So here we are, at the end of another semester and it has flown by. It's been a wonderful journey nonetheless though, since there have been many enlightening and intoxicating videos that push the boundaries of what you're simple life has known. I feel I've kept quiet for too long about the passions I hold for the planet and the people, but this course has ignited a fire within me and provided a fresh perspective on how to read who is really doing good and who is really doing bad.
OLD QUESTIONS FROM 08/29/2015 What issues get your attention? The most pressing issue in my mind right now is the toxicity of man-made materials in every product. What pains even more is I work for a manufacturing company of plastics, which is one of the most toxic materials to date! Don't get me wrong, I love the people I work with and I love working with 3D printing technology as an engineer, but I know there are many traditional methods that need to change within this company. If I can instill sustainable practices and sustainable design methodologies into this company, then other people plus companies will follow suit. Ecovative, for example, has taken advantage of the natural biological process that mycelium offers, and they have accelerated the growth process to meet high volume demand while fighting the addiction to plastics. Of course, this is just one example, but we should be following their example by taking advantage of what natural technology has already been made, because man-made solutions will never be good enough in our lifetime. How do you define sustainability? For me, Sustainability is the connection between human and planetary systems enduring the restorative process so all planetary resources and organismic life cycles are in abundance. And what contributions are you hoping to make within the greater movement? The first contribution is to educate people on how to analyze a product by it's entire life cycle, not just by it's usage life cycle. Second, educate people what it means to design something, then have it restore the planet at the end of the product's life. Third, demonstrate that a household in a suburban setting can live without advanced high technology solutions to save money and improve quality of life. NEW QUESTIONS FROM 12/10/2015 How do you feel now when thinking about sustainability and the challenges/opportunities it presents? Much more confident, strategic, or perhaps even confused? My feeling dependent upon the difficulty or deepness of the challenge/opportunity in focus, but I feel more confident and strategic about the challenges/opportunities sustainability presents in general. If I am confused, its only because I have not looked at all the aspects of the system yet. Has your perspective shifted at all when considering effective ways to leverage change? if so, how? Yes, my perspective has shifted. Before, I thought you could just force change, but I have been down this road before in the manufacturing environment. Most people hate change, because they won't be able to sustain the same production rate for a few days. However, the most effective way to leverage change is by educating how the change can directly/immediately impact the person and demonstrating the changes positive/negative impacts. Once demonstrated, listen to the reaction that appears and discuss what the next move should be. Do you have a stronger sense of how you can uniquely fit into the sustainability mix now? No, I don't have a stronger sense of how I fit into the sustainability mix, because the mix is all interconnected. I don't think I want to uniquely fit into one thread of the sustainability mix, I want to be involved in all threads for sustainability, because that is how you can create restorative solutions for the people and the planet. What will you take away from this course? This course has provided a direction and a purpose to push the sustainability movement through time. Yes, our planet and people are hurting, but by implementing smart sustainable design solutions with natural technology in mind, we can take advantage of biology's adaptations with abundant resources to provide for 9 billion people and beyond.
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To begin, I regret to inform that I could not find many green initiatives in the city I live in, Sterling, VA. However, Sterlng, VA is within a 15 minute drive or 34 minute bike ride from Reston, VA, so I am going to pivot and write about the green city of Reston, VA.
Local Food In March 2016, the fourth annual "Grow Your Health" festival will kick off. The event will celebrate home gardening, sourcing organic and local food, and nutrition and wellness. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn how to grow organic food in your own backyard, while also speaking to other peers about the importance of Local Food. Farmers markets are a plenty in this city, while Salud, an healthy organic local grocery store, offers CSA shares from a local farm in the area. Advanced building codes (LEED certification, local codes) At the Walker Nature Center in Reston, VA, live "Nature House". It is a model of eco-friendly design and construction, LEED Gold certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, and nestled in a 72-acre woodland. It is the home for environmental education in Reston. Some of the features at Nature House are:
Education, advocacy and networking efforts The Facebook page for the Non-profit org called, "Sustainable Reston" provides general event information such as meetings, local farmers markets, etc. They have a Sustainability Community attend the 2015 MiniMaker Faire to educate people about solar ovens, run a workshop on a worm composting activity, and teach people how to make a newspaper seed to plant herbs or vegetable seeds.. Northwest Earth Institute discussion courses that speak about sustainability and living systems at Reston VA's Walker Nature Center.. Alternative transportation (bike, car, rail) Directly adjacent to my neighborhood lies the 45-mile long park called, Washington & Old Dominion Trail. It is great for walking, running, bicycling, skating, and even has 32 miles of adjacent gravel trail for horseback riding. It was built on the roadbed of the former Washington & Old Dominion Railroad, which runs through the urban and countryside areas of northern Virginia. Grassroots organizations Ecolocity DC primary focus is making DC a Transition town, while working with other groups to devise an Energy Descent Action Plan to get DC carbon-free by 2020. However, environmental considerations are not they're only concern. Human ecology needs to be addressed simultaneously to address the impact of decline on already vulnerable populations: the aged, homeless, unemployed, and the infirm. How did it start? Who's behind it? In 2006, two students, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, teamed up in a class called Inventor's Studio at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to invent a new insulation material using agricultural waste and mycelium. In 2007, they both graduate and are convinced by their professor, Burt Swersy, to pursue the technology into a company. In 2008, they present a protective packaging product and win approximately $750,000 from the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge - a green business competition, which enables them to move out of a university basement and into a prototype facility in Green Island, NY to produce mushroom packaging for customers like Dell and Crate & Barrel. In 2012, Sealed Air Corporation becomes the exclusive partner for the manufacturing and sales of Mushroom Packaging in North America. In 2014, Ecovative launches Grow It Yourself Mushroom Material to encourage open innovation, and launches an engineered wood alternative called Myco Board.
How does it work? Who is it's audience/market? To develop Mushroom Packaging, first, they receive agricultural waste purchased from regional farmers. Second, they clean the agricultural waste and introduce the cleaned waste to mycelium. Third, they bag the mixture and let the mycelium grow for a few days. The mycelium sees the agricultural waste as a food and seeks to digest it, while forming a matrix of white fibers along the way. Fourth, each particle is now coated in mycelium and it is then broken to loose up the particles. Fifth, loose particles are put into a tool where the mycelium grows through and around particles forming a solid structure and filling any void space. A few days are required to let the structure becomes completely solid and then remove it from the tool. The solid structures are then dried to stop growth and prevent it from producing mushrooms and spores. Mushroom Packaging products have been sold to large corporations, such as 3M, Sealed Air Corporation, Dell, and others. After Sealed Air Corporation received the license to manufacture and sell Mushroom Package, that allowed them to pivot from a manufacturing firm to a design firm. Their mission is to rid the world of toxic materials that hurt the people and the planet. How does it make the world a better place? By utilizing natural materials and an additive manufacturing process, Ecovative is taking advantage of a natural technology to make things safer and more environmentally friendly. Mushroom Packaging begins as two separate products, and then combines to form a product that can return and restore the natural ecosystem. Mushroom Packaging degrades when it interacts with living organisms in compost, which helps improve the top soil. How can it's influence be spread? Ecovative's mushroom packaging products are being influenced by the creation of things that actually work better than conventional synthetic materials and are much healthier for people and the planet. By using natural technology, we can live in harmony with the bioshpere and live without waste in our planet. By converting the minds of major corporations and society, Ecovative's mushroom technology can be accelerated to help other products form into healthier innovations for the planet. For example, Gavin McIntyre helped create a surf board using Mushroom Packaging, which can compete with other surf boards that are made from polyurethane, fibreglass, and styrofoam as well as be biodegradable rather than sea junk. |
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