Christmas Lights

Hey what do you guys think about Christmas lights? Do you think that they are energy "well spent" so to speak. Is the happiness (or mood) that they inspire greater than the amount of energy it takes to light them? That's just something I was thinking about today. I hope everyone has a really fun (and sustainable) winter break!

Final Post

At the beginning of this course I wasn't sure what sustainability meant, but I thought that it would have to do with limiting the amount we use. I still believe that it has to do with limiting what we use, but I definitely think it has to do with more than that.
Sustainability is more than just making sure to recycle, or to build houses or buildings that use renewable energy sources. To me, it's more important to realize that the building needs to stop. Yes, your brand new house may use solar energy...but did you need to build a brand new house? What about all the other, older houses in the neighborhood over that are vacant? I think it's a common in societies like ours that we gauge the level of advancement or the wealth of a country or place by the amount of development. This is so backwards! By development we mean destruction and then creation. Destruction of the environment, of ecosystems, of life and creation and construction of non-living material buildings, or parking lots, or whatever. Our economy and our lives are both viewed in linear manners.
I think that this has something to do with the difficulties we have in discovering what it means to be sustainable, and in attempting to be sustainable. For most of us, we see life as being born, growing up, and dying. We don't seem to be sustainable as human beings so what do we know about sustainability? But I think that we are sustainable. I think that our bodies are sustainable. When we die, the line we live on does not end. It loops around and becomes a circle. Our bodies decompose and nourish the earth. Our minds go on and do whatever you believe they do (perhaps they are reused as the cycle of births and rebirths continues), but our lives are not lines, they are cycles. I think that once we de-mechanical-ize our lives and focus more on just being passionate and creative the connection with nature will be effortless to acknowledge. This also seems to relate to the idea of quality, not quantity. If we limit the amount we use, the amount we buy, we will automatically limit the amount we throw out and the amount we disrupt the environment.
One of the main ideas of sustainability to me still seems to be networks, circles of life, relationships. Once we realize that we are intertwined with everyone around us and with nature, we can being to see that what we do has an impact. We can take ideas from nature and use these ideas to come up with more sustainable ways of living. Nature demonstrates that sustainable systems are possible, so we should be taking ideas about how to live from nature (for example, structure of things that we build can be built in more "natural" ways). I guess I still don't really know what sustainability is. But I think that it begins with education. I think that education should begin from the very beginning, from pre-k. All throughout our young childhood we spend so much time outdoors, and I think, many of us feel a real connection to nature. Then we get put into school for seven hours a day, a school filled with artificial lighting and we learn theories and formulas but not about our connection to nature. We should integrate sustainability, in whatever way we see fit, into classrooms starting at the beginning and moving way on up to engineering school (for example). In addition, I think that sustainability has to do not only with limiting, but with not doing. Deciding whether we actually need something before we build it, or buy it, or use it. I think sustainability also has so much to do with relationships. Relationships with nature and the environment, but also relationships between people. We need to work together, across academic fields, across occupational areas, across fences and yards as we work in a community and strive for a sustainable future.

Sustainability.

The lifestyle project really influenced me to just try harder for the little things in my life that can impact the larger sense of life. It was not always easy and required me to concentrate on what I was doing in my life. It seemed not only me that this project affected though, numerous people were infected with sustainable knowledge. I think the idea of a sustainable world seems endless, but also the knowledge and education is in constant pursuit. Sustainability to me means to put forth effort and dedication, to putting the world as a whole before your self. I gained a lot from the film king corn. It educated me own some of the current problems in sustainable technology. Over the course of this class my idea of sustainability has changed into a more attainable goal that we are constantly struggling towards.

sustain imagination

At the beginning of this semester I had what I now feel is a very cold philosophical definition of what sustainability means to me. I held that sustainability is the appreciation that we ourselves cannot be separated from our environment. I felt that we have to realize that we ourselves are part of an intricate web that has the capability of drastically harming other links within the web. This definition leaves me asking wheres the room for the trash art or sustainable fashion sense within my philosophical premise. I missed something which I now believe is integral to my notion of a balanced web and that is the role that I as a human being play within this web. It is not my job as a human being to simply keep the balance within the web I can add so much more. We as humans have the ability to use our imagination to enrich our environment in unlimited ways. For instance Natalia's refitting of her clothes, she could have chosen to simply maintain them so that they didn't go to waste but she chose to make them more aesthetically appealing. This is it! This is huge letting the human imagination enrich life without disrupting the critical balance between ourselves and our environment.
I believe this is essential we must reign in our imaginations and gear our imaginations to improving the lot of not only ourselves but the entire environment. When we can do this we will not only be able to live in harmony with the environment but each other as well. Patrick with his can crushing recycling bin proved that the human imagination can artistically create solutions for improving our relationship with the external world. I think we all found ourselves having to use our imaginations to comply with our lifestyles project I know i did. This is why I am going to add my new tentative definition to the Mix.
Sustainability is the artistic practice of applying our imaginations to improving our relationship with the ourselves and our environment.

Back to the question...

Sustainability has definitely become more meaningful to me from the beginning of the semester to now. I still retain a lot of the initial inferences I made about sustainability at the beginning of this class, like our responsibility to the earth and how we should not take the things we have for granted. Along with this, I want to add that not only is sustainability a very real and impacting run of give and take, but it is a mission on all of our parts to create the ideal way of life that benefits both us and the world we live in. From the readings I found the magnitude of the "green" movement and all the ways people have already come up with to help the earth. It was encouraging to see how many people already feel passionate about and work towards this cause. From class discussions, I realized that there are people of all ages (even --- ESPECIALLY --- my age!) that are already very driven in this endeavor, which is inspiring as well. And from the Lifestyle Project (oh, the Lifestyle Project...) I discovered that even though making your life sustainable (or MORE sustainable) does take some work, it really is easier than it seems. Already I find myself automatically doing things like not getting a tray in the Commons, turning the extra lights off whenever possible, being conscious of how long my showers take, and eating more veggies instead of meat. This course made a positive impact on my lifestyle and how I view sustainability, and I'm really glad I took it. :)

Sustainability

Our environment is in quite a mess right now, and if we don’t anything about it, that mess will become a full-blown crisis. Sustainability is the answer. It’s up to us to work together as a community to enlighten others and live as an example.

I’ve learned that living sustainably isn’t easy. It takes dedication and effort. But, sustainability isn’t all about sacrifice; it’s also about creation. It’s about creating beauty and magnificence by restoring nature’s inherent majesty, turning trash into treasure, and creating new innovations that inspire change. I see things like wind turbines, solar panels, compost heaps, gardens, electric and vegetable-oil-powered cars and can’t help but be amazed.

Sustainability offers us hope. We can do this. If we start living sustainably, generations after generations will be able to live in harmony with this earth.

Sustainable water usage

When the option for an activist project was initially mentioned, the first thought I had was of the awful sprinklers that seem to be watering everywhere, all the time. I felt this would be an opportunity to bring justice to this situation, an element of sustainability I have been thinking about over the course of this class. I started with high hopes to fix the complete sprinkler system but did not quite realize that I had no plan of action.
After meeting with Dr. Van Horn, he gave me the name and number of the school landscape manager, Mr. Bessent. I set up a meeting with him and we were able to talk for a long time.
As my Dad would say, "get to know your enemy before you attack". This is not a war of any sort, but I did realize that before I make any outward claims or accusations, I must first educate myself on what it is I am really dealing with. This will strengthen my understanding and give me more options for my plan of action. Here are some things I learned: the sprinkler system is computerized, it comes on nightly, but it is sensitive to weather so it will not run if it is/has recently rained. If there is a sprinkler that I see shooting off onto something that won't benefit from the water, I should turn in a work order for that sprinkler head.
More interesting than sprinkler facts, I learned about the hierarchy within this educational institution. It is desirous for the landscaping to look "institutional" so they plant green foliage that will achieve this, but is not necessarily the best choice of plant for our climate region, weather or soil. There are so many beautiful Texas plants that could be planted around Southwestern, but instead, "they" have chose Asian Jasmine.
Mr. Bessent did say however that there was potential for more native plant beds around campus, one of which I see between the DLC and Lord Center. I plan to continue dialouge throughout next semester and beyond to show that Southwestern students care how their tuition money is being allocated. Sustainable (and consequentially efficient) methods should be most practiced. This project has helped me learn and exercise two parts of sustainability that I believe are crucial: education of the subject and a call for justice. I am excited to learn more about the system and see the different ways that a student voice can make a difference.

Sparing some Change

In comparison to my original thoughts about sustainability, not too much has changed. Sustainability seems to be our way of trying to fix all the wrongs we have incurred on our Earth. The unfortunate part about this new sustainable action is that the market has turned sustainability into a new marketing campaign, using it to its own advantage, twisting the cure into the cause. This "band-aid" approach of thinking the world will just "work itself out" is, on some level, true; the hard truth is that the earth will continue on... it will just be without us.

Through this course, I have found, in a more complete way, what it means to have a sustainable lifestyle, which is what sustainability is: a lifestyle. A choice. But this does not mean that recycling and composting will save the earth, although I know a lot of us would like to hope that is all it takes. It involves intense planning, reworking of ideals, and a community agreement. The last one seems to be the most difficult since there are still people, even on the SU campus, that believe global warming and the environmental crises do not exist.

This ignorance is the first place to begin. It was what Ishmael called us to do, and it's the only way things can change. We cannot force people to recycle without explaining why it is in anyway beneficial. To those who do not understand the benefits and outcomes of this act are certainly not going to go out of their way to sort the trash every day. Why would they? We have to teach, and spread the word. By teaching people, we can change the goals and help to strive for a new and cleaner tomorrow.

Sustainability is...

I remember my first image of sustainability was a farm. You had to live on a farm, grow all your own food, generate all your own electricity, and probably make everything you used too. That’s still the first thing I think of, honestly. But after this class I think that you can take sustainability a few steps further than just trying not to make an impact and define it as actions that positively impact the environment around us. Not only are we reducing our use of and interference with systems, we are actively finding ways to participate in and promote them them.
The first example I always think of is in construction of buildings to live and work in. It seems to be not only about how much you use, but how you use it. The better one can incorporate any sort of construction into natural systems, the more sustainable it might be considered. For example, while LEED building standards are centered on using the right materials in the right way, the next step described in the Less than Zero model is to make buildings that actually participate in natural processes like cleaning their own waste water. This kind of construction not only can be something long lasting and built along ecological standards, but they actively promote the local ecosystem. It also seems like something that can, and probably should, be much more communal than the farm image I described earlier. Not only is it hard to make much change by keeping it too yourself, but a bunch of isolated family farms wouldn’t be much better off than we are now, I wouldn’t think, because it’s the same sort of isolation we have from each other and the natural world now is causing problems. I think we need to be able to interact with each other. We need to help each other, really, because I don't think everyone is going to be capable of producing their own food unless we really revert to an earlier time in history.
There is also an element of how we use nature to structure our technology that is interesting. Again, in the Less than Zero article, buildings are supposed to integrate with the ecosystem that has evolved in that area and that seems totally valid. It creates buildings that are really part of natural systems. And yet, in the biomemetics article they are essentially doing the same thing but using the information they get to perpetuate military and commercial production. It’s like taking the natural out of nature some how.
I still wonder what it would mean to live a sustainable lifestyle and be a traveler. As important as it is to put down roots and really learn about what it means to live in one place and to get to know it well, I think some people wouldn’t be happy living that way. I’m not sure I would be, though that might stem from all the inundation of ideas that to have fun sometimes you have to go halfway around the world. Still, if you think of pre-industrialized societies that had to live within natural systems, not all of them were sedentary agricultural communities. Animals migrate. Surely people can too. It’s hard to get past thinking ‘Well, you’d need a new form of transportation, that’s for sure’ though. It's definitely something I'd like to try and explore more.

What Is Sustainability Part 2

Over the course of this class I have come to see how the idea of sustainability is a very broad and encompassing term. We have discussed reducing our carbon footprint, educating others to the needs of our environment, and alternative methods of human activity that puts less stress on the earth and our environment. We are subject to our environment and without it we would be in a world of hurt. Getting this message out to the general public is the biggest goal of sustainability. The fact that every individual's efforts to reduce waste, consumption, and negative environmental effects can make a difference is in itself the most important thing for people to understand. The term sustainability in itself refers to the ability to be sustained by our environment indefinitely, which is not currently the case. So when people talk about sustainability as a goal the main factor to completing this goal is a unified action towards becoming environmental friendly. The lifestyle project was a true eye opener for me. For the first time I actually realized what I was doing to the environment on a daily basis and i found it quite disturbing. What I learned from the lifestyle project has motivated me to educate others because I feel like it is easy to fall into the cycle of consumption where you dont really think about the environment. My lifestyle project was a huge success for me in educating myself to the problem at hand, and I will take on the goal towards sustainability. I will continue to strive to reduce my consumption and waste and lead by example. After working through my lifestyle project and through the course of this class I would have to say that my final definition of Sustainability is ;the awareness of our actions, the reduction of the impact that we have 0n the environment that we occupy, and the education of others around us toward that goal.

The Big Question

So my first blog about sustainability defined it basically as a lifestyle that does deplete the earth. In my personal view, the most important factors to me were awareness and religious responsibility. Of course, I still believe those to be true; my religious views were especially reinforced by the readings "The Language of Animals" and "Biomimetics." When Lopez wrote about his experience with animals, he had an awe for nature, for wild animals he saw that "seemed to tremble in the aura of their own light," and he expressed a desire to know and become a part of nature. And when I read the Biomimetics article, I began to understand just how incredibly complex and intricate the functions of nature are. I want to experience that. I want to be overwhelmed in my awe and respect for nature, for what I believe God has created. I think that this view of nature, whether it is religious or not, is vital to the idea of sustainability

Also what I learned in this course was that sustainability affects and incorporates many more differenct aspects of life, and I began to see some of them through my lifestyle project, through the King Corn video, and through other readings. For instance, I didn't really consider the quality of life to be a part of sustainability; the word seems to be referring to just existing to me. But why should we try only hard enough for life to continue to exist? Why not try to create a world where life can thrive, can flourish? Sustainability means going beyond what is good enough. Beyond just preserving nature, but letting it be awe-inspiring and beautiful and incredible, how it was meant to be.

What is Sustainability #2

I feel like throughout the course of this class I really have enhanced my understanding and definition of sustainability. For me, one of the most important things that I have learned is that sustainability should be talked about and shared with all of one's friends and families. This is a great way to spread the ways of sustainability and allow people to realize the impact that they can make. This impact, in my own words, would be described as using what the earth and past has given you to make a life that can sustain itself without needing to produce or consume an enormous amount. It is important to use what is available before going out and buying more and more objects. Creativity can play as big or small a role in the process as one chooses for themselves. Such that, you can make your own clothes out of old clothes or you can use those old clothes as a rag or a dog bed or something of the sort. Sustainability allows you to use to mind and expand your belief about what a particular object may be. Sustainability is an open-minded, free thinking idea that, if put to proper use, could truly help our world and everyone around us.

be the change you wish to see in the world.

At the beginning of this class, I wasn't quite sure what sustainability was. I had a vague idea but I think I definitely have a better understanding of sustainability. Although my definition has become less concrete, it has also become broader. As someone else mentioned earlier, sustainability is more than just saving water, using less energy, and producing less waste.

In my original post, I said that sustainability was a lifestyle and I still believe that to be true. Not only do we have to change our actions, but we also have to change the way we think about the things that we consume. For example, instead of just throwing a cardboard box away, we should think about the consequences of our actions. Where is that box going to go? What is going to be done with it after I use it? I think being sustainable involves making our actions meaningful. Why are we using less water? Why are we recycling this piece of paper? Instead of just going through the actions, we are thinking about our choices and the outcomes of those choices.

Throughout the lifestyle project I also began to notice that sustainability does not involve just the individual. It is almost necessary to involve other people like roommates, family members, and friends. When I first posted on this blog, I viewed sustainability more as an individual choice and lifestyle. It is. But it is also more than that. It's not only about motivating yourself to change, but it's also about motivating others. I think that is the most rewarding part of this class. By being sustainable ourselves, we are setting an example for others. Although our class may have included only 20 students or so, many of our friends and family members were also affected by our projects. If even just a small part of what we were doing rubbed off onto someone else, then maybe what they do will rub off onto another person and so on and so forth. Through taking this class I have come to realize that we do have the ability to make a difference and to change the way we and others think about our planet. That's what sustainability is to me.

Sustainability revisited

Before discussing sustainability, my friend's ring tone with a cute little tune singing "reduce, reuse, recycle" came to mind. However sustainability is much more than three little words. Sustainability is living in awareness and developing a state of mind that translates into a lifestyle. In order to be truly aware, people must be educated on issues of energy, water usage, carbon emissions, finite resources, clean energy sources, waste and the overall effects that each and every one of our actions has on the earth. We must understand the sense of interconnectedness that is part of every aspect of life. Since not all of our actions show immediate consequences, it is difficult to know how to act in a justified manner towards the earth. Sustainability is a call to action that is inspired by simply living the right way. Through education, wisdom, action, relationships and community, sustainable growth will occur.

Definition of Sustainability

When I look back to my first post on sustainability I realized that my definition of sustainability hasn't really changed that much. However, I think this class has allowed me to better explain what sustainability is to me. Which was a problem on my first blog. I knew what I wanted to say and yet for some reason I couldn't put it into words. Someone in their first post said that to them sustainability was disappearing and leaving no trace of our carbon footprint. Striving towards that goal of disappear is what I believe is sustainability. That goal may seem unreachable now but as long as we strive toward it hopefully it will soon become a reality. 

A technique I believe will become important in attaining the goal of disappearing are the living buildings. Since, the earth can not afford for us to fail to replenish the natural resources that are rapidly disappearing. Of course in some ways replacing every building with a living one would be very expensive and take a very long time to complete and would also be unsustainable. However, I hope that living buildings will become more popular in the coming years.

Sustainability 2

Through this class my definition of sustainability has gone from having a good idea of what sustainability encompases to not even being able to list all the things I know it includes. Everything around us involves sustainability. I never thought about how things from not wasting water to making your own clothes can make people more sustainable. Before beginning this class when i thought about sustainability I just thought about saving water and energy. I never would have thought eating meat could be bad for the environment. I really don't know all that sustainability encompasses and I am aware of that now. I realize now that sustainability takes sacrifice, and cannot be done without thinking about what you are doing. One thing also that I had never thought about was in one of the readings it said the best thing you can do for the environment is stay home. I had thought about like the cost of gas and stuff like that but  i had not taken into consideration some of the other things that going out does to the environment. So all in all I really don't know exactly what sustainability is, but I think by using the knowledge that I do have I can work at being more sustainable. 

Sustainability V.2

My definition for sustainability has changed from my original posting to encompass a lot more things in society. At first, I just sustainability as only covering certain things like energy and water consumption, but through this class I saw it have to do with not producing any trash and recycling everything like clothes. It now seems to me that sustainability is the ability, in many contexts, to live without using all products to their full advantage and ability.

What's Sustainability Version 2.0

What I realized from this class is that everyone has a varying degree to which they view sustainability. Just as Uexküll talked about our umwelts, we all see things in a different light. Some see sustainability with great attention and find that it is a pertinent for us to act now so that what we have is actually sustainable, or long lasting. Some see those people as tree huggers and are focused on what society has deemed important such as money and one's reputation. Then there are people, such as myself, who see the entire spectrum, at the completion of this course. I realize that there is no way we can just drop everything and turn to sources that are completely renewable and have zero waste. However I have become more aware of the impact that we have on our world with even the smallest of things. Such as the water waste that is affecting us more than ever, and how turning the water off to brush my teeth can help in the long run. It is these small steps and actions that we take to sustain our future. To sustain, I believe, is to take action so that we can maintain healthy productive lives, with minimal cost to the environment we live in. When I think of this I am reminded of a saying my father used to always say when we went camping with regard to our waste, "You pack it in, you pack it out, leave it nicer than you found it." I feel like that sums up sustainability rather nicely. We must all account for our waste and we must all leave our environment nicer than when we came into it.

Got Sustainability?

I'll be honest. When Dr. Van Horn and Jason said most people at the end of the semester are usually not capable of defining sustainability, I was skeptical. How could we not leave this course without a clearer understanding of what sustainability is, I wondered. And here I am... asking myself what sustainability means to me now, and I guess you guys were right.

It's just as impossible to come up with some defintion now, just like it was that one time in class. I mean really. Where do you start? I guess there is no easy answer, but judging from what I got out of the class overall, I would say it's everything I thought it was before (i.e., recycling, not being wasteful, etc.), and then some.

For starters, if I've gotten anything out of this class, it's at least a clearer understanding of what this whole sustainability thing entails. Probably the biggest lesson is that sustainability takes sacrifice. It means not doing what you want to do all the time. It means staying at home versus going out. It means staying local. It means taking shorter showers. It means not eating or consuming less meat. Basically, it means a change in lifestyle, which is definitley not an easy thing to do, but it's something that in the long run can benefit those that will be here years from now. It's about our future.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, maybe there just isn't an answer. I think the more important question is what is it that we could be doing to be more sustainable? What is it that we can sacrifice for the the greater good of our future? I believe this question is fundamental in shaping the defintion of sustainability for each individual person. Do this, challenge yourself, get out of your comfort zone, and soon enough you'll find what sustainabilty is.

Sustain a what?

I now realize why it was so hard for me to come up with a definition for sustainability. The word encapsulates many different ways of living sustainably. Some factors that come into play when defining sustainability, which make it hard to incorporate all meanings of sustainability, are personal values, cultural values, religious beliefs, political differences, social classes, etc. These factors play a huge role in forming and molding sustainability into many meanings. Due to these many different views of sustainability, how then do we get everyone on the same page and in the right direction OR is everyone actually on the same track, some are just further along than others? I hope it's the latter but how can we ever really know until we start seeing progression towards a cleaner earth on a large scale? At this point I would like to leave sustainability undefined because I think the meaning changes everyday with every person. We all have our own environment (Uexküll's umwelt) and we all have our own realities. So I guess the thing to do is to make sure that we begin to value others even though they may share completely different values than we do because in the end this is a group effort and for sustainability to be achieved, in any form, we must do our best to strive for the betterment of our ecological and social environment through this illusive idea called sustainability.

What is Sustainability...again

Just as Dr. Van Horn and Jason predicted, I find it harder now to define sustainability than I did before this class began. While my previous definition, “the process of making sure every natural resource offered on this planet stays accessible and stays plentiful for as long as possible,” has merit, there’s more to it. After all, corn is a natural resource, and it will definitely stay accessible and plentiful for a long time. As we saw from the documentary “King Corn,” we’re growing more and more of it every year and it looks very unlikely that that crop will disappear any time soon. In addition, corn is keeping other things “sustainable” as well. We can use corn as a cost-effective way to feed livestock, another natural resource that we are continuing to preserve. One could even make the case that, by using corn to create an ethanol fuel, we could potentially keep oil and natural gas more sustainable by using less of it. By my first definition, our management of corn seems extremely sustainable, but we all know it isn’t. The corn we are creating is not edible, and the crop is taking up space that we could be using for something that everyone can eat. The livestock that are eating corn are not nearly as nutritious or able to transmit energy as efficiently. The corn we use as products for other food, such as corn syrup and oil is extremely unhealthy and causing more cases of diabetes all the time. It is for examples like corn that I realize my previous definition is not perfect.

For my new definition, I am reminded of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who, when asked how to define obscenity simply said, “I know it when I see it.” This might have to be the extent of my sustainability definition. While my first definition is a good indicator, sustainability ultimately boils down to just recognizing it, understanding the environment and what helps it and its inhabitants. Sustainability includes short showers, education, eating less corn and corn-fed animals, turning lights off, supporting green energy, eating locally as John Ikerd talks about, retrofitting buildings as Ann Rappaport mentioned, and even staying still, as Rebecca Solnit wrote. Sustainability covers so many different things that there’s no way to write a sentence or two that defines it.

However you define sustainability, the most important thing I learned about it this year is that it is completely attainable. In the readings and the ted.com video, we’ve seen amazing things already being done to make the world more sustainable, such as water pumps that act as merry-go-rounds and fog catchers. But even more important is the knowledge of how easy it is for each person to help out: Shorter showers, reusable containers and water bottles, no longer using trays. All of these things are fairly easy and can be done by almost everyone. This information definitely makes me more hopeful. Will our country and our world eventually become more sustainable with this kind of knowledge? I’m not sure, but I’ll know it when I see it.

Sustainability: Version 2

The more that the semester has progressed, the more I began to realize how difficult it is to find a definition that addresses all aspects of sustainability. However, in my opinion, the most significant component of sustainability is rooted in education. If we want to change the way in which people live their lives so that sustainability is an option, we must first educate society about sustainability and everything that it entails.


In Rappaport’s Campus Greening, campus greening is described as something meant to “[reduce] environmental footprints, [save] money with increased efficiency, and [to show] skeptics that progress is possible” (Rappaport 10). I think all three of these goals are valuable and worth pursuing, but I feel like the last one possesses a bit more significance largely because it attempts to educate those who don’t believe that change is a possibility. I wouldn’t say that I was a skeptic prior to enrolling in this class, but I do know that I wasn’t educated about the numerous sustainable practices one can do to encourage change. The lifestyle project gave me a richer understanding of how little things can make a big difference in the long run. For instance, I used to spend at least 12-15 minutes in the shower everyday. After the lifestyle project, I try to spend as little time as I can in the shower. 6-8 minutes is my new shower time. I know this still may seem like a long shower to many, but compared to where I was, it seems like a significantly shorter time to spend in a shower. I believe that my decision to lower my shower time will help in the long run, and it is essentially a small change meant to promote something on a much larger scale. After we collected our baseline data, we received an estimate of how much water was wasted in showers. It was after I saw the outrageous amount of water that I was wasting that I resolved to change my showering ways. It may seem like what I am saying here is immaterial, but it really isn’t because my experience is similar to the vast majority of the population. It was only through education that I was able to see that the way that I was living was detrimental to the earth, and I think this is clear proof that education plays a significant role in promoting change towards adopting sustainable practices.


Another important thing to note about education is that it can help change the system as a whole. As Rappaport suggests, “the enthusiasm of students, [and their] ability to engage in discussions of difficult society issues, [their] capacity to innovate, and talent for inspiring future decisionmakers” all are major strengths within the education system (Rappaport 10). It is the best place to begin change towards sustainable practices.


I know that I have not offered a precise definition of what sustainability is, but I think that it is virtually impossible to define a term that has so many different things that can be included in that definition. Instead, I will offer a piece of what sustainability is. Sustainability is education. Once we make sustainability a part of the curriculum of schools and a priority, we just might make our footprints invisible.

Sustainability: v2.0

Alright, so this time around it was a lot easier realizing that sustainability is not just about understanding what's good for Mama Earth and what's harmful for her, but the term requires us to get rid of some stubbornness and habits in order to make some lifestyle changes and really put words and thoughts into action. It's difficult to start walking the walk, but once it gets going it's like a full-force train headed directly to the end result. My journey of becoming more sustainable will be enhanced for me soon as my roommates and I begin moving from an apartment into a house over the break. I'm so ready for us to have our own garden and compost pile especially, and as soon as we move in I will be a serious homebody. Since this has been my goal for quite some time, reading Rebecca Solnit's "The Most Radical Thing You Can Do" really set my goal in stone for me. If more people would stay at home more often and consume less now, our future would be easier for us since it's looking like we will eventually be forced to stay close to home. I know most of humanity might not be ready for that change, but for those who want to, starting now would be a great step toward becoming a sustainable society.

What is Sustainability?

There is no doubt that the world today faces an immense problem. Our human expansionist tendencies that hold little to no regard for the environment are finally taking a toll on the earth, and no one around the globe is exempt. That is where the idea of sustainability comes in. While it is true sustainability is a global responsibility, looking it from such an impersonal perspective can ironically downplay the significance it should have for each and every one of us. The diffusion of responsibility that tends to happen in a group of individuals is greatly magnified in a worldwide scale; one can only expect for the effect to be of much greater magnitude in that sense. That said, reconsideration for the meaning of sustainability is necessary. Sustainability is not just a global responsiblity shared by all - it is a personal responsibility the world has in common.

Week 3

So this is a little late but my third week was actually very good. I had a great response to my recycling contraption. By the end of the week (Sunday) I had collected 251 cans. That is so awesome, because I was afraid of how people would respond to my idea. They responded with a lot of enthusiasm as you can tell. The real catch is the can crusher, it allows the guys and girls the opportunity of crushing something weaker than they. Which feels pretty damn cool. I know this may sound simple and silly, but getting people involved with recycling actually works when you make them involve themselves in the activity. The process of having to crush cans brings people into the process, and they find that it's not so difficult to do!

Week Away

I spent my thanksgiving break at my ranch which provided a nice change of setting in with which to assess hole I have been living at Southwestern. The most startling difference I noticed was how much energy my family was unconsciously wasting. Here in Georgetown me and my friends because of our lack of funds we have to remain conscientious of how much energy we consume. With my parents this is just not the case and I don't believe it is because they care any more or less about the environment they simply equate energy with money and are fortunate enough that they aren't nearly as frugal as college students. I believe this is somewhat indicative of the current energy situation in America. I think that there are is a portion of our society which uses an astronomical amount of energy not because they necessarily intend to but appear to simply overlook such waste.

The third week of fun.

My third week was just as much fun and eventful as the two prior. My project overlapped into the wednesday of Thanksgiving break, and I was happy for this because I had a lot of cool projects that I like to include as a part of my sustainable life. My compost bin needed a lot of rebuilding, it was pretty dry and old I guess. It provided a good boost to try and keep my garden alive for alittle longer before winter got to cold. Other than that I had some trouble on keeping the heat off upstairs because I had to live up there with my sister. I convinced her to let me though because I told her I had to to pass my class. My eating habits with less meat is the biggest most upsetting part of the project. I have really enjoyed this project, and have realized that I use a lot more resources than I probably should.

Sustainability at the barn!

So I have not remarked on my composting lifestyle as much, so I did some reflecting. I tried to find some common ground to composting in this area. Living in a city area it is more groundbreaking to compost in a huge city, that is fast paced and so little the voice of the environment is taken into consideration, and that is why it has permeated my brain in such a way. I mentioned in my first post that to me sustainability is living off the map or "disappearing". I wanted to bring to light a place that has kept itself hidden pretty well. I ride at a barn with some Warmblood breeders who were long listed for the Olympics. Living on a farm and owning so many horses is very expensive, so as many barns in the area, they try to find other alternative to save and reuse resources. One way that they do so is by using their manure from cleaning stalls to fertilize the fields in which they grow hay. Every weekend morning that I am there I take the manure from cleaning a few stalls and dump it in a manure spreader. To replace shaving in the stalls, a truck comes from a logging company;s mill to bring in the scraps off the workroom floor. This nation is known for building most of its houses from wood, and owners here pay a cheap price for gas to get the shavings in. The owners here also compost their food from their own seasonal garden. It is small but provides a lot of food, so much that this summer, Carol had to get give me several heads of lettuce because she could never eat that many salads!!! and it was delicious! Richard has a creative fly trap in the barn invented by himself, and uses the flies for composting too. He says they are an excellent source of nitrogen. Carol has a lot of land, which means a lot of fencing to keep those young baby horses safe. Carol has a solar panel that provides electricity for the electrical fencing on the property. There are few hiccups in the road to sustainability for this farm, however impressive it may be. Water is a huge issue. You cant have horses without water. Even now, shavings are scares too, so the barn is constantly being savvy about water and other resources. Electricity is not an issue since they only need power for fencing, and the arena is a covered one with sky lighting and open sides to let light in, and most of the work is done during the day anyway. Only in case of a late night emergency will light be needed, in which case anyone can flip the switch. Even on gray, or darker days, riding can be done, and mucking will just have to be done in the dark for a while. Not a lot of people hear about these small happenings in communities because they arnt really loud anyway. This farm isn't fancy or overpriced or falsely advertised as an Olympic barn. It is as down to earth as it can be.

Week Three + Thanksgiving

Week three was just about the same as week 1 and 2. My initial goals have been reached and my lifestyle has changed to an extent. Recently I have noticed that in my apartment and everywhere I go really, cultural norms encourage us to consume more, think less and care less; even when we are being conscious of our consumption. These cultural norms have also made it hard to become more sustainable because of the nature of the appliances we invent, the cars we make, the kind of energy we burn, etc. This is all pretty disheartening but luckily this thanksgiving I was able to start a compost pile for my parents. For as much as my parents cook I thought it was more than appropriate to start collecting scraps and leftover newspapers for composting. My mom was totally into it and wanted to learn more, so I made a composting bin and began the initial process in producing compost. By the end of thanksgiving my whole family had composted around 1-2 pounds of scraps. Now that they are conscious of there food scraps hopefully they will continue to compost and maybe even apply some of those changes to other aspects of their lives. With the family it is interesting because it is so easy to make little comments about wasteful consumption and the amount of energy we use etc. but one cannot fully understand the reality of wasteful consumption and the benefits of reusing, reducing and recycling until they see and experience it for themselves.