Personal Project Update #3

So, I am still waiting to get data about the Energy Challenge results and if the programming we conducted in Teter had any effect at all on resource consumption.

While I am waiting on that, I have begun to work with an RA from the Collins Living-Learning Community on methods for tying sustainability with the residential life experience.  As mentioned in my previous posting, I will be presenting sustainability in the context of Residential Life with an RA for Residential Programs and Services Winter Training. We have discussed presenting sustainability through the lens of the Residential Experience, a set of four pillars that RA's must program around each month for their individual floors or their entire residence hall community. Here is what we are thinking to tie sustainability in with the four pillars. Please feel free to suggest other ideas you think residents would respond to:

Academic Initiatives
We would like to discuss the university's interest in infusing sustainability in the general curriculum of the institution at IU. The RA I am working with, Stone, has also mentioned the possibility of sustainability becoming a major selection in the near future. We would like to also highlight the sustainability and sustainable design concentration within the MPA program in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs for RA's who may have students interested in graduate school. The overall focus of this section would be to reiterate that sustainability touches every aspect of our lives and this can be seen through its application in all parts of IU's curriculum.

Exploring Beliefs
We would like to frame this conversation around the positive contributions of sustainability to one's life and how changing your behavior to enhance sustainability can also enhance your life, not detract from it. Stone and I both agree that the environmental or sustainability message so often espoused is one of deprivation. We want to re-frame the conversation around how much more healthy you can live by riding a bike or purchasing food locally when you have the opportunity. We would also like to discuss briefly what environmental justice means and how their actions affect not just themselves but the broader community, state, country, and globe.

Community Development
We would like to actually compare the idea of keeping their money in the local economy through local purchasing to their residence hall community. All residence halls have budgets they pull from to help support the happiness and well-being of their hall through programming and the like. If residents of a larger community, like Bloomington, could look at the money they earn as money given from a community budget, to be used within the community to promote happiness and well-being, how much better would we live as a whole?

Personal Development

This is the section we would like to culminate the presentation with because we would like to recognize sustainable behavior this group is already practicing and give them some new one's they can implement within their lives and with their residents. This could include using reusable coffee cups or bags, public transportation or riding their bicycles rather than driving to relatively nearby locations, turning off lights when they are not being used, etc. We would like to encourage them to broaden their horizons by looking at reusing products for other functions before throwing them away and taking an extra moment to think about recycling their waste before throwing it in the garbage.

Finally, we would like to round out the presentation with the presentation of a "Sustainability Cheat Sheet" they can take with them outlining resources they can contact if they have questions about sustainability on campus and how they can talk about sustainability with their residents. The cheat sheet will also include ideas for sustainability-focused programs like a trip to the Hilltop Garden, documentary or TedTalk recommendations to infuse in weekly movie nights, and the Green Room Certification through the Office of Sustainability.

What other ideas do you have for us as we move forward with this presentation? We would be happy to hear any and all recommendations or even things we have proposed that you do not think would work so well.