SSU Restructure and ED - Sustainability Committee?

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

If you haven't heard about the SSU restructure... You might want to find out, because it passed with the approval of 66% of the student body, and that means you probably voted on it.

The restructure mostly serves to redirect the student government towards resolving student issues and developing the student body, rather than focusing on events for the events' sake or being lead by interest groups that do not necessarily have the interests of the entire student body in mind. It also seeks to represent the student body more evenly and help the entire SSU to run more efficiently and effectively. This will have an effect on much more than Environmental Department, but it will affect us in a few ways:

1. Environmental Department is going to become Sustainability Committee.

Although E.D. is currently required to attend monthly Chair Persons' Meetings (CPMs) with all SSU leaders, Sustainability Committee Chairs will not be required to do so. They will, however, be able to present concerns or propose ideas to SSU as a guest at these meetings if they would like. This is because...

2. Sustainability Committee chairs will be appointed by the previous year's chairs rather than elected by the student body. (This is actually how it was done until 2 years ago.)

First, Sustainability Committee has relatively narrow interests, rather than aiming to better student life in general. Therefore, we cannot accurately be said to represent the student body as a whole.

Second, if Sustainability Committee / E.D is meant to act as SUA's version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)... Well, guess what? That's an appointed position too.

This will not change any of E.D.'s current rights or responsibilities, such as meeting with and making recommendations to the campus Environmental Committee, listening to student environmental concerns, proposing ideas to the SSU, or hosting events. However, it will more accurately reflect the intentions and goals of the student government.

In addition to the SSU Restructure, the study body also voted to repeal the Environmental Amendment this week.

What does this mean?

The Environmental Amendment was a list of restrictions on disposable and single-use items (like individually wrapped candies) and the number of large posters that could be printed.

These were admirable goals, approved by the student body several years ago. Unfortunately, the amendment was never enforced. Every year, clubs use bowls of candy to attract new members, event leaders leave candies or bookmarks outside people's doors to encourage attendance, and Graduation Department posts several large posters. This year's SSU decided it was time to either start enforcing this rule or get rid of it, which raised several questions: Who should be responsible for enforcing such an amendment? (EC? ED? Hyon Moon?) How could it be realistically enforced? Are students willing to sacrifice aspects of some events, like the hilarious 100 days posters? Will enforcing this rule take away man power from other student initiatives? Are these the most important environmental issues for us to focus on?

The student body did not vote to start actually enforcing it.

However, this does not mean it has to disappear from the conversation.

Although we have decided to remove the amendment from the SSU Constitution, it can still be included in the Sustainability Charter--perhaps in an even better form. As students of this university and future world leaders, we have a responsibility to continue to discuss these issues and find new solutions.

How can you personally reduce your use of disposable items in your daily life?

If you are interested in helping shape official Sustainability Department attitudes, goals, and policies on this and other issues, contact Chelsea, Yona, and Sarah. This May we will be revamping and updating the current Environmental Department Charter. If you're interested we'd love to include you in that process!

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please get in touch with ED or EC. You can comment below, find us on FaceBook, or shoot us an email.

GIS Conference at Redlands

Five students from Monika Calef's Intro to GIS course received funding from Soka to attend a conference in Redlands, CA this month. 

GIS is one of the coolest environmental studies tools, because it readily brings theoretical problems (say a toxic chemical spill) to a real-life application (a map that can be used to display information about risks to nearby homes.) This conference gave students an even better idea of ways that GIS is used in the real world. There were presentations by city planners, corporate managers, and software developers.

One of the most interesting GIS developments that was presented at the conference was the story map.

For anyone who is interested in ES or GIS, get in touch with Monika Calef. Intro to GIS is part of the regular ES rotation, and these conferences come around a couple times every year.

Solar Decathlon and XPO Recap

Today marks the last day of the 2 week long 2013 Solar Decathlon competition at Irvine Great Park. If you didn't have a chance to check out this fantastic event, you're in the right place to learn more and get a taste of some of the ideas that the competitors put out there.

If you're short on time, this video gives a quick overview of what you missed:

The more detailed version:

The Solar Decathlon is a competition that challenges college teams from all around the world to build houses that are affordable, appealing to consumers, and optimally produce and conserve energy (within certain constraints.) The Irvine site (as opposed to the European or Chinese sites) hosted 20 teams this year.

Each team spent 2 years designing and building their houses. 3 weeks ago, the houses were dismantled, shipped to Irvine Great Park, and reassembled for the competition.

The teams competed in 10 areas (thus the name Solar Decathlon):

1. Architecture
Architectural elements such as holistic design, lighting, inspiration, and documentation

2. Market Appeal
Livability, marketability, and buildability based on the target client of each team's choosing

3. Engineering
Functionality, efficiency, innovation, reliability, and documentation

4. Communications
Web content, audiovisual presentation, etc

5. Affordability

6. Comfort Zone
Temperature and humidity ranges

7. Hot Water
Must supply all the heated water for daily needs, including showering and laundry

8. Appliances
Must mimic actual appliance use in a real house

9. Home Entertainment
Includes holding two dinners parties and a movie night for 6 "neighboring" competitors, who act as jurors by awarding points based on ambiance, meal quality, and overall experience.

10. Energy Balance
Must produce more energy than they consume

Each team could earn up to 100 points per category. There was a winner for each category as well as for the overall competition.

The Teams at a Glance:

For more details, please visit their pages and read more!

1. Arizona State University and University of New Mexico
823/1000 points 
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_asu_unm.html
Team website: http://www.asunm.org/

2. Czech Republic: Czech Technical University 
945 /1000 points | 1st place in architecture | 3rd Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_czech_republic.html
Team website: http://www.airhouse.cz/

3. Kentucky/Indiana: University of Louisville, Ball State University, and University of Kentucky
850/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_kentucky_indiana.html
Team website: http://sd2013.teamkentuckiana.org/

4. Middlebury College (Vermont)
920/1000 points | Tied for 1st place in Hot Water
This is a liberal arts college!
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_middlebury.html
Team website: http://sd13.middlebury.edu/

5. Missouri University of Science and Technology
840/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_missouri.html
Team website: http://solarhouse.mst.edu/

6. Norwich (VT)
876/1000 points | Tied for 1st in Affordability
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_norwich.html
Team website: http://nusd2013.org/

7. Santa Clara University
888/1000 points | 1st in Home Entertainment and Comfort Zone
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_santa_clara.html
Team website: http://www.scuradianthouse.org/

8. Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology
868/1000 points 
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_sci_arc_caltech.html
Team website: http://scical2013.com/

9. Stanford University
933/1000 points | Tied for 1st for Affordability | 5th Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_stanford.html
Team website: http://solardecathlon.stanford.edu/

10. Stevens Institute of Technology
939/1000 points | Tied for 1st in Hot Water, 2nd in Architecture | 4th Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_stevens.html
Team website: http://www.stevens.edu/sd2013/

11. Team Alberta: University of Calgary
913/1000 points | Ranked 1st in appliances
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_alberta.html
Team website: http://www.solardecathlon.ca/

12. Team Austria: Vienna University of Technology
951/1000 points | Ranked 2nd in Market Appeal, Tied for 1st in Hot Water, 1st in Communications | Ranked #1 Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_austria.html
Team website: http://www.solardecathlon.at/

13. Team Capital DC: The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and American University
920/1000 points | Ranked 2nd for Comfort Zone and Home Entertainment
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_capitol_dc.html
Team website: http://www.teamcapitoldc.org/

14. Team Ontario: Queen's University, Carleton University, and Algonquin College
926/1000 points | Ranked 2nd in Affordability & 1st in Engineering, tied for 1st in Hot Water
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_ontario.html
Team website: http://ontariosd.ca/

15. Team Texas: University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College
776/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_texas.html
Team website: http://engineering.utep.edu/

16. Tidewater Virginia: Hampton University and Old Dominion University
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_tidewater_virginia.html
Team website: http://www.canopyhouse.org/

17. University of Nevada Las Vegas
947/1000 points | 2nd in Communications, 1st in Market Appeal, tied for 1st in Hot Water | 2nd Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_lasvegas.html
Team website: http://solardecathlon.unlv.edu/

18. University of North Carolina at Charlotte
870/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_north_carolina.html
Team website: http://urbaneden.uncc.edu/

19. University of Southern California
906/1000 points | 1st in Appliances
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_southern_california.html
Team website: http://solardecathlon.usc.edu/

20. West Virginia University
774/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_west_virginia.html
Team website: http://solar.wvu.edu/

Be sure to check out http://www.solardecathlon.gov for a full breakdown of every aspect of the competition and the teams including more videos and photos!

You can also check out photos taken at the event by visiting Soka students here.

If you'd like to learn more about sustainable housing, you might like to look into Earth Ships. Last year's Spring Eco Wing won the SSU grant to attend an Earthship workshop in LA, and so they have collected a few resources on the subject, including a full length documentary available for free on youtube. There's also more information at the official Earthship Biotecture website.

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There was also a green innovation XPO simultaneously happening at Great Park. For obvious reasons, we spent more time exploring the houses, but we did take a few minutes to check out a few of the booths on things like aquaculture gray water filtration for gardens and 3D printing biodegradable plastic forms.

This last one in particular is worth mentioning because it's really cool, potentially scary for some people, and ACTUALLY UNDER WAY RIGHT NOW:

Welcome to the future. What are you going to contribute to it?

CicLAvia Recap

On Sunday October 6th, students from Professor Deike Peters's Sustainable Cities Class made an appearance at 
CicLAvia.

Although this particular event has come and gone, 

keep your eyes peeled for more CicLAvia events this spring! 

Until then, keep reading for a "Virtual Tour" of our walking tour through LA 

+ fun highlights of the event + informational links provided by Deike + perspectives on what it felt like to walk the streets of LA. 

* The Journey through LA *

This was our route: click me!

1. Caught the metro to LA at Laguna Nigel 

2. Met up at LA's Union Station
The station (and the surrounding area) is currently being redeveloped to better accommodate not only rail users but also bus riders, pedestrians, and cyclists. Find information about this project and the history of Union Station, look here.

3. Walked past LA's busy HistoricPlaza/El Pueblo and Olvera Street
For more information about the history of this part of town, check here.

4. From there we made our way to Chinatown.
Remember that this is LA’s new, (forcibly) relocated Chinatown, as the Old Chinatown was displaced and razed when Union Station was built in the 1930s. We saw the big new ForestCity’s Blossom Plaza mixed use project close to the Gold Line transit station as well as the China Gateway project JiaApartments just nearing completion at Broadway and Cesar Chavez.

5. We crossed the 101 Freeway
and thought about how amazing it would be to cap this great concrete divide and put a park on top, reconnecting the two halves of the city again. Up to date on this ambitious project can be found here.

6. Stopped at the newly opened Grand Park
It opened exactly a year ago and has been named one of the top 10 new open spaces in the country. There was a November 2013 article about it in the NY Times. There were food trucks and activity booths here.

Giant checkers at the games booth

Teaching kids about street safety

A bracelet made at the crafts booth from old bike tubing

7. Photo Op at City Hall 

8. We continued down the route to Spring Street

A remaining strip of the green paint

and saw that the green paint for the Spring Street bike lane had already been mostly scraped off, as the film industry complained about it and won. 

9. On Gallery Row
where there are weekly art walks on Thursday evenings, we marveled at how quiet the streets were without the noise of car traffic. Even the shouting of some of the rowdier cyclists wasn't as intrusive. We didn't feel like we were even in LA!

10. We also found a pocket park
designed by Lehrer Architects, which was created via a public private partnership, with the main initiative coming from the non-profit group Friend of the Old Bank District Gardens, with dedicatedfunding from American Apparel and planning help from the city. The park remains a public facility.

11. Last stop was Pershing Square
where we caught the metro back to Union Station and then caught our train back home.

For more pictures of the Soka excursion to CicLAvia, check out our album on Facebook.

While Soka students were inspired by the change of mood and accessibility on the streets of LA, others were inspired to different ends... Read about a Ciclavia marriage proposal here!

If you want to know more about the event, talk to Deike or the students in her class!

Coastal Cleanup Recap

Last Saturday, 51,543 volunteers (including a group of 8 from Soka!) went out and removed trash from watersheds across the state of California.

Those volunteers picked up 471,218 pounds of trash
and an additional 30,530 pounds of recyclable materials,
for a total of 501,748 pounds or 251 tons.

-The California Coastal Commission

Here in Aliso Viejo, the Soka crew cleaned up some surprising items... Here are some of our favorite weird discoveries:
-PS2 game cases
-Many, many jars of mayonaise
-A wheel
-2 sleeping bags
-A rainbow umbrella

We also found a picnic table surrounded by heaps and heaps of...lord knows what.

Before:

After:

To see more pictures of Soka students at work on Coastal Cleanup Day, check out our album on Facebook!


Kiki Fong from the class of 2017 was kind enough to share her experience participating in the 2013 California Coastal Cleanup:

In the second week of my environmental ethics class, I learned about Sartre’s philosophy regarding man’s responsibility on every decision making. Every action that man choose to do is his own problem, so he should not point finger to others when he regrets them. However, in this contemporary society, there are many irresponsible people who create mess like littering and abandon their trouble for the future generation. I believe that I should apply Sartre’s theory in my generation or the society, to clean up the mess we make. We should be responsible over the pollution we created instead of leaving them to our children to solve these problems.

Coincidentally on the same week, there was a volunteer event at Aliso Viejo on Saturday to clean up the coastal side, and this was an opportunity for me to apply Sartre’s notion and be responsible for my generation. At first I was a little disappointed because we were not picking trash at the beach. However, it was an enjoyable experience for me because I never clean up at the trail park before. Who knew picking trash in the park was like hunting? Going inside the bushes despite getting dirty and cut just to get those empty liquor bottles was fun because after removing them from nature, I felt a sense of accomplishment. That feeling was priceless and amazing, and I would like to create more because these feelings would be the driving force for me to preserve a better environment for the future generation.

Chelsea Dugger from the class of 2014, who in addition to being one of this year's ED chairs has also done the Coastal Cleanup with Soka since her freshman year, also shared some thoughts on the subject:

This year was my eighth time participating in the California Coastal Cleanup event held annually in order to collect trash that has the potential to travel through our extensive watershed systems into the ocean. Being a self-proclaimed “ocean lover” I am very passionate in preserving the beauty of the sea as a space free of human-induced pollution. Having focused on the multidimensional problem of non-point source pollution that is marine debris, I know how essential prevention is in preventing this global crisis from worsening. As it stands right now we already have an island of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean, known as the GreatPacific Garbage Patch (check out the link for a video), measuring over 100 million tons of trash. This is why I felt the need to go and pick up the smallest pieces of trash/litter at the Aliso Viejo Ranch off 100 Park Avenue past Saturday.

 Just Fyi- The way our watersheds function is that all water sources running throughout Aliso Viejo, meaning the streams, creeks and natural rain drain patterns lead directly to the ocean. Our storm drains throughout the city also lead directly to the ocean which is why little gum wrappers or straw plastic or candy bar debris left on the street can go directly into the ocean threatening our access to clean beaches; as well as the detrimental consequence to marine animals and ecosystems. Since small pieces of trash are often overlooked as “not a big deal,” I made conscientious effort to climb deep into bushes (suffering a few scratches) to get every piece of trash visible. But I couldn’t help but think how unnecessary my actions would have been if people were simply more careful of guaranteeing that their trash is securely contained in closed bins where there are minimal threats of it blowing into the water stream going directly to the ocean. This is why I was equally as happy to be 9 miles inland compared to directly on the beach because I knew that I was getting the bits of trash often overlooked.

 This brings me to a personal issue I feel VERY strongly about- the waste of single-use plastic straws! According to the Coastal Comission website “Last year, over 20,000 straws were removed on Coastal Cleanup Day. Straws are the 6th most commonly found litter. Due to their durability, buoyancy, and ability to accumulate and concentrate toxins present in the ocean, plastic straws are especially harmful to marine life.” I found many of them this year and each time I get more and more frustrated! To me straws are a convenience not a necessity which is why I urge everyone to consider two great ways to reduce the risk of littered straws- Say “Please no straw, thank you” as many times as possible- just remember “That straw you used for one meal will be trash forever, so instead why not just skip it?” If you are in love with straws though consider buying a cheap set of sturdy, reusable metal straws ($14 for 4 on Amazon). I think the most important thing is to be active- as an advocate and activist… talk the talk and walk the walk by refusing to use straws (explaining why!) and volunteering to clean up those sadly left behind by others.
Please come talk with me at any time you ever want to know more about marine debris (I did a Busenburg paper on it; which is saying a lot!), straws or anything environmentally related!

Keep your eyes peeled for emails next September for the next California Coastal Cleanup Day so you can participate with us next time!