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Jul 10: Film showing of “YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip”

June 27, 2012 – 3:18 pm

YERTWhen: Tuesday, at noon

Where: Olin 011

Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road—traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage—to explore every state in America in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity’s greatest environmental crises.

The Office of Sustainability has sponsored a viewing of this film before and is excited to offer those who missed it during Earth Week an opportunity to watch this inspiring, eye-opening docu-comedy.

Read our film review or click here for more information on the film.

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Climate Food Non-Tufts Events

Jun 20-22: Permaculture Your Campus Conference (UMass Amherst, MA)

May 16, 2012 – 5:25 pm

The University of Massachusetts Amherst proudly announces the Permaculture Your Campus Conference held at the UMass Amherst campus June 20-22, 2012 with special keynote speaker Frances Moore Lappé, author of 18 books, including the 3-million copy Diet for a Small Planet.

At the international Permaculture Your Campus Conference, directors of the award-winning UMass Permaculture Initiative will give an introduction to permaculture in a campus setting and share the value that it has created for the University of Massachusetts system and local community. Participants will learn how to develop a successful permaculture initiative for their campus and will leave with their own individualized action plan for their own campus permaculture initiative.

For more details about the conference, check out our Info About the Conference page and our Conference Schedule page.

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Career Climate

Various positions, Environmental Protection Agency (Boston, MA)

May 7, 2012 – 7:44 pm

Job Title: Clerk, GS-0303-03

Announcement Number: RTP-R1-OT-2012-0002

Who May Be Considered: Students who are continuing their education beyond the current semester on at least a half-time basis. To remain eligible, students must be enrolled at least half time for the duration of their appointment.

Application Limit: 50 or 11:59 PM on the closing date

Vacancy Link: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/315578100

 

Job Title: Environmental Protection Assistant, GS-0029-03/4/5 (PART TIME)

Announcement Number: RTP-R1-OT-2012-0004

Who May Be Considered: Students who are continuing their education beyond the current semester on at least a half-time basis. To remain eligible, students must be enrolled at least half time for the duration of their appointment.

Application Limit: 50 or 11:59 PM on the closing date

Vacancy Link: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/315578200

Job Title: Environmental Protection Assistant, GS-0029-03/4/5 (FULL TIME)

Announcement Number: RTP-R1-OT-2012-0003

Who May Be Considered: Students who are continuing their education beyond the current semester on at least a half-time basis. To remain eligible, students must be enrolled at least half time for the duration of their appointment.

Application Limit:100 or 11:59 PM on the closing date

Vacancy Link: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/315578000

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Campus Sustainability Council Climate Ideas Sustainability News Tufts Community News Waste

Campus Sustainability Council update: Waste Working Group

April 30, 2012 – 3:13 pm

Since the beginning of March, the three Working Groups of the Campus Sustainability Council have been meeting to discuss the current state of energy/emissions, water, and waste policies and practices at Tufts, and to create new policy measures in these areas.

The Waste Working Group met for the first time on March 12th and reviewed its roles and responsibilities, which include collaborating to create university-wide solid waste reduction/avoidance goals, presenting goals to the main Council for feedback and approval, and creating strategies to meet the goals, including implementation planning.

The group reviewed how Tufts manages its waste as well as consumption data. They learned that causes of waste output variations are usually hard to determine but that waste increases noticeably during a strong economy and times of high consumption, and that reduced consumption and reusing materials could impact waste output considerably. The group reviewed the waste breakdown for the past several years on the Boston and Medford campuses. Finally, the group looked into strategies for waste reduction. The waste management hierarchy follows, from most preferred to least preferred:

  • Source reduction and reuse
  • Recycling/composting
  • Energy recovery
  • Treatment and disposal

In the second meeting, the Waste Working Group decided to break down into smaller sub-groups, and the third meeting was spent working within those groups. The groups, along with their objectives, are:

  • Waste Management
    • To identify gaps and weaknesses in current waste management and address gaps, and to achieve uniformity in waste management practices wherever possible
    • Group will cover practices and metrics
  • Source Reduction
    • Group will impact waste reduction and responsible choices through purchasing contracts and client interface
  • Labs and Hospitals
    • Group will focus on laboratory and hospital waste management including animal facilities
  • Marketing and Education
    • Group will raise the level of awareness for waste reduction across all Tufts communities through behavior change

The working group members are now in the process of brainstorming goals and areas of policy change within their subgroups. Once this process is complete, the sub-groups will discuss their findings and the Waste Working Group will make a report to the Sustainability Council. The working group is co-chaired by Gretchen Kaufman, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Medicine in the Department of Environmental and Population Health and Director of the Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dawn Quirk, Waste Reduction Program Manager in Tufts Facilities Services.

As always, Tufts community members are welcome to add their own suggestions for the working group through the easy, on-line form available on the Office of Sustainability’s website.

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Campus Sustainability Council update: Energy/Emissions Working Group

April 20, 2012 – 6:42 pm

Since the beginning of March, the three Working Groups of the Campus Sustainability Council have been meeting bi-weekly to discuss the current state of energy/emissions, water, and waste policies and practices at Tufts, and to create new policy measures in these areas.

The Energy/Emissions Working Group met for the first time on March 15th and reviewed its roles and responsibilities, which include reviewing current energy usage and emissions, existing initiatives and goals, as well as creating recommendations for goals and implementation plans to present to the Campus Sustainability Council.

The group reviewed Tufts’ institutional commitments to energy and emissions reduction including the 1990 Talloires Declaration and Tufts Environmental Policy, the 1999 Climate Change Commitment to follow the Kyoto Protocol and reduce carbon dioxide levels to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012, and the 2003 New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers Climate Change Action Plan with the goal to be 10% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 75-85% below 2001 levels by 2050. The members also learned that many energy-saving initiatives at Tufts are already underway, including:

  • Occupancy sensors in most rooms on campus
  • Daylight sensing/dimming, lighting & controls
  • Ongoing technology updates include LED lighting
  • Equipment efficiency
  • State of the art boiler controls and boiler upgrades
  • Retro-commissioning of buildings
  • Heat-recovery programs
  • Energy Star vending machines & vending misers
  • Free CFL bulb exchange
  • IT upgrades (LCD screens, laptops)
  • Solar panels on Sophia Gordon Hall, Schmaltz House, Fairmount House
  • Management- Residence Hall winter break shut-down
  • Behavior modification
  • LEED Certification
  • Fuel Switching from oil to gas
  • Renewable energy such as solar and geothermal

The working group members discussed the differences between Tufts’ campuses energy use and emissions, life-cycle costing, ways to evaluate proposed solutions and appropriate metrics for evaluation. The group is in the final stages of assessing the current state of energy and emissions at Tufts and will soon move on to metrics and goal setting. The working group is co-chaired by Ann Rappaport, Lecturer at Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Betsy Isenstein, Director of Facilities Technical Services.

As always, Tufts community members are welcome to add their own suggestions for the working group through the easy, on-line form available on the Office of Sustainability’s website.

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Film Review: YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip)

April 20, 2012 – 10:49 am

50 States. 1 year. One planet to save.

Are we doomed?

You could panic…
or you could watch
this guy and this guy and this girl
panic for you.

- from the YERT trailer

Last night, I was gratified to finally attend one of the events we have been promoting incessantly for Earth Week: the film screening of “YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip” sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and the Office of Sustainability.

It was a delightfully funny, engaging and eye-opening experience. Billed as a docu-comedy, YERT follows producer Mark Dixon, director Ben Evans and his stalwart wife Julie Dingman Evans in a “year-long eco-expedition through all 50 United States.” They packed their belongings into a Ford Escape Hybrid named Rachel (in honor of Rachel Carson) which is shown getting 44 mpg on the film. They started in Pittsburgh and carried all their garbage around the country from July 4, 2007 to 2008, interviewing over 800 people.

Unlike many films about the environment, YERT is far from depressing. Mark and Ben, being old college buddies, were especially goofy together – injecting a large dose of humor into even the most serious interviews. They put together funny skits to liven up conversations. They challenged themselves not to create more trash each month than a cereal box can hold. They slept in a cave, a VW eco-bus/hotel room, and of course, an actual yurt.

The film did not sugar-coat or avoid big issues; instead, it balanced the good news and bad news stories extremely well. Who knew that there is a guy in Idaho working on Solar Roadways, a project to harness the sun’s energy by replacing asphalt and concrete surfaces with solar panels? Or that worm poop is one of the best things that could ever happen to your garden?

I really enjoyed watching the team do their corn challenge in Iowa and visit unusual places like the City Museum in Missouri filled entirely with salvaged/repurposed objects. They also visited the Terracycle plant in New Jersey and massive wind farms in West Texas.

The Earthship Education Facility

I was especially inspired that so many people – real, regular, everyday folks – all around the country are bravely trying to effect change in their own way. We are introduced to several fascinating characters – the “Lunatic Farmer” Joel Salatin (whom we recognized from Food Inc. and now has his own film, Fresh) and the architect of a self-powered green house called “EarthShip.”  My heart went out to the man in West Virginia who refused to move from his family home of 300 years, whose fight against the coal mining companies cost him his marriage (his wife was not a fan of getting shot at).

I was impressed that the film raised some key issues – questioning the model of infinite economic growth and how the American way of life has so successfully enabled individual independence at the expense of a sense of community. It’s no surprise to me that YERT has won so many awards. I highly recommend catching a screening soon – Tisch Library has a copy. Don’t pass up the chance to watch this very entertaining and inspiring film!

In the meantime, you can watch any of the 60 short films or YERTpods on their website. Here’s the trailer again, in case you haven’t seen it yet:

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Climate Events Ideas People

May 5: Climate Impacts Day, 350.org

April 19, 2012 – 8:26 pm

It’s time to Connect the Dots between climate change and extreme weather.

Protest, educate, document and volunteer along with thousands of people around the world to support the communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. Start an event here!

Record-breaking heat waves in Russia, wildfires in Australia, floods in Thailand. Every time we pick up the newspaper and read about another record-breaking natural disaster, it becomes increasingly clear that climate change is not a future problem — it’s happening right now.

Connect the Dots is a project of 350.org and its partner organizations, to shine a spotlight on the connections between extreme weather and climate change. They will use those connections to issue a wake-up call for our communities, the media, and our politicians.

They’ll kick off the project with Climate Impacts Day on 5/5/12, when thousands of communities around the world come together to take action to Connect the Dots and call for urgent action to stop the climate crisis.

Who: You, your neighbors, family, friends, and the rest of climate movement.

What: Actions – rallies, presentations, art projects, and more – that help your community connect the dots between extreme weather and climate change.

Where: All over the world.

When: May 5, 2012 (and beyond)

Why: Because climate change is not a future problem. It is happening right now, and it is devastating communities around the world. The world needs a wake-up call, and there’s no time to lose.

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Climate Energy Events Tufts Community Events

Apr 26: Aviation Biofuels: Propelling the World toward a Low-Carbon Future

April 19, 2012 – 7:54 pm

CIERP’S Energy, Climate, and Innovation Program presents…

Aviation Biofuels:
Propelling the World toward a Low-Carbon Future

with Cristina Haus , Executive Editor,
Jet Fuel Intelligence, Energy Intelligence Group

Thursday, April 26, 2012
12:30-1:45, Murrow Room, The Fletcher School
160 Packard Avenue, Medford
(A light lunch will be served. No RSVPs – first come first served.)

Cristina Haus will speak about the development of aviation biofuels over the last six years, from the military’s early strategic priorities that led to testing by the Air Force and later the Navy, to the certification effort for commercial use, to flight tests by Lufthansa and others, and the current effort to bring these fuels from technical viability to commercial reality through efforts by NGOs such as the Carbon War Room and groups like the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative. She will also discuss the regulatory framework – what exists and what is missing in terms of a global climate change agreement for aviation specifically and the world in general.

Haus, a Fletcher graduate (F’81), has worked at Energy Intelligence for most of her professional career. She began as a reporter at the flagship publication Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, and for the last twenty years has been Executive Editor of Jet Fuel Intelligence. She attends (and has been a frequent speaker at) Fuel Forums of the International Air Transport Association, which has taken her all over the globe. During a brief hiatus from EIG she worked for Bloomberg Business News and Cambridge Energy Research Associates. She speaks German, French, Italian and English, each of which she uses often in her work. Haus has two daughters, one of whom currently attends Tufts University.

For more information about this event or about CIERP in general, visit the Fletcher School Events page.

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It’s Earth Week! What are you doing to celebrate?

April 19, 2012 – 4:44 pm

Earth Week has finally arrived! Are you ready to celebrate the beauty that surrounds us and attend some awesome events? This week is stock-full of exciting programs, lectures, conferences, and festivals all focused on one topic: our earth and how we can keep it (and us) healthy!

While there are events throughout the week, the main Earth Day event on campus,Tufts Sustainability Collective‘s annual Earth Fest, will be held on Friday, April 20th from 1-5pm on the Academic Quad! Stop by to partake in fun eco-friendly activities including a clothing swap by the Eco Reps, a Student Action Squad BYOShirt tie-dye; a composting workshop; plant-your-own seeds by Tom Thumb’s Garden, and of course delicious free food! There will be live music and a wide variety of info booths. Come one, come all – let’s have some outdoor fun learning about and celebrating the earth!

Set aside some time for your planet this weekend, whether you attend the Tufts Energy Conference, go to a screening of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip, or listen to Professor Moomaw’s lecture on climate change. Should none of these events catch your eye, just take a step outside and enjoy nature’s springtime splendor – you just might be inspired to “green” your life.

-Anne Elise Stratton

Communications Intern, Tufts Office of Sustainability

 

P.S. Don’t know how you’re going to keep this multitude of environment-related events straight? Luckily, we’ve added them all to our Environmental Calendar, located on the Office of Sustainability website. The front page of our website and our blog also have detailed event information, as always.

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Eco-Reps visit local wind turbine

April 12, 2012 – 1:08 pm

Last Monday, the Tufts Eco-Reps (along with a few Eco-Ambassadors and staff members who graciously offered to give us a ride) took a field trip to the wind turbine site at McGlynn Middle School in Medford… a mere three miles from the Tufts campus! If you’ve ever driven down I-93 or the Mystic Valley Parkway, it’s hard to miss the towering 150-foot-high structure next to the Mystic River. The renewable energy icon was officially unveiled back in January 2009 but has already generated upwards of 250,000 kWh of energy since it became operational 3 years ago.

Tufts students and staff members visit Medford wind turbine site at McGlynn Middle School

Northern Power Systems, the electrical engineering company that built and manages the turbine, provides real-time data of the turbine’s total energy production, saved energy costs, and even the current rotor speed! Our hosts, Carey Duques, Director of Energy and Environment for the City of Medford, and Alicia Hunt, Medford Energy Efficiency Coordinator, explained thatteachers at McGlynn Middle School have incorporated hands-on lessons from the turbine into their classroom curriculum in order to teach students the benefits of community wind. Although the project faced opposition from those fearing it would be an eyesore, a Medford clean-energy committee worked on the project for three years and was able to raise nearly $650,000 in grant money to pay for the turbine. The project has a payback period of 5-7 years with a carbon emissions offset of 133 tons per year. Read the case study about this exciting innovation in renewable energy in our very own community.

On a national level, there is good news from the US Department of Energy (DOE) – last week, the Obama Administration announced an agreement to streamline offshore wind development in the Great Lakes. The DOE also awarded more than $5 million for advanced fuel cell research and $10 million for promoting zero-emission vehicles.

If you are interested in exploring more topics related to energy, The 2012 Tufts Energy Conference is being held on campus next week from April 20-21. Register here. We hope to see you at Cabot Center next week!

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