|
 |
|
|
|
 |
Sustany Foundation Blog |
|
|
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them?
By Sue Clarendon
June 20, 2008
Imagine the environmental impact, not to mention gas usage, of fifty cars, idling in the pick-up line of each public school in this county for anywhere from ten to forty-five minutes. Hillsborough is one of the largest school systems in the nation, with over two hundred schools; that’s ten thousand vehicles a day at dismissal, not to mention morning drop-offs. Imagine the environmental impact of each of those schools using one million sheets of paper yearly….
It’s been just a year since Leslie Farrell set about to make our local schools more environmentally friendly, and she’s made a lot of converts along the way – most recently the Sustany Board, with whom she met today.
She described some of the many initiatives promoted by her Environmental Improvement Force, a non-political group of parents, administrators, and teachers. These include recycling programs at school sites that never recycled before and addressing those idling vehicles. (The principal of Coleman Middle School invited parents to park their cars and enjoy the air conditioning of the school library, where they could help shelve books – brilliant!) Best of all, the students have jumped in with great enthusiasm. There are now over twenty schools involved, public and private, but Leslie is looking for more help. She would like to get the word out via an EIF website, to provide templates of the group’s initiatives, to be utilized by more and more schools, both public and private.
Our kids are at school to learn “the three R’s,” but there’s another “R’ that’s just as important – Responsibility. How wonderful that our own kids are now encouraging good stewardship of our natural resources. Thank you, Leslie!
Environmental Speed Dating
By Sue Clarendon
April 22
I love Green Drinks. Not beverages of that color, as featured on St. Patrick’s Day, but the organization Green Drinks, which came to Tampa by the good graces of design professional Sean Brennan, who went to his first meeting in another city and decided to bring it here. (See the website for other locations worldwide: www.greendrinks.org.)
The Green Drinks concept is simple and brilliant. As Sean puts it, “The goal of this group is to form a synergistic atmosphere for the growing number of individuals in the Tampa Bay area who have embraced sustainability and environmental and sustainability-driven issues - from all industries, be it in their career, their studies, their lifestyle, or any combination thereof. It doesn't matter if you're an expert or a newbie, all are welcome! By sharing our unique knowledge and experiences, we can form the connections that are necessary to promulgate our message throughout the area. Oh yeah, and get a little loose while doing so!” I’ll drink to that, and I try to – on the third Wednesday of every month at 6 p.m.
My husband calls these monthly meetings “Environmental Speed Dating”, which seems quite apt. The group meets, after all, at MacDinton’s, a South Tampa pub with an outdoor deck that seems quite popular with singles. And on a good night at Green Drinks, it’s certainly possible to fall in love… with an idea… or often more than one. My encounters with fellow Green Drinkers invariably yield a lot of “How cool is that!” moments; I can hardly wait to get home to Google afterwards to learn more. It is incredibly gratifying to meet kindred spirits like Ray Rose, the young president of US Lawns, who told me, “You can be a capitalist and be green,” and is investigating the use of seawater to create organic pesticides. Or Tanya Cielo, who works for a local radio station and is anxious to bring environmental messages to our local airwaves, as she did in Miami. Or Denny and Louanne, who make the pilgrimage from their home on the Nature Coast to attend Green Drinks and are hoping to start a local chapter in their own Pasco community. Or Kyle Shaper, an urban planner interested in sustainable development, who was interviewed at a recent meeting by Leigh Spann, meteorologist with News Channel 8, for a story on Green Drinks, because she is also interested in the cause. Or Green Drinks impresario, Sean Brennan, who recently kicked off a “Deck Discussion” series by describing his work in design management.
If you ever despair of seeing positive change in our community, or if you ever feel alone in your environmental concerns, Green Drinks are good medicine. The next meeting will be May 21st, 2008 at 6 p.m., on the deck at MacDinton’s, 405 South Howard Ave, Tampa.
Going Green Expo 08
By Dewey Davis-Thompson
April 15, 2008
The Going Green Expo 08 at the USF Sun Dome had a carnival atmosphere. The venue was packed with a veritable cornucopia of eco-friendly businesses and organizations, as well as a healthy smattering of USF programs, LEEDS designs and student initiatives. In addition to booths, displays and presentations, there was plenty of healthy food, music, kids activities and lots of free stuff.
After fueling up on Jerk Hut chicken and an organic smoothie from King's Natural Catering, I was privileged to see Roberta Fernandez of Planet Partnership speak on leadership in the Green and Gold room. Her presentation highlighted the serious environmental challenges of climate change and she encouraged all attendees to see themselves as leaders on this front. Presentations occupied three stages all day, on topics from transportation to gardening and water usage. At the end of the day I was able to pick up a free water barrel for the back yard, compliments of the University of Florida Extension.
Hosts USF and the Planning Commission and sponsors TECO and Lykes Brothers were front and center with information on their green initiatives. Lykes Brothers emphsized their stewardship of habitat for red cockaded woodpeckers. Also on hand were Tampa Bay Cycle and the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority with their visions for alternative wheels. Tampa Bay Cycle encourages bicycling in the region and the TBRTA was talking about a light rail to connect and engage all communities, unlike highways that separate them.
Other wheels were on display in the central floor including biodiesel and VO Conversion cars and trucks from Lokey and a gas-to- electric car conversion company called the Clean Vehicle Research Institute setting up shop in Drew Park.
There are many small start up businesses in Tampa Bay selling eco-friendly products and services, like tiles made of recycled glass, groundcover plants that soak up pollutants and green builders and real estate developers like Green Earth Construction Group. Samples of natural non-toxic cleaning supplies were available from Green Man, a local maid service that offers green cleans and now has a line of green products. Flush Puppies gave away samples of biodegradable doggy bags as part of their effort to help in the annual battle against 10 million tons of pet poop.
Green student initiatives were abundant, including the planting of an organic farm on the USF campus and College Green Camp, which plans to build a zero-emissions home (if they can get the permits). Engineers Without Borders was raising funds for their upcoming projects to provide water and electricity to poverty-stricken countries.
Civil Engineering students were also at hand to describe their charts and diagrams detailing several experiments and designs to modify current public schools, the USF Sun Dome and other buildings to be more in line with LEEDS guidelines. This was a single project within the existing Civil Engineering program.
Roberta Fernandez gave away copies of Low Carbon Diet, and there was lip balm, squeezy toys and art projects for all ages and plenty of special fun for kids. There was a lot of excitement in the air, and many of the same folks should be The Pinellas Living Green Expo on May 3-4 and EFest in Sarasota this November.
Sustany in the News
Read about the Sustany Foundation in the March 15 issue of the Tampa Tribune, South Tampa Section.
Click here!
Go Outside
By Sue Clarendon
December 30, 2007
Think about what you did when you were a kid, what you did when you weren’t in school. Can you remember “Go outside and play” being Mom’s daily mantra? Translated, that meant, “Get out of my hair,” but for most kids, such an edict was a win-win! I remember sneaking over the fence to explore the woods surrounding a seminary hear our house, the wonder of finding fossil treasures at home construction sites and idyllic days spent at my grandfather’s summer camp on a lake in the Berkshires.
Now think about how our children spend their days; video games, TV, the Internet, the mall? According to Richard Louv, the author of the book "Last Child in the Woods”, kids across all ages and socio-economic groups no longer have a connection to nature, beyond what they might see of it on the Nature Channel. One example: a 2002 study found that 8-year-olds could identify 25 percent more Pokémon characters than wildlife species. According to the Kaiser Foundation, children between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 6 1/2 hours a day with electronic media; that would not seem to leave much time for “Go out and play.” Here’s another alarming statistic: according to a University of Maryland study, between 1997 and 2003, the proportion of children ages 9 to 12 who spent time hiking, walking, fishing, playing on the beach or gardening declined 50 percent. Fifty percent? From low to incredibly low? Yikes!
These statistics suggest an even deeper problem. If we have surrendered our kids to technology, and perhaps surrendered ourselves as well, how can we hope that this next generation will embrace the cause of restoring and preserving an environment to which they have no connection?
Sustany’s first “field trip” addressed this problem. This afternoon, a group of two dozen adults and kids “went outside” with Dana Lawson, the President and Education Director of Nature’s Academy. This organization provides educational nature experiences to Florida kids in many locations. Ours was Fort Desoto, on a gorgeous, windy day. First up, a nature walk, to examine a cross-section of habitats on a barrier island. Seeing an area where a prescribed burn had taken place led to a discussion of fire ecology. The Australian pines and Brazilian pepper provided examples of invasive species, and we talked about their effect on native species. Of course, the kids were thrilled to see a kiteboarder taking some air when we reached the shoreline; it looked like lots more fun than a theme park ride!
Next up: a kayak tour of the mangroves. Many of our group had never been kayaking but quickly got the hang of it. The teens paddled in perfect synchrony, trying to overtake each other and having a blast. We rounded up at the edge of the mangroves to talk about the significance of barrier islands in storm protection. Dana showed us the mangrove varieties and explained the significance of coastal vegetation and oyster reefs for water filtration. We could taste the resulting saltiness of the black mangrove leaves. Then, a wonderful surprise: our group was joined by a pod of dolphins! They were all around us, and we quickly surmised it was dinner time by the churning of the water and airborne acrobatics of panicky mullets. Few of us had even been that close to those amazing creatures; they were breathtakingly beautiful, arcing out of the water.
The big finale was our own version of CSI Fort Desoto; at the picnic tables, we dissected spiny dogfish sharks that magically appeared out of Dana’s big cooler. It was another first for most of the kids – the first time they ever had an opportunity to peer into the innards of a vertebrate of any kind. We learned firsthand how sharks have skeleton made of cartilage rather than bone, the adaptations that permit them to live in the ocean, and how their “form fits function”. The kids looked into their stomachs and intestines to analyze their last meals and wrestled with the sharks to remove the lenses of their eyes. They were totally immersed in the whole process and listened intently to Dana’s descriptions of shark life. They even helped clean up!
The mission of Nature’s Academy is to educate individuals about the complexity of Earth’s ecosystems and inspire them to become better stewards of our limited resources. We applaud Dana’s initiative and encourage you to utilize their programs with through your own school or Scouting group. What better way to follow that Mom edict than to go outside and play…and learn… and become part of the natural world again.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
