(Above: Andy Lipkis, Leila Conners Petersen, Alisa Ahmadian, Nadia Conners, Matt Petersen, and J. Nichols)

As part of UCLA’s Focus the Nation event on Thursday, Jan. 31 (www.focusthenation.org), a couple of students organized to bring Leondaro diCaprios’ “The 11th Hour” to campus to culiminate the day of environmental panels, seminars and discussions. The students represented the UCLA Chancellor’s Sustainability Sub-Committee as well as the large, environmental student group E3-Ecology, Economy, Equity.

The film was screened in a large ballroom, and brought about 500 students to see the film. The highlight of the night was the panel discussion following the film, with co-directors Leila Conners-Petersen and Nadia Conners, as well as Matt Petersen (president of Global Green USA), Wallce J Nichols (head research scientist for the Ocean Conservancy) and Andy Lipkis (founder and president of Tree People.) It was a great experience for the students to ask experts featured in the film their personal questions involving how to get jobs in the environmental field, how the environment fits into politics, and how to use purchasing power responsibly.

Overall, it was a great event...hopefully the solutions mentioned in the film can translate into more students taking action on campus and beyond!

This Tuesday evening Caroline (another 11th Hour intern) and I attended a monthly event, Green Business Networking, in Santa Monica at the Ambrose Hotel (a green hotel! check it out !!) I had never been to an event like this before, and while we went to speak about the film and get everyone excited for the Los Angeles release this weekend, we ended meeting so many amazing people!

It's amazing to see how many different niches we can plug ourselves into in this movement, so when we are confronted with hopeless feelings like "people won't want to change if it means they make less money" we can remind ourselves that being green is where business is headed.

We spoke with representatives from green real estate, green haute-couture (!),raw food cuisine, green financing, and the film industry. I could have spoken to representatives from any of these industries at any normal networking event, but what made it so special was that everyone was working for a great social cause.

I think that orienting a career to help the world and others (even a career in real estate) is the way of the future. Realizing that we all have our own separate talents and interests but that we can all work together and essentially help each other is amazing.

Oh, and the organic wine and raw food there was amazing as well!

When starting to try to “green” our lives most of us build a foundation with a few simple (but very important!) steps. These usually include buying organic, changing lightbulbs and RECYCLING. Reduce, reuse, RECYCLE. From recycling our water bottles and newspapers to buying products made from other recycled products, our culture has turned into one that is beginning to make recycling and recycled products the norm (albeit slowly.)

Living in Westwood village near the UCLA campus has proven to be a frustrating experience for me. Although the Los Angeles City’s website touts the city as one of the most progressive in the way of recycling, this is far from the truth. Most students live in multi-level, multi-unit apartment complexes in which the issue of recycling is left to the building manager. Most managers believe that providing recycling bins for their tenants would be a hassle or that they would crowd the street. Yes, starting a recycling program would take some effort, but the amount of printer paper, beer cans, etc that are being thrown into the trash is personally upsetting and inexcusable. I have personally usurped my own balcony space to collect our recycling and then bring it elsewhere to recycle.

Supposedly, the city is implanting a new program this summer in which residents in a complex can request free recycling bins, which come with info on how and what to recycle. Pick-up is also included. This sounds great, but without compliance from apartment managers this program is pointless. Like any other movement, effort and a push needs to happen to get what we want. I am personally going to speak with my manager, and will even offer to help out with the program. I urge others to do the same, who knows what the response will be!!


Check out an article in UCLA’s Daily Bruin about this (I’m interviewed!)
http://dailybruin.com/news/2007/jul/23/recycling_options_few_westwood/

This past weekend I drove up to Arroyo Grande from LA to attend a retreat for the California Student Sustainability Committee. Exiting the metropolis was a nice experience in itself, but the experience to come reaffirmed many of my own hopeful beliefs in this movement.

The group of about twenty current UC students or UC alumni were extremely energetic and bursting with innovative ideas for changing our school system as well as changing ideas and people's mindsets. It's easy to feel insignificant by yourself (especially when pitted against a huge bureaucracy such as the UC.) However, when placed in a great group of people who wake up wanting to change the world and want to help you gain the tools to do the same, it's easy to feel powerful.

While watching the news late at night last weekend I found myself tuning into a Dixie commercial intently.

The scene showcased a happy family centered around the kitchen table, eating a meal together....off of paper plates. The family wasn't picknicking or camping. They were eating within the confines of their own home.

The commercial stressed the convenience of using paper plates, saying that the moments saved using Dixie products added up over time-meaning that time spent washing real dishes takes away from valuable family time--shedding bad light on reusable products.

35 tons of wood use VS. 0 tons of wood use

384 million BTU's of energy VS. 217 million BTU's of energy

56,902 lbs CO2 equiv. greenhouse gases VS. 35,821 lbs CO2 equiv.greenhouse gases

190,752 gallons of wastewater VS. 103,250 gallons of wastewater

22,783 pounds of solid waste VS. 11,547 pounds of solid waste

As interns, Madelyn and I were sent out with a simple task last week: go buy about 100 sheets of 100% recycled paper with matching recycled envelopes for less than $30. Sure, we're not paper connoisseurs but the mission seemed feasible. WRONG. After becoming excited upon finding what we were looking for at a paper warehouse we were quickly dismayed when they purchase rang up at $70. Onto Staples. Turns out Staples does not carry any 100% recycled executive paper and no recycled envelopes. The friendly salesperson looked at our crestfallen faces and declared "recycled isn't really popular." All I could think was "whyyy?"

The stats above compare 10 tons of 100% recycled paper with 10 tons of non-recycled paper. Why so black and white? Because most copy (printer) paper is 0% recycled, and we live in a world where it's possible and easy to make our paper 100% recycled. We always talk about how many trees we kill, but we make it difficult and expensive for people to do the right thing. It makes a big difference, and frankly, the inability to find recycled paper readily is shameful in 2007.

Moving into your first apartment is frightening.

The things you'll eat as a college student are far more frightening.

Living as a vegan in LA shouldn't be hard..but living as a 20 year old vegan going to UCLA and on a budget has been a trial. Rising above the college go-tos (ramen, grilled cheese,hot dogs)has definately left me feeling more alive, but has my bank accout on life support.

Researching sustainability and its infinite tenets recently has left me asking: what are my personal solutions for problems I deal with daily? Moving into my apartment and cooking for myself meant a choice: how do I go about things to be as personally healthy and sustainable as possible? Reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma caused me to mull over the local vs organic debate and how I wanted to integrate that into my practices.