Sustainability Office Fall Events
November
Tuesday, November 17th - Library Browsing Area - 12:30-2 pmSMAST Dean John Farrington: Religion, Science and the Environment: A Black Sea Cruise
The first Earth Day in 1970 provided hope and a rallying point for addressing environmental quality needs that had grown acute in "backyards", and some that had been festering for decades on a much larger scale such as DDT and other chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, oil spills, and direct discharge of raw municipal and industrial sewage to rivers, lakes and coastal ocean areas. During the 1970s and early 1980s there was progress, although some of the problems of those times linger today. Simultaneously, there were growing concerns about the reality of human civilization engineering planet Earth to the detriment of valued living natural resources and humans. This led visionary leaders in the religious, scientific, and political sectors to attempt to instill a sense of urgency into responses to this growing crisis by combining scientific facts about the environmental concerns with the inspirational forces of religions and belief structures to support policies that would contain global and regional environmental degradation (e.g. global biotic impoverishment, human induced climate change), and put humanity on a path of sustainability. This talk is about a brief history of aspects of these interactive religion, science, and environment efforts and a specific regional example that began in the Mediterranean and Black Sea area in the late 1990s. Have there been any positive outcomes? Yes, but much concerted and immediate action is needed at personal, local, regional and global scales!
Wednesday, November 18th - Woodland Commons - 1:30-3
Sustainability Workshop 101: Reducing Your Office Footprint (learn more)
Thursday, November 19th - Dion 109 - 10:30-Noon
Sustainability Webtools 101 (learn more)
December
Wednesday, December 2nd - Library Browsing Area - 6:30 pmSustainability Film Series - Soylent Green (1973, 97 minutes)
The is the year 2022. Overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society's leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green - an artificial nourishment whose actual ingredients are not known by the public. Thorn is the tough homicide detective who stumbles onto the secret so terrifying no one would dare believe him.
Learn more: http://www.amazon.com/Soylent-Green-Charlton-Heston
Monday, December 7th - Library Browsing Area - 12-1:30 pm
Sustainable Holidays
Past Events
September
Monday, September 14 - Library Browsing Area - 12-1:30 pmCCB Dean Susan Engelkemeyer: Building Platinum
Tuesday, September 15th - Library Browsing Area - 6:30 pm
Sustainability Film Series: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox (2007, 80 minutes)
Dr. Emanuel Bronner was a master soapmaker, self-proclaimed rabbi, and, allegedly, Albert Einstein's nephew. In 1947, after escaping from a mental institution, he invented the formula for "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap," a peppermint-infused, all-natural, multi-purpose liquid that can be found today in every American health food store. A human story about a socially responsible company, "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox" documents the complicated family legacy behind the counterculture's favorite cleaning product.
Learn more: http://www.magicsoapbox.com/, http://www.amazon.com/Bronners-Magic-Soapbox-Emanuel-Bronner
Thursday, September 17th - ATMC - 3-5 pm
Regional Sustainability Council with Keynote Doug Foy
Tuesday, September 29th - Library Browsing Area - 12:30-2 pm
Southcoast Sustainability Initiatives
Southeastern Massachusetts has a variety of sustainability committees, projects, and initiatives proactively working to build the long-term ecological, social, and economic sustainability of our region. Please join us in the Library Browsing Area on Tuesday, September 29th from 12:30-2:00 to learn from guest speakers Deirdre Healy and Susan Peterson about several of the notable initiatives underway in the region and how you can get involved or start a sustainability initiative in your town.October
Tuesday, October 6th - Library Browsing Area - 12:30-2 pmDr. Tara Rajaniemi and Rupert Grantham: Campus as Living Lab
UMass Dartmouth has over 350 acres of forest land - one of the largest open parcels in North Dartmouth. Both the woods and our cleared lands are excellent opportunities to model sustainable forestry and land use, for our students and for the surrounding community. Please join us on Tuesday, October 6th, to hear Dr. Tara Rajaniemi, Forester Rupert Grantham, and Facilities Planning Design and Construction Associate Director Peter Gagnon speak about some of the possibilities we've been discussing with Mass Wildlife, Mass Department of Forestry, and the Dartmouth Conservation Commission. Dr. Rajaniemi will discuss the wide range of habitats at UMD as well as the types of species they support, from common weeds to rare flowers. She will also discuss some opportunities for student research on the biology and ecology of campus ecosystems. Rupert Grantham will talk about opportunities for the University--made available by the State's Forest Stewardship Program--to develop an outdoor lab for university curriculum and regional education. Developments might include a forest management plan, carbon sequestration accounting, and sustainable forest certification. Peter Gagnon will share his 'adopt a garden' ideas for the beautification of our inner campus.
Wednesday, October 7th - Library Browsing Area - 6:30 pm
Sustainability Film Series: A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil (2007, 52 minutes)
This film is an informative, inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environment-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The documentary focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one of the most livable cities in the world.
Learn more: http://www.mariavazphoto.com/curitiba_pages/curitiba_dvd.html, http://www.amazon.com/Convenient-Truth-Solutions-Curitiba-Brazil
Thursday, October 15th - Library Browsing Area - 12:30-2 pm
UK Frontier Conservation Agency: Volunteer Opportunities for Students
Interested in volunteering abroad, working to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, and helping to build sustainable livelihoods for marginalized communities? Frontier is a non-profit conservation and development NGO whose staff and volunteers carry out groundbreaking surveys in remote forest, savannah, and marine environments. A representative from Frontier will be sharing information about past projects, future projects, and how you can gain independent field research experience while helping to protect endangered wildlife, learning a new language, and exploring the world.
Saturday, October 17 - Campus Center Entrance - 12:00 p.m.
Campus Sustainability Tour
MASSPIRG, is inviting UMASS Dartmouth students to see a side of campus they have never seen before. The group is sponsoring a special sustainability tour of UMASS Dartmouth, highlighting many of the green aspects of the campus. Green campus features include solar powered lighting for parking lots and bus stops, 350 acres of preserved forest that serves as an unspoiled habitat for wildlife, and much more. We will discuss the sustainable efforts on campus in the areas of energy, water, buildings, transportation, land use, purchasing and waste, food, health and wellbeing, and education and culture. Since the Chancellor signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment in Spring 2007, UMass Dartmouth has become a regional leader in sustainability efforts. This tour will provide an opportunity for students and members of the media to see how UMASS Dartmouth is doing its part to solve global warming.
Monday, October 19th - Library Browsing Area - 12-1:30 pm
Dr. Lynn Ruggeri: Non-Toxic Living
For this workshop Dr. Ruggeri will cover the following:
- Background Facts: Why this topic is so important to human health and to the health of our environment
- Basic "body facts" on how chemicals get into the body to pose a threat to health and well-being
- Who is most vulnerable to harmful chemicals and how we can all can benefit from safer products.
- How to identify safer ingredients and the ones to avoid
- Inexpensive, non-toxic cleaning, safer cooking/food storage and safer plastics
- Safer pest control and non-toxic lawn care tips
- Summary of tips for non-toxic living
Sustainability Film Series: Another World Is Plantable (2003, 2005 & 2006, 30, 45 & 38 minutes)
In this film series, community gardens in different parts of the world are presented. At the core of the film series are the activists from the community gardens, the gardens themselves, and the visions the activists have of them. They recount how and why their gardens are not just green oases in the middle of the city, but much more than that projects that bring into being 'another world'.
Learn more: http://eineandereweltistpflanzbar.urbanacker.net/4-1-dokumentarfilme.html
November
Wednesday, November 4 - Library Browsing Area - 12-1:00 pmSusan Jennings: Call to the Adventure
Sponsored by the Retirement Association
In anthropologist Joseph Campbell's Hero with A Thousand Faces, he describes a 'hero's journey' that historical and fictional characters across cultures and throughout time have undertaken. Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Luke Skywalker, and Franklin Roosevelt took similar paths that consisted of a crisis or 'Call to Adventure' that invited the would-be hero on a journey through the shadowy depths of themselves and their world and to a gift or boon that they brought back to the world-at-large. In our times, climate change, fossil-fuel depletion, economic collapse and political uncertainty are a generational "Call to Adventure" that likewise invite us to reexamine the shadow beliefs that underlie our unsustainable behaviors. If we choose to answer the call, we can expect to be confronted with dragons and fireswamps; but we also can expect a boon that includes the transformation of ourselves, our institutions, and the world as we know it.
Coffee and Dessert served; to register for the retirement luncheon, contact mdefrias@umassd.edu
November 6, 2009 - 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Campus Cleanup (learn more)
Monday, November 9th - Dion 109 - 10:30-Noon
Sustainability Webtools 101 (learn more)
Tuesday, November 10th - Library Viewing Area - 1:30-3
Sustainability Workshop 101: Reducing Your Office Footprint (learn more)
