Sustaining Knowledge from V515

Good people of V515...it's been a blast! At the close of this semester, I can't believe how much we have all learned about each other. We've got some seriously unique perspectives that we've brought with us from California/Ohio/NYC/Florida. We each see things through different lenses of equity/health//happiness depending on our respective passions. When introduced to a new problem, we seek solutions from personal actions/politics/incentives. One thing that ties us together now, though, is an understanding that complex problems don't have simple solutions.

I think this is the number one understanding that separates the educated from the uneducated, the irrational actor from the critical thinker, and the successful problem solver from the guy who's probably going to give up. How many times have you heard someone who has no idea what they are taking about spout out some "perfect solution" to a grand challenge? This is absolutely one of my pet peeves. I'm so appreciative that our Sustainable Communities course provided a practical look at the difficulties of fostering sustainability, and that it encouraged us to expand and pick apart rather than simplify and reduce the issues.

V515: Calvin would be displeased

The blog assignments were a huge advantage of the class, allowing much more open learning opportunities than the typical grad class affords. I very much enjoyed taking on a personal project and following up on my progress every few weeks. I particularly enjoyed class periods when we used our classmates' blogs as a jumping off point for discussion. To me, people's blogs much more strongly informed the discussion than the tweets we were assigned to submit before each class.

I could talk all day about this class (and I recommend it to anyone at IU), but I'll just share one last thought. Roseland's text was 100% the right choice. The community capital framework framed the different topic areas very well, and the breadth of example communities highlighted inspired me that innovative progress toward sustainability is possible anywhere.

As we finish, I send a big THANK YOU out to Bill Brown, who recognizes that graduate students DO have interesting things to say. He's got faith in his students' abilities and lets us run a bit wild with our ideas! It has been fun exploring everyone's values and passions together as we discussed the various solutions that could help make our communities more clean, safe, valuable, equitable, enjoyable, and sustainable :)

"Less But Better" Project Wrap-Up

I have had so much fun with this project! I'm really glad I chose to follow a personal challenge that would require so much reflection and examination of my values and priorities. This project was, of course, for a class on Sustainable Communities, so there was a big component of environmental benefit. However, another huge goal for the project has been trying to increase the amount of time and money I have to do things that make me happy!

Things on a shelf can only bring so much joy, and as many of the TED talks (including one of my favorites, above) and other resources I've posted here demonstrate, our belongings often just get in the way. I started making this realization when I moved out of my childhood home and began accumulating more and more belongings. I couldn't really articulate it then, but I was starting to think that more wasn't always better. Over the course of this project, I have really enjoyed striving to return to a simpler lifestyle, and I think my happiness will only continue to grow.

To understand what I've really accomplished, I took stock of the things I cleared from my life and tried to keep track of where they would end up. A huge priority was to make sure I wasn't just throwing away a bunch of stuff I would re-buy again later. Luckily, after weighing my unwanted things, it seems that only six pounds of stuff has truly reached the end of its useful life at this point. Great news! Here's how my totals look, broken down by point of exchange:

• Planet XChange and Plato's Closet: I took a big box of winter clothes to my favorite resale shop in Knoxville then to the place next to Fancy Kroger here in Bloomington. In total, they took 5 lbs of clothes from me and gave me $67. I have another box of warm-weather clothes (17 lbs) that I'll take to these two places in the spring.  
• McKay's: I dropped off 30 lbs of unwanted books, CDs, and DVDs at my favorite place, and I got about $80 in return! I hope someone else will enjoy my old stuff :)
• Goodwill: I ended up taking more stuff than expected to Goodwill. I had some furniture and other home goods to donate, plus the clothes that didn't sell at PXC or Plato's. Just this stuff weighed 71 lbs! In addition, I asked the guy at Goodwill where I should take toiletries (thinking Middle Way House?), and he said that GW actually sells tons of shampoo and lotion and stuff. That was 10 lbs. Then, I asked if my 4 lbs of craft supplies would sell, and he told me much of this is auctioned off online. They bundle big packages of supplies and price them for sale at www.shopgoodwill.com (that's where all the really good stuff goes, in case you were wondering!)
• MCSWMD: Yesterday, I took 37 lbs of old cleaning supplies to the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District. I learned that the District actually gives hazardous materials a second chance to be used! I put all the bottles on a shelf that people can pull from for FREE! If these things sit on the shelf for some given number of days, only then are they packaged for safe disposal at the landfill. Neat!
• Recycling: I got rid of some worthless papers that weighed about 11 lbs.
• Trash: There were a few things I got rid of that I just couldn't see anyone else reusing or recycling. I'll get rid of them now, and hopefully I will continue to reduce in the future to make up for the landfill impacts of these 6 lbs of trash.
• Total project outflow: 5 + 30 + 71 + 10 + 4 + 37 + 11 + 6 = 174 pounds of unwanted stuff
• Total project inflow: $67 + $80 = $147 + GOOD VIBES :)

Here's one last measure of my progress over the course of the semester. I've got photos of my living space before and after. Here's where I see how much further I'd have to take this to really be a minimalist. The truth is, I love living in a space that feels like home, so I've still got books on shelves and posters on walls and relics from my past. I can continue to explore the balance of stuff for the rest of my life, but I feel good right now knowing that I've simplified a bit, decreased my impact a bit, and grown in happiness through the process. Anyway, here's the pre- and post-pics. Not a huge difference, but certainly an improvement:

Slightly less furniture, a more tidy bookshelf, and cleaner workspace

Less furniture, a little less clutter

Less busy walls, more closet space (though newly filled with winter gear from storage)

Room for coats & summer stuff, camping gear more organized, no more toxic inhabitants

Now, if there's one thing I've learned through this exploration of stuff, it's that many Americans are really addicted to it. Myself certainly included to some degree. We can look to the storage industry, Black Friday, or even the financial crisis of 2008 for evidence. The real interesting question for this project has not been "What would happen to the world if I lived more simply?" Instead, I've been thinking, "What would happen to the world if everyone lived more simply?"

If we think back to the Story of Stuff, we remember the impacts of extraction, production, transportation, and disposal of the things we buy. We recognize the huge totals of embodied energy associated with things we casually purchase but never fully utilize. What if the world's demand for stuff declined significantly so that fewer resources were extracted, fewer power plants needed, fewer trucks were on the road, fewer Walmarts were hogging up land, and fewer things were being landfilled??

All in all, the potential change to the ecological footprint of our nation remains pretty unclear, but I have hope that a change for the better is in our immediate future. My generation is a whole different breed, and it will be up to us to find balance in our consumption of resources and our achievement of happiness. The seeds of sustainable change have been planted, and I fully expect them to grow as more and more people start living "less but better" lives!

If anyone else wants to get on track to "less but better" I'd encourage you to examine your own purchasing habits, not just adopt the rules that I've set for myself. We all own different things that make us particularly happy and other things that are just taking up space. I feel like I've learned a lot about myself through this project, and here are the rules I'll be trying to follow as I continue to pursue "less but better":

Thanks for reading, and keep me updated on your journey if my project inspires you to simplify :)

AASHE Conference 2014 (Outside Experience #3)

As you all know, I'm a huge nerd. So one of my favorite experiences this year has been travelling to Portland, Oregon, for the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE is a membership organization that brings together sustainability practitioners, provides resources, and catalyzes action in college and university communities across the globe. Their conference is THE place to meet brilliant, dedicated, problem-solvers who care about the future of our planet and the coming generations that will inhabit it. And I'm not just saying that because I was there...

Seriously though, I learned so much this year and just found myself in awe of all the great work being done in my field! The AASHE conference is definitely a great place to get inspired. The general schedule lasts a few days with hundreds of overlapping presentations, panel discussions, networking opportunities, community tours, poster sessions, and keynote speakers. In addition, there is an exhibition hall with dozens and dozens of booths with resources for campus sustainability leaders, there is FOOD, and there are all kinds of people who share a very specific common interest just getting to know each other and sharing ideas. This year, the theme was "Innovation for Sustainable Economies and Communities," but this in no way limits the conference content to these spheres. Now, this won't even begin to give you an idea of the wide variety of topics covered, but here are some of the sessions I attended:

• Big Ten and Friends workshop
• Student sustainability grants for campus projects at Ohio State
• Beyond eco-reps: Deepening engagement through an effective residential life partnership
• Southeast Sustainability Network (SSN) Lunch
• Building a living-learning community: Big problems and big success
• Studying sustainability studies: A comparative analysis of 42 US degree programs
• Developing an effective peer education program **MY session!**
• Accomplish more, work less
• Greeks think green: Greening Greek row
• Sustainability on a grand scale: Large university networking

My favorite was the one called "Accomplish more, work less." I couldn't believe that there weren't 500 people in the room for this one, because who doesn't want to know how to accomplish more while working less? Surprisingly, the session was delivered by two undergraduate students from the University of Denver who made streamlining sustainability efforts across campus sound easier than tying my shoe. I was surprised because I know that this very task is what many high-level sustainability professionals struggle with more than anything else. The fact is that there is so much to be done, and when you are passionate, you want to do all you can at all times forever. For this reason, I think, many people in higher ed sustainability get burnt out. These students from Denver were the opposite of burnt out, though...and it sounds like they are spearheading some pretty astonishing initiatives for their campus. Very cool stuff!

I also enjoyed having the opportunity to present my own work for the first time this year. I gave a 20-minute briefing of what I had been up to for the past year and half (HA!), and I hope my experiences might help a good number of my colleagues doing similar work at other schools. I shared some of the "steps" that I've helped IU's Office of Sustainability take to set up our Sustainability Peer Educator Program (SPEP). I explained some of our challenges as well as our advantages in this process, and I asked my audience of 30ish people to contribute their thoughts on what the "steps" might look like on their campuses.

Though I attended some amazing sessions this year and enjoyed the formal programming, this was the first year I felt relaxed and confident enough to just hang out and interact with folks more casually. It could be that this was the first year I felt like a real member of the community, and not just a wide-eyed student. I attribute my confidence boost to two factors: 1) Business cards and 2) Emilie Rex. Honestly, I doubt that having my own business cards even did anything, but I was so grateful to be reunited with one of my favorite folks I've met since coming to IU. Emilie was my mentor at IUOS for my first year, and her confidence in me has been contagious since about this time last year. Her warm encouragement was a huge blessing when we were setting up the Peer Educator Program, and her welcoming nature meant EVERYTHING to me when we met up in Portland. Emilie, thanks for being amazing as always :)

Next year's AASHE conference will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota...give me a shout if you'll be there!

IU Strategic Planning (Outside Experience #2)

A few weeks ago, all IU students were invited to share their thoughts/suggestions for the draft of Indiana University's Bicentennial Strategic Plan. Administrators purport that this document will guide the strategic planning efforts of all IU campuses for the next two hundred years (!!), though it reads much more like a five- or ten-year plan. That's quite alright with me, actually, but there is one other pretty huge problem I see with the plan (which I'll get to in a minute). To share my input, I attending the public meeting with Director of Strategic Planning, Michael Rushton, and Provost and Executive Vice President, Lauren Robel, on November 18th.

Rushton and Robel

First, when the Bicentennial Strategic Plan was emailed to all members of the IU community, I set out to explore what our campus administrators had to say about sustainability as a means of addressing the environmental, economic, and social challenges of our future. What I found was that the report outlines seven "Bicentennial Priorities," followed by a four-part section on the "Framework of Excellence." One part of this framework is "Building for Excellence," a section that focuses on IU's infrastructure and facilities. Here, there are "Bicentennial Action Items" and "Continuing Priorities." The last of five "Continuing Priorities" states exactly this:

"Continue and expand efforts to make all IU campuses more energy efficient and sustainable"

Wait, wait...that's it?? In a 41 page report, I have to wait until page 33 to read this one measly, vague sentence about sustainability?!

Yep.

Unforunately, there is no other mention of the grand environmental challenges that IU will face in the next two centuries. Luckily, administrators asked for input. It sounds like they received many electronically-submitted comments lamenting this oversight. I also know that Provost Robel also took the time to meet with the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board about their recommendations. I jumped at the chance to talk face-to-face with Rushton and Robel at the meeting for comments on the 18th.

Oddly, this meeting was held in a tiny conference room in the Indiana Memorial Union, meant to seat ~30 people. The room filled up quickly, though, and at maximum attendance during the meeting, there were probably about 55 or 60 people squeezed in. The group seemed to be overwhelmingly composed of faculty members, and those who shared their comments had a wide variety of things to say about the future of teaching, the health and well-being of all members of the community, strategies for engagement, and much more. From what I could see, there were only three students in attendance (out of 30,000+...eek!), but luckily, each of us felt empowered to speak up.

I was nervous to talk at first, because I knew how important this issue was. I didn't know if I could articulate my thoughts clearly and convincingly enough to make any real impact. So I started scribbling down some thoughts. I decided to ask questions, because most everyone in the room who just made comments got simple, "Thank you for that thought" responses. I prepared the most challenging questions I could think of (HA!), and did some power-posing in my seat to prepare. (Try it before your next big presentation!) After I was called on, my hands started to shake immediately. I took a big breath, thanked Rushton and Robel for seeking student feedback, and calmly posed these two questions:

"Without any attention to environmental and sustainability challenges in this Bicentennial Plan, what is the IU community to assume about how the administration plans to address the increasingly salient challenges of resource scarcity, climate change, environmental injustices, and the myriad of other sustainability challenges our world will face in the coming years, decades, and centuries?" --and--

"If not now, through incorporation of a sustainability-related bicentennial priority or primary action items tied to each aspect of IU's Mission and day-to-day operations, when and how should plans be made to assure that IU does not fall behind in doing our part to address global environmental challenges?"

MAN, was I nervous! But I made it through, and sparked a pretty good conversation. Provost Robel expressed gratitude for the hard work being done by Office of Sustainability staff, and some other faculty members chimed in to confirm that this was not just a student concern. He said that many faculty members agree that sustainability should be incorporated much more comprehensively into the Bicentennial Strategic Plan!

Overall, the planning meeting was a bit of a whirlwind. Administrators were basically just hit with criticism for an hour and a half, and they handled it pretty well. For now, that's all I can really say...we'll have to wait and see what the next draft of the plan looks like. Hopefully we'll see some pretty major changes with more comprehensive acknowledgement of environmental issues as a key concern for coming centuries of excellence at Indiana University. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: IU adopts nearly all Bicentennial Plan content suggestions from the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board!! New and noteworthy:

• "Sustainability, stewardship and accountability for the natural, human, and economic resources and relationships entrusted to IU" is now a Core Value of the university (!!!)
• All future IU building construction projects must meet standards for LEED Certification at the GOLD level!
• Read about all this and more in the final text HERE

Other Things "Less But Better"

Hi readers,

I missed a post last weekend, since I was busy having fun in Chicago with my good friend, Johannes! I'll catch up now and share some random remaining things I "cleaned" out of my house this semester. The craziest pile of stuff that I plan on getting rid of is this collection of cleaning supplies that has accumulated in my college-kid-rental-house since who knows when. DISCLAIMER: Most of this never actually belonged to me!

The market for cleaning supplies is similar to that of beauty products...Many advertisements emphasize that you NEED this or that because (insert vague or made up scientific claim here)! But as I've discussed many times this semester in my blog, if past generations survived for centuries and millenia without products like Oxi-Clean, we'll probably be alright without them too. What I've kept in the house are a few simple cleaners either homemade or labeled "green" for whatever it's worth. I've now got an all purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, a scrubby thing, a liquid carpet thing, some bleach, and baking soda. Nice and simple, and now our under sink cabinet is mostly empty! Feels good...

As I've learned from my group project in V515, these cleaning items should be taken to the solid waste district. I have some other hazardous waste items that can go there too, like paint, medications, and batteries. My next post will be a wrap-up that I'll write from home in Knoxville. There, I've got a scale to help me weigh all this stuff, and I've got some of my favorite resale stores to see how much $$$ I can get for my unwanted things. McKay's, here I come! :)

Politicophobic, perhaps?

While reading about community economic development (CED) this week in Roseland's book, I enjoyed rethinking the conventional model of economic development that seeks to attract big businesses. It seems clear now that human interests can be served much more effectively by focusing on strengthening local economies rather than pursuing further globalization and growth at the cost of fair wages, safe working conditions, community capital, etc. To learn more, I followed up on the work being done by a Minneapolis-based non-profit called the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (mentioned p. 218):

For 40 years, ILSR has been advocating for human-scaled institutions that foster environmentally sound and socially equitable communities. Largely, they focus on research and policy as key drivers of progress in these areas. ILSR leader, Stacy Mitchell, delivers a thought-provoking (you guessed it...) TED talk, encouraging environmental and community visionaries to think beyond the actions of individuals. She explains that we need to focus more on changing the policies that influence economic development in our communities. She speaks to the common tendency to focus on isolated, individual action only:

"I put a lot of my making-the-world-a-better-place energy into thinking about how I can be a better consumer. You know, fair trade coffee, recycled toilet paper...the primary and often exclusive way we think about our agency in the world now is as consumers. But as consumers, we are very weak. We are operating as lone individuals making a series of choices and the most we can do is pick between the options that are presented to us."

She goes on to compellingly illustrate that we (individual activists) are, "swimming upstream against a powerful down-current of public policies that are taking our economy in exactly the opposite direction."

She concludes, "...how do we begin to see our trips to the farmers market and to the local bookstore, not as the answer, but as a first step? How do we transform this remarkable consumer trend into something more? How do we make it a political movement?"

These are questions I need to think more carefully about. As much as I detest politics, I know Stacy is 100% correct in her assertions. More active political involvement should be my next focus if I want to affect real change. With some polite prodding reminders to register back in September, I did manage to turn out to the polls last week...a good start, right? But far from the end of the line.

Here are the policy items that ILSR recommends for equitable and sustainable community economic development:

1. Stop subsidizing the corporate economy (AKA amazon needs to pay taxes too)
2. Restructure the financial system to operate at a community scale (AKA four giant banks should not hold more than 40% of assets -- as they do currently)
3. Adopt planning policies that create great habitat for local businesses (AKA walkable cities!)
4. Enforce strong competition policies (AKA one dairy company shouldn't process 40% of the nations milk supply -- as it does currently) 
5. Shift spending by public institutions (AKA public purchases should reflect our community values)
6. Make targeted local economy investments (AKA help communities fill resource gaps when/where possible)

Still, the path forward remains somewhat unclear. Am I the only one who feels intimidated by political involvement? There is so much to learn! Friends, where do you turn to educate yourself and how have you joined a political movement for a cause you are passionate about? Are you in any type of advocacy group focusing on changing policies? Do you write letters to your representatives? How often do you think Barack checks his Twitter? Just kidding on that last one, but I really do need to make a plan for engaging in the political sphere...so help a girl out!

"Less But Better" Entertainment

Ever wanted to just sell all your stuff and go backpack around Australia?

...this guy too:

 

Adam Baker's talk at TEDxAsheville is about freedom. Adam was living a life that followed the standard narrative, but he didn't feel free. He too felt overwhelmed by stuff. And debt. And stress. The fact is that all people have limited time, and most people have limited funds. So, if you had to choose (and to a great extent you do) would you rather have movie tickets or plane tickets? CDs or live performances? Would you rather stand in line for Black Friday shopping or stand in line to ride that big awesome roller coaster? Fancy new vehicle or gas for road trip in your old, beat-up car? Whether we realize it or not, we face very real monetary and time trade-offs everyday when we choose to buy, use, organize, and otherwise maintain our stuff. For me, this project is partly about learning to follow Adam's advice and "collect experiences, not stuff." A good overall rule for my "Less But Better" life :)

This week, I'm rethinking the purchases I've made for entertainment. Mostly, these purchases are DVDs, craft supplies, books, and CDs. (That's right, CDs. I still love them mostly for the memory of my father's huge, beautiful collection that they evoke, but maybe my collection doesn't need to be as huge.) Do I really need/want all these things? Decidedly not. Here's what's got to go:

Rent, Borrow, or Sample First

Oh, that bin in Walmart -- you know the one. It's got a bunch DVDs containing movies you've never seen but that your one friend told you were "pretty good" that one time. The bin has an undeniable draw when your evening is free and each disc only costs $5. However, the honest truth is that Netflix has plenty of "pretty good" movies, and these have no associated material burden. Furthermore, I have plenty of friends with movies I'm sure they'd be happy to let me borrow. This rule also very directly applies to books and CDs as well.

My biggest challenge in following the rule above will be every time I visit one of my favorite places in the world. "McKay Used Books, CDs, Movies, and More" is heaven on Earth. Seriously, check this place out next time you are in Tennessee (there are three locations in the state)...it's amazing:

Imagine any book you an dream of for an average $6.00, DVDs starting at $1.25, and CDs starting at $0.78. Plus, they actually give you a fair amount of money when you bring stuff in for trade! In fact, this is where I'll be bringing most of this stuff back to at the end of the semester. Though re-using/re-selling/re-distributing used entertainment items is inherently pretty sustainable, I need to cut back if I want to live "less but better." What I can do is go into McKay's with a list of items I know I like and would like to own (ie. I think I'll read/watch/listen to them over and over), and buy nothing else. No impulse buys just because something is cheap. This also ties into my past rule from week one, even if it's used ALL rules still apply.

One more rule on entertainment:
No more than 5 projects at a time

Basically, I have a crafting problem. I tend to save total garbage that I think I could Martha-Stewart (v.) into something beautifully handmade! Unfortunately, though, I'm not Martha Stewart. I can knit, make jewelry, and sew, but I need to get rid of things that fall outside my domain of abilities. Furthermore, if I limit the number of projects I see myself doing in the future to five, hopefully the materials won't pile up too much. I don't have a ton of time for making things, anyway, so five projects could actually last me a while.

Lastly, there's a HUGE pile of magazine clippings I'll be recycling. Until this week, I had three binders full of random ideas from magazines (think of three archaic Pinterest boards). Thank you, Pinterest, for being so fun and for negating the need for these binders.

Has anyone else done some recent entertainment simplifying? There are all kinds of internet-things to keep us entertained these days, but do you find this to be equally satisfying? What else should I try? Cheers for now, everyone!

A "Less But Better" Birthday

What a lovely time of year it is for a birthday! Mine was on the 21st, this past Tuesday. For this birthday, in light of my personal project, I made a strange request of my family and friends. At the start of the month, I sent an email with suggestions for sustainable gifts. Here's the gist of my message:

My friends and family, being the lovely folks that they are, were wholeheartedly supportive of this idea. Gifts for the day included an e-subscription to one of my favorite magazines, some cookies from Baked, a few albums I've had my eye on, a Runcible Spoon gift certificate, some creative recycled mail, a trip to Story, Indiana, a homemade dinner, and a beautifully curated collection of NPR podcast episodes. Most importantly, though, I was fortunate enough to hear from parents, aunts, grandmas, cousins, classmates, and old friends on Tuesday. It was the messages, calls, comments, and cards (see this beautiful electronic one below) that REALLY made the day special.

What's interesting about birthdays and other holidays when gifts are exchanged, is that not giving something can feel wrong. Certainly, the spirit of most any holiday is giving, but thinking outside the box and gifting a warm meal, an experience, or a donation to a bigger cause can be even more meaningful. Based upon this realization, I've got one "Less But Better" rule to add this week:

If you want less, you may have to ASK for it

It may seem counter-intuitive, but when the norm is more stuff, you may have to actively ask for less. Whether this means explaining your crazy class project to your grandma or telling the organization tabling on campus that you really don't want the free frisbees they are peddling, it might feel uncomfortable at first. We might not know how to explain that the free promotional t-shirt is more of a burden than a benefit. Some people who explain this phenomenon recommend that "refuse" be placed at the top of the three (or four, or five?) Rs of waste reduction. Sometimes, we have to refuse to take things just because they are free. Now, asking for a shift in gifting habits might be a little easier, especially if your family and friends are as wonderfully supportive as mine. I hope these same people feel comfortable asking me for what they really want for their birthdays. There's nothing better than being able to give a gift that you KNOW the recipient will love.

One last note, a few weeks ago I found a little slip of paper that I must have put in my wallet years ago! It was a quote I really enjoyed and wanted to remember. It looks like I've actually been thinking about "Less But Better" for a while now:

Have a great week, everyone! :)

Green Freight

And my obsession with stuff continues...even when I've been assigned to blog about Roseland's chapter on "Transportation Planning and Traffic Management." Instead of focusing on reducing single occupancy vehicle trips as a sustainability imperative (which it undeniably is), I want to further investigate the feasibility of developing sustainable freight management and shrinking the share of transportation emissions that come from moving our stuff all around the country.

"Although freight vehicles only represent 10 to 20 percent of total vehicle mileage, their heavy weight and slow acceleration can produce large impacts on road networks and the surrounding community in the form of air and noise pollution. By improving freight transport efficiency and shifting reliance to alternative modes, communities can reduce traffic congestion and fuel consumption, save on road maintenance costs, reduce air and noise pollution and improve community livability."

TIL that the movement of freight in the United States results in 500 million tons of GHG emitted per year. Wohhhh...so what can we do?? Strategies suggested later in Roseland's text mirror those I found on the EDF-Business website. The Environmental Defense Fund has compiled a plethora of resources for transportation managers of large companies. For a laugh (and a nice introduction to the idea of green freight), you should watch their cheesy, superhero-themed YouTube video posted to their homepage.

Their handbook (a bit less cheesy) proposes opportunities that follow five principles for green freight:

1. Get the most out of every move - Apparently, 15-25% of truck miles driven are EMPTY and even the non-empty trips are an average of 36% underutilized. Packing every truck full of as many goods as possible to minimize freight trips could mean...
• Loading strategically like a game of Tetris: Walmart started loading palates sideways and fit four more in each truck
• Redesigning packaging: HP laptops have 97% less packaging than the average laptop
• Concentrating products: Method reduced water weight in its soaps, so now each bottle is smaller but does an equivalent amount of cleaning
2. Choose the most carbon-efficient mode - For intercontinental shipping, planes emit 47x more than container ships. For national movement of goods, trucks emit 6x more than trains. Shipping by train also has the potential to cut automobile congestion on interstates and reduce traffic accidents. For businesses, the biggest savings in both dollars and emissions could be garnered from avoiding rushed cross-ocean trips.
3. Collaborate with other shippers - A case study: Ocean Spray was shipping cranberry juice from NJ to FL then sending empty containers back north. Tropicana was shipping from FL to NJ then sending empty containers back south. ...You get the picture. 
4. Redesign your logistics network - This one's a bit too technical for me, but basically, it sounds like optimizing warehouse locations, shipping routes, and connections based on where most of your consumers are. This could also include minimizing the transportation of inputs to the manufacturing process. Cluster development, the geographic grouping of interrelated firms that can buy and sell from the each other, has become a prevalent strategy for both sustainability and economic development.
5. Demand cleaner equipment and practices - This could include insisting on high efficiency vehicles, building state-of-the-art sustainable warehouses, closely monitoring employee actions for bad practices, or even cleaning up communities negatively impacted by freight emissions.

Now, these are all strategies aimed at the companies who move all this stuff around, but here's what I think individuals may be able to do to help: 1) Buy less, 2) Buy local, 3) Buy with less packaging, 4) Buy concentrated, and 5) NEVER buy bottled water. It's the worst, for a variety of reasons (see my favorite source, below)

Takeaways from the Movie "Tiny" (Outside Experience #1)

Since I started my "Less But Better" Project, I've heard many other people buzzing about downsizing and simplifying. Friends clearing out their stuff, family moving into smaller spaces, even an acquaintance who's renovating an old bus to become her new home! Sometime through all this, I heard about the movie "Tiny: A Story About Living Small." The movie challenges the traditional concept of home. It's about a man with a dream to build a cabin in the woods, who over time, clarifies his dream and sets out to build a 124 square foot house on wheels.

I don't think there is any technical definition, but tiny houses generally seem to be homes of 300 square feet or less. Compare this to average house sizes over past decades. In 2013, the average American house was 2,589 square feet, though in 1973, it was only 1,525 square feet. Average house size has almost doubled over the past 40 years even though average family size has gone down! Tiny house dwellers are rebelling against suburban sprawl, McMansions, and this trend of growth for the sake of growth. The good news (for our land and resources, especially) is that more and more people are joining the tiny house movement every day!

"Tiny" follows Chris and Merete through the dreaming and building process. The movie also features in-home interviews with other tiny-home owners. What viewers learn is that in tiny houses, every square inch is utilized, most furniture pulls double duty, the true essentials are shrunk down, and non-essentials are minimized. The general design trend seems to be: open living/eating/working space with high ceiling on one end, small kitchen with sleeping area lofted above on the other end. Here's how Chris's place ends up:

What I gathered by the end is that those who opt into the tiny house lifestyle recognize advantages that include mobility, significant cost savings (average tiny house price = $23,000), conservation of resources, decreased maintenance, simplicity of life, sense of community, and more. Jay Shafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company proclaims, "the primary asset that comes with a tiny house is freedom...the world gets a lot bigger when you're living small."

In my eyes, the idea of a tiny house sparkles with the promise of minimal-impact living. Smaller houses mean less lumber and other building materials, smaller and fewer appliances, less space to heat and cool, average of 36% lifecycle emissions reduction, reduced electricity and use, and connectivity advantages of high-density development potential. Plus this lifestyle would do wonders to discourage excess purchasing..."Less But Better" would be an absolute requirement!

I enjoyed the film greatly. (It's on Netflix if you want to watch it!) "Tiny" reaffirmed that there are other people who don't think I'm crazy for wanting to live small. Granted, I'm just delving into all of this, and I'm not even sure if I could live in a tiny house! However, the idea this movie fosters is that living small = living deliberately. I can think of another someone who wished to live deliberately...

Sounds pretty nice, huh? :)

Great tiny house infographic: http://homestead-honey.com/2014/09/01/less-tiny-house-movement/

My favorite tiny house TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A47JaOMDH4c

"Less But Better" Home Goods

Short but sweet post coming up here...I've been sick most of the weekend, and I'm still not feeling 100% unfortunately. This week, I've been reconsidering some of my past purchases all over the house from furniture and kitchen gadgets to keepsakes and knick-knacks.

Starting with knick-knacks and keepsakes...I'm realizing this week that these are two very different things. Poking around my room, I'm thinking, "Which of these dust collectors are actually bringing me joy?" Overwhelmingly, the things that bring me joy are things inherited from parents and grandparents and/or collected while traveling. The stuff I can live without was purchased at a big box store or ordered online. Simple as that! Imagine the distinction this way: It's the difference between telling a visitor that the thing they are admiring on your shelf has been in the family for five generations or that it came from Costa Rica as opposed to responding, "Thanks! It's from Walmart!" From here on out, my rule is: If it's decorative, it had better have a good story.

My second shopping rule generated this week is: New furniture breeds new junk. When I moved into my current house, I kept this bookshelf just in case I needed more space to put things. At first, I didn't have anything to fill it, but you had better bet that within a few months, the shelves filled up with stuff! I've gotten rid of enough things that I can now get rid of the shelves, too.

Many rules I've already set also apply here. I can avoid duplicates by paring down to a reasonable number of mugs in my kitchen cabinet, keeping only one umbrella (I'm just one person!), and keeping only one or two flower vases. I had four of them even though I rarely get flowers. When I have in the past, haven't they come with their own vase?! I can rely on dual purposes by using my cell phone as an alarm clock and monthly calendar, for example. In fact, I have a friend whose mom has a rule against single-purpose items (think of all those infomercial products that do just one ridiculously specific task). I purchased this big metal thing pictured above to hang my towel on. All that it has done for the past year is hold my towel. Something tells me I'll be just fine without it. Oh, and my coffee grinder is going too for the same reason. I wish I had never bought it, because buying pre-ground coffee is always an option! I don't need a candle just because it smells good, and a cheap target picture frame looks cheap.

Lots to think about next time I'm at the store...In general, I'm enjoying this project greatly, but I'm afraid I'm straying a little far from the sustainability message. The minimized impact of a simpler life is what is driving me further, but this is hard to measure. The best measure of my progress may be at the end of the semester when I can see how much of this stuff I can divert from the landfill. In the meantime, I'll try to think about how to calculate the future avoided impacts of buying less. Any suggestions? Have a great week, everyone!

The "Less But Better" Bathroom

Internet, you've failed me. Anyone who can find some statistics on the contents of the average American bathroom cabinet wins serious bonus points. I made the bathroom my second “Less But Better” challenge thinking that surely most of us are buying more than we need (especially women)…but alas, I can’t seem to pinpoint exactly how much more. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong.

Maybe if we think about the vast array of products available just at our grocery stores, we can start to get the picture. There are sticks to keep your armpits smelling pleasant, bottles that promise to make your hair shinier than ever, razors to keep your skin smooth, tubs that swear they’ll make wrinkles disappear, tubes that will whiten your teeth and other tubes that will lengthen your lashes, contact cases, scrubby things, lotions, pigment for eyes, lips, and nails, brushes, clippers, dryers, curlers, PLUS all kinds of remedies you need when you aren't feeling well. In addition to the grocery store, though, there are companies like Avon, Sephora, Birchbox, and more. They all specialize in selling you the latest, greatest stuff to fill your bathroom.

Wow. To me, the one of the most relevant question in evaluating all this stuff has been, "For how long did humans live without this?" For example, OPI didn't start selling nail polish until 1989, so would it make sense to say that I "need" nine different bottles of their stuff? No, certainly not. To be fair, though, cultural norms do affect the things we "need" almost every day. Like before a job interview, I had better at least try to get my hair under control using some kind of product. Maybe the difference is that in the past, people didn't have to own such a wide array of each type of product. I don't imagine my grandma ever had a palate of 17 different eye-shadows that all look basically the same anyway. Right?

After gathering together unneeded bathroom/hygiene/beauty items this week, I was actually a tad disappointed my pile wasn't bigger. Turns out, I don’t actually have a ton of unnecessary products. However, every little bit helps, and my little bathroom cabinet does seem significantly less cluttered after banishing these things for GOOD!

My rules for future bathroom purchases are as follows:

Don’t buy it just because it smells good 

Simple enough…Just don’t do it. This means I should probably plan on never walking in to Bath and Body Works again.

Avoid duplicates 

Sometimes I've got five different bottles of lotion in my bathroom at any given point. Luckily, that's not the case right now, and the only duplicate items I found were two beach towels I never use. I don’t get to the coast much, so why would I ever need three beach towels? One is plenty. This is the case for many other bathroom products as well.

Don’t get too fancy 

Sometimes when I’m at the store, I get this weird notion that I’m a girly girl (when I'm not). I imagine that I’ll actually need to put mousse or a fancy headband in my hair one day, or that I will want to paint my nails pink and wear lipstick (I never do). I've even found that I like my hair just the same with or without conditioner, so I’m getting rid of that as well!

Rely on dual purposes

These are all products whose purpose I can accomplish by some other means. My facewash should take off my make-up. My washcloth should be plenty scrubby. Healthy eating should negate the need for supplements, and small trash bags should be replaced with old grocery bags. Double duty is the way of the minimalist!

Now, getting rid of some of this stuff at the end of the semester is going to be tricky. Haphazard disposal of these products can be detrimental to water quality in particular, so I’ll try to find some donation or safe disposal options in the meantime. Next week, I’ll be taking on home goods to find out how I can reduce my furniture, decorations, and more. Thanks for reading! J

The 6th R…Sharing (?)

Project affirmation! While reading the assigned chapter from Roseland’s “Toward Sustainable Communities” I stumbled upon this little gem: “People who rethink their priorities and habits often realize they just don’t need so much stuff! For most of us, this is likely the most effective means of not only waste reduction but higher personal satisfaction.” Woo! I think I'm on the right track.

This week’s chapter on waste reduction and recycling emphasizes thinking outside the box, so I’ll try to take you down the wormhole I fell into tonight. Seeking inspiration, I visited the Story of Stuff site once again, only to discover I had been missing out on “The Story of Solutions!”

The video makes quick reference to the idea of COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION, which is really just a fancy word for sharing. I Googled for more info, and found this TEDx talk (below) delivered in Sydney by the author of a book called “What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.”

The part that made her message most clear to me came near the end - “I don’t want the DVD, I want the movie it carries. I don’t want a clunky answering machine, I want the message it saves. I don’t want a CD, I want the music it plays. In other words…I don’t want stuff, I want the needs or experiences it fulfills.” -- Now, you will hear in later blog posts why most of my CDs will survive the “Less But Better” clean out, but the message still resonates. -- These words summarize why sharing resources that accomplish tasks could be one of the simplest things we as individuals can do to reduce our consumption without decreasing our quality of life.

After watching this, my question was - where does sharing fit in to the waste hierarchy (rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover)? I suppose it’s a form of reuse, but the benefits and barriers to sharing are much different than those for reusing. Benefits include community ties, cost savings, and resource conservation, while the barriers seem mostly tied to availability of suitable sharing programs. Rachel Botsman goes on to explain that, lucky for us, four factors are actually leading to a HUGE growth in suitable sharing programs these days. Those factors are:

She also delineates three types of sharing systems that are on the rise:

• Redistribution Markets (think Goodwill, eBay, Craigslist, sites like Freecycle and Swap.com, or even just trading goods/services between neighbors)
• Collaborative Lifestyles (think local examples like Bloomington Co-Operative Living and COWORK BTown)
• Product Service Systems (think community libraries, ZipCar, Netflix, tool lending libraries, Air BnB, and more)

I’m curious what everyone else thinks of the potential for “collaborative consumption” to meet the needs of both humans and our environmental systems. Does this have the potential to significantly reduce our consumption of “stuff” and thereby lessen our ecological footprints? Will humans readily adjust their habits to fit this model, or will full ownership of resources remain the norm? EVERYONE, please share your thoughts! I'm quite curious J

The "Less But Better" Closet

It’s been fun to get moving on de-cluttering my life, examining my purchasing habits, and hopefully decreasing my impact. To begin with, I’m digging into my closet! Most clothing that we purchase in the USA has a very complicated life cycle. If you think a t-shirt is surely pretty simple, watch NPR’s “Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt.” Really amazing stuff. Producing the stuff that ends up in our closets creates impacts that are spread all across the globe affecting people, economies, ecosystems, and more. Buying less clothing means lessening these impacts. This week I’m cleaning out my closet and making strategies for buying fewer clothes in the future. Here are all the things I’m eliminating from my closet:

Looking at this collection of stuff, some might think, “Does she even have any clothes left to wear?” The answer here is yes. Very yes, unfortunately. Cleaning out my closet proved harder than expected, and even though this is a good start, my closet is still BY NO MEANS minimal. Ugh. The thing is, everything that escaped this pile is still contributing to my happiness. Whether it’s a boost of confidence, sentimental value, or just warmth on a cold day, many of my clothes are staying because they are more of an asset than a burden.

The stuff you see above is the stuff that has become burdensome. None of these 60 or so belongings are quite right for me anymore. Some of them never were. Today, I grouped these newly orphaned garments into categories that represent the reasons they are no longer meant to be mine. This was a very helpful exercise that has helped me set a few ground rules for purchases in the future.

Consider quality and longevity

The items above have actually all been worn for years and years and years. They were GREAT purchases. These garments didn't fall apart when I washed them, and they weren't so trendy that they went out of style in one year. In the future, when I do need an article of clothing, I should remember to buy classic styles that are made to last. These things are only making an exit because either they don’t fit, they have been damaged by accident, or they are no longer age-appropriate.

Cheap looks cheap -and- Mull it over

These items were all pretty inexpensive. Ultimately, I stopped wearing most of them because they looked cheap…how did I not see that coming?? In two cases, they were things I needed at the last minute for an event/trip. Of course, Target was there to help with inexpensive options, but I ended up with stuff that didn’t quite fit right because my purchase was rushed. In the future, I should foresee these needs and give purchases an appropriate amount of thought.

Reaffirm personal style

There are very distinct patterns to what I typically buy. The above purchases are exceptions to this truth. I thought I’d enjoy these uncharacteristic pieces, but when I wore them, I didn't feel like myself. I should stick to what I know and love.

No heels

I’m 5’11’’ and don’t particularly care to be any taller. I bought one pair of these on sale and the other at Goodwill, and I've never worn either of them. I should stop lying to myself...I don't actually like heels.

Beware the Anthropologie effect

I think sometimes it is hard to separate individual items you like from environments you like. If you’re a girl and you’ve ever been to Anthropologie, you probably know what I’m talking about. Everything in there is curated into little collections…and it smells so good! Nevertheless, I need to remember that just because something is on sale at a store I love, that doesn't mean it's worth buying.

Pick favorites

Whenever I’m headed out the door, I grab my favorite necklace, my favorite purse, and my favorite sunglasses. I don’t need a zillion accessories, because I tend to gravitate toward the same ones over and over again. If I’m going to buy a new belt, it had better be able to contend with my current favorite.

Even if it’s used

Here’s my biggest challenge. All the things in the photo above were bought secondhand. I love consignment/vintage/thrift stores, and making purchases there seems almost guilt free! However, when people bring their excess stuff to one of these stores and I buy that stuff, the EXCESS has been transferred to me…And excess stuff is what I’m trying to avoid. So when I’m at Goodwill, I still need to apply all the above rules. I should be asking the same questions and considering the same factors before I invite any more stuff into my life.

The "Less But Better" Project

I've lived in seven places over the last seven years. I know what you’re thinking…that’s a lot of moving! Well on top of that, about two years ago I helped EACH of my parents move out of houses they’d lived in for 15+ years. Lessons learned? …Humans have a tendency to accumulate A LOT of stuff. Especially us Americans. To give some perspective, photographer Peter Menzel documented statistically average families in various nations surrounded by all of their possessions in a book called "Material World." Here's the USA (left) and Bhutan (right):

Obviously, we (Americans) don't need all this stuff.
Could we even use it all if we wanted to?

If you’re at home, how many things are within your view that you haven’t used in over a year? I can see the book I've been meaning to read since last August, the doorstop I bought two houses ago when I had a door that wouldn't stay open, the binders of old class notes that I swore I’d want someday soon, the highlighters I bought and later realized they're too bright to actually read through, the DVD that I found in the $5 bin, and so on…

Some of these things I bought because they were cheap, some because I thought I “needed” them, and others I've been holding on to just in case. Unfortunately, all this stuff has started to feel more and more overwhelming with each consecutive move. Even between moves, I find myself spending insane amounts of time tidying my space, dusting things, organizing, and reorganizing. A lot of my stuff is making me less happy than I used to be before I bought it, so why keep it?

The Minimalist Movement is gaining traction as more and more people ask these hard questions. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, two influential bloggers (also TEDx speakers) known simply as “The Minimalists,” pitch their lifestyle this way:

Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.

Luckily, minimalism should also make room for sustainability! By using less, we throw a wrench into the "Story of Stuff". By reducing our stuff, we avoid the impacts that occur at every stage in production, from extraction, through transportation, manufacturing, consumption, and disposal. This is why my personal project for the semester will be a foray into minimalism. German pioneer of minimalist engineering and design, Dieter Rams, eloquently summarized my goal decades ago:

“Weniger, aber besser” translates to “less, but better,” and this was a philosophy he lived and designed by. I’m going to try to live by it too by focusing on a different category of belongings each time I blog (during weeks between my blogging on the V515 readings) and clearing some of the stuff from my life. I’ll examine why I bought these unneeded things in the first place, then formulate some rules/guidelines for all my future purchases. By thinking about my purchasing habits, I can make careful decisions before inviting anything new into my home in the future.

For each post, I’ll weigh the pile of stuff I want to get rid of, then set it aside in one big pile. At the end of the semester, I will go back through the pile to determine what stuff will finally be recycled, donated, sold, or thrown away. This will also give me the chance to accept some things back into my life that were truly missed over the course of the semester. I've set the project up like this so that I can be aggressive in my reduction attempts, knowing that if I make a mistake I can get something back without having to repurchase it (which would defeat the whole purpose of the project).

Here’s my approximate blogging schedule:

• September 21^st - Clothes and other closet items
• September 28^th - (Blog on readings)
• October 5^th - Toiletries and other bathroom items (girls have a lot of these)
• October 12^th - Home goods and decorative items
• October 19^th - (Blog on readings)
• October 26^th - Gifts (birthday week! ...rethinking what others buy for us)
• November 2^nd - Entertainment items
• November 9^th - (Blog on readings)
• November 16^th - Miscellaneous items
• November 23^rd - Items in storage (home for Thanksgiving...clearing boxes)
• November 30^th - Project wrap-up

So, as I work throughout the semester, my goal true goal will be to become happier with less. I don’t expect to pare down to 100 things like some minimalists or even to fit all my stuff into one car. I just want to feel better about the things I buy and use. Since this isn't particularly measurable, I’ll weigh things as some indicator of progress. Let the other indicator of progress be “Before and After” photos! Here’s a look at my baseline:

So, that’s a pretty detailed look into my life and my stuff...hopefully I don't get super embarrassed and regret sharing this later. Eeek! Follow along to see what “goes” each week. Maybe you can rethink your purchases as well and find a little more happiness in a “Less But Better” lifestyle. Wish me luck!