In the few years I have been a marketer in the architecture industry, I have seen a huge push towards sustainable design. Once considered optional, many groups now require that their project achieve some level of LEED® certification. Currently, buildings account for 72% of the United States energy consumption (2008 EIA Annual Report). To address this – and other issues such as water consumption, CO2 emissions, etc – today’s designs require thoughtful material selection and design strategies that conserve natural resources, reduce energy consumption and operating costs. I see this shift towards sustainability gaining more and more momentum.
On the marketing side of things, I must be able to effectively communicate my firm’s commitment to sustainability. And marketing is not just limited to the materials we produce and distribute. At my company, I am part of The Green Office Initiative, a group devoted to greening our office space. When clients visit our office, they need to be able to see that green practices are part of the company’s culture. Case in point – after a day-long client meeting at my company’s headquarters, the conference table was full of empty plastic water bottles. Gathering these up, the client asked where the recycling receptacles were located. Blank stares. The meeting ended with her gathering every single bottle and carrying them out of the building in her purse. And that’s how the Green Office Initiative was formed.
Prior to this, I worked at an advertising agency in the media department. I live with my husband in Prairie Village.
-Pauline Horton
Filed under: About Us, Energy + Climate, Food + Health, J840 Week 1, Nature + Travel, Society + Media, Waste + Recycling | Tags: about me, global warming, Interactive, Marketing, nature, Nick News, North Carolina, sustainability, Trey
“Clowns”…”Bees”…”Those creepy twins from ‘The Shining’” That’s a sample of the answers my friends gave as we sat in the north dining hall of the University of Notre Dame reflecting on our biggest childhood fears, one of the many mindless dinner conversations we had in our college years. Given their relatively reasonable answers, I guess I should have been less shocked by the awkward looks I recieved upon revealing my biggest childhood fear.
“Global Warming” I said without even looking up from my flank steak. As the words left my mouth, I was so busy thinking of the scrawny boy in the early 90s who literally hyperventilated as he listened to Nick News’ Linda Ellerbee describe the rising tides and diminished food supplies that would result from Global Warming that I didn’t even notice the slack jawed gazes of friends. Had they known the boy rather than the man (not that they are all that different) they wouldn’t have been so surprised.
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee circa 1992
I spent most of my elementary school years on a military base near coastal North Carolina. With two working parents, my younger brother and I were free to run amuck in the pine tree forests and grassy fields of the not-so-deep south. When our parents were around, the four of us spent a lot of time breathing the salty air on the shore. It’s no wonder that I developed a love for nature before I was even 6. That love is what made the animated images of Global Warming on Nick News all too terrifying to a kid already prone to panic attacks and led him to form the “Clean Up Kids” at school and get his family to recycle…before it was cool.
Now 25, my fear for our world lingers. I’m too young to think that the world of the future is “not my problem.” God willing, I’ll still be alive when the world takes the turn that experts predict. Even if I weren’t around, I love my sister, only 12, too much to be ok with leaving her a pillaged planet.
Me and my sister at her dance nationals competition, Myrtle Beach, SC
I hope that my fledgling career in interactive marketing leads me to opportunities to innovate the way companies communicate. Though only a small piece of the puzzle that is reversing Global Warming, corporations have a civic duty to make the necessary adjustments to their operations to protect the planet. At least, that’s what Mrs. Ellerbee told me.
*Trey Williams*
Filed under: About Us, J840 Week 1, Local Events + Action, Society + Media, Waste + Recycling | Tags: environment, green, J840, KU, sustainability
“I’ll probably be dead by the time our environment’s trashed, so why should I care about sustainability and environmentalism? And ‘Going Green’ is just a hippie thing, right?”
That was my thinking and attitude for a long time, but it’s dramatically changed. Growing up in a Kansas City suburb and throughout my undergrad days at Mizzou, I never intentionally did things to hurt the environment, but never went out of my way to help it either. Now I (probably) drive my wife crazy doing things to improve our environmental impact and am fascinated at new ways to improve sustainability both individually and globally.
I don’t know exactly when or why my attitude towards the environment changed. Part may result from experiences as a journalist and covering stories from eco-friendly initiatives, to living “off the grid”, to the financial benefits of conservation and consequences of waste. Another part of my change of mind, may be my concern for the next generation and problems they could face if people continue to think the way I used to.
Our first child, a boy, due October 1st
The more I learn about green initiatives, the more I like it, and the more I understand the importance and benefits. I don’t see myself becoming the next “No Impact Man” anytime soon, but do see my relationship with the environment evolving to, well, we’ll see.
I love my current line of work, but am pursuing a Masters Degree to expand my possibilities in the communications field. No matter what field or industry I go on to work in, I believe environmental initiatives will be a hot topic. And I believe more people, like myself, will be in the mainstream and able to say they’re actively “Going Green”.
-Dave Dunn
Filed under: J840 Week 1 | Tags: about me, agriculture, dump, Europe, farm, farming, food, landfill, Military/Federal Government, Oregon, organic, trash, Willamette Valley
FROM THE CHILDHOOD COMES THE ADULT
While Oregon is very green (in many ways) growing up in the Willamette Valley on a medium-sized ‘working’ farm was not always fun; in fact I believe it is the reason I ran away and joined the military.
My First Horse and Her Colt; Roxie and Rusty
NEVER A DULL MOMENT
As a kid, my summers were filled, from before school let out to late fall, with putting up peaches, apples, apricots, plums, pears, tomatoes, and berries into sauces, jams and jellies. We had 7 chest freezers for any food that was not preserved by canning or drying. We traded apples from our orchard for peaches with the guy up the road. We grew our own blackberries and raspberries; at picking farms we picked blueberries and strawberries. Beans, peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, cucumbers and a full menu of squashes were some of the vegetables we could put up and there were so many more in the garden that we just ate as they matured. We raised our own livestock and chickens. For variety my father would hunt deer, elk, rabbit, raccoon, and we all fished from the local lake. Meat was canned, pickled, jerked, frozen, or made into pâté or sausage. All parts of the animals were used: bone was ground into dust and tilled into the soil, skin was tanned, horns and teeth were used for handy-crafts, and buttons, hoofs, tails, guts, and inedible bits were cooked or steamed down into a meal to feed the pigs, goats or chickens.
My Older Brother, Carl, and His Award Winning Kill
Firewood finished the summer. As harvesting and storing the garden came to an end, my father would get us up drastically early and drive us into the wooded areas of our land. There we would fell, split, chop and cut cottonwood, oak, and ash. We had a wood room on the side of the house. There we could store over 20 cord of wood. Then we would fill the adjacent field with another 20-25 cord of cut, split, and stacked wood. By spring it would all be gone; we heated solely with wood. The ashes were mixed with the winter collection of manure and tilled back into the soil.
BEING GOOD STEWARDS FOR THE LAND
Maybe, in some eyes, this is living naturally, living off the land, recycling the woods (we used downed trees first as the wood was ‘seasoned’, but felled what we required). My father was very conscious about sustaining the woods; we cut and felled responsibly, providing growth room for new saplings. He was very aware that if he cut too much, in the wrong areas, or of the wrong type it would impact our ability to heat the home in upcoming years and could cause land erosion.
However, we had a playground for bored kids; a dirty secret for the family.
Most farmers have the same secret, but in our area, since much of our land was not cleared, and the land of the other farmers was sustaining crops, several of our neighbors would come and add to our shame; we had a dump. Out, alongside the furthermost field, ran a tree infested gully. Our land was flood land and every few years the Willamette River would flood its banks and turn much of our land into a lake. There were lots of gullies, formed by water rushed along under the force of the overflowing river. In this gully my father dumped our waste. We burned what we could, the rest: the glass, metal, old mattresses, and what-not were dumped between the trees into this depression. Neighbors came frequently to ask for a favor, “As long as it don’t stink, and bring in varmints,” was my father’s reply to the request, and the dump grew.
TREASURES FROM WASTE
At the end of our quarter mile long drive, our closest neighbor had the same type of dump. Otto Hahn was the only farm equipment repairman for over 100 miles; he was famous, much sought after and damned good at what he did. Out the back door of his work shop went his trash, down a small incline into a low area. Trees had grown over it, brush obscured it from view (for the most part), but it was there. On occasion, instead of playing in our own backyard dump, we played in Otto’s. One day I discovered a clear-glass Pyrex dish, wrapped in baking parchment, held in place by cooking twine, with a treasure inside; a piece of wedding cake with a note giving the date and a wedding blessing. Otto Hahn, widowed less than two years ago, had just married is childhood sweetheart 70 years after they met and 57 years after her mother refused to allow her to marry a farmer. Otto and his first wife, Adelia, had been married over 50 years and this was a piece of their wedding cake.
I gave the Pyrex dish, complete with the treasure it contained, to my mother. She took it to Otto and asked his wishes. He was touched, but felt the cake and its importance in his life had been overcome by events. That dish was the first piece to be put in my hope chest; it is a bread loaf baking dish. My dream for many years was to be a baker. I love to make bread. I use the pan often and always remember the sweet old man who could repair anything.
MY YOUTHFUL FOLLIES ARE STILL WITH ME
Today, I consciously avoid yard/garage sales as I tend to ‘discover’ way too many treasures. Being with the military and now the federal government, I have not lived in the same house for more than 3.5 years since 1981. I keep my clutter to a minimum or face the pain of packing and moving all of it every few years. This can be a powerful motivator.
LEARNING BY EXPERIENCE
I have traveled extensively all over Europe and lived more of my life in countries where English is not the native tongue than the total number of years I have spent state-side. I bring with me all of the paradigms created in Europe by the lack of space, the need to build up rather than spread out, the drive to maintain standards in densely populated multi-cultural cities. In Germany, Italy and several other European Union nations, recycling is mandatory. My weekly garbage, what did not go in one of the three different recycling bins, could fit in a sandwich bag. Taking my trash out each week was actually a pleasure.
We are not as efficient or regimented in our recycling here in the U.S., but I hope to be part of that change as it happens.
Life is GREAT when there is lots of LOVE.
Angela Jones
Filed under: J840 Week 1 | Tags: climate change, global warming, perceptions, words, zen
I live with my wife, Tiffany, and our little Corgi, Winston (below), in an old house in Westwood that we are restoring. I manage electronic content, including web design, copy writing, and social media, for a non-profit professional organization, but I am more interested in literature as a vocation.
I am excited about this class because one of my first epiphanies about the power of words was related to environmental matters. Several years ago, it seems, that the phrase “global warming” changed to “climate change” in the public discourse. “Climate change” sounds as threatening as adjusting the climate controls of a Cadillac when compared to the somewhat alarming phrase “global warming.” I think this change in phrase was successful in that it made the debate seem less urgent and took some of the steam out of efforts by environmentalists to make more progress on this front. Later, I found out this wasn’t just happenstance. Republican strategist Frank Luntz coined the phrase through extensive focus group testing to try and re-frame the issue. The phrasing was adopted as official policy during President Goerge W. Bush’s term. Luntz has also pushed to replace the term “oil drilling” with the softer “energy exploration.” Words help shape perceptions — especially when it comes to more abstract issues — it would seem.
I would also like to share a story called “A Drop of Water” from a book titled Zen Flesh, Zen Bones that I think it is fitting for this class:
“A Zen master … asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath. The student brought the water and after cooling the bath, threw onto the ground the little that was left over. ‘You dunce,’ the master scolded him. ‘Why didn’t you give the the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even a drop of water in this temple?’ The young student attained Zen in that instant.”
–Ian Nyquist
