Kick Off Event: Movie Watching

Thank you to everyone who came last night! Watching the movie was a good way to inspire all of us to do what we can this week, especially since he sacrificed so much. We encourage any of you who didn't get to make it to watch the movie on your own time, its a wonderful story about doing things differently and "opting out" of systems which you don't believe in, as Joel Salatin would say.

Here are a few choice quotes from the movie to take with you:

"People say they couldn't do without this or that, so I said lets just do without it all to make it easier"

"The average American produces about 1600 lbs of trash/year"

"You have to go see how the animals are treated [on the farms where you get your food]"

"Do we have to be a disposable culture?"

"I felt sad for the wanting part of me dying"

"If i can direct my energy towards something good [like trying to live sustainably] then why not"

"People are very traumatized when they are presented with the idea that they should do without"

"The project is to bring attention to the issue"

Air Drying Your Laundry

Here is another easy and sustainable habit you can get into, despite weather you live on or off campus.
I started air drying my laundry last year when I lived in Lee Hall. You would think that in our tiny room there would not be enough space to hang up all my clothes, but I used every square inch we had: bunk bed tiers, door corners, bed posts, and my favorite, staggering my open drawers and using those and drying plateaus.
For smaller items I would just hang them around the rim of my laundry basket. A drying rack also gives you a lot of surface area w/o taking up a lot of space. Now that I live off campus, I dry my larger items (like towels and small rugs/bath mats) on the edge of our balcony. When you do your laundry at night and leave it out to dry, it will usually be dry in 24 hours.
The way I figure it, you can't wear all the clothes you're washing the day after you wash them, so why not just air dry them, it saves you money as well as electricity.

Recycling Paper in Your Room

Some of you might already do this, but here is my system for insuring I never have to throw away a piece of paper in my room.

This is a picture of my makeshift recycling bin under my desk. It is simply the lid to a box. I can put old homeworks in there, receipts, packaging cardboard like old Klenex boxes, etc.




When this gets full I empty it out and separate it into two categories: printable used paper and non printable paper scraps. I take the staples out of the usable paper and keep it under the recycling bin for whenever I need to print a homework or anything.

I use the other scraps for either notes or they simply go to the Foxridge recycling.

The Way Fishing Should Be

In this video, chef Dan Barber talks about "How I Fell in Love With a Fish" after he visits an uber-sustainable fish farm in southern Spain. The condition of fisheries world wide is scary and traditional fish farms are not without their environmental problems (concentrated area of waste, the fish feed formulas). In Earth Sustainability a fisheries professor told us that the only fish he would recommend eating is the wild Alaskan Salmon. But if it has to travel all the way from Alaska, is that really sustainable? This farm in Spain is a closed circuit fish farm, similar to that of Joel Salatin's Polyface farm in Virginia. The fish feed on the algae, and birds eat the fish, there is no fish feed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EUAMe2ixCI

Here are some choice quotes from the video:

"Have you ever heard of a farm that doesn't feed its animals?"

"We farm extensively, not intensively"

"20% of our fish and fish eggs are lost to birds"

"This is a fish farm as well as a bird sanctuary"

"This is a recipe for the future of good food"

Kick Off Event!

This Sunday, March 28th, is the No Impact Hokie kick off event!

Come on out to Brush Mountain A in Squires at 8:00pm for an overview of the experiment and a free showing of the movie "No Impact Man."

Food will be provided!

The Date Of No Impact Week Has Changed!

The no impact week has been changed from March 22-26 to March 29-April 2 due to scheduling. This should actually work out better because it's now the same week as the Eco Olympics on campus, if you haven't heard about it check it out.

iChange Sustainability Winners!

Hey Nick, Mo, Grace, and Emma!

Congratulations! Your "No Impact Hokie" project has been selected by SGA's iChange as the winner of the Sustainability Contest! We are proud to award you $200 along with the opportunity for an internship in the VT's Office of Sustainability (if one of you is interested). As iChange's Sustainability Contest winner, we would also like to assist you in any way to make "No Impact Hokie" the best it can be! Whether it's through marketing, university connections, planning,or anything else, we'd love to help in any way we can!

Lauen Fialkow

Director of iChange

The Experiment & No Impact Laws

The experiment addresses 5 sections of an individual’s lifestyle: Section 1, Water; Section 2, Food; Section 3, Electricity/Energy; Section 4, Transportation; Section 5, Waste. Sticking with the theme of the project, our tagline for the week is, “How low can you go?” For each of the addressed sections, we have implemented a set of rules and regulations for the participants to follow (all of which can be found on the blog). For example, under Section 2, all participants are recommended to adapt a vegetarian/vegan/local (choice is up to the participant) diet; buy only food from the farmer’s market, Eats, or Annie Kay’s; eat only at Farms & Fields on campus, create close to zero food related waste (no Styrofoam, no disposable silverware, limit napkin usage); and compost all organic matter if possible. The rules and regulations are up to the discretion of the participate depending on feasibility, but we recommend to go as far as possible. The specific ideas for each section may be optional, but the experiment does have a few stricter rules that all participants are asked to follow to legitimize the No Impact Hokie experiment. For the sake of organization, we will call these rules, The No Impact Hokie Laws.

No Impact Hokie Laws:

1) No cars in Blacksburg

2) Must eat food from natural food stores and/or adopt a vegetarian diet

3) No plastic bottles

4) No TV

5) No Styrofoam

No Impact Hokie - Planned Week Events

(March 22nd - 26th)

Saturday, 27th: Farmer's Market & Eats trip - 11:00am

Sunday, 28th: "No Impact Man" movie/Potluck/No Impact Hokie Kickoff - 6:00pm

Monday, 29th: Farms & Fields lunch - 1:15pm, candlelight homework session (location TBA) - 7:00pm

Tuesday, 30th: EC (Environmental Coalition) meeting in Smyth 147 - 7:00pm

Wednesday, 31st: Acoustic jam session - 7:30pm

Thursday, 1st: Potluck - 7:00pm

Friday 2nd: End of the week celebration! - 9:00pm

*The potlucks and jam session will be at my place, 101-2 Country Club Drive

Intro Into The No Impact Challenge

Get Involved With Environmental Coalition At Virginia Tech

http://www.theecvt.org/

FAQ

1. What are the next start dates?
March 22nd to March 26th

2. How long will the project take?
Five days, Monday through Friday

3. Can I do this alone?
Sure, but we recommend doing it with at least one friend.

4. How many days do I have to participate?
Do as many as you can, but like most challenges in life, the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.

5. What if some of the activities are impossible for me to do?
If a challenge is truly impossible, don’t sweat it.

6. How will taking these small steps have any real impact on climate change?
Every small behavior change you make or every political action you take adds to a growing wave of change and influences your community to get on the ball!

7. Do I have to be a hippie, activist, granola eater to participate in the experiment?
No. And that stereotype is so passe’.

8. What if I need to use a car to get to around?
You don't need a car. Get a bus schedule.

9. I’m really into this project, but my roommates don't want to join in. How do I lower my impact without driving my roommates crazy?
Find positive small ways to engage the people in your life. Cook a local meal for them, carpool with them for the week or organize a TV-free game night.

10. I live in an area that doesn’t offer recycling. How can I participate in the trash phase?
Try to avoid buying anything that needs to be recycled, such as plastic bottles, and turn glass jars into travel mugs (like Colin did) or pencil holders. For all phases of the experiment, it’s best to see what resources you have available and to use your creativity to make the most of them. You can always recycle at the local YMCA thrift store on North Main street.

11. I don’t really have time for this project but I want to do something. What can I do to help the planet and maintain my busy schedule?
Look through the no impact man website for some tips and advice, http://noimpactproject.org/

12. I have to use my computer for work all day every day, how can I take part in the Experiment?
We completely understand that most of us depend on computers for school. We are not asking you to fail your classes and go back to the land. This Experiment is about making realistic behavior changes. If you can power down over the weekend or at night that’s great! If not, don’t sweat it.

*Taken from the No Impact Man blog

Our Virginia Tech Experiment

5 Days - How Low Can You Go? (March 22-26)

Section 1: Water

Ideas:
-Shower:
-Military shower--turn water off when soaping and shampooing
-Birdbath--using the sink as a way to freshen up in place of a shower
-Reusable water bottle:
-Invest in a stainless steel or reusable plastic water bottle, and stop purchasing wasteful Hokie Water. Next time you get thirsty and you don't have your reusable water bottle on you, look for the nearest water fountain and resist the urg to buy some Deer Park.
-Flushing Etiquette

-“If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”

-Limit the faucet flow when washing dishes by plugging the sink
-Buy concentrated, natural detergent. They are usually not available at chain stores but look for them at Eats (7th generation) or order them online. You will avoid the harsh water-softeners and surfractants.
-make sure when you wash your clothes in the machine you have a full load so you have less loads over all.

Section 2: Food

Ideas:
-Buy Local and Sustainable:
-Farmers market (Draper Road, Wednesday 2-6 starting late March and Saturday 9-2 all year)
-Shop at Eats (at the intersection of Prices Fork and Main Street)
-Adopt a Vegan/Vegetarian Diet (if your worried about getting proper nutrition, check out some books about vegetarianism at the library, you can definitely get enough protien)
-Eat at Farms and Fields in Owens Food Court
-Eat seasonally (no grapefruits, sorry)
-Avoid food with a lot of packaging
-Use reusable grocery bags
-bring your own lunch to campus if you can't make to farms and fields
-NO fast food

Section 3: Electricity/Energy

Ideas:
-Lights
-Use candles and natural light
-Replace incandescent light blubs with more efficient CFLs
-Heating
-Turn thermostat down by 2 degrees (68 degrees is ideal)
-Put on a sweater!
-Invest in a heating pad so you can heat your body instead of your whole room (try sitting on it when you do your homework, its amazing)
-No TV
-Try air-drying your clothes after you wash them, get a drying rack or use the top of doors!

Section 4: Transportation

Ideas:
-Biking
-Blacksburg Transit
-Carpooling
-Maximize each trip in the car

Section 5: Waste

Ideas:
-Compost food scraps, there are mini-composters you can put in your pantry or kitchen if that don't smell.
-Recycle (most recycling on and off campus is only for 1-2 recycling, paper and glass, for cardboard and 1-6 plastic recycling, go behind the YMCA on North Main)
-Reusable products
-Water bottle/coffee mug
-Thrift Store (Clothes)
-Clothe towels/napkins
-Bring your own To-Go container at the dining halls

-NO styrofoam, set aside enough time to be able to eat your meals at the dining hall or restaurant

What is No Impact Project?

The No Impact Project is an international, environmental, nonprofit project, founded in the spring of 2009. It was inspired by the No Impact Man book, film, and blog.

Mission

To empower citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in environmental politics.

The No Impact Project was conceived by Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, following the success of his blog, book, and film, which chronicle his family’s year-long experiment living a zero-waste lifestyle in New York City. Central to his thesis is the notion that deep-seated individual behavior change leads to both cultural change and political engagement. Living low-impact provides a clear entry point into the environmental movement. This thesis is the bedrock of the No Impact Project.

Goals

• Promote behavioral change
• Enable the public to experience their own No Impact Experiment
• Engage people who are not already tree-hugging, bicycle-riding, canvas-bag-toting, eco-warriors

http://noimpactproject.org/

No Impact Hokie