The first section of my project that I researched during week 4 was the WATER section. I decided to focus on finding where the water came from that reaches the faucets of the sinks and showers on the Hill. I discovered that UCLA has pretty efficient water heating systems for the residence halls. The four residence halls on the Hill, which each house 1,000 students plus, are equipped with 125 solar panel systems each. In Rieber, Hedrick and Sproul, 10,000 gallon storage tanks house the water that is heated during the day by such solar power. This is unlike the water heating system in Dykstra, as this residence hall only has a 5,000 gallon storage tank. Never fear, though! The heated water from Dykstra is not wasted and is actually used in the kitchens of De Neve. The water from the residence halls eventually finds its way from the storage tanks to the boilers in these residence halls. Because the water is already at a higher temperature, as it has been absorbed the sun’s heat all day, the boilers only need to raise the water 20 degrees higher rather than the usual 40 degrees higher from cooler city water. This also allows the buildings to use less natural gas to heat the water. From this initial research, I was really impressed as I truly had no idea that UCLA was so green in their water heating systems.
On the housing website, I also found that ALL of the shower heads and sink faucets on the Hill are “low flow.” This means that water flow is reduced to these fixtures leading to a significant overall decrease in the amount of water that the buildings on the Hill use. Toilets in Sproul and Covel are also low flow. Fortunately, as of 2008 UCLA has begun to replace any broken plumbing devices with equipment that is low flow – if a toilet breaks in Hedrick Hall, they will automatically replace it with a low flow toilet.
Overall, I believe that UCLA – specifically on the Hill and even on campus – is implementing an immense amount of pragmatic ordeals to decrease UCLA’s water intake. On campus, UCLA recovers and reuses clean water. Water from non-contaminated sources is collected in the campus cooling towers located under the Ronald Reagan Hospital. Recovering water has saved an average annual amount of $200,000 per year. The monetary benefit of saving water is definitely proof of the changes UCLA has made to conserve water in the past decade. Hopefully in the future as more dorms and buildings are built on campus to accommodate the ever-growing student body, UCLA housing will implement green building techniques to make UCLA a more sustainable place.
Want to reduce your water usage while living in the dorms? Here are some tips to help you.
1. Combine loads of laundry and make sure you have full loads
Try not to wash multiple loads of laundry when needed. If you know your colors do not bleed, why bother making a separate load for these colors? A typical top-loading washing machine uses about 40 gallons of water per load – this number clearly becomes larger as you increase the number of loads you do.
2. Never let the water run
I learned this from Barney, so I think it is time we all implement this rule. It is a simple thing to do that allows you save 1 or more gallons of water.
3. Take shorter showers
Try to time yourself! Taking long showers wastes water (hot water at that!) and time! Each day, aim for a shorter shower until you can take a shower around 5 minutes. Lower your shower time by 1 minute each day. Thankfully there are no bathtubs to soak in at UCLA – doing so may waste 40 gallons of water.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Radical Simplicity
QUESTION 1:
In a graphic image, how I envisioned my life 10 years from now BEFORE reading Radical Simplicity (above):
In a graphic image, how I envisioned my life 1- years from now AFTER reading Radical Simplicity (below):
Before I read Radical Simplicity, I envisioned my life 10 years from now as one surrounded by wealth. I am interested in business, and most people consider business and money as two topics essentially coincide. I knew that I would like to buy things, whether it is clothes or artwork, with the hopefully comfortable amount of money I would make. I imagined that I would be a marketing director, live in a large city and have some (notice the word some not just one) children and a loving husband. I envisioned I would live possibly in Los Angeles, San Francisco or essentially anywhere else in California. I am born-and-raised in California and could not really imagine myself anywhere else, especially in a cold climate.
After reading the book, I feel as though my life will still contain such things I listed above, however that I will weigh my options more heavily than before. I believe that I will always be interested in business and innovation. However, after our discussions in class I have realized that I need to work for companies that embody the green values that align with my own environmental beliefs. I believe that maybe I should focus more on eating more local and organic food and feeding these same foods to my children. I still want children, however I will teach them about how living an eco-friendly lifestyle is not hard, as I will integrate green beliefs into their seemingly normal lifestyle. For example, we will not use paper/plastic plates and try to garden our own food. After reading Radical Simplicity, I realized how much I miss nature, how much I wish to be surrounded by trees and plants and the open sky during most hours of my life. California is overcrowded and polluted. I have realized that maybe it would be better to settle in Washington or Oregon where the landscape is painted green from the plants rather than brown from the pollution as Los Angeles is. I also considered how I feel so much satisfaction after spending a day outside. This past weekend, I helped plant flowers in Westwood. Even for those few minutes, I realized how strong my desire to be outdoors is. Thus, instead of finding satisfaction in shopping I might find satisfaction in camping or hiking. From Merkel, I have learned that I can substitute my current material satisfaction with a truly natural satisfaction.
QUESTION 2:
From the outset, I believed that Merkel’s lifestyle is radical. I just believed he was another honky-dory environmentalist. But boy, was I wrong.
I learned a lot from Merkel’s lifestyle. Although I learned I could probably never commit myself that fully to the sort of life Merkel lives, I realized that I was convinced to live greener by the same factors that had convinced Merkel’s own self to live such a lifestyle, especially his anecdotes about Kerala. I enjoyed hearing how it is possible for a country like the United States, although we are much wealthier country, to adopt some of Kerala’s same eco-friendly techniques so that eventually we become condition to such ideas and these actions are merely unconscious. At points throughout the book, I did feel like the line between brainwashing and encouragement was blurred. I now believe, though, that he is not trying to persuade everyone to try and live the exact same way he does but is trying to show each individual how he or she can adopt certain sustainable techniques into his or her own life. I enjoyed hearing how although he initially struggled without a car, he now sees being car-free as liberation from the DMV and supporting unsustainable companies like Exxon and Shell (pg. 178). This gives me some kind of hope that maybe one day I will feel comfortable enough relying solely on public transportation that I will give up my car completely. I also enjoyed the last few chapters of Radical Simplicity, specifically when Merkel discussed how our Earth’s health and humans’ futures depend on our choices now. On page 191, Merkel begins discussing how we must not just educate the uneducated women about birth control but we must try and inform all women of the consequences of having children on the Earth and subsequently the humans. He brings up a point that had never occurred in my mind until I read it on the page: “With eighty percent of pregnancies in the US being unplanned, it appears that a radical change in cultural norms about communicating reproduction intentions during sexual encounters is definitely needed.” Unplanned teenage births especially should try and be prevented, Merkel claims.
Overall, I believe that Radical Simplicity offers vital information to all sorts of individuals. As Merkel points out through his analogy in the beginning of the book to the waiting line on Earth, one person’s actions always will affect another person on this planet. Our actions ripple across the planet and affect others, thus we must all work together in making our planet a safer, healthier place to live in the future for the sake of our own children and grandchildren.
In a graphic image, how I envisioned my life 10 years from now BEFORE reading Radical Simplicity (above):
In a graphic image, how I envisioned my life 1- years from now AFTER reading Radical Simplicity (below):
Before I read Radical Simplicity, I envisioned my life 10 years from now as one surrounded by wealth. I am interested in business, and most people consider business and money as two topics essentially coincide. I knew that I would like to buy things, whether it is clothes or artwork, with the hopefully comfortable amount of money I would make. I imagined that I would be a marketing director, live in a large city and have some (notice the word some not just one) children and a loving husband. I envisioned I would live possibly in Los Angeles, San Francisco or essentially anywhere else in California. I am born-and-raised in California and could not really imagine myself anywhere else, especially in a cold climate.
After reading the book, I feel as though my life will still contain such things I listed above, however that I will weigh my options more heavily than before. I believe that I will always be interested in business and innovation. However, after our discussions in class I have realized that I need to work for companies that embody the green values that align with my own environmental beliefs. I believe that maybe I should focus more on eating more local and organic food and feeding these same foods to my children. I still want children, however I will teach them about how living an eco-friendly lifestyle is not hard, as I will integrate green beliefs into their seemingly normal lifestyle. For example, we will not use paper/plastic plates and try to garden our own food. After reading Radical Simplicity, I realized how much I miss nature, how much I wish to be surrounded by trees and plants and the open sky during most hours of my life. California is overcrowded and polluted. I have realized that maybe it would be better to settle in Washington or Oregon where the landscape is painted green from the plants rather than brown from the pollution as Los Angeles is. I also considered how I feel so much satisfaction after spending a day outside. This past weekend, I helped plant flowers in Westwood. Even for those few minutes, I realized how strong my desire to be outdoors is. Thus, instead of finding satisfaction in shopping I might find satisfaction in camping or hiking. From Merkel, I have learned that I can substitute my current material satisfaction with a truly natural satisfaction.
QUESTION 2:
From the outset, I believed that Merkel’s lifestyle is radical. I just believed he was another honky-dory environmentalist. But boy, was I wrong.
I learned a lot from Merkel’s lifestyle. Although I learned I could probably never commit myself that fully to the sort of life Merkel lives, I realized that I was convinced to live greener by the same factors that had convinced Merkel’s own self to live such a lifestyle, especially his anecdotes about Kerala. I enjoyed hearing how it is possible for a country like the United States, although we are much wealthier country, to adopt some of Kerala’s same eco-friendly techniques so that eventually we become condition to such ideas and these actions are merely unconscious. At points throughout the book, I did feel like the line between brainwashing and encouragement was blurred. I now believe, though, that he is not trying to persuade everyone to try and live the exact same way he does but is trying to show each individual how he or she can adopt certain sustainable techniques into his or her own life. I enjoyed hearing how although he initially struggled without a car, he now sees being car-free as liberation from the DMV and supporting unsustainable companies like Exxon and Shell (pg. 178). This gives me some kind of hope that maybe one day I will feel comfortable enough relying solely on public transportation that I will give up my car completely. I also enjoyed the last few chapters of Radical Simplicity, specifically when Merkel discussed how our Earth’s health and humans’ futures depend on our choices now. On page 191, Merkel begins discussing how we must not just educate the uneducated women about birth control but we must try and inform all women of the consequences of having children on the Earth and subsequently the humans. He brings up a point that had never occurred in my mind until I read it on the page: “With eighty percent of pregnancies in the US being unplanned, it appears that a radical change in cultural norms about communicating reproduction intentions during sexual encounters is definitely needed.” Unplanned teenage births especially should try and be prevented, Merkel claims.
Overall, I believe that Radical Simplicity offers vital information to all sorts of individuals. As Merkel points out through his analogy in the beginning of the book to the waiting line on Earth, one person’s actions always will affect another person on this planet. Our actions ripple across the planet and affect others, thus we must all work together in making our planet a safer, healthier place to live in the future for the sake of our own children and grandchildren.
dEFinitely could use some work
As I punched in the different monthly totals for the separate categories of my ecological footprint, I could hear my heart pounding. The feeling was inevitable: I was nervous. I was nervous to see if my efforts to be eco-friendly, including the subtle changes I have made in my lifestyle over the past few years, had paid off. After not using plastic bags, solely committing to my reusable bottle water, dismissing packaging for products where ever possible and reducing the amount of clothing and products I bought within the past few months, I felt as though my lifestyle might more eco-conscious than my fellow Americans. 23.5 was the number I had to beat.
The number I actually came across from my calculations was 38.6. The biggest contributor to my large ecological footprint was the Goods and Services section. I began looking at the components that made up the Goods and Services sector and realized that the cost of my education is what led to my ecological downfall. Well does this mean I should stop going to school? The way that I kept envisioning Merkel’s lifestyle was a lifestyle of isolation. He probably had an education at a university many years before that he did not calculate into his monthly stocks at the age of 30 which helped his EF seem extremely low compared to my own. If I had calculated my ecological footprint just a year earlier, my total footprint would have been much lower as I went to a public high school and my education there was paid by others’ tax dollars. This began to frustrate me: my ecological footprint was higher now than any other point in my life thus far. And although Merkel had warned that an ecological footprint does change over a lifetime, I felt like no matter how hard my efforts to be eco-friendly were, the cost of my education would force my EF to increase.
As I contemplated more on this issue, I began to think of my ecological footprint in terms of the short term and the long term. Sure, my ecological footprint currently was high. But down the road, after I had paid off my education costs, my ecological footprint will hopefully be lower than the average American’s. I will not only be out of school, but I will have the knowledge about how to have an eco-friendly lifestyle – how I should utilize solar and wind energy, how I should design a “green” house, how I should keep track of my consumptions to make sure I am not buying outlandish material goods.
I did also realize, though, that even though I believe that my current EF is not exactly a true reflection of the efforts I make in my life now, I can still set goals for myself in order to lower my ecological footprint. I set my goals into distinct categories as follows:
Short term goals: (within the next quarter)
In the next year, I will try and focus on what I eat. Eating lower on the food chain and eating less meat will help reduce my EF. I know that it takes a lot to learn about how to become vegetarian, so this is why I am not committing to vegetarianism completely. I will try to eat less meat, though, and to eat more organic and locally grown food. This includes buying from farmers’ markets
Medium term goals: (1-2 years)
Within the next 1-2 years, I will try to focus on my water usage. 2 years from now, I will own my own apartment and possibly have to pay a water and electric bill. This will really quantify the amount of water I use and will help me see what I can do to reduce.
Long term goals: (2 years+)
In the long term, I will focus on living in a sustainable environment. Hopefully by the time I am ready to buy a house, sustainable living will be incorporating into houses when contractors build the houses. I will work on buying eco-friendly appliances and growing my own products whenever possible.
I think that such changes will reduce my EF overall. All of these components work together; if I buy organic and consume less meat, my cost for produce and meals will decrease; if I decrease live in a more sustainable house, I will use less electricity. In the end, I know I can reduce my footprint greatly even for the time being.
The number I actually came across from my calculations was 38.6. The biggest contributor to my large ecological footprint was the Goods and Services section. I began looking at the components that made up the Goods and Services sector and realized that the cost of my education is what led to my ecological downfall. Well does this mean I should stop going to school? The way that I kept envisioning Merkel’s lifestyle was a lifestyle of isolation. He probably had an education at a university many years before that he did not calculate into his monthly stocks at the age of 30 which helped his EF seem extremely low compared to my own. If I had calculated my ecological footprint just a year earlier, my total footprint would have been much lower as I went to a public high school and my education there was paid by others’ tax dollars. This began to frustrate me: my ecological footprint was higher now than any other point in my life thus far. And although Merkel had warned that an ecological footprint does change over a lifetime, I felt like no matter how hard my efforts to be eco-friendly were, the cost of my education would force my EF to increase.
As I contemplated more on this issue, I began to think of my ecological footprint in terms of the short term and the long term. Sure, my ecological footprint currently was high. But down the road, after I had paid off my education costs, my ecological footprint will hopefully be lower than the average American’s. I will not only be out of school, but I will have the knowledge about how to have an eco-friendly lifestyle – how I should utilize solar and wind energy, how I should design a “green” house, how I should keep track of my consumptions to make sure I am not buying outlandish material goods.
I did also realize, though, that even though I believe that my current EF is not exactly a true reflection of the efforts I make in my life now, I can still set goals for myself in order to lower my ecological footprint. I set my goals into distinct categories as follows:
Short term goals: (within the next quarter)
In the next year, I will try and focus on what I eat. Eating lower on the food chain and eating less meat will help reduce my EF. I know that it takes a lot to learn about how to become vegetarian, so this is why I am not committing to vegetarianism completely. I will try to eat less meat, though, and to eat more organic and locally grown food. This includes buying from farmers’ markets
Medium term goals: (1-2 years)
Within the next 1-2 years, I will try to focus on my water usage. 2 years from now, I will own my own apartment and possibly have to pay a water and electric bill. This will really quantify the amount of water I use and will help me see what I can do to reduce.
Long term goals: (2 years+)
In the long term, I will focus on living in a sustainable environment. Hopefully by the time I am ready to buy a house, sustainable living will be incorporating into houses when contractors build the houses. I will work on buying eco-friendly appliances and growing my own products whenever possible.
I think that such changes will reduce my EF overall. All of these components work together; if I buy organic and consume less meat, my cost for produce and meals will decrease; if I decrease live in a more sustainable house, I will use less electricity. In the end, I know I can reduce my footprint greatly even for the time being.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Home, green home: Project Proposal
Living in a college dorm is an interesting experience to say the least. There is not another time in your life when you will live in an environment constantly surrounded by individuals your own age that are not only your peers but also your friends. Although a college student may already have enough to worry about – grades, friends, homesickness and relationship troubles – a college student may not even be considering how to live a sustainable lifestyle. This is where I can help: I propose to create a booklet (although I've been thinking about this more and more and possibly a video?) about how to live a sustainable lifestyle as a college student. Nontheless, I will include different topics in my booklet or video, including water conservation, energy conservation, food sustainability, building relationships with nature and how to manage waste properly. I will provide information about how to be sustainable being during college and how to make little changes in one’s lifestyle that one can carry on for the duration of one’s life. In this sense, hopefully my booklet will teach individuals how to live sustainably no matter what stage of life one is in. If possible I would love for part of my project to be giving a PowerPoint or some other sort of presentation to my floor mates about the information I learn, however this will only happen if my RAs allow me to do so. I believe that instilling sustainable beliefs during a college, a time in which an individual is already learning an immense amount about oneself, will aid in creating a sustainable lifestyle for that person overall.
Music to my environmental ears
Does anyone else think it's awesome that environmental issues are arising in music, and not just some kind of underground hippie music, but some big-name music like the music of the Gorillaz? I hope that more artists address environmental issues in their songs alongside the other dilemmas of the 21st century that they already address (race, gender, etc.) One day I guess...
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Personal Trash Inventory
In particular, the sector of paper towels, napkins and toilet paper is the main ingredient to my recipe of wastefulness. If I do the calculations, this makes up 49.4% of the items that I threw away in one week. To reduce waste in this area of my trash disposal, I can do many things. I noticed that most of the paper towels I used were used as liners when I placed things down on the counters in the bathroom in my dorm’s bathroom, or when I was using the bathroom. I can resolve this issue in two ways. First of all, I do live right across from the bathroom. So instead of placing all of my bathroom necessities on the counter, I can go back and forth between my room and the bathroom so I do not feel the need to put my items down on a paper towel. Instead, I can simply leave what I am not using at that time in my room. Secondly, I can use a hand towel I have in my bathroom to dry my hands instead of using paper towels. Once again my room’s close vicinity to the bathroom will help me reduce paper towel waste. Also, I know that in the dining halls I can reduce the number of napkins I use. I can simply limit myself to a one napkin policy (so long as the meal I’m eating is not atrociously messy).
In a sense, my sustainable choices in my current lifestyle are reflected in my trash waste. The reality is that I am a college student and printing and disposing of a lot of papers seems to come hand-in-hand with this fact. Luckily, more professors are realizing that printing is not only expensive but also a waste of paper (and trees!). Even using this blog right now is preventing me from printing out 2 or more pages. So in a sense my inventory, which shows how I dispose of a lot of paper, reflects the fact that I am a college student. Also, I do not have much waste that is plastic or manufacturing. This is because I really try to reduce the amount of unnecessary objects I use in my life – paper or plastic plates, utensils, cups and bottles included. I do use a reusable water bottle daily, and this is reflected in my trash inventory because otherwise I would be disposing of a lot more plastic bottles and containers. I opt not to taking shopping bags when necessary, and encourage my roommates and others to use actual dishware and silverware as opposed to plastic utensils and plates they have to dispose of after one use. In this sense, my inventory reveals that I am a sustainable and environmentally conscious individual and that I try to reiterate the simple changes that I have made to my own life to my friends and family. Also, I think that my inventory revealed that yes, I do live in a country and that is very material based reflected in the amount of waste that one individual such as myself can accumulate in a week, however I know there are easy ways to be more sustainable and to reduce the amount of waste I leave. I now know what my personal trash inventory looks like and now feel equipped to make changes that I know are feasible for my current lifestyle.
As I mentioned before I already knew prior to this exercise that I do waste a lot of food, however this exercise quantified the amount of food that I actually do waste. In the first few chapters of Radical Simplicity, Jim Merkel really emphasizes that humans’, specifically those living in developed nations like the United States, can reduce their intake and output of items. I enjoyed Merkel’s anecdotes about his travels around the world to see how the individuals in countries that are not well off, such as Kerala, still maintain successful and happy lifestyles. I know now that, fortunately, the items I do dispose of most frequently (paper goods) can be recycled and used for other purposes However, the issue to me now is the path that my trash takes – is the paper that I throw away at UCLA actually taken to be recycled, or are the paper towels I use each morning being thrown away into a landfill somewhere in Los Angeles? I think that my lifestyle will always be different than the lifestyles of individuals in the poorer countries he assesses, however there is indeed room for improvement in my own lifestyle concerning the amount of waste I produce. I am interested to see how this plays out in my ecological footprint!
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