How to

How should I approach Green & Me?

Green & Me is by no means a comprehensive guide to living sustainably. This blog is intended to be a starting point, a kick-starter for your personal journey. Sustainability is a lifestyle choice and a world view. Because of this nature of sustainability, there are many facets of your life that can be seen through the sustainability lenses. Green & Me only addresses eight of these facets under the Topics section.

Use Green & Me to help build a foundation of how sustainability can take form in your lifestyle and what it means to be sustainable.

Advice for beginning the journey of a sustainable lifestyle:

Starting this journey can seem daunting, but remember, a sustainable lifestyle is just a habit. Like any habit, you must train yourself before it seems like second nature.

Think of beginning to live sustainability as starting a new work out routine. When you go to the gym for the first time in two months do you push yourself with the same intensity that you did when you had been training for months? No, of course not! At first you take it slow. Then, once you build up your strength and endurance, what seemed hard initially is now painless. The same is true for your journey of a sustainable lifestyle: Take it slow.

Starting this journey can seem like a radical shift in your day-to-day habits, but it does not have to be. Start by trying one Topic at a time then adding more Topics to your lifestyle once they seem second nature. For example, first start your journey by recycling everyday. After a few days or weeks you will not even have to question whether or not that bottle is recyclable in Charlottesville; you will have built habitual knowledge. Now that recycling is an easy task for you, perhaps move on to composting. Continue this pattern until you have gone through the eight Topics. This process will make the lifestyle shift natural and intuitive.

Best of luck and congratulations on beginning your journey.

Utilities Management and Usage

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Consumer Habits

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Why is it important?

Everyone who takes Microeconomics with Elzinga knows that consumers “cast dollar votes” which determine the output of an industry. Individuals can be socially conscious consumers by “voting with their dollars” – purchase products produced responsibly. By buying sustainably produced products individuals are essentially rewarding companies for their practices. Similarly, by not buying unsustainably produced products they are boycotting the offenders.
Consumerism America has brainwashed the population into believing that consumption is an American way of life and that your consumption defines who you are
- Humanity now has a global ecological footprint one-third larger than the Earth can manage. In a culture that believes that the impossible is always achievable, it is hard to accept that the earth is finite. (the impossible hamster video)

How to:

Composting

What’s that smell? As you walk into your apartment after a long day of classes, you are tempted to ignore the funky aroma percolating from the depths of the kitchen into the remainder of the cramped living room. Deciding that the smell isn’t too rancid yet, you collapse onto the sofa to bidge-watch a season of The Office on Netflix while you procrastinate writing your ten page politics paper. You attempt with all your might to be distracted from the odor, but the smell keeps beckoning for you to discover its source. Begrudgingly, you slump up from the sofa and begin to search the kitchen for the source. You check the milk: it’s still good. You check the trashcan: it was just emptied. Without luck, you check every possible place that food could have gone bad. Suddenly, you remember the bag of potatoes that you bought before winter break sitting on top of the refrigerator. You reach for the bag, shifting it a few inches, and the beast of the smell is unleashed. Your bag of Yukon Golden potatoes has been liquefied. You quickly transfer the putrid potatoes to a trash bag and quickly take the bag, at arms length, to the nearest dumpster.

You may have had a similar experience to this, it’s more likely than not. The sad truth is that up to 30% of food bought by households goes to waste. A core tenet of sustainability is reducing the waste that we directly and indirectly make; composting does both. Make dirt, not waste.

Why is it important?

Composting is the aerobic process of decomposing fresh organic matter into mature compost. Put simply, composting turns plant parts into nutrients for the next generation of plants¹. The environmental impacts of composting are three fold; composting limits the amount of waste in landfills, heals our soils, and reduces resource use.

As foods decompose in landfills they release methane, a greenhouse gas. When organic matter is deposited into landfills it is buried by trash. This creates an anaerobic environment in which methane is produced as the organic matter decays. Composting decreases the amount of methane produced by landfills since the organic matter in a compost heap is not smothered by trash. Methane is 21 times more potent then carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change¹. Not only does composting decrease the amount of waste in landfills, it mitigates the impact of landfills on climate change.

Much of our current industrial and personal agricultural practices deplete the fertility and overall health of soil. Composting revitalizes soils in a natural way. When you compost food waste, the nutrients that the plant absorbed from the soil are returned to the land as manure and natural fertilizer. Composting adds nutrients to the soil and fosters the growth of beneficial microorganisms, insects, and earthworms¹. When mixed with sandy or compacted soils, compost acts like a sponge, reducing storm-water runoff and pollution. Composting continues the natural lifecycle of organic matter while allowing us to heal the soil that sustains us.

Compost can be used as a natural and sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In addition to all the environmental hazards mitigated by forgoing chemicals, like water pollution and diversity loss, compost conserves the resources that are used in the production of these chemicals.

When envisioning a sustainable future, we need to treat our waste as a resource, not as something that is simply discarded and forgotten about. Managing our waste is our responsibility.

1.http://homeguides.sfgate.com/composting-helps-environment-23577.html

How to:

First, it is important to know what can generally be composted and what cannot.

You can compost:

how-to-make-compost-heap — Backyard Composting Heap

fruits and vegetables,
nuts,
grains,
egg shells,
flowers,
coffee grounds and filters,
tea,
meat and bones,
fats,
cooking oils and grease,
milk products,
uncoated paper (napkins/towels)

Do not compost:

trash,
diapers,
clothing,
Styrofoam,
pet waste,
cigarette butts,
snack bags,
candy wrappers,
plastics,
non-compostable disposable plates/cups/utensils

For individuals who have space, composting can be done in your backyard. Starting a compost heap is simple, but it takes commitment and knowledge to keep a healthy heap. Here is a step by step guide provided by the City of Charlottesville.

Buy or build a composting bin.
Mix browns (leaves, twigs) and greens (kitchen scraps, grass clippings)
Keep pests away: Don’t include meats, oils, or bones.
Cover food scraps with leaves or grass clippings. Cover the bin.
As needed, add water to keep moist.
Dark, rich material at the bottom of your pole is ready-to-use compost. Usually takes two months to two years depending on your climate.

More details about backyard composting can be found here.

Residents of Charlottesville have great options for composting if they are not willing to start their own compost heap or if they do not have the space to have one. The City

Dumpling-Compost — Black Bear Composting at UVa

of Charlottesville has two programs available to residents: composting at the City Market and the McIntire Recycling Center. The City Market offers a drop-off composting service on Saturdays from 7 am to noon, April through October. More information about composting at the City Market can be found here. The McIntire Center offers drop-off composting services from January to April. More information about the McIntire Center can be found here.

If transporting bags of compost to the City Market or the McIntire Recycling seems like too much of a hassle to you there are still other options for you to compost. Two local companies, N.O.P.E (Natural Organic Process Enterprises) and Black Bear Composting, offer curbside compost pick-up services for a reasonable fee.

Topics

Recycling

Composting

Up-cycling

Eating Habits

Consumer Habits

Transportation

Urban Gardening

Utilities Management and Usage

What is Sustainability?

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What is sustainability?

Most easily explained by a hierarchy diagram. Humans are no longer at the top. All life is regarded as equal. Everything is connected
“Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations” –Environmental Protection Agency
3 P’s of sustainability
- People
  - Social justice and equity are essential. Hospitable environmental conditions are a human right
- Planet
  - Protection of the natural environment and harmony between the built and natural environment
- Prosperity
  - Economic prosperity depends on the stabilization of the people and planet

Why be sustainable now?

Climate change is real. It’s not a myth that hippies believe. It’s a scientific fact
There is much scientific evidence that humanity has come to a fork in the road regarding climate change.
- We can choose to keep living life as “business as usual” or make dramatic changes in our lifestyle and public policy to curb the effects of climate change

Does it really matter?

It might seem that an individuals sustainable actions overshadowed by the countless people making negative decisions but every little bit matters
Individual action will gain support on the local and regional scale. These actions gain national attention that affects policy measures.
Consumers hold to power to force companies to change the way that they produce

How can I live a sustainable lifestyle right now?

This guide is specifically tailored to upperclassmen UVa students who want to learn the basics about a sustainable lifestyle.
- Living off-grounds presents more challenges for living a sustainable lifestyle (your food waste isn’t automatically composted, recycling programs vary with housing situations) but, at the same time, it gives students more opportunity to make sustainable choices (no more meal plan, you pay for your utilities, etc.)

About Me

Olivia Mitchell is 10409597_10203561949624928_7985014039812463642_n an undergraduate at the University of Virginia School of Architecture studying Urban and Environmental Planning with a minor in sustainability and architecture. Olivia grew up in the suburbs of coastal Virginia as a free-range kid. From an early age, she became interested in the intersection between the natural world and the built environment. Her curiosity in design led her a community of sustainably minded students and professors at UVa. Though she strives to live out her beliefs in the importance of a sustainable lifestyle, she has much to learn.

Olivia spends her time at UVa hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains, reading books, painting in her nature journal, flying kites, hammocking, and hugging trees.

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

-Henry David Thoreau

Urban Gardening

Let’s play a game. Imagine that you have the most decadent, gourmet salad sitting in front of you (if you do not like salads, for the moment, pretend that they are your all time favorite meal). The crisp leaves, in all shades of green, are topped with a medley of cheese, cucumbers, tomato, carrots, and your favorite dressing. Now, consider these questions. Where was the lettuce grown? How do you even grow tomatoes? How do you know if a cucumber is ripe for harvest? If you are stumped by these questions, you are not alone. As a culture, we are more disconnected from our food than we have ever been. Urban gardening can help us regain connection to our food systems

Why is it important?

When we are disconnected from our food, we become slaves to the broken food systems prevalent in American agricultural industries. The mainstream food systems practice unsustainable agriculture in order to reap more profit at the expense of environment. We discussed some of the negative effects of industrial agriculture in the sections on Eating Habits and Consumer Habits. Urban gardening, growing your own produce in small spaces (like a balcony, an alleyway, or a patio), allows you to take control of how your food is produced and grown in order to ensure it is done in a sustainable fashion.

Urban gardening aims to decrease the environmental impact of food production compared to that of industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture is very resources intensive, relying heavily on fossil fuel energy, inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Urban gardening reduces an individual’s carbon footprint by reducing the distance that food must be transported from where it’s grown to where it’s consumed. Inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are not used in urban gardening, therefore, biodiversity is not affected and runoff is not polluted.

The benefits of urban gardening, for college students, extend far beyond the realm of sustainability. Firstly, Urban gardening is very cost efficient. Though urban gardening requires that you invest initially to start up your garden, in the long run, you will save money spent on grocer produce. The National Gardening Association “concludes that the average gardening household in 2009 experienced a $530 return on their average $70 investment to garden”¹. Essentially, urban gardening lets you save money while eating delicious, homegrown produce. Urban gardening also has meditative effects that can benefit a gardener’s mental health. A garden becomes a space that individuals can retreat to when surrounded by stress. Individuals also gain confidence and satisfaction from growing their own food.

http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0312/the-true-cost-of-growing-a-garden.aspx

How to:

Thinking of how to being an urban garden can be very intimidating, especially for college students, but with a little creativity and ingenuity, urban gardening can be extremely rewarding. The scale you choose your garden to be is determined by the space you can grow a garden and the amount of time and energy you wish to dedicate to your garden. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a garden that suits your wants and needs.

Step 1: Determine where your garden will be.

If you live in an apartment you may be limited in the space that you can dedicate to your garden. For apartment dwellers, railings, window ceils, balconies, and patios are popular places to have small gardens. You may be lucky enough to live in a house that has a small yard where you can use a portion to grow a garden. For UVa students, growing a garden in a yard can be problematic since students move and leases are not always renewed. Having a portable garden is most useful for UVa students.

Step 2: Analyze how much sun your garden will get.

Determining how much sun your garden will get is crucial to figuring out what produce to grow. If you measure how many hours of sunlight your garden will receive, then you can make sure that you will grow a successful garden. Knowing the amount of sunlight your garden receives will save you time and effort in the future.

Step 3: Choose what produce to grow.

Most places where you will be able to grow an urban garden around Grounds will not receive sunlight throughout the day. Here is a list of veggies to grow in the shade depending on the sunlight that your garden gets.

5 Hours	Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Swiss chard (stalks)
4-5 Hours	Beans Beets Carrots Celery Collards Peas Radishes
3-4 Hours	Arugula Kale Lettuce Spinach Swish chard (leaves)
3 hours	Culinary herbs Mustard greens
2 hours	Asian greens

Step 4: Decide what form your garden will take.

The form that your garden takes is determined by what you are growing, where you are growing, and how much space you have. Here are some examples of gardens at various scales and locations

Step 5: Harvest and enjoy your produce.

Upcycling

Now, I will move on to the reuse portion of reduce, reuse, recycle. Reusing materials is pretty self-explanatory, but I want to focus on the creative side of reusing. In the sustainability world, we call creatively reusing materials up-cycling. Up-cycling varies slightly from the definition associated with reuse. When an individual reuses a product, item, or material, they typically reuse the item in the same fashion as it had previously been used. Up-cycling requires reusing a product in a way that creates higher value for the item than its original use. The goal of up-cycling is to solve a problem by making use of existing materials so that they do not go to waste. This can be a fun way to reduce waste while thinking creatively.

Why is it important?

Up-cycling embodies an important value of sustainability: living simply. Living simply does not necessarily constitute that an individual who want to be sustainable must live a modest life. Rather, living a simple life asserts that less is more. In its essence, up-cycling inquires “why buy more of a product if you have an alternative item or material that could suit the same need?”

The benefits of up-cycling mirror those of recycling with the added advantages of further reducing the waste that makes it to the landfill and reducing the environmental costs of transportation. Like recycling, up-cycling conserves natural resources. Raw material extraction is reduced because up-cycling repurposes used materials instead of buying new products produced with newly extracted materials. Raw material extraction is very energy intensive, requiring copious amounts of fossil fuels to support it. In turn, up-cycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Unlike recycling, up-cycling has the added benefit of decreasing the fossil fuels needed to transport waste and contaminated recyclable material to landfills or incinerator cites. The materials and items used in up-cycling do not need to go through the conversion process (the process that turns recyclables into new products). Because of this, items used in up-cycling eliminate the energy needed for conversion.

Up-cycling’s advantages are more than just environmental. It gives individuals the satisfaction of providing for themselves and fosters care and connection to one’s possessions.

How to:

The possibilities of up-cycling are endless. With a little creative thinking, things that are seen as trash to one individual can be used in new and innovative ways. Unwanted materials or products can be transformed into meaningful art, decoration, and useful items that you would have otherwise bought. A simple search for up-cycling______, reusing______, and sometimes recycling______ on Pinterest will bring up thousands of ideas for you to do. Below, I have collected some of my favorite projects to get your mind thinking of all the possibilities of up-cycling and the wide variety of things you can create.