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News from the CU Environmental Center April 2006

History of Earth Day | Earth Day 2006 at CU | Director's Corner - The Triple Bind | Energy and Water Programs Update | Recycling Update | Sustainable Transportation Update | Campus Environmental Update | Sustainability Spotlight: 30 Years of CU Recycling | What's Happening: Upcoming Events | Green Living Tip: Spring Cleaning

A History of Earth Day  

Earth Day -- April 22 -- each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Apollo 13, the Beatles' last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, the birth of Mariah Carey, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina -- an incident not acknowledged for 18 years.

It was into such a world that the very first Earth Day was born.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. " "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked."

 At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.

 Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

 On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.

 Sen. Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest honor given to civilians in the United States -- for his role as Earth Day founder.

 As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues on to the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

 As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Events varied: A talking drum chain traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, for example, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA.

Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world 'round wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.

Now, the fight for a clean environment continues. We invite you to be a part of this history and a part of Earth Day. Discover energy you didn't even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grass roots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.

(source: earthday.net)

Earth Day at CU  

The University of Colorado will be celebrating Earth Day with numerous events taking place during "Earth Week," culminating in an Earth Day celebration Friday.

Monday, April 17

Environmental Justice Lecture Series:
Responses to Environmental Injustice
7pm, Ramaley C250
For more information click here.

Wednesday, April 19

"The High Cost of Free Parking": Don Shoup
 CU-Boulder, Cristol Chemistry Building, Room 142, 7:00 PM
 FREE AND PUBLIC
For more information click here.

Thursday, April 20

Topics in Sustainability Series
12-1pm, UMC 247
Boulder and Sustainability: Breaking New Ground
For more information click here.

Monday thru Friday, April 17-21

Positive Focus Film Festival
 April 17th and 18th, HUMN 1B80 from 7-10:30pm
 April 19th and 20th, MCOL W100 from 7-10:30pm
April 21, HUMN 1B80, 7-8:30pm

CU Environmental Center and CU Wildlife Initiative present the first annual Positive Focus Film Festival April 17th-21st! The festival will feature a variety of films representing various student groups that address pressing social and environmental issues.

 The "Mama Earth" film screening on April 19 features a special Q&A session with the film's Director!

 Refreshments provided. Free and open to the public. Download program with film descriptions (2MB).

Friday, April 21

Celebrate Earth Day on Campus 12-7pm, Farrand Field

▪   Earth Exposition
▪   Free Food cooked in Solar Ovens!
▪   Sustainable Fashion Show
▪   Live Music by Storytyme from 5-7pm
▪   Powered by Wind!

 Sponsored by CU Environmental Center, CU COPIRG, Solar Energy International

Director's Corner - The Triple Bind  

The Environmental Center this spring was directed by the UCSU Legislative Council and executive branch to launch an Environmental Justice Project aimed at addressing the Triple Bind.

The Triple Bind is what CU environmental justice professor Liam Downey calls the fact that those who benefit the least from the consumer lifestyle society has spawned are the least able to protect themselves--are harmed the most--from disproportionate exposure to toxic releases and environmental degradation that our industrial world creates.

“Environmental justice” was most clearly defined in the groundbreaking 1987 study of the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice. “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States,” found that “race served as the determining factor regarding the siting of polluting industries and dumps.” This study also revealed that “three of every five African and Hispanic Americans live near uncontrolled toxic waste sites, and that facilities were more likely to be in poor and minority communities because they were seen as paths of least resistance.”

One of the authors of that study came to CU in April to help us better understand the Triple Bind—and what to do about it. Vernice Miller-Travis spoke at an ENVS grad student-organized Environmental Justice Seminar Series on campus. She recalled the history of environmental justice, the emerging threats—and the emerging opportunities to bring disparate constituencies together. Climate change may provide one such environmental justice scenario that creates opportunities to work together.

Like the “traditional” environmental justice circumstances defined above, climate change also touches those with the least first and most harshly. Recent studies emerging from California show that industries such as tourism and agriculture—whose employees are largely people of color—are on the front lines of climate change. As these industries are hurt, their employees are hurt. And climate change’s direct effects of increased heat-related stress, sickness, water shortages, catastrophic weather events, and displaced peoples hit those with the least first, and worst.  The Triple Bind again.

Yet as Miller-Travis discussed, because climate change is such an overwhelmingly potent common enemy it can bring together business, environmental, and social progressive constituencies. Our job is to put aside past differences and seek to create alliances to better address this incredible challenge.

So the UCSU Environmental Justice Project will begin its journey here in the Environmental Center where we can reach out to friends and future-friends alike. We hope to add a staff person this summer, create some grant support to begin our efforts, and begin to amass the knowledge and resources we’ll need to move forward.

We need to look first at insuring our own house is in order. Is CU doing all the things it can to prevent environmental injustices from occurring on campus—and in communities affected by CU’s operations? The release this spring of the Blueprint for a Green Campus 2006 identifies some opportunity areas for improvement—and ways they can be addressed.

Fortunately, UCSU’s leadership is very supportive of and interested in these issues. Please let me know if you want to help us work these issues through so CU isn’t fostering its own Triple Bind.

Energy and Water Programs Update   Spring 2006 Residence Hall Wind Energy Challenge  RESULTS

The Environmental Center's Spring 2006 Wind Energy Challenge has come to an end.  The next opportunity to purchase wind energy through the E-Center will be at the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester.The Spring 2006 Residence Hall Wind Challenge was a huge success! Seventy-one on-campus residents bought a total of 145 megawatt hours of pollution-free wind generated electricity.  This energy will offset about 2 percent of housing's total consumption during the semester and avoid the emission of over 250,000 lbs. of CO2.

We hope that you will consider participating in the Environmental Center‚s Wind Energy Challenge next fall and we thank all those who signed up for wind energy this spring. While most of the world just sits around and waits for bad news about climate change, air pollution, and our total dependence on fossil fuels, you have done something about it!

Recycling Update   Buffs have a strong finish in RecycleMania 2006

Thanks to everyone on campus who participated in RecycleMania 2006 by putting paper, bottles, cans, and cardboard into the correct recycling containers across campus.  In the Grand Champion Diversion Rate competition, CU placed 12th with a 32.53 percent diversion rate.  Compared to last year, we saw a 14.85 percent increase in recycling over the 10 weeks of RecycleMania!

By recycling during RecycleMania, students, faculty, and staff at CU conserved the equivalent of 3,425 40-foot fir trees, 853 cubic yards of landfill space, and saved enough energy to power 64.5 American homes for one year.  Great work CU!

The winner of the first ever Residence Hall Recycling Competition was Aden Hall.  Residents and staff in Aden recycled 20.21 pounds per person over 10 weeks.  Stearns Hall won most improved starting the beginning of the competition 14th place and ending in 3rd.

For more information, visit http://recycling.colorado.edu.  Look for more information over Buff Bulletins and in the Colorado Daily in the coming week.

CU Recycling awarded with the American Forest and Paper Association School Recycling Award

The American Forest & Paper Association announced the 2006 AF&PA Recycling Award winners.  The awards were created to recognize outstanding individual, business, community and school paper recycling efforts.  Last year, a record-high 51.5 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling.

The AF&PA Recycling Award program was expanded this year to include a category for schools. Based on the strength of the applicant pool, a separate award for colleges and universities was added. 

This year the new university award was given to both the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oregon in Eugene.

CU Recycling was recognized for it’s dedication to educating students, faculty and staff and executing  programs that include America Recycles Day, RecycleMania, Move In and Move Out and Green Teams.

The results are impressive.  In 2004, more than 1,100 tons of paper were recovered – 93 percent of total recyclables.  Further, during campus move-in, CU Boulder recovered 35,880 pounds of cardboard – more than an 80 percent recovery rate.  Thanks to continuing outreach and education efforts, the program is paying off. 

Sustainable Transportation Update   Students vote on changes to bus pass service

Students last week voted to increase their bus pass student fee by $14.96 to
maintain SkyRide service to the airport.

With 4033 yes votes, the referendum passed in UCSU elections, and SkyRide
service will be retained.

For more information, please read the press release

Campus Environmental Update   2006 Campus Environmental Awards

The University of Colorado will recognize the significant environmental achievements and extraordinary efforts of outstanding individuals and departments at an environmental awards ceremony to be held on Thursday, April 27 from 8:00am to 9:30 am in UMC 235. Chancellor DiStefano will present the awards. . Breakfast will be served – please RSVP to ecenter@colorado.edu by Monday, April 24.

The 2006 Campus Environmental Awards go to:

• Lauren Heising, individual achievement
• Housing and Dining Services, departmental achievement
• Solar Decathalon, special recognition
• Robert Burke, water conservation
• Honorable Mentions:
• Steven Engel, green faculty
• Michael Hughes, Green faculty
• ROTC and Jon Krueger, recycling

The 2006 awardees' contributions can be viewed here.

Sustainability Spotlight   30 Years of CU Recycling

This year, the CU Recycling Program is celebrating its 30th birthday. Established in 1976, CU Recycling is one of the oldest campus recycling programs in the country. Run entirely by students for the first 15 years, a partnership with CU Facilities Management in 1991 produced additional growth and development in the program.

This rite of passage from youth to maturity, the University of Colorado’s recycling program   has notably expanded it’s operations, saved the campus money, and provided valuable student service opportunities while saving natural resources.

Now called the CU Recycling Partnership, students and staff manage 850 central recycling locations and 10,000 desk-side recycling containers in offices across campus.  The campus diverts just over 30 percent of its waste annually be recycling.  In the last year, in conjunction with CU Dining Services food waste collections have been established in three of the five dining halls.  Over 25 student staff work each year to sort recyclables and educate the campus community while saving CU Boulder about $235,000 annually.

Last year, CU recycled over 1,500 tons of bottles, paper, and plastics. Computers were refurbished and recycled into the homes of needy families. Tons of food waste from campus dining halls is now composted and returned to the Earth. CU is sending less waste to the landfill each of the last two years despite on campus growth.
If the trees equivalent to the resources saved by CU Recycling just since 1980 were laid end to end, they would stretch from Boulder to Seattle, Washington.

CU Recycling has been recognized again and again as a leader in campus recycling. In 1995 CU Recycling was awarded the Outstanding School Recycling Program prize by the National Recycling Coalition.  In 1999 the White House Task Force on Recycling awarded CU Recycling the Model Campus Recycling Program award.  This year CU Recycling was awarded the 2006 School Recycling Program Award by the American Forest and Paper Association for high quality of paper recycling.

As CU Recycling further matures, new ways to improve recycling and waste reduction are being planned. By enhancing partnerships and working with new stakeholders, CU Recycling strives to deliver a “zero-waste” or “waste-free” campus before it turns 50. Recycling rates can nearly double from their present 30 percent level. New waste reduction initiatives, collecting additional types of materials, and enhanced composting will keep CU enjoying many happy birthdays in the years to come.

What's Happening: Upcoming Events  

• April 17-21: Positive Focus Film Festival - Various dates, times, and locations
• April 17: Environmental Justice Lecture Series: Responses to Environmental Injustice - 7:00 pm, Ramaley C250
• April 19: "The High Cost of Free Parking": Don Shoup - 7:00 p.m., CHEM 142
• April 20: Topics in Sustainability Series: Boulder and Sustainability - 12 -1pm, UMC 247
• April 21: CELBRATE EARTH DAY ON CAMPUS - 12-7pm, Farrand Field
• April 25: CU Bioneers Discussion Dinner Series - 7-8:30pm, HUMN 160
• April 27:Campus Environmental Awards Ceremony - 8-9:30am, UMC 235
• April 28: Campus Sustainability Roundtable - 10am-12pm, UMC 386
To view the complete events calendar, click here   Contact the CU Environmental Center email: ecenter@colorado.edu phone: 303-492-8308 web: http://ecenter.colorado.edu Join our mailing list!
  Green Living Tip

Many kitchen cleaners, particularly oven cleaners, are laden with harsh chemicals that can irritate your eyes and skin, not to mention Mother Nature. Natural cleaning products leave the kitchen clean and your health in check.

• Natural alternatives exist for nearly every kitchen cleaning task, eliminating the need for chemical-heavy cleaners.
• Limit exposure to harsh chemicals. The average home today contains over sixty-two chemicals – that’s more than a circa-1900 chemistry lab.
• You know what you’re getting, and you can even pronounce the ingredients. More than 72,000 synthetic chemicals have been invented since World War II.
• Americans spend 90% of their time indoors. Using natural cleaning products helps to create a safer environment in your

  (source: www.IdealBite.com)