SEA Fall Reflections

Hi there -- SEA here! We've been very busy bees here on campus the past few weeks. We we move from fall to winter, we thought it might be a good idea to reflect on some of the great things we have done, and some of the great things we have to look forward to. Here a few highlights so far from the Fall 2011 Semester.


Sunday-morning seed gathering - what a great day to be outside!

Annual Native Seed Harvest (October 3) - What could be more pleasant than meeting in the rain garden on a Sunday Morning? On that fateful day, we shook, thrashed and picked seeds from native flowering species in the EIC rain garden and collected them in bags. After that, we sorted, dried and packaged the seeds for the SEA's Native Plant Fundraiser.




Campus Ecology Discussion with National Wildlife Federation's Juliana Goodlaw-Morris (October 19) - How do you coordinate sustainability initiatives on college campuses? Julianna Goodlaw-Morris, Campus Field Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program, was able to shed some light on this topic at UMD just in time for our Sustainability Week. Miss Goodlaw-Morris works throughout the Midwest region assisting college campuses with campus sustainability programs, finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and works with students and faculty to bring sustainability to the forefront of all campus activities.



Soaring Bird, by Sara Cole - A creative work made of materials in the UMD Natural Area

Sense of Wonder Open Art Exhibition (October 19) - This was a sustainability-themed art show co-sponsored by the Student Environmental Association and the Lyceum at the University of Michigan - Dearborn. The SEA was well-represented in the show with a good percentage of the works being submitted by current or past SEA members. Artwork displayed for the day on the University Center stage.



Professor William Seacrest, Professof from Henry Ford Community College, participating in group discussion

Earth, Ethics, and Religion Roundtable Discussion (October 20) - More than forty people showed up to this special event, making it one of our most successful events of the semester. The main goal of this roundtable discussion was to explore the intersections that exist between religion and environmentalism, and the commonalities/differences between different faiths and the ways they regard the Earth. Featured guests included William Seacrest from Henry Ford Community College, UMD Biology Professor Orin Gelderloos, and UMD Professor and Ecotheology Scholar David Skrbina. (Look forward to a "Suggested Reading List" made of titles gleaned from this event -- we should have it compiled by the end of the semester!)



The first SEA Bake Sale of the season was held in the Fairlane Center.

Fall Bake Sale (October 27) - We made over $90! Thank you to all who provided or purchased some of our delicious baked goods. See more photos here. (If you missed our first bake sale, don't worry -- we have another bake sale coming up soon!)

Currently in the works:

• Keystone XL Pipeline Photo Petition
  

• Keystone XL Pipeline Research Document (created in partnership with the Student Environmental Group at Fordson High School and the Student Environmental Action Leaders at Wayne State University)
  

• SEA Bioswale Proposal

Did you notice that our blog also has a new look? Let us know what you think.

Cheers to a warm, plentiful, and productive November!

Walkability: The Saturn Ion commercial revisited

WHOA!  "Walkpooling" for school children was suggested for Dearborn's comprehensive sustainability plan by a regional activist who frequents our campus, and this great idea reminded me about the early Saturn Ion commercial where all the kids and a bus driver (in addition to all other vehicular traffic) were walking on the street sans the bus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_oWmY_mkCA

Watching it again with a new paradigm for walkability in cities, a better understanding of infrastructure and sustainability, I can't help but think that it's a bit ironic and hope that it's also prophetic about how we approach the way we travel and where we go to do the things that make up our lives.

This commercial captures an intrinsic truth about human travel so well that years later we can look at the commercial as an opportunity to rethink the status quo of transportation, why we drive so much, and reevaluate its necessity in the context of other needs for a balanced local community and global ecosystem.  In other words, it's a great clip for prompting discussions on walkability and livable communities even though the car company was trying  is no longer in existence.

That's beautiful communication--art if you will-- to me. It maintains its integrity as a piece for what it was meant to be (a commercial advertising the values of a human run car company), but it communicates profound things about the way we perceive and interact with the world around us, the things we do, and inspires us (or at least me) to wonder about what it all means and why we do it.

Some people wouldn't consider things built by humans as positive environmental issues, but they really are, and this commercial makes for an interesting connection to the built environment.  What's our impact?  Consider emissions (soot, fossil fuel consumption for gas/battery charges, carbon dioxide, etc.) accidents, and the time and space it takes to commute in congested traffic.

(Thanks Daniel for sharing this picture, sourced from http://consumerist.com/2010/06/how-much-street-space-car-vs-bus-vs-bicycle.html ; SEMCOG or EPA has a similar picture somewhere too)

In case you were wondering, this is one of those rare "blew my mind with a new paradigm" moments for me.  I guess some people get a similar experience when they discover that they've matured as well.  Anyhow, onward into the weekend! 

Coincidentally, the Green Cruise takes place in Ferndale this Saturday.  I'll see if I can go, but it's a bit of a drive to get there...

Logo Progress!

These are preliminary sketches for SEA's new logo and t-shirt.  It's a collaborative adventure between Alanna Punch and I.

Alanna's sketches are excellent, the ginkgo leaf one is a little reminiscent of a sand dollar too (which might be appropriate for an organization whose acronym spells out SEA)!  The bottom one is where we started agreeing.

 

 

Mine are sketchy at best, drawn on 100% recycled paper, with a bic pen I found in the computer lab.  It includes supplemental text to suggest that the viewer see what I meant rather than what I did...

At the bottom is our banner logo, unabashedly Michigan wetland and bird biased.  I've yet to decide the first bird, it'll probably be a heron of sorts because of the neck, but I haven't ruled out old "Galunk! Galunk!"--better known as the American Bittern (which is often seen with beak skyward).  Anyhow, I hope I can get a mix of these designs on a t-shirt soon in combination with the other logos from SEA's history.

Each leaf is to be shaded/filled a little differently (for monocolor printing purposes), with a dark leaf on the bottom left, a veined leaf on the bottom right, and a light leaf on top.  We've settled on (but haven't yet drawn) using three leaves with a Celtic knot (as roots like in Mary Fastiggi's [edit: Sharianne Ziola's] Celtic Knot Tree) inside of a ring to include Roots and Shoots.  Alanna describes it poetically:

"Ordinary roots would be needlessly complex and distracting, but what about symbolically representing the inter-connectivity of the triple bottom line with interwoven loops, like those of Celtic calligraphy? I'll draw up a sketch, but we could scrap the ring and split the leaf-stems, in a way having the stems themselves form the ring and loops for the symbols you speak."

She also assured me that "Describing it makes it sound complicated, but the design itself is quite simple."  I believe it.  Later on, we'll add letters on top of the leaves to spell out SEA.


What are your thoughts?

2009 Campus Sustainability Fest Overview and Events

Festival overview:
Topics of people, planet, and profit are everywhere you go. Find out how they’re relevant to your campus during Sustainability Fest 2009 Mon Oct. 19th-Fri Oct. 23rd at U of M-Dearborn. This year's theme is on "Sustainable Food Systems".

All events are OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.