Monday, December 3, 2007

Students for Organic Solutions update!

Here is some information on Jessica's campaign:

"Students for Organic Solutions Campaign

This campaign focuses on collaborating with dining services to
continue to increase the purchasing of organic and local produce in
the dining halls. Now, all the dining halls are at least 35% organic,
from just five years ago there was none! Not only do we collaborate
with dining services, but we help outreach to students to let them
know that they have a voice and dining services wants to know what
students want. Throughout the quarter we visit ALBA farms, one of the
suppliers to our dining halls, have potlucks, and host guest speakers
that talk about food-related issues.

This quarter we will be hearing Sandor Katz talk about fermentation,
probiotic diets, and the benefits of bacteria, as opposed to
microwaves, preservatives in our food, and antibiotics. He will be
talking about our industrial food system, and how this system
conflicts in more ways than one with our own human anatomy and
immunity systems. He will give a demonstration on how to ferment
vegetables, so bring your veggies and join in!
Email jessicawonyee@gmail.com for questions.

Also, as a human being consuming resources, I've been greatly affected
by the worldwide depleting resource of WATER! This natural resource is
essential to our food systems, as well as our own existence (we are
70% water). As to practice the phrase "Think Global, Act Local," I
feel that UCSC could be doing a better job to conserve this sacred and
natural resource. I've been drawing up a proposal of a greywater
catchment system to be used at the Trailor Park. This recycled water
will then be used hopefully next quarter in the nearby gardens where
we harvest and eat from, thus completing the cycle. If you are
interested and would like to help out in any way (research, building,
etc), please email me at jessicawonyee@gmail.com."

info about the bike class!

Eva passed along the following info:
"As the campaign coordinator for sustainable transportation in the SEC, I have been working with others from the bike club in putting together a bike class that will be offered through Oakes College for 5 credits this spring quarter in 2008.

The class will be an integrative bike course geared towards inexperienced bikers providing a thorough understanding of the culture behind the bicycle in the lecture portion of the class, as well as an intimate knowledge of the mechanics of the bicycle in the lab portion of the class. A thorough understanding of the history and philosophy of bicycling allows the students to explore the various roles the bicycle plays in society, and its connection to sustainability.

In this class the students will be making bikes which will go into a bike library on campus, from which students can rent bikes for a small membership fee or work exchange.

After gaining the knowledge from this class, we hope that students will then have the opportunity to make real change happen by implementing projects in the community and through association with the Bike Library. Each student will gains personal empowerment through the creation of their own bicycle as well as a complete understanding of the mechanics behind it. The ultimate goal of the course is to provide students with the ability to make the wheels of change, pedaling the UCSC campus and the larger community to a more sustainable future."

Thursday, November 29, 2007

while we wait...

since no one has updated with campaign info or upcoming events, i thought i'd post a link to a green website i enjoy while we wait!
treehugger
it has lots of cool info on green design, news, culture, and technology. woo! things we like!
-erin

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Hey everyone!
This is going to be a new blog for the Student Environmental Center at UCSC, a student org dedicated to organizing student involvement with issues of sustainability on campus, as well as collaborating with the University to implement environmentally sound practices on campus.

The blog will be updated from time to time with pertinent, up to date info about what we're doing. We will write about what each group is working on, and how projects were approached and completed. By doing this, we hope to monitor our own progress as we work on specific environmental issues, and to give a broad overview of the things that YOU, dear reader, can get involved with.

The Student Environmental Center meets weekly for general gatherings, where everyone is welcome to attend and get involved. We meet in the College Eight Student Commons, otherwise known as the "red room", on Wednesdays at 6:30. It's a great time to eat some good food, meet cool people, and talk about issues of sustainability and how to work towards change for the environment. Hope to see you there!