The Dirty Truth About Urbanization in Milan, Italy

By the year of 2050, there is an estimation that nearly 70% of the world's population will be living in an urban area. While the innefficeny in the real estate market is apparent, there must be efficient urban planning in the future in order to sustain these people living here. So what happens if we run out of farmland, green recreation space, and forest that inhale our CO2? This problem is consistent worldwide, not just in developing countries. The 'simple' solution is to reuse and renovate as many existing buildings as humanly possible. Crowd sourcing will be a large factor in this and it will apply the local development to build from the bottom-up communities based on the citizen need, rather than the major development firms.

A few tid bits of info!

• 2% of the Italian GDP comes from agriculture, compared to that of the US being only 1.2% of our GDP.
• 14 million hecatares of land will be used for urban purposes in developing countries between 1990 and 2020

 What it looks like now (Below)


 What we need to gather our efforts to make happen!!!!! (below)
 

Fair Trade SBC Coffee

I recently was in the Atrium on campus and saw this sign! I don't know how recent this was put it up but it got me thinking about what an awesome campus we live on. I know there are a ton of sustainable practices being used all over campus but it's awesome to see one that is publicly advertised. This poster intrigued me and I went to check out the Fair Trade SBC Coffee that Seattle's Best and Starbucks are now committed to using.

Here is a little bit about the product.Seattle’s Best Coffee has partnered with TransFair USA since April 2001 to offer Fair Trade Certified Organic French Roast coffee. SBC applauds and supports TransFair’s goals, which are to ensure that small farmers receive a fair price for their coffee beans and to ensure that coffee farming families not only have enough money to keep their farms, but enough money to benefit from education, healthcare and housing as well as to protect the environment. In the last year they have increased their fair trade usage by 30%. They also have made a commitment to farmers in South America to pay them appropriately as well as help the communities out around them to help them thrive from the coffee gold!

Final Reduction Blog Post (for the quarter)

For these past weeks, my global reduction footprint has been diminished from 4.4 to 3.7. This primarily comes from the services department and the food department. The biggest portions of these that have decreased comes from the reduction of the meat that I have taken out of my diet. The meat that has been removed consists of successfully not eating chicken or another meat every day for a few days out of the week. This has truly made a difference. Another reason for my reduced planets was from the gas and energy bills being lessened. This may be from the temperature gradually getting a bit warmer, but I would love to think that my roommates have actually taken my lead and have become more aware of the energy that we are using on a day to day basis. I have also made a huge effort to consistently by my groceries at The Market after learning that they are truly a more local store while still remaining rather cheap! There is a ton of room for improvement still. I believe my next large reduction will continue with in the food region because it seems as the most plausible area to make these changes. While I can attempt to reduce my driving, it may be hard to do so due to work and other social activities that I am involved in. I can move from using the Market to a Co-op or when the downtown food market gets up and running I will surely take full advantage of this! I can't wait to continue the goals that I have set for my self that not only include sustainability goals, but along with these they actually have direct effect on my healthy lifestyle that I attempt to live daily.

Vertical Garden

With Brazil seemingly being at the forefront of the recyling movement worldwide, they have done it again with this recycled bottle garden! The design firm Rosenbaum and TV producer Luciano Huck collaborated and created this innovative garden that not only utilizes space but allows for a small family to grow products on their own. It was designed for a TV program by the name of Home Sweet Home. This one imparticalur was built on the wall of a small house in Brazil in a walkway that covered an entire wall. They were made by cleaning out plastic bottles and cutting a rectangle hole and then placing dirt, seed, and viola in them. It is an awesome idea that I would love to attempt to make when I am able to have a free wall in my house.

Recycled bikes

Bicycled Bikes

This company by the name of Bicyled Bikes has created a profound idea of making bikes out of recycled junk yard cars. It is bringing a use for all the junk yard cars that are sitting waiting to be put to use. This idea comes from a company that is based out of Spain by the name of Lola Madrid.  These bikes are made from the most strudy parts of the bike that include the signals for the brake lights, the uphulstry from car seats for the handle bars and seat, and many other parts from the cars to make it a nearly 100% up-cycled bike.




http://bicycledbikes.com/

*Update*

As the quarter proceeds I have continually been looking for new ways to make my home more sustainable as well as my day to day living in order to decrease not only my carbon footprint, but also my roommates.

One way that I found after doing the original write up involved driving on the highway. I never realized how much going 10-15 miles per house truly affected your gas tank! If you were to drive 10 mph slower (65 mph to 55 mph) you will notice that the tank is not being depleted nearly as fast, up to 15% even and it is even more with 15 mph. While I don't always need to drive on the freeway, it does pertain to me when I do have to go home since I live about 2 hours south in Puyallup.

In regards to attempting to make the home more sustainable, my roommates and I have committed to a test phase by only using cold water to wash our clothes. I will update the blog to note whether or not the usage of cold water affects the cleanliness of the clothes or not!

Keg or Can?

In honor of the Superbowl, my friends and I pitched in and got a keg to truly show our love for the game. After the evening festivities ceased I was rather surprised to notice that our house was not nearly as messy as it should have been and I figured the keg was the primary reason for this. On a day like this one, you have a decision to make; keg or can? After a bit of research, it really turns out that purchasing a keg is far more environmentally friendly than going out and buying 165 12 oz. beers (wow that's a lot of beer consumed). Although, these 165 beer cans (or bottles) can be recycled, it requires a good amount of energy to do so and remake them into new products again. Kegs also come with zero packaging involved, which is also recyclable, but may often end up in the trash from students who are unaware of their actions. 

The distribution channel also comes into affect. Yes, kegs are heavier and the energy expended transporting these from one place to another may have external effects but with kegs being virtually endless, it certainly outweighs the alternative of the constant transportation of non-reusable beer cans. If you really wanted to go all out, they do make plastic kegs and environmentally friendly keg shells!

A few tips for all you beer drinkers alike:

• Consider ordering an organic beer or two
• Hops, barley and wheat are heavily laden with fertilizers which are bad for the environment
• Buy a local brew
• This will leave less of an impact on the environment due to transportation costs
• Order beer on tap
• Many restaurants do not recycle their bottles (which also come from kegs, for the most part, if you were unaware)
• Recycle your empties
• This ones a no brainer, come on people. 

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/04/02/keg-eco-friendly-beer-drenched-showdown/