G-Dub Green Hub

Halloween is coming up; how do I make sure that mine is green? 1

lucyhummerOctober 18, 20181 Comment

Halloween is coming up; how do I make sure that mine is green?

Lucy Hummer

At large, Halloween is a very wasteful holiday. Fun, of course, but wasteful. Especially in college, this time of the year tends to be full of several costumes, hundreds of pieces of individually wrapped candies and an abundance of ~aluminum drink cans~. If you’re sustainably minded, events like this can be vaguely troubling. How can I enjoy celebrating this holiday which I love so much without having a massive jump in my product consumption? It does not always seem easy.

To SOME extent, I believe that it is necessary for us to forgive ourselves for creating waste. It’s unfair that we must limit ourselves from enjoying things that we like just because they maybe are not zero-waste or perfectly sustainable. To SOME extent.

Having the mindset of, “other people are out there treating the earth worse than me, if I don’t buy this item with excessive packaging someone will anyway, etc” does not mean that we are allowed to just absolve our guilt and move on. The context of Halloween is a great time to exemplify how we can enjoy October without being crazy un-sustainable.

In the spirit of “Halloweekend”, a lot of folks need several costumes to make it through the spooky season. (I know that I sound like an old person that is just talking about what I think college is like, just ignore it). It is both economically and environmentally sensible to try and make costumes out of items that you already own. This tends to be a minimum-effort, minimum-payoff type of costume, which isn’t always a bad thing. If you have to do a little bit of DIY or crafting, that also works! It takes a little bit more effort than ordering an outfit off of Amazon, but that’s more fun anyways, right?

Generally, if you decide you do have to purchase elements of your costumes, it is best not to buy new. There are many second-hand, vintage and thrift stores in and around DC which are full of hundreds of pieces. Suddenly, the trope that everything at a thrift store is old and dated is a good thing! You can make a head to toe 90s look with no effort and little money by spending just a few seconds in the clothing section. Plus, lots of these stores even have a specific Halloween section with second-hand costumes. I’ve been to at least three vintage stores in the DMV that had dozens of costumes for under $10. An event BETTER option would be trading your own old costumes with friends, because this is obviously free.

When it comes to candy, it is much trickier to reduce waste. That bulk bag of 500 candies from CVS looks tempting to me every time I see it. But if you’re just buying for yourself and your roommates, buying chocolate that doesn’t all come in individual wrappers is a better choice. If you need to go for small candies, choose ones that have recyclable packaging! There aren’t many, but Hershey’s kisses are one example.

If you decided to get a pumpkin for your dorm, get it from a local grower. This is a much better option than grabbing one from the grocery store, especially if you make a day of it and go out of DC to a pumpkin patch or orchard. If you go for a larger sized one, you can eat the pumpkin seeds and compost the rest.

At the end of the day, celebrating Halloween in college is very different than celebrating it in the suburbia that many of us come from. It is not hard to be more sustainable during holidays like this, it just takes a little bit of thought and some inspiration! And of course please recycle your ~aluminum drink cans~. Happy Halloween!

Green Org Spotlight: Green GW

lucyhummerOctober 2, 2018Leave a comment

Green Org Spotlight: Green GW

Lucy Hummer

GreenGW is a community-minded organization that focuses on sustainable education and lifestyles. Each month, GreenGW has a different theme, each of which comes from the broad spectrum of interests in which being ‘green’ applies. This could mean anything from conservation to water to environmental justice. GreenGW does this for a variety of reasons. The primary goal is to make sure that they have something through the year that is of interest for everyone. Green meets almost every single week, so there is definitely opportunity to address an extremely broad scope of topics. Ultimately, throughout the academic year, GreenGW is able to provide a catalyst/resources/education/enthusiasm about being environmentally conscious on a variety of scales.

I personally find it very inspiring how many green organizations there are on campus. They all reach a different audience and have a different mission statement, but ultimately all have the same overarching desire to make GW students (and GW at large) a part of a more sustainable institution.

Green operates with two slogans. The first of which is “think global, act local”. This is fairly intuitive, and essentially means how can we as individuals have an impact on the world at large. Green straddles the divide between institutional change and lifestyle change and acknowledges that both are super important! Our second, and favored, slogan is “sustainability is sexy”. This one is obviously more light-hearted and casual, and we really feel like it encompasses the heart of the organization. At the end of the day, Green members just love to hang out with one another and talk about things that we are passionate about and inspire one another.

This semester (Fall 2018), we meet on Monday nights, usually at 7pm. However, Green often has special events and cosponsored programming that happens at different times! Upcoming in October, for example, we are working with other GW orgs, DC Fair Food and even someone from the UN Association on different cool things (check our Facebook page or sign up for our weekly email newsletter if you want to come join). Looking ahead, we have other exciting annual events in the works as well. A succulent sale around Valentine’s Day, Conscious College Road Tour, field trips and our Trashion Show are just a few. Next week is Fall Break, and Indigenous Peoples’ Day falls on our usual meeting day. That means our next meeting is October 15^th! We’ll be having a general body meeting in District House 205 at 7, and we’ll be talking about climate change communication, etc. Come out if that’s up your alley!

Picture This! #1

lucyhummerSeptember 20, 2018September 20, 2018Leave a comment

Picture This! #1

Lucy Hummer

I thought it was only right to feature the above photo as the first image in this 'picture this' series. It is representative of a significant progression on campus, specifically towards sustainable landscaping here at GW. Landscaping, particularly at a university, is something which tends to have a flair for the traditional. Brightly colored plants, rich density and variety, and little flowers lining the edges of the quad. However, this is almost never the best choice when it comes to sustainability. While some flowers may be beautiful and nice to look at, they may come paired with a few problems. If they are not native to the region (meaning that they would not naturally grow here), the bees and other insects would likely be unable to pollinate them! They also may need to be replanted every season, which is wasteful. Additionally, they may not absorb a lot of rainwater during a storm, which is critical in a place like DC where there is a limited amount of permeable ground and a risk of flooding.

The great thing, though, is that GW has developed Sustainable Landscape Guidelines. They are, then, working towards making the campus not only beautiful but also more environmentally conscious. These signs around campus are indicative of progress, showing that the grounds team is working on meeting the guidelines. Keep your eye out for new landscapes all around GW. These signs mean sustainability is being integrated into our city campus. Interested in reading the Guidelines? You can find them here.

Sustainable Universities in the Modern World

lucyhummerSeptember 13, 2018Leave a comment

Sustainable Universities in the Modern World

Lucy Hummer

In mid-2017, President Trump announced that the United States was no longer going to be participating in the Paris Agreement, which was an accord focusing on climate change mitigation. This agreement, signed by 194 states and the European Union, is the first step taken by an international body to officially work towards combatting the changing climate and its effects on both individuals and the world at large. This goal is most commonly placed within the context of rising temperatures, with the established objective that the global temperature should not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

As the United States is of course one of the top tier contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, it is extremely heartbreaking that the President has chosen not to comply with this critically important agreement. There is so much at stake, it is hard to image that somebody, or a group of people, could comfortably make a decision such as this at such a critical point in environmental history. Regardless, we must more forward and adapt to the situation which we are presented. How can we do the best we can to adapt to and mitigate the effects of our changing climate, even when our own government is working against us?

A movement called We Are Still In (WASI) has begun among individual businesses, universities, cities and even states, with the intention that these groups can continue to comply with the Paris Agreement, regardless of Trump’s decision. There is an Opportunity Agenda which lists 10 high-impact ways which these groups can work to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, making it as easy as possible for these individual groups to work towards mitigating their effects on our environment. GW is a signatory to WASI, and is actively working towards achieving many of these 10 opportunities.

The number 1 opportunity listed is “doubling down on renewable energy”. As GW is 50% solar powered, I can brag and say that we are a shining example of a university which is taking great leaps towards our renewable future, at least within the context of our own energy use. We, of course, are not perfect, but are continuing to focus on opportunity number 1. (If you want to know more about the Capital Partners Solar Project, it’s super cool and there’s lot of information on the website). There are also goals targeted at terrestrial carbon sequestration (the fancy way of saying plant plants) and retrofitting buildings (the fancy way of saying improve energy efficiency). Again, GW is working hard towards both of these as well.

When we think about environmentalism, we tend to be either incredibly zoomed in or incredibly zoomed out. By this I mean we either think about ourselves as an individual or ourselves as a member of the world as a whole. Everything in between tends to be neglected, and we forget about all of the groups, cultures and societies that exist in between 1 person and 7 billion. A university is a perfect example of one of those groups that exists in this middle ground. Institutions such as GW have an amazing opportunity to make a huge impact on the world for the in between, in terms of advocacy, research, investments and anything else. Universities like GW will allow for movements such as WASI for the Paris Accord to push forwards, regardless of the state of the federal government.

The Groundwater Crisis: Why Should I Care?

lucyhummerSeptember 5, 2018Leave a comment

The Groundwater Crisis: Why Should I Care?

Lucy Hummer

Groundwater is something that we often forget about. We can’t see it, we don’t really understand a use for it, and we generally “other” it from the water we drink or enjoy at the beach. However, as we all learned in 3^rd grade with the water cycle, all water is the same. This means that the trillions of gallons that are stored deep under the surface of the earth in between sand and rock can and will become the water which we drink much quicker than we may think.

So what is groundwater? While it may not be the most glamorous topic, we can go ahead and categorize fresh water into three sections for ease of this illustration. This will give us: drinking water, surface water and ground water. We can say that drinking water is all of the industrially stored water, whether that be in a pipe that has been clarified and prepared to enter your tap, or in a $5 plastic bottle in the CVS refrigerator. Surface water is what immediately comes to mind when you think of fresh water, meaning our lakes, streams and rivers. Ground water, then, is everything else. Massive deposits of water are found directly under our feet, called aquifers, traveling from the clouds deep down below the water table.

Why does this matter to you? Our groundwater sources are at risk. Tens of BILLIONS of gallons of groundwater are extracted from the earth each day in the United States alone, and this water is being used much more rapidly than it is being recharged. While we continue to treat this water as an inexhaustible resource, it takes years for an aquifer to refill just a few inches. That 3^rd grade water cycle lesson drilled into our minds that water is a renewable resource, but this is not entirely true. Our view of the seemingly unending supply of safe and clean water must shift to seeing it instead as a privilege, as this may not always be the case.

Industries, particularly the cattle industry and agro-business in the southwest United States, are using this groundwater alarmingly rapidly. If the aquifers run dry, it will take centuries for them to recharge. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that this groundwater crisis, partnered of course will the umbrella issue of climate change, is the largest and most pressing environmental issue facing the world today. Some towns, in the United States and internationally, are already running completely dry. So why is nobody talking about it? Is it because at large ‘groundwater’ sounds so boring?

While it is of course the best way to make environmentalism engaging and accessible to the largest amount of people, we must de-glamorize the concept of eco-advocacy. Issues like the groundwater crisis are happening NOW and we must do what we can to make ourselves care, regardless of how mundane they seem in concept.

Welcome to G-Dub Green Hub

lucyhummerAugust 23, 2018July 23, 2019Leave a comment

August 23rd, 2018

Lucy Hummer

Welcome to G-Dub Green Hub

Hey everybody! Welcome to G-Dub Green Hub, GW’s brand new sustainability blog. This space is going to be for students, staff and anybody else to write about all things green, at the university and beyond.

My name is Lucy, I’m a junior at GW majoring in environmental studies and geography and minoring in sustainability. I’m also an intern for the Office of Sustainability. I’ll be contributing content regularly, but so will you! We’re excited for the variety of content and talents that GW students will be able to provide throughout the year. My hope is that this page can serve as a place for news, promo, outreach, entertainment, education, etc, etc, etc.

Our goal is to connect students not only to the school’s green programming, but also to one another. Sustainability intersects with almost every interest and hobby, even if you don’t realize it yet! Ultimately, we want to remind all of you that living a green life is easy, fun and impactful, especially here on the GW campus.

Check back soon for new posts, and feel free to contact us at sustaingw@gwu.edu or lucyhummer@gwu.edu if you have questions or would be interested in writing for us! We want to include as many voices as possible throughout the year.

Talk to you soon GW!