learn | build | sustain | grow
PEOPLE + THE PLANET

Saturday, May 12, 2012
2828 Larimer Street, Denver
10:00am to 3:00pm

We’ve all heard talk about global climate change and its impacts on Earth around us, but what is the real implication for us, our community, and our society? This month at EarthLinks Community Links, we welcome Dr. Ryan W. Vachon of the University of Colorado for a talk about global climate change, how we fit into the bigger picture, and what we can do to reduce our impact on climate change. You don’t want to miss it!

EarthLinks Community Links, April 14th:
10am-12pm: Learning About Climate Change Workshop
12-3pm: Volunteer Orientation; Meet & Greet Staff, Board, and Participants; Tour EarthLinks; Shop the EarthLinks Store

Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

EarthLinks Community Links is a monthly open house that promotes garden-based skills for sustainable urban lifestyles. The events feature experts and participants of EarthLinks, an innovative nonprofit in Denver that provides a work program for people who are homeless and low-income to learn skills and create Earth-friendly products that sustain people and the planet.

Dear “EarthLinks at the Roots” readers,

This is the last entry of the “At the Roots” series. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have read these blog entries over the past few months! I genuinely hope you have learned something useful that you have been able to apply to your daily life. I’ve always felt that the beauty of EarthLinks is that all of our work involves empowering everyone to take care of themselves, take care of each other, and take care of our world. Though my time here at EarthLinks has ended, I know that I have learned a great deal here from the participants, the staff, and all of those hours of research, about what it means to really live a sustainable life, and how to sustain others.

If you aren’t already involved in EarthLinks or haven’t already started your own journey to sustainable living and caring for those around you, I strongly believe it is time to start. Know that if you ever need a hand on exactly how to go about worm composting, or what you can do for your local shelters, you can always ask us or our participants- we are all always willing to help!

Sincerely,
Ana

Hello everyone! I have another video to show you all today. This video is a celebration of all of the things EarthLinks does and touches on several of the topics in this blog series. Enjoy!

Now that we have look at the question of what is sustainability, today we’ll do some sustainability goal setting.

Keep in mind, we are trying to adopt sustainability as a lifestyle. If the goal you make today is to always recycle, make a more detailed plan: Do you have recycling pick up at your home? If not how can you obtain it? Research what is recyclable and what is not. Try to only buy products that are easier to recycle. Does your job have recycling options? If not how can you still recycle while at work? Can you go even farther than recycling and try to reuse or compost some items?

Whatever the plan is, remember that sustainable living is about using resources responsibly so as to create less waste and pollution that is detrimental to the environment, animals, ourselves, and our community.

5 steps towards sustainability:

1) Minimize driving. Walk/bike more. Use public transportation or carpooling more often.

We’ve all heard this one before. Maybe we decide we’ll bike to work one day, but then realize that it is more difficult than it sounds. The key is to find what works for you and the environment (while helping your health and your bank account).

2) Find out what in your house you can reuse.

Maybe you could use your plastic grocery bags as garbage liners. Or maybe you realize that the dress you just ripped can be stitched back together instead of thrown out. Some people start collecting glass jars and use them as mugs, others washout their sandwich bags and reuse then over and over, and many people reuse the backside of paper instead of getting a new sheet, your goal is to produce less waste.

3) Purchase/Donate used items

Maybe you don’t have the time to compost, but you can possibly store your used coffee grounds and bring them to EarthLinks or other organizations that can use them. It’s often better to donate your old items to thrift stores or other second hand organizations so that they can be reused instead of thrown away. This also means that when you’re looking for building supplies, you should stop by the Habitat for Humanity store that sells leftover parts before going to a retail store.

4) Buy environmentally friendly products

Sometimes, you might have to buy something new. At that point it is important to support stores and products that stress environmentally friendly practices. This pressures other companies to adopt those practices. In addition, you are minimizing your carbon footprint. This can mean buying eco-friendly clothing, cleaning products, office supplies, you name it.

5) Provide habitat for other creatures

This one is a little vague on purpose. Adopting a dog from a shelter provides a life for a creature already here instead of creating a demand to breed more animals. Providing a bird house, bat box, or bee box provides a safe place for pollinators that are key to Earth’s natural production of plants. Giving them a safe place protects them from becoming endangered and allows them to maintain the environment.

The bottom line: Think about what you really need, and how much you are going to use. This applies to how long you take a shower, how much food to buy, choosing to not buy a new cellphone until your old one breaks, etc. When it comes to Earth, we only have one, and we can nourish what we have now — but we can’t just buy a new one tomorrow if we wear out our welcome today.

What does it mean to be truly sustainable?

“Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use.”

-  Though I normally wouldn’t cite Wikipedia, this definition is thought provoking, and as you can tell, I’ve underlined my favorite parts –

At EarthLinks:

Our participants have endured great struggles with poverty, and yet they are still here, smiling, and making the world a more beautiful place every day — one flowered vase at a time. Beyond that, EarthLinks strives to educate the entire community on how to be more responsible towards Earth. Every Soap Sliver Saver that is stitched together here with repurposed fabric is an example of this kind of responsibility, maintaining the life of something already in existence by giving it a new meaning. Just as in life where you must recreate yourself, because you can’t throw out the old you and buy an upgraded version. You work with what you have. You can add to your knowledge, take away your bad habits, reinvent your appearance, but ultimately you only have the original pieces to work with, because that is how life is.

I only use this metaphor to emphasize the need for society to look the same way at products derived from the Earth. Often times, it is easier for us to throw something away then to determine a way to continue its life. For example: food. If we don’t eat all of our salad, we often throw out the rest. Sometimes we do save it for left overs, but eventually, if we don’t eat the salad, the landfill does- and once the salad ends up in a landfill, it soaks in toxins from what surrounds it (such as batteries) and goes on to poison Earth when it finally biodegrades. So, what would be a good way to repurpose the salad? We can compost it or put it in a worm bin. Both of those options utilize the nutrients the salad has to create something new — better soil for planting. Though you may need to consult someone initially on the best way to go about composting in your home, once you understand how to do it, it is very simple and is much healthier for Earth. If you want to give your salad even more life, you can plant seeds into your new compost-treated soil and grow your own vegetables for salad. Gardening at home means you get healthier food for you, and you are also minimizing the amount of gasoline used to transport food to you.

At EarthLinks, we recognize that sometimes doing the more sustainable thing can be difficult to adjust to, but there are so many small things you can do to help Earth that every effort counts. What is important to remember is that “being green” is a lifestyle, something you are always conscious of.