Individual Project Update

I've been able to survey 8 out of 13 residents, which was no easy task. Keep in mind I've been trying at various days of week/times of day since mid-October (like landlord like tenants?). Out of the remaining five: three are never home except REALLY late and two do not answer their doors even when I know they are in fact home (the walls are thin and I live right below them). I will continue to haunt these five, and will tape the surveys to their doors if all else fails, although I don't know how fruitful that will be in getting a response. The trick is to get their email address to let them know my apartment number, and to emphasize the importance of rinsing and sorting!

Here's the survey:

 

And here's the data:

The good: 100% participation on signing the petition and willingness to drop off at my apartment. 0% on "Not at all concerned" and wouldn't recycle even if offered at the apartment.

Not so good: None willing to pay more than $15 extra a month for recycling services. Can't blame them!  Also, I was surprised to see that some people would only be willing to recycle one or two types of things, even though I'm doing all the work.

According to the city and Hoosier Disposal, you can't get bins for a complex with more than 4 units; they just don't do it. So the other alternative is to pay to get a recycling "dumpster" right next to the trash dumpster. I'm waiting on a call back for the estimate from Hoosier to relay the info to the landlord...but I'm not holding my breath. No further word from the landlord since that one fateful call.

When I'm home on break I'll get a few plastic bins for sorting, and a camera to take a few pics to give you guys an idea of what the setup will look like. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Individual Project Update

Well, just moments ago I got off the phone with the infamous landlord!! I got a little more information on the situation, straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. Prior to this, all I had to work off of was hearsay from the real estate agent and a few tenants.

Apparently, the complex used to have recycling from the city and he and his son lugged all the blue bins to the curb every two weeks for pickup. However, people eventually stopped sorting and started just throwing their entire trash bags in the bins! So he cancelled it and got a dumpster, which I can't really blame him for doing.

However, now with renewed interest among the tenants (proved it with the survey!) and free labor (a girl that's willing to lug the bins herself) there's a glimmer of hope! He actually agreed to contact the city himself to find out about getting more bins. According to the city website, apartment complexes with 4 or more units are exempt from the curbside recycling program, so I'm not sure how he got away with this before. Maybe it's a new exemption? Anyhow, the good news is that if the city won't do it, Hoosier Disposal also offers recycling. And again, if he's got a sucker that's willing to do it for free (aka me) then he might actually foot the added recycling fee.

I'll be posting the results of the survey (just have to make the data look pretty) and an update on this NEW and exciting opportunity on next week's blog. I just couldn't wait to let you all know I finally got that "special" phone call. :)

Event 3: LEED Presentation (David Gulyas and Ted Mendoza)

This was an excellent talk as an introduction to LEED. First, Mr. Mendoza laid out the basic tenants of Green Building:

1) Site Planning

2) Water Management

3) Energy

4) Materials Use

5) Indoor Environmental Quality

He also emphasized collaboration between a variety of stakeholders in developing LEED, like product manufacturers, financial planners, property managers/owners, local/state government officials, and engineers, to name a few. The vision of the USGBC and LEED is to transform the building industry, by using historical building experience to improve design and create closed loop cycles for all aspects of construction. He explained the difference between the objectives for the USGBC (chapters, advocacy, green building, research, education) and the GBCI (administer LEED credentials and certify LEED projects).

There are now 1.04 billion square feet of LEED certified projects, and still growing as LEED is being enveloped into new construction projects. One interesting statistic: there are currently 27,581 commercially registered LEED projects, but only 5,707 commercially certified LEED projects. This shows the rigor of the program, and that improper planning (both financially and politically) can kill green building very easily.

The second half of the talk was conducted by David Gulyas, who went over the benefits of LEED certification:

1) Competitive Differentiator – lower operating costs, better indoor EQ, impacts tenants/buyers decisions    

     about leasing and purchasing

2) Mitigate Risk – protection against future lawsuits through 3^rd party certification

3) Attract Tenants – lease-up rates for green buildings can be upwards of 20% above average rates

4) Cost Effective – a 2% investment in green building design upfront can reap 20% in lifecycle savings, 

     AND a 10% increase in building sale price for energy efficient buildings

5) Increase Rental Rates – higher occupancy and rent premiums

Three things I learned (among others):

1) Increased productivity (not energy efficiency gains) is the biggest source of cost savings associated with 

    commercial LEED buildings! Proves what a difference a healthy work environment makes.

2) There is a new rating system for LEED certification in Neighborhood Development, AND the local 

     USGBC chapter is working with Habitat for Humanity on a new neighborhood being built on the west   

     side of Bloomington. 

3) The empire state building is LEED Gold!

Event 2: Conservation Social Work (presented by Josphat Ngonyo of ANAW)

Mr. Ngonyo spoke about the activities of his organization, Africa Network for Animal Welfare. Some of the issues he cited include: how human population increases enhance resource competition which in turn exacerbates human-wildlife conflicts over land use issues; poaching, snaring, and illegal bush meat trading; use of animals in educational experiments and research; spread of rabies through stray dogs; and long-distance transport of animals for zoos. Some of the matters dealt with in his organization are similar to those in the United States, such as the conflict of settlement and food production versus wildlife habitat, and the complex issue of genetic manipulation of species through hormone injections and crossbreeding.

Desnaring a Zebra

ANAW is very concerned with lobbying and legislation changes, such as increased penalties for illegal ivory trading. The hope is that by sensitizing judges to the issues, tougher laws will be put on the books, which will lead to stronger enforcement measures. Mr. Ngonyo hopes that through media sensitization workshops, school education, and other means of advocacy animal welfare issues will become a priority in Parliament. Partly due to the efforts on behalf of his organization, a series of anti-bullfighting laws were passed. Another mission of ANAW is to empower local communities through education, interaction and involvement in animal welfare solutions. The ultimate goal is to have community representatives present in decision making bodies regarding matters like revenue allocations from wildlife hunts and tourism, determination of quarters for sport hunts, and other important resolutions that impact humans, wildlife, and land use practices. He spoke of creating bridges between local and distant cultures, local livelihoods and market economies, man and nature, and present and future generations.

I would have been very interested to know about his views on American CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feed Operations) and the extensive use of GMOs in our crop production. Also, a presentation on one of the communities he’s worked with that includes specific strategies to connect with the people and teach them about wildlife conservation and alternative sources of income to poaching. Some of the methods he mentioned were true but somewhat vague, like strengthening communities, better disease management, increased access to water and food, improving understanding of modern conservation, and better financial management. A question (asked by me!) regarding sport hunting versus photo tourism raised some questions regarding financial streams and how national policies impact conservation efforts. Mr. Ngonyo explained that while sport hunting makes money from selling licenses to individuals, photo tourism is more lucrative to the local economy due to the greater mass of people involved and the greater utilization of services such as airlines and hotels.

Environmental Injustice and Sewer Overflows (both are yucky)

The Love Canal case first brought up the issue of environmental justice in the 1970s, and directly contributed to the “Community Right-to-Know” provision in the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Acts (SARA Title III). In 1982, racial concerns were added to environmental justice when a proposed PCB landfill was approved in a minority community in North Carolina (Roseland 162). Then the National EnvironmentalJustice Advisory Council was established in 1993, bringing together representatives from the community, academia, industry, tribes, local governments, and (of course) environmental groups.  In 1994, President Clinton issued an executive order addressing environmental justice in federal agencies, and finally, in 2003 EPA regional offices were required to submit environmental justice action plans to report progress (Roseland 162). Why am I recounting this history? Because it sheds light on the slow, labored movement of this very important issue, defined as: the (1) unequal distribution of environmental risk, (2) unequal access to information, and/or (3) lack of opportunity to contribute in the public comment process, based on race, economic status, or both (Wheeler 184).

Examples abound. People of color (versus whites) are more likely to live in urban areas with reduced air quality, with the highest rates of asthma in the U.S. among blacks aged 15-24 (Wheeler, p. 185). Numerous studies and mappings of coal plant locations and hazardous waste sites prove that environmental discrimination exists, yet it has been one of the more overlooked aspects of sustainable development. This might be partly due to the fact that it comes in various forms: procedural equity, social (intra-generational) equity, distributional (geographical) equity, inter-generational equity, and inter-species equity (Roseland 162).

One of my earlier blogs on Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in Fort Wayne mentioned when and where CSO upgrades were being planned in the city, and whether nicer neighborhoods were being serviced first. Below is a map of minority and low income areas of Fort Wayne. Solid yellow = low income. All other colors/patterns indicate minority areas. Solid green, crosshatched pink-and-green, and crosshatched pink-and-blue indicate low income AND a minority. 

The next map is of current CSO sites (yellow dots) and proposed upgrades (dark purple spots) in Fort Wayne. I added a few street names to make it easier to compare, since the graphs are on different scales.

See if you can tell me whether there is an environmental justice issue here. How did you decide? What other information am I (purposefully) leaving out that might help make the decision? (Oh okay, here’s a few things: population density, CBA of people served vs. project costs, engineering feasibility, overflow rates at each CSO site, etc)

It seems Fort Wayne isn’t the only city in Indiana under scrutiny regarding environmental justice and CSO upgrades. Indianapolis is also under the gun. Below is a map of Marion County, with active CSOs (blue dots), recently eliminated CSOs (purple dots), and proposed upgrades for 2009-2013 (green dots). The darker areas of the map represent regions with a greater proportion of people at or under the poverty level, lighter areas are better off. This study determined that the proposed CSO elimination plan did not “effectively address” the environmental justice issue, and found a strong correlation between active CSOs and poorer neighborhoods. 

Comparing the two cases, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Fort Wayne needs to revise their CSO remediation plan. But if no one makes it an issue, how will it get addressed? In the past, people-of-color organizations and their leaders have not pursued environmental justice issues for fear of losing ground on previously hard fought civil rights gains or losing out on economic development programs (Wheeler 186). In this case, I think neither of these should be a concern. But politics can be tricky, and often limited resources within these organizations mean tough decisions must be made...what's it worth?
                                            

Personal Project Update

I'm having some real difficulty getting in contact with my landlord. I've never actually seen/met the man; all correspondence is through the real estate agent, and she doesn't give out his phone number. I just have to leave a message with her and hope he gets back to me. It's been two months...my hope is dwindling. So. I started going door to door this weekend with the surveys, without his consent or feedback. In the interest of political management I thought it would have been better to let him know my intentions prior to giving out the surveys, but I'm running out of time! Besides, the real estate agent was pretty clear that if he didn't make money off of it, he wasn't going to do it. But I still need him to at least give me permission to put my own bins out.

So far, the reception's been good among the tenants on the survey and they actually seem pretty interested, but I'm finding that NO ONE IS HOME (or else they're choosing not to answer when they see a weird girl at the door with a clipboard). Nevertheless, through the barking dogs and creepy tenants ("so, what are you doing later?") and unresponsive landlord, I am NOT giving up my dream of apartment recycling. It just might be that it involves a few bins sitting in front of my unit, and me driving to the County Recycling Center each week with a load. And that's alright with me. :)