates who have both been using alternative bags when shopping for the past two years.
"Using a reusable grocery bag is the simplest lifestyle change that you can make that makes the biggest impact, before recycling even," Johnson said.
Last year, San Francisco lawmakers voted to require supermarkets and drugstores to replace traditional bags with biodegradable options, and while San Diego supermarkets aren't going to change their materials any time soon, some stores are changing policies to become more eco-friendly.
"It makes good business sense for the store because they probably incur a huge cost with all the paper and plastic materials," Costa said.
Windmill Farms, a locally owned independent grocery store, even pays customers who bring their own bagging materials. Shoppers recieve five cents back for each bag used in a transaction every day.
Grocery chain Trader Joe's tries a different approach -- a drawing for shoppers who bring their own bags, where prizes can be as much as a $25 in-store gift card or the grocery chain's own line of plastic bag alternatives.
Miles Hyman, manager of the Trader Joe's in Hillcrest, said he has seen a lot more people bring in their own bags since the incentives started.
"People are really conscious of it, and we have a lot of really good bags for sale here from 99 cents to $2.99 for insulated ones," Hyman said.
Even big-box stores are getting in on the trend: Wal-Mart unveiled its own reusable shopping bag made from 85 percent recycled materials for sale in its stores last year. Wal-Mart also offers to recycle the bags when their use has run out as a service to consumers.
IKEA has started charging customers 5 cents for plastic bags to discourage the unnecessary waste associated with their use.
"First and foremost, it makes sense for the environment, but the main point is that it's an easy habit to change and it makes sense," Costa said.

This article is also available on The Daily Aztec's Web site.

Bike Lane Resolution Passes AS Council

2008-04-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

The AS council approved E3's bike lane resolution, to bring a bike lane to SDSU, right before Spring Break.
The resolution will go to President Weber and the University Senate for review, where much of the logistics will still need to be worked out.
Read my article in the Daily Aztec about the issue here.
Photo Credit: Glenn Connelly, Photo Editor, The Daily Aztec.

Construction of "Globe of Waste' exhibit underway

2008-04-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

E3 is constructing a globe out of paper products collected throughout campus over the course of the year, and has collected so many pieces of paper that they are making a second globe, after the first one has been constructed.

E3 president Amanda Costa said the first globe is almost completely finished, and that members blew up a large balloon as the template for the second balloon on Tuesday.

"It's kind of sad that there's enough waste around campus to make two globes, but it will call attention to the amount of trash students leave on the ground," Costa said.

The globe will be on display during Earth Day SDSU in on April 22 in Campanile Walkway.

Campus map shows 1 recycling bin for every 13 trash cans

2008-03-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

This map of the SDSU campus was put together by Ian Bevan, e3's Green Commissioner for 2007-08. The green marks are locations of recycling bins. The red marks represent trash cans.

The current recycling project aims to turn about half of the existing trash cans into recycling bins, but organizers are having trouble working with campus planners and the CSU aesthetics code to do this. Bevan said rules regulating the color and space for bins are hard to work around, and will require more work than E3 would like, but that he has been working with the physical plant to outline a plausible plan for the recycling program.

E3's green tips

2008-03-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

The enviro-business society at SDSU is hard at work planning Earth Day 2008 on campus, and has put up a video with green tips on YouTube. While the video was posted a while ago, the tips are still relevant today, and it is actually quite interesting!

Green Love to get official

2008-03-19T20:29:00.001-07:00

A charter in support of the creation of a sustainability board on A.S. council was submitted last week, and the draft will officially be read at the council's regular meeting on April 16.
Justin Motika, who oversees the Green Love movement with A.S. said recruitment has begun for members to fill the committee. The current draft will probably be changed in regards to membership, but Motika said the mission statement and purpose will remain the same.
The board will oversee $225,000 for sustainable upgrades for A.S. facilities and work with student organizations to become certified as a green organization.
This certification, according to Motika, would require changing all light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, and faucets to lo-flow faucets, among other requirements, to be hashed out following the approval of the sustainability board on April 16.

A.S. councils go green

2008-03-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

At last week's A.S. council meeting, many student organizations reported that they have gone green by reducing the amount of paper wasted when printing minutes and agendas for their organization's meetings.

Here are the highlights:
*A.S. Executive Vice President Jameson Desantis reported that the Facilities board recently has its third paperless meeting.
*A.S. Vice President of External Affairs Jeremy Ehrlich reported that the Educational Advisory Board is going green soon.
*A.S. Vice President of Finance Justin Motika reported that a university sustainability Web page has been created, and a senate sustainability char and committee have been formed. The charter for a sustainability board on A.S. council has also been submitted. (Web page was not working today, will check back later.)
*PSFA Representative Sara Rosetto reported that PSFA's Success-Enabled Pilots Flight Club is distributing Energy Star energy-saving light bulbs with the money they raised from their recycling program at Piedra Del Sol. They also have a Web site.
*The recreation board approved the installation of solar panels at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center to supply 100 percent of the electrical needs of the facility.
*The first reading of the resolution in support of a bicycle lane on campus was read, and will be examined at the next meeting of A.S. council.

E3's Globe of Waste

2008-03-12T10:51:00.001-07:00

The Enviro-Business Society (or E3) is organizing Earth Day at SDSU this year on April 22, and one of the exhibits will be a paper mache globe, made entirely out of papers recycled from bulletin boards throughout campus.
The project is designed to show how much paper is wasted when bulletin boards are cleaned off each week. Papers clogging the bulletin boards are usually thrown away, but E3 has been working with the Campus Sweep Program since Nov, 2007 to collect them. The globe will be on display all day in Campanile Walkway.

Hybrids as bad as Hummers?

2008-03-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

A friend told me this weekend that the batteries in Hybrid cars have so much iron... or mercury... or something.. that they are actually as bad –or worse– than Hummers on the environment.
I did some research, and apparently, this has a lot to do with the cost of disposal of the batteries in Hybrids versus the actual energy usage of a Hummer –one of the biggest offenders in the environmental debate on which cars to drive– not the relative exhaust expelled by the cars.
The Car Connection has a summary of the official report.

SDSU's Green Campus

2008-03-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

Associated Students' "Green Campus" initiative has worked to create a green environment and awareness accross campus for the last two years. Their Web site recently underwent an upgrade, and I think that it really shows the program quite well. Something is up with the links here, so I will just have to post it the old school way and tell you to go here: http://as.sdsu.edu/greenlove/index.html

SDSU's Freeway Sign to go green

2008-02-25T11:41:00.000-08:00

The freeway sign by San Diego State will have maintenance soon, and developers are looking at replacing the bulbs with more energy-efficient LED lights!!

GO SDSU!! GO GREEN!!

This is definitely a step in a positive direction for SDSU and our environment. I hope that more improvements like this one are to come for the campus. Wouldn't it be great to be one of the most energy-efficient campuses in California? or the US?

hmmm... wonder what we can do about that...

Green Tip of the Day

2008-02-20T08:54:00.001-08:00

Well since I'm running out of time to post something new in this blog, I thought I would give some tips for going green at home, from personal experience.

Firstly, my roommate is a slob. She couldn't care less how the kitchen looks let alone how it smells. So I wouldn't expect her to notice that our pile of recycling was getting a little "fishy."

But I noticed. Right as it hit me at 7 in the morning when I went for my corn flakes.

I immediately went for the bin and put it outside, but I have since found an ingenius solution to my problem- covered plastic bins!

As long as there is a lid on the bins, you can safely put away your recyclables and not have to worry about any odors at home. Of course, you should still rinse out all cans and bottles beforehand, because you will not be able to recycle any dirty items.

My roommate didn't even notice that I had made any changes to our recycling program, but hey, at least the smell is gone. Now if I could only get her to pick up her laundry from the living room floor....

Happy Recycling!

New Recycling Law

2008-02-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

A new recycling law went into effect his morning in San Diego County, making mandatory for all apartment complexes with 100 units or more in the county to recycle.

As someone who lives in an apartment complex that doesn't offer recycling, I think this law is great! While my building won't fall into the 100-unit category, I hope that we can get some form of recycling program going, and I am working with other residents to get a program started.

News 8 had some tips on recycling in the face of the new law, and they are very clear.

students? join a group!

2008-02-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

The Enviro-business society at SDSU meets weekly at 6pm on Tuesdays in council chambers, lower aztec center.

If you are a student at SDSU meetings can help you become aware of options for going green on campus and at home.

It's a great place to start!