CU Environmental Center

Monthly Newsletter
February 2016

Enjoy our monthly update from the CU Environmental Center. 

Please let us know if you have ideas, input, feedback or news.

In This Issue
CU-Boulder Launches 
'Water for the West' Campaign

The University of Colorado Boulder will enlist the help of basketball fans in a program to restore water to the Colorado River Basin and engage community members in at-home water and energy conservation.

Kicking off at the 3 p.m. men's basketball game on Sunday, Jan. 31, CU-Boulder's new Water for the West campaign is the latest in a number of sustainability efforts developed in partnership between the CU Environmental Center and CU Athletics.

As part of the campaign, fans at home basketball games will be prompted by an announcement to send a text message pledging to conserve water. The text messages are free although individual carrier charges may apply.

For every text pledge received, CU Athletics will restore 1,000 gallons of water to the Colorado River Basin through a partnership with Change the Course, a national water initiative that engages the public, corporations and the conservation community in restoring water for people and nature. Projects restore water by modernizing irrigation systems, strategically relocating water diversions and working collaboratively to conserve or give back water during times of drought.  

One of the biggest impacts individuals can have on water conservation is to reduce water needs in large-scale production and farming. For example, people can eat less meat, buy only what's necessary or use less energy.

Through Water for the West, CU Athletics is restoring 10 million gallons of water to projects in the state of Colorado, balancing the estimated 12 million gallons of water used annually by the department for everything from watering Folsom Field to accommodating hundreds of thousands of fans at large-scale sporting events.

The program is designed to align with CU-Boulder's overall commitment to sustainability and add to CU Athletics' national leadership in sports sustainability.

"Reducing our water impacts and improving water supplies for people throughout the Pac-12 Conference region is an opportunity and responsibility we take seriously," said CU Athletics Director Rick George. "Becoming water balanced is the next natural progression in a series of global leadership steps taken by CU Athletics."

Still in the planning stages, another part of Water for the West will involve the installation of water and energy-saving devices in low-income households in Boulder County. Supported by Wells Fargo & Co., Kohler Co. and CU-Boulder's Ralphie's Green Stampede program, CU-Boulder students and professional service providers will be responsible for the upgrades, providing not only more efficient fixtures but also information and training inspiring sustainable behavior changes and awareness of Western water issues among participating residents.

"The program will provide skills for all involved and reduce water use and water bills in low-income households while building eco and climate literacy in Boulder-area communities," said Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, CU-Boulder Energy and Climate Justice program manager. "By leveraging CU Athletics' sustainability leadership, we will further engage students and area residents in energy and water conservation while reducing our community's environmental footprint."

Water for the West is the latest addition to Ralphie's Green Stampede, a trailblazing initiative that has advanced CU Athletics in becoming zero-waste, carbon neutral, free of pesticides, solar powered, sustainably housed, setting an example for other collegiate sports programs and garnering top spots in national and PAC-12 rankings.

Sunday's basketball game also will feature Pepsi's "Bring Your Bottle Back to Life" campaign, which rewards fans who recycle with T-shirts made from recycled plastic bottles. Additionally, BASF Corporation, a chemical company, will sponsor the "Sustainable Gamedays" giveaway of 500 kitchen-size compost bins that fans can pick up while supplies last as they exit the Coors Events/Conference Center through the northwest doors located near the exterior ticket windows.

Visit the Ralphie's Green Stampede site for more information on CU-Boulder's sports sustainability efforts.
Featured February Events

Do Well By Doing Good: Sustainability is the New Competitive Advantage 

Join us with Kimberly Kosmenko for a workshop, discussion and free food!

WHEN: 
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
WHERE: 
Idea Forge - 2445 Kittredge Loop Drive Boulder, CO 80305 

The rules of business are constantly changing, with recent years bringing corporate responsibility front and center.  Businesses that leverage a true commitment to social and environmental sustainability are now gaining the upper hand in many industries.  Leaders earn competitive advantage with customers and hiring the best talent, while laggards risk losing ground. Learn about the drivers of this growing trend and how your business or start-up can create market opportunity by acting as a good corporate citizen. 

Climbing Poetree
CU Environmental Center, 
CU Assembly for Sustainability and Equity, and the CU Womens Resource Center present spoken word artists CLIMBING POETREE at CU-Boulder! 

"CLIMBING POETREE is the combined force of two boundary-breaking soul sisters who have sharpened their art as a tool for popular education, community organizing, and personal transformation. Alixa and Naima interweave spoken word, hip hop, and award-winning multimedia theater to expose injustice, channel hope into vision, and make a better future visible, immediate, and irresistible. With flawless cadence and impeccable lyricism, Alixa and Naima weave together their voices to tell powerful stories of love and liberation, state and personal violence, social, environmental, racial, and sexual justice, woman's empowerment, and human transcendence."

Performance:
February 17
6-8pm, Humanities 1B50
Free and Open to the public

Workshop:
Art is a Hammer: Reshaping Reality through Cultural Activism
Thursday, February 18, 6-8pm, UMC

FREE opportunity for CU Boulder students and staff! Register here.

Careers for a Cause
In partnership with Naropa University

WHEN:
February 18, 4:00PM-7:00PM
WHERE:
UMC 235

Come see what local and national non-profits are offering volunteer, internship, part-time and full-time positions!

The Power of Sports

Written by Jason Farrell

Folsom Stadium holds up to 50,000 spectators. Coors Events Center holds over 11,000. In both places, a passionate community gathers together to watch their team play, and hopefully win.

It has long been known the power that sports have for advertising. The Super Bowl's iconic commercials demonstrate the lengths that companies will go to promote their product or brand. As fans choose one side to support on the field, companies jump in to endorse a certain team, or the sport itself. Whether consciously or subliminally, sports and teams become associated with brands and behaviors. Why else do we pair pizza and beer with watching football?

This is the power of sports, but not its full potential.

During home football and basketball games, Ralphie's Green Stampede sets up zero-waste stations in Folsom or Coors, with zero-waste goalies at each station. At these stations, fans are directed to properly dispose of their waste in either a recycle or compost bin. Since spectators cannot bring non-recyclable or non-compostable materials into the venue, and because food and beverage vendors are required to use recyclable, refillable, and compostable items, the result is a zero-waste event. Almost everything that is thrown out during a game never reaches a landfill, but is recycled or composted instead.

Sports sustainability does not end with responsible stadium practices ─ a lot has been done operationally to improve CU's footprint. With its Water for the West initiative, CU Athletics will balance its water use by funding restorative projects in the Colorado River basin. In the Bring your Bottle Back to Life initiative, the bottles recycled at home games are manufactured into shirts ─ shirts that are then thrown back to fans whenever a touchdown or three-point-shot is scored.

Less visible improvements have also been made. Since 2013, all campus turf and sports fields have been managed without the use of chemicals or pesticides, which saves time and money while improving both turf and players' health. And smart financial management has allowed Athletics to invest in solar power and purchase carbon offsets, making the entire program carbon neutral. Not to mention that all new sports facilities, including some already built, are expected to be LEED Platinum certified.

All of this progress can be drawn upon to inspire change in fans' behavior. Promoting the Water for the West initiative encourages fans to reduce water use at home, while the Bring your Bottle Back to Life initiative promotes the benefits of recycling. CU is demonstrating that sustainability is rewarding, which is why Ralphie's Green Stampede asks fans to make small pledges toward being sustainable. Results show that the more that fans are aware of Ralphie's Green Stampede and CU's steps toward sustainability, the more likely they are to make similar choices at home, work, and play.

In essence, modeling ideal behavior in the realm of sports leads to a transfer of those behaviors to fans' everyday lives.

This means that social norms can be changed for the better by using sports. Instead of endorsing soda or chips, Ralphie's Green Stampede promotes sustainable behavior. This creates the demand for sustainable options in society, and demand leads to change. And when there is public enough demand, some company or government will take on the role to supply said demand. After all, Ralphie's Green Stampede demonstrates that sustainability is not only socially desirable and environmentally responsible, but economically advantageous too.

This is the significance of next-generation fan engagement, and we at CU Boulder are the pioneers. So the next time you are at a football game, or just sitting on your couch at home, join your fellow Buffs and take a step toward living more sustainably.

February Eco-Tip: Water for the West and Slow the Flow


Did you know:
  • The average American uses about 2,000 gallons of water each day.
  • 95% of that water usage is hidden in the food, energy, and products we use:
    • one gallon of gasoline= 13 gallons of water
    • one hamburger= 634 gallons of water
    • one pair of jeans= 2,900 gallons
    • one plastic water bottle= 100 gallons
  • Over 30 million people rely on the Colorado river, which is so depleted it no longer reaches the sea.
What you can do:
  • Reduce your water usage by making sustainable choices! Using reusable products, taking public transportation, and buying second-hand clothes cuts hundreds of gallons from your consumption.
  • Take the Water for the West Pledge! For every pledge that CU receives, 1,000 gallons of water will be restored to the Colorado Basin. You can also text CUwater to 27126 to pledge.
Community Resources:
  • Get a free water consultation through Center for Resource Conservation's Slow the Flow to learn how to increase water use efficiency in your home! Slow the Flow has saved an estimated 66,720,000 gallons to date by providing 1,673 water consultations annually to front range residents.
Sustainable CU Request for Proposals
In the spring of 2005, students voted to dedicate a portion of student fees to implement on-campus projects incorporating renewable energy, energy efficiency, recycling and waste reduction, and other innovative projects to reduce the University of Colorado Boulder campus impact on climate and environment.   Sustainable CU funds are used for: capital investment, the purchase of infrastructure necessary for the initiatives, installation of capital projects, educational displays related to the capital projects, and any other non-staff operating costs associated with the initiatives.  Particular attention is paid to initiatives created and led by students.  The Sustainable CU fund is administered by the Environmental Center. 

Approximately $100,000 is available for disbursement to campus departments and student groups in 2015-16 for environmental improvement projects.  Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through April for small scale projects requesting $2,500 or less. Large grant proposals are accepted in fall and spring and are next due on February 23, 2016.  For more info, applications, and examples of previously funded projects, visit  http://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/greening-cu/sustainable-cu
Save the Date! 
Campus Sustainability Summit:
A Community Dialogue for Vision, Ideas and Action Planning
WHEN: Thursday, April 21, 2016
            8:30am-1:30pm
WHERE: University Memorial Center

Free and open to CU-Boulder students, faculty and staff!

The 22nd annual campus sustainability summit takes a forward-looking and interactive approach in 2016. Join a collaborative community-based process to set a vision and actionable plan for CU's sustainability in energy and climate, zero waste, water, food, health and wellness.

More details and registration info forthcoming. For now, please hold the date.
Campus Sustainability Awards Call for Nominations
Deadline: March 1, 2016

The University of Colorado wishes to recognize outstanding individuals and departments who demonstrate a sincere commitment to reducing the burden that CU-Boulder places on the environment. The annual awards ceremony takes place each April.

The campus sustainability awards program started in 1997 as a means to recognize commitment to reducing the burden that the CU campus places on the environment.  Outstanding efforts make CU's successful and challenging approaches to attaining sustainability possible.  The awardees exemplify CU's continuing efforts to become a sustainable institution.  They set the example for environmental stewardship and responsibility.  Some of the awardees have made groundbreaking efforts that will change the overall way CU operates, and others make an impact on the community and campus environment with their everyday actions.  All in all, the campus community is contributing toward a sustainable future.

Nominate outstanding individuals and departments who demonstrate a sincere commitment to transforming the CU-Boulder campus into a living laboratory for sustainability through innovation that directly reduces the university's ecological footprint, enhances social cohesion and equity in the campus community and, or integrates sustainability into the culture of Boulder and our local communities.


More information on the Green Labs Award Program can be found here
Sustainability Immersion Program:
Spring 2016 Workshops and Field Trips

In response to student interest and requests, the CU Environmental Center is excited to launch the Sustainability Immersion Program. The program features a broad array of innovative and career-oriented workshops and field trips in sustainability, social justice, leadership training, and hands-on skill-building. 

These free offerings are restricted to CU-Boulder students and take advantage of the outstanding local resources. Students may participate in individual events and workshops which are planned for February 2016-April 2017.  Students who participate in the series will obtain a non-academic Sustainability Immersion Program certificate to accompany their degree.  There are no prerequisites to participate.  

Sustainability Immersion Program Spring 2016 offerings:

Saturday, February 20 - Sustainable Greenhouse Design workshop and field trip
Sunday, February 28  - Awakening the Dreamer workshop
Sunday, March 13 - Graywater Systems workshop and field trip
Saturday, April 2, 1-5pm - Fundamentals of Environmental Education workshop
Saturday, April 16 - Better Boulder Better World TBA

For more info and to register, visit our website.
Bike Program Update


The Bicycle Recycling and Processing Program is responsible for removing abandoned bikes from the racks on campus. By removing these abandoned bikes we are able to ensure ample bike parking for affiliates who are actively using their bikes. Since the Environmental Center took over this program in 2015, over 650 abandoned bikes have been cleared from campus, which has greatly freed up rack parking space. After abandoned bikes are impounded, they are held for 2-3 months to give owners a chance to claim their bikes before they become university property. After the holding period, the bikes are given a chance at a new life; many of them are refurbished and sold at the program's annual fall sale. The bikes that are not able to be refurbished for sale are donated to other non-profit organizations or recycled. In 2015, the program refurbished around 125 bikes, donated over 50 bikes to non-profits and recycled around 80 bikes. That's around 9150 lbs of bike waste diverted from the landfill! For more info on bike recycling and processing and the many other services of the bicycle program at CU, click here.

The program welcomes new staff members Michaela Owens and Bryan Weis!

Michaela is a Colorado native from Denver and has been living in Boulder since 2008. She has been riding a bike since she could walk, which is how her passion for cycling began. She now uses her bike as her main mode of transportation, riding an average of 3600 miles per year. Her involvement in the cycling world began while attending CU Boulder, where she got a job refurbishing abandoned bikes for the bike program. Since college she has become very involved in Boulder's cycling community by working at Community Cycles as a mechanic and educator since 2013. Her career has now come full circle as she manages the very program she worked for in college: the Environmental Center's Bicycle Recycling and Processing Program. In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking, hiking, seeing live music, cooking, camping, reading, and baking sourdough bread.

Bryan has spent the majority of his career developing and managing programs in the Outdoor Education industry. He came on board with the Environmental Center in 2015 as their Bike Station Coordinator. He hopes to continue to develop the CU Boulder Bike Program and one day gain a platinum certification with the League of American Bicyclists. In his free time, you will find Bryan in the mountains surrounding the beautiful city of Boulder, rock climbing or enjoying other outdoor activities. 
Green Labs Update


Q & A with Lily Robertson from Chemistry

Lily Robertson is a PhD candidate in the department of chemistry and biochemistry. She earned her bachelors degree from the University of Oregon, where she discovered her passion for greenchemistry and sustainable labs. Her current research focuses on developing polymerizable liquid crystals that will ultimately be used for membrane-type applications, such as water filtration. She is formerly a lab Eco Leader and is currently the Team Lead for her department.


Green Labs: What is the nature of your work for the Chemistry department?
Lily Robertson: I first learned about green chemistry [at the University of Oregon]. I was already very passionate about the outdoors and the environment and then there's a big emphasis on green chemistry at University of Oregon and that is what got me interested in green lab stuff. Then, when I came to CU as a graduate student in 2010, I learned about Greenlabs and because I was into being green my lab made me a second Eco Leader and when Kathy created the positions for the Green Labs Team Leads to think about ways to improve their specific departments she thought of me. So I applied for the position and got it. Since then I've been trying to juggle my own lab work and making my department greener. One of the first things I did was introduce and acetone recycling program which involves getting funding for $25,000 for the equipment to put the acetone in to recycle it. So that would be a taste of the sort of thing I do.
GL: How did you hear about and become involved with theGreen Labs Program?
LR: The graduate student I worked for noticed how I put in a recycling bin and a compost bin and she mentioned that I would love Green Labs because I was so interested in this kind of stuff. She told me I should get involved with her, even though she was already our lab Eco Leader. Her big thing was conserving water in the lab.

GL: What are some actions you're taking or have taken within your department since becoming a team lead that you are really excited about? What materials are you most concerned about conserving?
LR: We just got metal recycling. We get solvents delivered to us in these big, 5-gallon metal drums and before, because they have solvent in them, they would get thrown out in the trash because of all these scary words on them. Now we are able to recycle these metal cans, drums and any kind of basically any metal that's a type of canister. So that's very exciting. It may seem like a little thing, but it only started [in July 2015] and the carts have been filling up very quickly. Biochemistry is doing this as well because they use a lot of solvents. It gives me hope that one day we might be able to do brown glass recycling because we also receive solvents in brown glass bottles that are typically thrown out with the trash.

GL: What sorts of conservation efforts would you like to see Chemistry or your lab or research group take on in the future?
LR: One thing I've been exploring is recycling chromatography solvents. Chemists, mainly organic chemists, who are in the lab synthesizing things, they do a lot of thin-layer chromatography which allows you to separate different types of molecules but they have to use a lot of materials, including silica and solvent to push your compound through the silica to get maybe less than a gram of material, depending on what lab you're working in. Lately, I've been collecting empty 4-liter brown glass bottles that I would've otherwise had to throw in the trash and filling them with solvents used in chromatography. I'm hoping we can use them in our solvent recycler and then use the mixture again.

GL: How has your experience being an eco leader and then a team lead been for you? Has it benefited you in any particular way that you would like to talk about?
LR: It's been a big jump transitioning from and Eco Leader to a Team Lead because there's a lot more responsibility associated with being a Team Lead. An Eco Leader is a volunteer position but, then, as a Team Lead there will be some weeks where there isn't much for me to do and then others where I'll have to work nights and weekends to complete those tasks and also stay up-to-date wit my research. But it has definitely been a great experience that has taught me about multi-tasking and I really enjoy being part of the Environmental Center and getting to know people, undergraduates, and other people on campus that I wouldn't get to know otherwise. In graduate school you get a little secluded and you only get to know the people in your department or your hallways and I think the Green Labsprogram is a really great way to branch out.
 Buying Green = Buying Local


Written by Drew Searchinger
 
I had the privilege of spending time in Nicaragua this past summer with other CU students in INVST Community Studies' Community Leadership Program. We traveled there to learn about the global economy from individuals perhaps most affected by it: locals who work to produce many of the raw goods and materials that form the basis of international trade. It was an awakening experience to see the true implications of participating in our globalized market as consumers. But for me, this understanding of international economic injustice didn't come from a presentation; it came from a homestay experience in a farm town of just a few thousand people, called El Regadio.
 
El Regadio is situated in the hills a few hours away from Managua, Nicaragua's capital city. We arrived to our homestay community with bags of rice, beans, vegetables, and jugs of water to give to our host families in exchange for supporting us during our stay. Just before my partner and I got to the door, our facilitator quickly mentioned to us that our host mom, Do�a Mina, makes cheese. She then explained to Do�a Mina that neither of us eat meat. "Not even chicken?" she asked, confused. We smiled and shook our heads, then figured now would be a good time to mention that my partner also didn't eat dairy products (vegan doesn't translate well). Looking at all the cheese making equipment spread across the tables, our cultural differences suddenly felt penetratingly real. Nonetheless, Do�a Mina served us her cheese at every meal, which we gratefully consumed.
 
I left El Regadio especially charmed by how the town's local economy functions. Do�a Mina exchanges her cheese for the raw milk of a neighbor's cow. She trades another neighbor cheese in exchange for cookies. If nothing can be traded, she sells it for a few pesos. To me, the system is flawless: each member of the community seems to have their own specialty, and produces either a good or service that is of use to the rest of the community. The network of economic activity stays as close to home as possible, with less resources utilized to transport goods. Everyone has what they need, and each family depends on the next in order to support the community as a whole.
 
Buying and producing locally is the most holistic possible economy. I think of Do�a Mina and her beautiful family every day, and often wish I could visit my upstairs neighbor to exchange a sac of cheese for some cookies. But since I can't, buying from local and independent businesses is the next best thing! Local business generates 70% more local economic activity per square foot than big box retail. And if every family in the U.S. spent an extra $10 a month at local and independent businesses instead of national chains, over $9.3 billion would be directly returned to our economy. You can support farmers in Boulder County and receive produce directly from the farm by getting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share: check out Farmshares for a list of CSA options. Also be sure to take advantage of Boulder County Farmers Markets every week in Boulder and Longmont from April-November. Keep it simple and sustainable by spending close to home. 

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