October 2009 Newsletter

News from the CU Environmental Center, 2009 October

Director's Update Oct. 2009

It's been a week or so since Facebook disabled my account for undisclosed crimes.  The bad news is I miss it.
 
My identity has been swept from all mention on Facebook. My friends (including my wife!) won't find me in theirProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 0files. All traces have been expunged. Home page is gone. And trying to contact Facebook for a fix-or at least an explanation-is like putting messages in a bottle and floating them out to sea.
 
Which raises the questions: how did I ever survive without Facebook? And why do I care now?
 
My shrink friends would say it's all about narcissistic co-dependency, whatever that means...
 
My sense is this is an opportunity to better understand-even a little--how those folks in the world that have truly been marginalized must feel. I have no problems compared to entire classes of people who don't even have a computer, or a steady job, or a stable government, or a clean place to live that's not right next to a chemical refinery or dump or livestock yard.
 
Has anybody ever explained to the world's disenfranchised peoples why we're dumping on them? If so, what was that explanation?
 
And then there's the species we've eliminated or suppressed-without sending them an explanation-so that we can be in charge. How well did we listen to their complaints?
 
When I think of Facebook in that context I can better come to terms with the Facebook-free life I am about to embark on. Likewise, my excommunication, while entirely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, reminds me that many, many people have real problems.
 
And just as we are suffering because of our misdeeds against the planet, its species, and the under-resourced peoples of the world, so too will Facebook ultimately take a hit for misdeeds against otherwise regular people. Turns out this happens to lots of people and they all end up hating Facebook. Over time, that will come back to bite Facebook, just as our turning a deaf ear to the needs of people, plants, and the planet is coming back to bite us.
 
Maybe I will use this reminder to redouble my efforts towards sustainability and justice in the world. Having only been on Facebook less that a year, I need to remember that there is life without it and get back to work. The friends I care about pre-dated Facebook and will always be there. The issues I care about are still issues that need a lot of attention.
 
And I will also send Facebook another couple hundred emails asking for reinstatement...

Zimride Comes to CU

Zimride launched a new rideshare community at CU.  The Zimride platform connects CU Boulder community members looking to share their ride through an easy to use private network that will reduce campus traffic, parking difficulties and provide substantial cost-savings for our community.  Through its website and Carpool application on Facebook, Zimride combines social networks and a proprietary route-matching algorithm to make it easy for users to share seats or find a ride.

"We are excited about the opportunity to significantly decrease our impact on the environment," said Peter Roper of the CU Environmental Center.  "Zimride's solution is appealing to our students, faculty and staff, which will enable us to reduce congestion and make campus commuting more efficient for everyone."

Zimride has developed a custom carpool solution to serve CU Boulder's campus population.  Through Zimride's web-based interface, faculty, staff and students will be able to find others with similar daily commuting patterns or one-time rides needs.  Zimride's system integrates with Facebook to develop trust and feedback among users.

Harvest Dinner

On September 23rd the E Center partnered with CU Housing and Dining for the annual Harvest Festival, a local organic dinner served in all of the dining halls as a celebration of fall. It was a huge success, due not only to the deliciousness of the local offerings, but also to the hard work and planning of Dining Services Executive Chef Kerry Patterson, and his team of chefs.
 
"It's an incredible event because we feature local products from local farmers and we think it really brings the fact that dining services is really committed to local cause," said Janice Torkildson promotions manager for dining services,
 
Local farms the Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Patch and Farmer John provided supplies for the dinner.  The meal included local vegetable and meat dishes as well as desert made from local fruit.
 
Chef Kerry said that the harvest fests spring from his interest in reducing the school's carbon footprint, as well as supporting the local community were forefront in the Festival, but he is also confident that the nutritional value and flavor of foods that don't have to travel as far are much more intense. He sees events like the harvest fest as a "win win situation" even if they require some hard work.
 
Torkildson said that everyone at the dinner enjoyed the meal and that she hopes dining services can continue to increase the amount of local and organic food available, as well as provide an educational component for students about where their food is coming from.
 
"I think that it is our role as educators to help make them aware of all of these issues," she said.

Spotlight on: Casey Jones

Casey Jones, Director of Parking and Transportation Services at CU, has some big goals for the campus. "We want to maximize campus access to our community in a sustainable way that is responsive to our customers needs," he said "We want to do it in a way that takes advantage of available technologies and is more cost effective."
 
Parking and Transportation Services manages all campus parking as well as busses, car sharing and bike use and parking.
 
"It used to be that our role was just parking cars, but now we don't see it that way at all," Jones said.  "We have a number of really exciting initiatives."
 
Jones said that the department is focusing on minimizing and streamlining parking on campus as well as making more sustainable forms of transportation like biking, walking and riding the bus, more convenient and more integrated into the campus. 
 
One of the things he is excited about is a car share program. Started last January it stages vehicles across campus.  Members of the program-almost everyone on campus can join-can borrow the cars.  This cuts down on the number of vehicles on campus, which reduces the amount of driving.
 
The department is also working to minimize car traffic on campus by making the parking system more efficient.  Jones said that they are using new technology, like computer based parking monitors and a web-based system to make parking more convenient and more efficient.
 
Parking and Transportation also works on non car-based transportation.  Jones says that they are looking to expand the Buff Bus system and make it more convenient, so that more people use it as an alternative to personal transportation.
 
Now, he is facing the challenge how to integrate bikes more smoothly into the campus transportation plan.  As more and more people bike, bike parking becomes more crowded and pedestrians and bikers take up more of the same space.  Jones said that plans for the future include finding a way to help walkers, skateboarders and bikers share the campus.