June Soundbites

BY BILL GERLACH | FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

Hi, everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here at Sustainable Sakonnet. Things have been busy as the summer shifts into gear. While work in the gardens is complete (for the moment) and the Little League season winds down, I have been focused on my new blog, The New Pursuit, some public speaking, and writing for ecoRI.org (more on that below).

With that, I think I am going to move to a monthly post here at Sustainable Sakonnet. There are so many great things happening in the area that to leave Sustainable Sakonnet by the wayside completely doesn’t feel right. I hope you agree.

FARMERS MARKETS KICKING OFF

Our very own Sakonnet Growers Market kicks the Summer 2010 season off on Saturday morning, June 19, at Pardon Gray Preserve (Main Road). Be sure to stop by, get some amazing local fare and support our local farmers and producers in the process. For a complete listing of farmers markets around the Sakonnet area, check out this list from Farm Fresh Rhode Island.


THS ‘ENVIRONMENT DAY’ SOWS SEEDS WITH STUDENTS

While most of the town was in the throes (folly?) of the Financial Town Meeting(s) last month, an amazing event took place at Tiverton High School.

Spearheaded by Social Studies Department Chair, Eric Marx, and the THS Green Team, the entire school—from faculty to students to support staff—participated in the first ever ‘Environment Day’.

The goal was to find creative ways of getting the students to think about aspects of the environment as it relates to their everyday lives. How do we view/interact with the environment from a math perspective? From a science perspective? From a literature perspective?

Each student began the day base-lining their own environmental impact by calculating their carbon footprint. Have you ever done this? It’s a great exercise. A number of tools can help you try it for yourself.

The highlight of the event—for me anyway—was the Speakers Forum. Five speakers, four of them THS alumni (including myself), who are involved in some way in the green arena gave presentations on the topic of their choice. It was amazing (and inspiring) see how many local people are involved in making the world a better place – each in their own unique way. Here’s the run down:

• Sarah Forrest // A 2001 grad and engineer at Vanderweil Engineers, Sarah gave an overview of how buildings play an important role in using resources wisely. She showcased her work on the LEED-certified Newton North (MA) High School.
  
• Caitlin Luderer // Talked about her work developing and promoting the field of sustainable tourism. She currently volunteers with the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council. Caitlin is a 2000 grad.
  
• Nicole Lebreux // A 2001 grad and owner of Fidget Finds, Nichole gave the students an understanding of the impact that the mainstream clothing industry has on the environment and human rights while promoting the eco-friendly benefits of buying vintage threads.
  
• Joe McLaughlin // The only non-THS grad, Joe is Director of Properties at the Norman Bird Sanctuary. He gave a great overview of the history and mission of the Sanctuary while sharing his own journey of finding his life’s passion.
  
• And finally, there was me // I gave a presentation entitled “Being (Is) the Solution”, based largely on my writing at The New Pursuit. The message was simple and straightforward: While doing all sorts of things to limit your impact on the environment is important, it’s really only a band-aid. Rather, a deeper, longer-lasting impact can be realized by changing our perspective—our state of being—on how we fit in with the natural world around us and challenging what it means to be a consumer. The response was fantastic – and quite humbling. I used the presentation as the basis for my last opinion piece at ecoRI.org.

All in all, the entire day was deemed a success. Engaging the next generation in finding creative solutions to our problems is like sowing a proverbial seed in a garden. If we can nurture these young minds from their earliest beginnings we can hopefully set ourselves up for a more prosperous future.


UPDATE ON THE NEW PURSUIT

Alas, I have been quite humbled by the response to my new blog, The New Pursuit. Even after just two months, it’s been amazing connecting with so many new people and sharing insights, ideas and stories on what it means to live deeply each day through the reconnection with life, nature and being. As content is being shared through features on other blogs and use of social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, more and more people are subscribing each day to receive free updates.

If you haven’t visited yet, I hope you would take a moment to swing through. You may want to start with some of the posts proving most popular with readers:

• Life is Knocking: 9 Reasons Why We Should Answer the Call to Live Deeply
• The 7 Joys of Time Well Spent and How to Realize Them
• 33 Simple Things to Get You Reconnect With Nature
• The series on changing perspectives
• Any of the Monday Meditations

The most gratifying thing for me personally is that I’m taking small and tangible steps towards realizing my goal of becoming a full-time writer and speaker. It's challenging me to write the best content of my life. And it’s starting to pay off. It’s more of a journey than an overnight wonder pill, but I hope others can take away the fact that pursuing what you really believe in doesn’t have to be just a New Years Resolution.

With that, I am actively pursuing new opportunities to write and speak on the topic of reconnecting with life, nature and being (what I like to call ‘eco-being’). If you are looking for a speaker for an upcoming event and think this message might resonate with your audience, please email me (at gerlachbill-at-yahoo-dot-com) to explore it further. I am happy to tailor content to create the best fit.

Until next month, be well.
Bill

THS Students Learn About Greening Their School

Our September poll asked: How would you green our schools?

The results (based on six responders; hey, it's a start...), clearly lean towards enabling our students with education rather than trying to tackle the problem through infrastructure:

• 83% voted for enhancing the eco-education curricula
• 66% felt retro-fitting with energy efficient components was the way to go
• Finally, there was a three-way tie for the remaining options with 50% giving the thumbs up for exploring on-site renewable energy solutions, increasing the amount of local food on the menu, and/or enhancing recycling and composting efforts.

But what do THS students think?

Last week, members of THS' Green Team attended the Sustainable Schools Summit in Providence with their faculty sponsor, Eric Marx*. The event, hosted by The Apeiron Institute for Sustainable Living, allowed students to interact with professionals from across the green school spectrum as well as peers from across the state. Eric sent me a copy of the press release they put together afterwards. Here is what some of the student attendees had to say about their experience:

"At the R.I. Sustainable Schools Summit I attended a workshop on Nutrition and the Farm to School System put on by KidsFirst, an organization which works to make school lunch more nutritious.  Today in schools it’s mandated that 50% of all grains be whole wheat and many of the unhealthy food options have been eliminated.  The aim of this workshop was to try to incorporated local farm products into our everyday lives.  The importance of buying local was emphasized greatly.  Farm Fresh RI and the Market have developed a service and are now attempting to supply “non-stop” convenience store with fresh produce from local farms.  Since Tiverton doesn’t have a grocery store, this may be something the Green Team could look into because Green Team isn’t just about increasing the sustainability of the school but the community as well."

>> Chantal Galipeau

"'Tools for Schools' is a system that works to create better indoor air quality.  It has been discovered that bad air in schools has actually affected the health of people who breathe it on a daily basis.  Both teachers and students have gotten sick from the pollutants in the air.  Tools for Schools proposes that schools should seek a solution to the air problem.  They recommend putting dehumidifiers and other air cleaners throughout the school. This small act can reduce the amount of “bad air” greatly.  The better the air, the better the health of the people who breathe the air."

>> Lauren Rollings

"I attended the workshop entitled “Smaller Footprints = Big Savings” and learned about things schools and households are doing to limit their impact on the earth while saving money in the process.  Many schools are starting to appoint “energy managers” to the staff; in fact we heard earlier in the morning from Karen Verrengia, an energy manager for the Cranston School Department who ran this workshop and shared ideas and resources through which she has saved tens of thousands of dollars for Cranston taxpayers and untold harm to the earth. Free services include rirrc.org, which brings awareness to elementary schools through “Max Man” visits and lessons, as well as need.org., energystar.gov , and nationalgridus.com which all help individuals, families and schools track energy use.  I hope to explore with The Green Team this year things we could do here at the high school including fixing thermostats and monitoring more closely light usage."

>> Maddie McGreavy

"The No Child Left Inside Coalition (NCLI) was recently established to improve environmental literacy----or the understanding of the systems of the natural world---in Americans.  This group aims to improve student achievement through hands-on outdoor activities that contribute to healthy lifestyles.  Currently, they are hoping to pass the NCLI Act which will help fund and support schools with new environmental education.  If this act is passed the country will receive $100 million per year for five years to incorporate environmental education activities into schools.  Along with the RI Partnership for Children in Nature, NCLI Coalition plans to develop a curriculum for elementary schools this Fall.  For more information visit www.nclicoalition.org."

>> Alex Azevedo

Beyond the students, Eric has his eye on partnering with several colleagues to develop a new multidisciplinary unit on the environment this year, inspired by attending the “Growing the Green Curriculum” session at the conference.

I'm extremely encouraged by what The Green Team is doing and hope that we all can find ways to support their efforts. Now that our oldest is in the first grade, I'm interested in exploring what can be done at the elementary level to bolster eco-education curricula and keep the pipeline of next-generation eco-caretakers strong.


(*Full Disclosure: Eric is Sara's cousin as well as being a long-time friend of mine.)

Greenstock 2009

Here is a great local event that's worth supporting. THS' Green Team (the student-run environment club) is hosting the first (of what hopes to be an annual) Greenstock Environmental Fair on Saturday, April 11, from 1:00 - 4:00. All are welcome.

There looks to be a little bit of everything for everyone in the family: Music, food, educational exhibits, a "trashion" show (where fashion meets trash), plus some local environmental groups will set up shop to share in the event.

Hope to see you all there. Many congrats go out to all the students who worked hard to pull all this together. I continue to be inspired by the next generation of environmental stewards!

Learning to Read

Today was an important day for our son, Will. Today, it clicked for him and for the first time he was able to take a new book and read all on his own.

With an impeccable memory (for a five-and-a-half year old) he typically memorizes and regurgitates stories back to us after a couple times through. We've been working on stringing sounds together and sounding words out for a while and today it paid off. As a parent, watching your children learn in real time is a humbling experience.

So what's this have to do with sustainability? Everything.

As a country it's no secret that we continue to fall behind the rest of the world in academic performance, particularly in math and science. Closer to home the focus -- at the surface anyway -- is blurred by a seemingly perpetual conflict over funding and contracts. What gets lost are the kids and what we are doing to prepare them for a "flatter" world that will be vastly different from the one we know now.

We need to keep that focus on perpetual learning. We need to find ways to fund programs at all our schools that are innovative as well as invigorating, satisfying to both the brain and the budget. We need to seed our schools with new curricula that reflects our 21st century world and the inherent challenges that it brings; prepare our kids to find cures for the almost insurmountable number of ills that are and will continue to besiege us.

Tiverton is making investments in the physical infrastructure of our school system. Yes, buildings that are bright and clean and outfitted with lots of new things are a good thing. But it's only have the equation. The other half involves stimulating all those minds and inspiring them to connect dots, take the lead, lend a helping hand, and see their role in our future as one of the utmost importance. We must believe in them and their potential at every step of the way.

So with that, I thank all those people and institutions that have helped our son take this first step: Sakonnet Early Learning, the new Ranger School, and especially Essex Library and their supporters for the steady supply of books. Keep up the good work!

Sakonnet Voices: ALANA CLARK

I’m happy to introduce a new feature at the blog: Sakonnet Voices. There are many others in our community who share the same passion for the environment and doing what we can to protect it. So, from time to time, we’ll have guest bloggers writing on topics that are important to them. Here is Alana Clark:

My name is Alana Clark and I am a senior at Tiverton High School. I started an environmental club at the high school and we are called the ”Green Team”. Previous to the Green Team there were no groups specifically devoted to Tiverton High Schools methods of conserving and managing waste. One of our goals is to stop the high school from using Styrofoam trays. I recently went to a meeting with Tiverton’s Health and Wellness Committee to address this issue. During this meeting I realized that Tiverton High schools environmental problems are locked in place by what some may call “the man”.

Disappointingly, the high school still uses Styrofoam trays, but worst of all, has given up on using anything else. Their situation reminded me of a quote I heard recently in which Dan Kennedy notes “a lot of people prefer a good excuse to a good opportunity”. Our country is peaking in its environmental awareness, high school students are pitching in to conserve and also to educate, and schools across the country are “going green”, but Tiverton Highs School still uses Styrofoam trays? It just doesn’t make sense.

The most inexpensive and beneficial way to stop this is to use plastic and reusable trays. The committee argued that, even when specially designed lids were placed on the trash barrels, students were lifting up the lids to throw the trays away. I just don’t believe that. I know that students, staff, and the principle want to reduce waste; what we need is the financial support. In 2008, no school should be using Styrofoam trays, so its time for the Tiverton Health and Wellness committee to pick up this good opportunity and run with it.

First off, congrats to Alana for starting the new club. Second, I was shocked to learn this fact about the trays. When I was at THS we had reusable plastic trays that were washed each day. What an incredible amount of waste being generated – every day. For more information on the effects of polystyrene foam (a.k.a., Styrofoam) check out this Earth Resource Foundation report.

We can do better than this. What kind of message are we giving our kids? It is like we are priming them for life in the Throw-away Society. I don’t know all the facts yet, but I’m tempted to think short-term financial thinking is once again driving the boat here. If you have a child in our school system, I encourage you to reach out to the superintendent’s office and school committee to voice your concern. This is wasteful in every sense of the word.

Tube for Tuesday: Greening Our Schools (Part 2)

On the heels of an earlier post, I came across this amazing video showcasing a new green school in Washington, D.C. The Sidwell Friends School built a new middle school that achieved a Platinum LEED Certification rating (the highest). But beyond the building and grounds, what makes Sidwell stand out is its students and how they have embraced an academic curricula that has environmental stewardship as one of its four cornerstones.



You can learn more about the Sidwell Friends School and their green middle school here.

Let's face it. Our kids are smart, aware, and eager to make their mark. They are going to have to inherit the mess the rest of us are making. Why not prepare them well for this challenge and channel their energy and enthusiasm in the right direction.

Are you a teacher or parent who feels the same way? Drop me a line -- I'd like to see what we can do to make a change in our schools.

Tube For Tuesday: Edible Schoolyards in Action (Part 2)

Part Two in the series on establishing a new Edible Schoolyards program in New Orleans. This one is all about the kids enjoying the local fruit harvest. Isn't it great to see kids so excited over eating heathly, nutritious, locally-grown food? Enjoy.

Greening Our Schools

I have the pleasure of serving as a mentor to one of our high school seniors this year. She is a bright, articulate student who clearly has a lot of drive and initiative behind her. As part of this program, she has to produce a “product” as the culmination of her experience. Her focus? The environment, of course.

In thinking through possible projects for her to take on, we talked about trying to calculate the high school's environmental footprint – basically, the total negative impact the school has on the environment – then implementing some initiative to lessen that. During our conversation I learned that the high school just isn't getting it done even with the little it tries to do to be “green”. Granted, I can't confirm this, but paper recycling (the only recycling they do) is being called into question because it is thought that the janitors simply threw it all in the trash at the end of the day.

In researching this project idea further, I came upon this article at Green Options about calculating your school’s carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide emissions it generates). Great timing! But it got me thinking bigger, way beyond the high school, and how the town should be leading by example here.

Greening our schools would have positive impacts at many levels: From financial, to the health of our students and teachers, to the trickle-down effect that an environmental education curricula could have on all these kids' families and their lifestyles.

We can't do anything about it now, but the town missed the boat with the new Ranger Elementary School. This building should have been designed to be LEED Certified from the get-go. But it is possible to LEED certify an existing building through the remodel process (my employer did it with our building). What are the odds that the rest of our elementary schools will be updated to such a high standard of performance? You don't have to look far for resources on how to make this happen.

Beyond the structure itself, we should be looking at how much energy these all our school buildings are consuming. I'm certain that schools comprise the biggest slice of the pie when it comes to yearly energy costs. Again, some proactive steps could make huge strides in helping to curb the school budget. Just look at what Portsmouth is trying to do with placing new wind turbines at several school locations. Granted, not all our schools will have favorable wind conditions, but they could be taking other steps: Updating heating/cooling systems and insulation, using all CFL light bulbs, heck, even trying to install a solar array or two as part of a science project.

Then there's recycling. Why only paper? Plastic and aluminum should be recycled too. Doesn’t the town know that they once our landfill is maxed and we have to pay to have our trash hauled and dumped at the Central Landfill, that the more we recycle the less our tipping fees will be. Start now and make recycling part of the normal day-to-day routine. It makes me wonder what they are doing with their electronic waste, not to mention the hazardous waste like paints, cleaners, etc. And how about composting all the food waste coming out of the kitchens? (That compost could be used in the school gardens, of course.)

Alas, the list could go on. You get the point. As citizens of this community, we should be raising our voice on this issue. Some proactive steps now can have positive impacts for years to come. Do it for the kids, do it for the positive financial return, do it for the earth… just do it.

Tube For Tuesday: Edible Schoolyards in Action (Part 1)

I thought we'd start a new feature: Tube For Tuesdays. Each Tuesday, we'll highlight a YouTube video that helps showcase some of the great sustainability work going on out there.

Our inaugural clip is all about the creation of an Edible Schoolyard program in New Orleans. It's a little long for my taste (over eight minutes), but the story is inspiring. Next week, we'll showcase Part 2. See my previous post (immediately below) for some background and link to the original Edible Schoolyard in California.

If any teachers are stopping by, I'd love to know what you think of this concept. I recently drove by the new Ranger school and noticed a big plot of land between that school and the High School. How cool would it be to create some sort of program that both ends of the educational spectrum could be a part of?

Connecting Farms, Food, and Kids

Well, we’ve had two 50-degree days in a row and I’m thinking spring. And that makes me think of kick-starting the garden and compost piles. We’ll save composting for a later post. For now, let’s talk about growing food and what we do with that food here in the Sakonnet area.

When I think local food, I think local farmers. We have a lot of them. From community supported agriculture (CSA) programs to local farm stands, we’re blessed with bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables for a good chunk of the year. Local farmers are our link to the land, our link to a time when they were literally a lifeline for the communities they farmed in. While that is still true to an extent, local farmers continue to face tough challenges in an ever-more competitive and price sensitive marketplace.

Now, let’s talk about another issue: School lunch programs and their connection to the health of our kids. This topic has been all over the news of late and for good reason. While lunch programs are regulated for content, there’s only so much that you can provide for a certain price point. Look at the Sakonnet Times every week for the school lunch listing. Pizza, hot dogs (foot long, no less), etc. We can do better.

Let’s create a farm-to-school program. This is a national trend whereby local farmers are finding new markets with local schools to provide them with fresh produce for use by their lunch programs. It’s a win-win all around: Farmers grow their markets; our kids get nutritious, wholesome food that sure beats pizza and hot dogs. Kids are learning about where there food comes from, better nutrition, and creating life-long eating habits that put them on the path to health and wellness.

Check out the new report from the National Farm to School Program entitled ”Going Local: Paths to Success for Farm to School Programs”. It’s a wonderful and inspiring read, showcasing examples of successful programs from across the county.

According the Farm to School website, there are no municipal level farm-to-school programs in Rhode Island. Why shouldn’t we be the first and set the bar for the rest of the state? We have farms, we have schools; all we need is the desire for something better.

Are you a parent? An educator? A municipal official? A farmer? Please post a comment or email me if you’re interested in exploring this further. We can make this happen. This could be sustainability in action.

Need some more inspiration? Check out what Alice Waters is doing in California at The Edible Schoolyard; or closer to home in Connecticut with Chef Timothy Cipriano’s effort called Local Food Dude.

What's Your Idea?

Let’s start this conversation off on the right foot. Demographically speaking, the communities of Tiverton and Little Compton make up a decent sized footprint in this state. Consider this equation:

50.3 square miles of land + 18,853 residents + 7,552 households = The Potential for Many Good Ideas

So what’s that green idea you’ve been mulling around with for a while? Want to share and get some feedback? If you haven’t thought about it of late, here are a few to jumpstart your juices:

• Outfitting public buildings with renewable energy and energy conservation devices (Inspiration: Check out the headquarters of Rhode Island’s own Peoples Power & Light at www.17gordonavenue.com)

• Connecting our local farms with local schools to develop new curricula, appreciation for local food, and maybe even a more healthy school lunch program (Inspiration: Check out what local food advocate Alice Waters has created in Berkeley, CA, at www.edibleschoolyard.org)

• Creating a new public education forum to connect citizens and learn about how to live a more sustainable lifestyle (Inspiration: Check out the breadth of events being sponsored just across the border in Newton, MA, at www.greendecade.org/events.html)

• Supporting local business with our own municipal currency. (Inspiration: Forget Monopoly money, the real thing is happening in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts. Check out www.berkshares.org)

So ask your friends, ask your children, ask your neighbor. Then post a comment or email it to sustainablesakonnet@yahoo.com. We’ll share the results and see where it leads us.