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Year in Review

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When I was choosing my Scholars program, ENR was not my first choice as it was not the program that I felt directly related with my major and most of my interests. However, throughout time in the program and assignments designed specifically for me to reflect on such a thing, I found that my future weighed very heavily on things that we discussed through this program. Whether it be my health as a human being on this planet that we all share, or as a future (hopeful) business owner. We spent a semester focusing on the 3 p’s of sustainability- People, Planet, and Profit- to prove to people like me who think sustainability and the environment are incredibly important, but don’t effect their career.

This has changed the way I hope to run my business, this has changed some of my plans as I want to be a great veterinarian who is as sustainable as possible. The Earth Month challenges were a good first step in how to do that. For these, I focused on the area of food and water, which won’t necessarily shape my business, but they do shape me. I learned through the process I was capable of being much more disciplined than  I ever thought I could be, and I was able to eliminate many toxins from entering my body and the Earth. The changes seemed so easy to implement little by little and after you had done them for a week, it was almost hard to convince myself to do anything other than continue. I had eliminated meat and coffee from my diet at one point, two “staples” of my life, and felt drastically better. I eat some meat now, but in much smaller amounts than I did before. My trash can is less full as I have less food packaging waste to throw away and there is now no compostable material taking up room in there. The recycling has it’s place, as does the compost, and my trash can is left nearly empty every week with what I am contributing to our growing landfill problem.

The Earth Month challenges also made me more aware of my carbon foot print and what impact I was leaving on the Earth in general. Recently, I have read extensive research on newer, cleaner energy sources and can only hope these make a debut to the technological world within the next few decades to reduce everyones impact. To greater reduce my footprint, I would love to take up biking while I’m here in Columbus as opposed to driving. Multiple reasons lead me to this desire as it is cheaper, more efficient, and better for your health than simply driving a car everywhere. Sadly, this is not feasible for when I return to Gallia Co., but I hope one day we improve our infrastructure to make it more of a possibility.

To speak more about my future business, as it’s an idea that thoroughly excites me, I would love to recycle in my clinic. I have never been to a clinic that practices this, but thankfully the American Veterinary Medical Association has plenty of information on creating an eco- friendly clinic here. When working so closely with my veterinarian in the past, I have a good idea of the amount of paper waste that goes into landfills and how the pet feces could potentially contaminate groundwater runoff. These are two problems I had not considered until this class this year and that I now realize could possibly be simple solutions by the time I get around to opening a clinic.

My hopes are that as we continue to progress as a society, that these ideas continue to grow and develop throughout the world so solutions will follow suit. The more solutions to a problem we have, the more likely we are able to solve it. Earth Month and this class have both taught me that the smallest changes can have massive impacts that go beyond the general scope of what you might think. Whether that be removing one animal from an ecosystem and watching it fall apart, or implementing a new eco-friendly piece into your routine and watching you feel better about yourself and the things you are doing for yourself and our world.

I am very thankful for this class, the opportunities it has given me, and the ideas it has allowed me to create on my own. Before, I would’ve just been a veterinarian, but why not be a sustainable business owner, with a LEEDS certified clinic too?

We can hope. 

 

Columbus To Do List, Final

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For the final part of my Columbus To Do List experiences I was able to make it to Schmidt’s and the Scioto Audubon. While the weather was poor while I was there, I still had a fabulous time and was able to bring a couple friends along with me for the ride (and to help finish all the food we tried to eat).

Schimdt’s was exactly as I had imagined it would be and it’s atmosphere was one that was very fitting for German Village, I believe. The cream puffs were, in fact, HUGE, and I never did finish mine sadly. However, it does take the cake (or the cream puff?) for being the best tasting assignment to date. I would love to go back another time to try out the rest of their food and to enjoy their atmosphere for a little longer.

cream puff

The Scioto Audubon put me in mind of a hodgepodge of fun recreational activities. Had the weather been nicer there would’ve been plenty to do and I most certainly intend to go back, as it isn’t far from my home. Because of the poor weather I wasn’t able to get any photos where anything is distinguishable or where my phone wasn’t nearly ruined. However, I have provided the map of the Audubon to give you a good idea of the park and to help guide you as I talk about my experiences.

Scioto-Audubon-map-Dec-2013_2000px

As an animal lover, before the rain started to pour, my intentions were to go visit with dogs in the dog park for hours and I’m still a little heartbroken that I was deprived of that opportunity. We stopped by the rock climbing wall, and although I am not a rock climber myself, this looked like it would be a lot of fun honestly. From the top the view would be spectacular and I can only imagine how great of exercise rock climbing is.

Learning the depth of the history in German Village intrigues me to learn the history of other cities and villages around the world. My hometown also has a very deep historical past, so it’s odd to me that I’ve never been intrigued until now, but it is something I believe I will be more receptive to from now on.

To anyone else that intends to explore German Village, I believe it is imperative that you watch the neighborhood video before exploring. The video is incredibly detailed, in depth, and gives you such a good understanding of why that piece of the city is the way that it is. For example, before watching the video I had no idea about the effect that World War I had on German’s here in Ohio. That eventually started the decline of the German population in German Village.

My favorite part was still the Book Loft, simply because I adore books, but the village itself is beautifully unique and is one you should check out at least once during your time in Columbus. While Columbus is usually known for a lot of hustle, this part of the city almost felt like a quaint little home.

Earth Month Challenge: Week 4.

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4/19/16

Fourth and final week complete.

I spent my weekend planting lettuce, onions, and broccoli. For my last challenge of Earth Week, this was physically more difficult but was, overall, the most fun to complete. Gardens seem to be a rarity in Columbus, and living off of such a busy street only amplifies that scarcity. It felt nice to do something that will last and continue to help the environment beyond this week. The garden is fairly small, as our yard is, but for the vegetables we planted it should yield plenty for the household. All of these plants are also totally fine to be grown after the last frost and should thrive throughout this Summer if all goes as intended!

The weather this past weekend was extremely cooperative and was nearly perfect for gardening. The impact that the garden makes will not be visible, but theoretically any effort or attempt is better than none in my opinion. In theory, this garden should not only reduce storm water run off, but it will also continue to filter CO2 from our atmosphere as plants do, it will cut down the packaging waste that would be present if I were to buy these products from the store, and it will also be fertilized with natural compost (not my compost yet, sadly) so as to not contribute to ground water run off contamination.

My overall experience with Earth Month has been gratifying to say the least. I learned that I was capable of going to greater lengths than what I once thought and I also learned that implementing a small change for a short amount of time is much easier to adapt to than large, drastic changes. As a person who is pretty familiar with these drastic changes, I am surprised at how responsive I was to the small changes I made in my daily life. My only complaint about this challenge is the Oroeco platform as it has only confused me from the beginning. I am unsure of whether I have ever actually joined our Scholars community or not. Regardless, I did still reap the gratifying benefits of doing good for our environment and learning how to do so for myself in the process. Many of these challenges that I started are continuous ones that will require tending to beyond this project, but other smaller aspects are still sticking with me as well.

Earth Month Challenge: Week 3.

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4/12/16

Third week complete.

To begin I simply cut the bottom out of a trashcan, in order to put our compost into it while still allowing the microbes in the soil to transfer through the material as it pleases. It’s important to remember that not everything can be composted (i.e. meat, bones, processed foods, dairy, and pet poop) but most other kitchen waste can be. My household drinks an otherworldly amount of coffee and uses at least 3 cartons of eggs a week. Being able to put the shells and coffee grounds into the compost instead of the trashcan has really reduced the amount of trash in the trashcan and the weight of the trash bags we contribute to the landfill.

It will take a few months for the compost to decompose and become the dark matter we know and love as fertilizer. This will be too late in the season for my garden, but the great thing abut compost is that if you don’t use it, it just continues to accumulate! Benefits to this are starting out next spring, and the next Earth Month, with a full stock of potent, ready-to-go compost.

Lastly, my final challenge is to plant my garden! Gardens are excellent for redirecting stormwater and I will be mindful of the chemicals/materials added to the garden over time to prevent potentially dangerous runoff. I don’t believe this challenge will be terribly difficult, as I’ve spent a good deal of time gardening in the past. I look forward to the experience and am hoping for good, clear weather this week to allow me to complete my goal.

Earth Month Challenge: Week 2.

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4/5/16

Second week complete.

This challenge was extremely difficult for me, as I had predicted it would be. My diet has never been primarily focused around vegetables but as the seasons are changing I was self reflecting along with this on going challenge. I found myself avoiding meat entirely, for reasons that I am not sure of. It could possibly be that eating any meat at all was still contributing to my bigger, overall problem. It also could simply be willpower. Within this past month I have changed my lifestyle in multiple drastic ways and the easiest way to stop a habit, is to avoid exposure to it completely if at all possible. So, along with my meat challenge I had quit drinking coffee and other “luxury beverages” that are so often thrown at college students. When I realized avoiding coffee all together for a week made it much easier to quit altogether, I decided to apply the same thing to easting meat.

Now that my tangent is over, I’m proud to report that I have went an entire week without eating meat. The reduction in waste in my home has been noticeable, but the change in my body and the way I feel has been the most notable thing in this past week. I’m unsure of whether I will continue this choice currently, because it is rather difficult and sadly sometimes inconvenient (especially when I go home), but if I could round out the rough edges, I think  this lifestyle is one I would very much enjoy.

My next weekly challenge is to begin composting. I’m fairly excited for this project as its not something I’ve ever thought of doing before. If my scaled project goes well here in Columbus, I hope to start composting at home, where we have much more land and much more waste. I don’t believe it’ll be incredibly difficult, as it’s once again just redirecting where exactly my waste goes, but it is a project that will continue beyond just this week.

Earth Month Challenge Reflection: Week 1.

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3/29/15

First week complete.

After a week of recycling, rather teaching myself what could and couldn’t be recycled, I would call the week a success! Thursday my home’s now two bags full of recyclables will be picked up and diverted from a landfill. I was unaware that Aunt used to recycle, so we have adopted the routine back into our home since I have found the resources to do so.

Staying mindful and motivated can and probably will be an issue for me in these upcoming weeks so I should certainly avoid that and do my best to keep my Earth Month Spirit alive! As the upcoming week focuses on me eating less meat, I’m certain it will be the hardest as my diet has not been primarily vegetable based for some time now. I am looking forward to the change, and if it goes well I may also adopt this Earth Week Challenge into my lifestyle.

Here are some of the fun facts I accumulated over the week about recycling:

  1. Once an aluminum can is recycled, it can be part of a new can within six weeks.
  2. To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
  3. A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose — and even longer if it’s in the landfill.
  4. The highest man made point in Ohio is said to be “Mount Rumpke,” which is actually a mountain of trash at the Rumpke sanitary landfill!
  5. A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

Earth Month Challenge

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For Earth month, my four weekly Earth month challenges are as follows:

Week 1: Begin Recycling. As I live off campus, recycling is not as readily available but I have already found the resources that I needed to begin this project. While this may not seemingly relate to food and water, I have mentioned in a previous post how the packaging from food can impact the Earth.

Week 2: Eat less meat this week. Mass production facilities use a massive amounts of resources. Break the cycle! As I’m not a vegetarian, this will be a challenge, but I’m capable.

Week 3: Begin composting. In my house we eat a lot of fresh foods and vegetables, and more often than not theres some left over that goes in the trash. If we can compost this, we can reduce run off contamination while still growing healthy gardens.

Week 4: Planting a garden! This week I will plant a small garden along my house to help reduce storm water run off in the upcoming spring months.

 

Columbus To Do List Part 1

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I chose to explore German Village/ the Brewery District for this project because of it’s strong history. I was most looking forward to visiting The Book Loft. That excitement got to me as it was my first stop on my list of places to visit! Who wouldn’t love a 32 room bargain book store? I spent too much time (and too much money) at this stop but was able to share it with friends and score some good reads! Among my list of other stops to make are Schmidt’s Sausage Haus for the huge cream puffs and the Scioto Audubon for a relaxing park getaway.

A photo from The Book Loft.

A photo from The Book Loft.

I am most looking forward to visiting an area that is vastly different from that found near my home in Columbus and the OSU campus whether that be through appearances, atmosphere, activities, or community. I hope to gain memorable experiences and a better knowledge of the area through my exploration as it is a historical neighborhood with extravagant puzzle-like architecture and a paranormal history (I’ll probably stop to look at the Schwartz House, of course). After watching the neighborhood video about German Village, I was even more eager to visit and watch history transform and come together before my eyes by just walking down the brick covered streets. To imagine book burnings at an intersection of Broad and High Street or even the district during the Prohibition is outstanding and I am very eager to continue my journey through German Village.

Earth Month Challenge Part 1

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My focus for the Earth Month Challenge is Food and Water. I chose this area as The Good Food Revolution by Will Allen truly inspired me as well as my background with food animals and production. Food is often seen as biodegradable and easily replenished so it is not as commonly thought of with environmental sustainability. Water, however, is seen as more of an environmental issue as far as cleanliness and availability goes.

Ways to decrease impact on water quality:

  1. Use natural fertilizers, like compost, to reduce run-off contamination.
  2. Don’t overwater lawns and gardens. While we may not be in a drought, it’s still important not to use more water than what is available to us.
  3. Watch what you flush! If all products are not biodegradable they can damage sewer treatment systems.
  4. Pick up after your pets to prevent contaminating storm water drains and other water supplies.
  5. Correctly dispose of hazardous materials. Contact a local sanitation or EPA facility to find out what to do with certain materials.
  6. Give water more places to go, whether that be an irrigation system for times of drought or planting a garden in order to collect more water. This is especially helpful in places with excess storm water.
  7. Eat less meat. While it seems far fetched, massive production farms require an outrageous amount of water to keep the animals properly hydrated. Less demand, fewer farms

Ways to decrease impact on the environment through food:

  1. Reduce food waste by compacting or not making more food than what will be eaten (easier said than done).
  2. Buy local food that hasn’t been shipped over thousands of miles releasing noxious fumes into our air supply.
  3.  Grow some of your own food with out the chemicals commonly used to treat massive amounts of crops.
  4. Be sure to recycle food products and packaging properly to reduce landfill volume.
  5. Buy food seasonally to reduce the need for foods produced in greenhouses.
  6. Reduce consumption of alcohol so fermentation is not affecting the Carbon emissions.
  7. Eat fresh foods or ones that have had significantly shorter processing period.
  8. In general for all environmental issues, become an educated activist! Help spread the message about the dos and don’ts of taking care of our only home.

Some programs already set in place in our area are like the Columbus Compost project that makes composting easy and has already diverted 68,692 pounds of food. Some of the benefits of composting have already been mentioned but this company takes the hassle out of it by doing the actual composting for you and returning the compost back to you for use. Another good resource is right on campus and is the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center where they are committed to creating sustainable food sources and maintaining the stewardship of our resources. Lastly, for water conservation, visiting the Ohio River Foundation who’s made it their job to keep the quality of Ohio’s water as good as possible by managing storm water and rain gardens, river ecosystems, and working with local governments to establish proper legislation for these issues.

For more information visit:

This site about “Eating Green”

This site about food and the effects on our environment

This site about water contamination

OR

This site about non-point pollution in general

All four of these sites further explain the information I listed and have even more steps on how you can help out our Earth!

TED Assignment

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For this assignment I chose the talk by Mark Kendall about the needle free vaccine and the talk by Ray Anderson about the business logic of sustainability. As I one day intend to own my own veterinarian business, medicine and business are two areas that I need to be well educated in and as efficient as possible.

When it comes to sustainable design there are 3 P’s: People, Planet, Profit. With this vaccine nano-patch Mark Kendall speaks of, it greatly reduces the cost of the actual vaccine, the phobia behind needles, and the pain associated with shots while still being able to more effectively dispense medicine and prevent diseases. As health insurance for animals is an obscure thing in most places, a cheaper option allows owners to better take care of their pets and opens up a wider profit margin for the business owner. If fewer resources are used then less will be distributed to waste and proves to be more economically friendly.

In the second video by Ray Anderson, he mentions how he was challenged to make his business more sustainable. This was a turning point as they decided to only take from the earth what could rapidly be renewed (i.e. no more oil) and to do no harm to the biosphere. Eventually, he makes our impact a quantitative number directly produced by a formula. His plan to reduce, or rather negate, the impact was to make the impact by technology no longer a numerator, but instead a denominator. This directly relates with the first article as that is exactly what the nano-patch is doing; drawing less from the Earth that cannot possibly be naturally or rapidly renewed.

I was unaware of the new vaccination technology prior to listening to this talk but am now very interested in how it will benefit human medicine and eventually veterinarian medicine. Sustainable design (or lack thereof) impacts my life daily, whether it be negative or positive. These videos helped to further my understanding of how to use sustainable design as a tool to better my future business, this world, and those around me.

Original Formula for Impact

The original formula for impact.

The revised formula for impact that Ray Anderson strived to follow.

The revised formula for impact that Ray Anderson strived to follow.

Links to talk: