Call for submissions!
Submit by May 25, 2012
Guidelines:
- Shorts under 5 minutes
- Sustainability and environmental themes
- Open to 6th grade through graduate students
Presented by: Green Living Project
Click here for more information.
Month: April 2012 (Page 4 of 6)
When: Saturday, April 28th from 10:00am until noon
Where: Assembly Row, Waterfront Park in front of the Staples lot, 165 Middlesex Avenue, Somerville, MA
Join the Mystic River Watershed Association and Gentle Giant Rowing Club for an Earth Day River Cleanup along the Mystic River on Saturday, April 28th from 10:00am until noon. Parking is available in the Staples parking lot and volunteers are needed to remove trash along the banks of the Mystic. Find out more here (http://mysticriver.org/watershed-clean-ups/). At noon volunteers can join the City of Somerville at the DCR Blessing of the Bay Boathouse on Shore Drive for a spring clean-up BBQ.
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!
When: April 13, 12pm-1pm
Where: The Fletcher School, C205
The Sustainability Consortium: An Inside Look – Featuring Jillian Gladstone
In 2009, with great fanfare, WalMart launched the Sustainability Consortium with the ambitious goal of quantifying the environmental impact of nearly every consumer products. But what does it mean to compare the impact of paper v. plastic, shampoo v. conditioner, spinach v. sandals? Can this Herculean task be accomplished? Will this help us build more sustainable business practices?Who can tell us?? Jillian Gladstone (Fletcher | Friedman 2012), who manages the Consortium’s Home and Personal Care Sector Working Group! Come hear Jillian tell us about her work and answer all the questions.
Food provided!
RSVP: here
About the Sustainability Consortium:
The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) is an independent organization of diverse global participants that work collaboratively to build a scientific foundation that drives innovation to improve consumer product sustainability. TSC develops transparent methodologies, tools, and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social, and economic imperatives. The Sustainability Consortium advocates for a credible, scalable, and transparent process and system. The organization boasts over 75 members from all corners of business employing over 57 million people and whose combined revenues total over $1.5 Trillion.
About Jillian Gladstone:
Jillian manages The Sustainability Consortium’s Home and
Personal Care Sector Working Group. In this role, she works with corporations, NGOs, and academics to develop tools that companies will use to measure and report on the sustainability of their products. Jillian is currently pursuing a joint MALD/MS from Tufts University, at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and The Friedman School of Nutrition. Her research focuses on sustainability efforts in the food and agriculture sectors. Before returning to school, Jillian coordinated Waterkeeper Alliance’s campaign to fight pollution from factory farms. Prior to that, she worked in communications and public advocacy for Human Rights First. Jillian received her BA in Politics and Anthropology from New York University in 2004.
April showers have definitely arrived and our thoughts turn to that most valuable resource: water. Don’t let that rain outside fool you! 
Water is still in high demand and any efforts on our part to limit water waste make a world of difference.In fact, the Water, Systems and Society (WSSS) program is holding its 3rd annual symposium on April 27 and the theme is “The Glass Half Full: Valuing Water in the 21st Century“, exploring the various complex and interlinking factors of valuing water throughout developed and developing nations.
Here at Tufts, the Campus Sustainability Council’s Water Working Group has begun reviewing current usage and existing initiatives related to water, such as the installation of rain barrels to capture roof run-off for landscape irrigation and low-flow shower heads and dual-flush toilets as part of bathroom upgrades in residence halls. The group is working towards preparing specific “SMART” goals for the university over the coming months. Feel free to submit your suggestions for any of the Council’s working groups (the other two focus on Waste and Energy/Emissions) – the Office of Sustainability will collect and summarize the suggestions on behalf the Council.
On a related note, the 24oz light blue Nalgene with a water bottle-stomping elephant on it has become a familiar sight around the Tufts Medford campus. You may recall that beginning last fall, the sale of single-serving beverages was eliminated from Hodgdon Good-to-Go, thanks to a campaign by student action group Tufts Against Plastic (TAP). Tufts Dining supported the initiative and even helped promote it by giving away the clear “Choose to Reuse” water bottle for free with the sale a fountain drink during the first two weeks of the semester. (Dining has since made the Nalgene bottles available for sale wherever plastic bottles of water are still sold and they offer a beverage discount for those who bring reusable bottles to Hodgdon Good-to-Go, Tower Café, Mugar Café, and The Commons.)
A full semester after the initial change took place, Patti Klos, Director of Dining and Business Services, estimated a reduction of over 133,000 disposable bottles per semester! That’s 73% fewer bottles from the previous school year when single-serving beverage bottles were still sold in Hodgdon. Read more about this story.
In the meantime, let’s continue to work on keeping our personal water usage to a minimum – from shortening our showers to turning off the faucet when we brush our teeth. See our Green Guide to Living and Working at Tufts for more tips on how to conserve water.
– Anne Elise Stratton
Communications Intern, Office of Sustainability
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