Reduce your waste!

You’ve heard it before: reduce, reuse, recycle. We’re working hard at Union to recycle things, and we have the free table where you can put things others might find useful, but what can we do to reduce our consumption?
We’ve been having spectacular community lunches, great food, lively conversation, fantastic cookies, and lots and lots of waste. No matter how environmentally friendly the napkins, plates, forks, knives, cold cups and hot cups are, they all still go in the trash! So what can we do to reduce the amount of waste at community lunch? Here are a few ideas

BYOB- bring your own water bottle, travel mug or cup for your drink. We have a wall of mugs over by the student life office that you can use, wash and return to the wall. Why not bring your reuseable water bottle with you to lunch? You can fill it up with water or tea and if you don’t finish it at lunch, take it with you to class! If you bring a travel mug you can take some coffee with you to keep you alert in that mid afternoon energy slump!

Why stop at bringing your own bottle?

Here’s a crazy idea. Instead of using paper napkins and disposable silverware, why not bring your own. You can get a cloth napkin that you like and wrap up a knife and fork and toss it in your bag. Think of how much we would reduce our waste if we all brought our own knives, forks and cups!

Both of these ideas are easy and doable each and every week! If we all work together we can greatly reduce the amount of waste each week at community lunch.

ecological awareness 09-10

update at bottom!

hello everyone! i want to just throw out a few ideas i’ve had about what the eco awareness committee might want to do this year. i really want to hear your thoughts and if you have ideas bouncing around please either comment or email me and i’ll add them in!

http://www.350.org/

you’ll want to hit up this website for further information about what it is, but in a very small nutshell it’s a day of international climate action. i just realized it will be right before fall break, so maybe we don’t do anything? either way it’s worth talking about!

ecotheology! i want to introduce the wider union community to ecological theology! this will start with the bulletin board in belk, and might continue sometime in chapel? maybe?

dishes! now that lingle is gone how can we have ecologically sound events? do we want to buy a set of dishes to lend out? encourage people to bring their own?

eco-friendly gifts! christmas season produces tons and tons of extra waste. i’d like to explore eco friendly gifts and wrapping for the season (probably a fun board and maybe a workshop?)

the ecotheology class from last may term has a big brainstorm about energy use and reduction, but that is best explained in person :O) it’s amazing!

so that’s the gist of what i have tumbling around in my brain. i’m excited to hear more about what y’all want from your eco awareness committee and see what kind of great green ideas we can come up with together! i’ll leave you with a blessing from sam hamilton-poore’s Earth Gospel a truly amazing devotional book. (it’s an evening blessing since i’m writing at night, work with me people :O)

As the moon traces its light across the surface of water, as star-fire pricks the blanket of night, so may God’s love and light shine in your heart and in your dreaming.

rachel

i just spoke with another student and he proposed getting all the lightbulbs in the library and watts changed to energy efficient bulbs instead of energy sucking ones! how could we pay for this? the possibilities are endless friends! local organic food created baked goods sale, homemade recycled crafts sale, outreach to local churches and organizations, sponsor a lightbulb drives.

green worship! we could take over at least one chapel service per semester and do it green style- no paper, ecotheology related hymns and readings and sermons

keep the great ideas coming!

amazing!

check out this article! if you can do this much urban gardening in wisconsin, you can do it anywhere. 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

be a bag lady (or gentleman)

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010037.html

come on people! we can do this!! take your own bags to the store!!! if you’re at union and need shopping bags let me know, i have a few extras i could pass on.

Mmmm…bread

i love bread. i have loved bread as long as i can remember. my mother used to bake bread and the whole house would smell of yeast and flour and yum. there is nothing so good as a still warm slice of bread with butter and honey.
as much as i love bread, baking it intimidates the heck out of me. i’m afraid to kill the yeast, i don’t quite understand the science of baking, the art of kneading. it’s all a mystery. but i’m determined to jump in and start trying it. i found this super, super easy recipe on huffpo this morning and maybe tomorrow i will try my hand at baking some bread. or if you do, let me know how it works out :O)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/05/3-easy-steps-to-making-br_n_211721.html

you are what you eat

i’m reading ‘animal, vegetable, miracle’ this summer and learning more about local farming, eating locally, growing organically, and how sustainable farming is really an important part of how we care for the earth. one of the things we can do to support the efforts of farmers is to visit farmers markets and get our produce from local farmers. many of them grow organically, if they don’t you can certainly ask them exactly what pesticides they’re using and why and then make your own decision as to what to purchase. remember to take your own reusable bag to the market! here’s a round up of farmers markets in the richmond area. if i’ve missed one you know of feel free to put it in the comments!

The Byrd House Market is a smaller market that is hosted by the Byrd Community House. they have a community garden where you can get a plot and grow your own food, they also have programs with youth and the youth have a plot in the community garden. they generally have a non profit there giving information out and around 6pm they have some music there as well.i’ve been to this market and know they have veggies, flowers, plants, fruits, meat, prepared food, coffee, and a bakery. yum!  the market is every tuesday from 3:30-7pm at 224 Cherry Street. their blog lists the events of the week: http://www.byrdhousemarket.blogspot.com/

The 17th Street Farmers Market has multiple market days, each with its own special focus.

Thursday 8:30am-4pm is the growers marekt. this is “limited to farm-grown, homegrown, homemade and handmade goods. this market day emphasizes, but is not limited to fresh produce, fruits, cheeses, meats, fresh flowers, plants, herbal products, specialty foods and fine crafts

Friday 4-8pm is the ‘red white and brew’ market. it “celebrates VA wines and local microbrews paired with VA’s finest fare from vendors and restaurants

Saturday 9am-4pm is the Mercado market. same as the growers market with a special shout out to include bakers and cultural items.

Sunday 9am-4pm is the Vintage market, this has an emphasis on vintage and antique goods. not sure if there is much produce there or not. 

i haven’t been to the 17th street market yet, but maybe tomorrow!

they are at the corner of 17th and Main, here is their website:

http://www.richmondgov.com/econdev/FarmersMarket/default.htm

The Market at St. Stephen’s is open saturdays from 8-12. i haven’t been to this market yet either, but it looks like lots of good produce, i think a bakery, even some doggie goods! oooh, if you check out their website they have a vendor list. looks yummy! 

http://www.saintstephensrichmond.net/Market.html

they are located at st.stephen’s episcopal church 6000 grove ave, RVA 23226. they are a bit more out of town. i’m hoping to go to this market in a few weekends when i’m here and not working on a saturday :O) 

here is a site that has a more exhaustive list of markets in the greater richmond area:

http://richmondgoodlife.com/richmond_farmer_markets.htm

check one out! 

r

350 dot org

hello green team! for starters here i’m going to preview the links we have on this page. let you know what’s there and why you might want to go check them out. i’m going to start with one that is really interesting and informative.

350 parts per million is the level of carbon dioxide that we can have in the air and still have sustainable life on the planet. right now we’re at 387 parts per million. obviously something has to change.

350.org is a webiste promoting the changing of our behaviors as well as an event on October 24, 2009. they want that day to be a global call to action. it’s planned for that day in the hopes that the events can influence law makers as they head off to write a new global treaty on cutting emissions.

there are the usual issues with an event like this. it’s a one day event, it’s mostly good for PR, what changes are really happening, etc. but it is a carefully planned event with a goal in mind. i do believe we will participate in some way at union, i’m not sure what way that will be yet, any suggestions?a lot of churches are organizing themselves to ring their bells 350 times on the 24th, something like that would certainly attract attention. it’s a good website with lots of good information. check it out! www.350.org

greening it up at union presbyterian seminary

hello blogosphere! as a seminarian concerned with the environment and our connection and interaction with it, i’ve decided to launch this blog. i envision this as a place that will become a hang out place for the environmentally conscious that are in my real life community. a place to explore eco theology, to discuss different ways to change our behavior that will have a positive effect on our planet, a place to muse about the beauty of god’s creation and what role we play in it. i hope that it will become a useful resource and potential inspiration for all those who visit. the days to come will involve lots of changes on the blog. web resources, maybe a poll, an invitation to join our eco-awareness committee, some print resources, and maybe a more formed idea of what, exactly, will be on the site. thanks for visiting! please leave your suggestions in comments! 

r