The UHM Sustainability Council met from 3-4pm on Wednesday, October 16. Topics of discussion included:
* Sustainability initiatives with the Student Caucus, GSO, and UNA.
Ari Eisenstat is a member of the UH Student Caucus, GSO, and the United Nations Association. He reports that Oct 24 is UN Day. There will be an event at the state capitol. See https://unausa.org/chapter/hawaii-honolulu-chapter/ for some details.
Ari is working on a proposal to a Swiss-based organization (https://www.sustainabilityweek.ch/) who gives out grants of up to $10K to fund sustainability week. Contact him if you want to help out on the proposal, possibly to expand Earth Day into Earth Week.
Ari is also working on a resolution to get UH Foundation (UHF) to divest from fossil fuels. UH has committed to divest, but UHF has not.
For more details and to help out on any of these issues, contact Ari (ari7@hawaii.edu)
* The Healing Earth Initiative.
Ashley Ostendorf is a member of this newly formed RIO on campus. Current focus is on composting. They have received funding from ASUH. Want to start at Paradise Palms, then spread to CC and Bale etc. Want to educate students on the importance of composting. Collaborating with Surfrider and other community organizations.
If you have ideas and/or want to help out, please contact Ashley (ashleyno@hawaii.edu).
* Remote Meeting Scaffolding (reduce flying scientists).
Chelsie Counsell is a post-doc in coral reef biology experiencing cognitive dissonance about flying to Germany next summer to attend the yearly Coral Reef Biology conference and all the coral reef-harming greenhouse gases that this flight would produce. She wants to organize alternatives to flying, such as organizing a local, concurrent meeting at UH where local scientists can hear the talks and engage in discussions without having to fly.
Fascinatingly, this idea might be going viral in her community: there are already groups of scientists in Australia and the Caribbean who want to hold local concurrent meetings rather than go to Germany.
Also, she notes that this approach of remote, concurrent meetings can potentially broaden participation, since “coral reef-adjacent” scientists and community members might attend a local meeting but would not fly to Germany.
Chelsie would love any help you can offer. If you have insights into room reservations, video, web page creation, etc, please contact Chelsie (counsell@hawaii.edu).
* Plant 10,000 trees in a day
Camilo Mora has organized a plan for planting 10,000 trees to help address climate change. Camilo has created a Planting Master Plan (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/mora/Planting_Master_Plan.html) but the legal process has not been concluded, so the actual planting has not yet happened.
If you would like to get involved: http://gocarbonneutral.org/mainpage/aftermain
* UH Women’s Campus Club
Martha Staff told us about the UH Women’s Campus Club. Their business model is to earn money from selling used things, then give the money away by providing small grants (from several hundred to a few thousand dollars). They prefer funding sustainability-related projects.
They have an urgent need new volunteers and eventually new leadership to keep the organization going.
If you are interested, please see: https://www.hawaii.edu/wcc/
* Manoa Dining Services Update
Marcie Moribe provides an overview of recent activities at Manoa Dining Services, including designation of Stir Fresh as a Blue Zones restaurant, continuation of the UHgly Mug program, vegetarian and vegan takeovers, and the Food Recovery Network, which has run four recoveries this semester resulting in over 1,000 lbs of food being donated to the Institute for Human Services.
The number of food recoveries per month is limited only by the number of volunteers available. If you would like to get involved with the UH Food Recovery Network, please contact: frnuhm@gmail.com. They are particularly interested in folks who are available on Fridays between 2-3:45pm and who have a car.