By Emma Berry

While New Years Eve has come and gone, it is still not too late to make a resolution.

Sometimes we have every intention of keeping a resolution… but then life gets in the way. The new year has already been off to a weird start in Charleston. On January 3rd, Charleston received the heaviest snowfall since 1989. All my plans to get ahead before classes commenced came to a screeching halt as the entire city shut down. When the snow and ice melted and classes begun, I felt completely unprepared for the semester ahead and found my resolutions slowly slipping to the back of my mind.  

Nonetheless I am here to tell you it is not too late if you too share the same lag that comes with January and the cold. I think a themed resolution for the year may help me stay on track and follow through, so I am making 2018 my Sustainable Year! Synonyms to describe sustainable include viable, feasible, continual, and worthwhile. These are all words I want to describe a new year’s resolution and my 2018 year.

It is important to note that living sustainably encompasses all aspects of our world; from the physical to the spiritual, as well as mental. Sustainability involves balance. If one part of your life is not being fulfilled or cared for then it can affect other aspects. In the same way if the environment is not being cared for it can affect social issues negatively and vice versa. Below are some suggestions to begin to live more sustainably in all three aspects of your life. You may find that while increasing sustainability in one aspect of your life, you will start to see improvements in other areas as well.

Physical

This may be the easiest place to begin. There are simple things that can be done to begin shifting into a more sustainable lifestyle. Make a resolution to begin shopping for local fruits and veggies. This supports local farmers, decreases your carbon footprint, and also will improve your overall health by eating fresh and in season produce. Be sure to compost your scraps too for maximum reduction of waste. Perhaps make the effort to no longer use styrofoam or plastic bags as these are two products that never really get recycled. Look for products that are reusable or have minimal packaging. Once you begin thinking about waste it will become easier and easier to find ways to cut back.

Spiritual

Whether you ascribe to a particular religion or find a connection in your own way, understanding who you are and how you fit into the world can help keep you grounded and mindful. I have found when I take a few moments of my day to sit and reflect, I think more about my environment and surroundings. You could start by doing something quick and easy like a 5 minute breathing exercise. If you have more time you should head to the beach and go for a walk. I find this clears my head and connects me back to nature. Just by beginning to recognize your place in the world can be beneficial for your understanding of your impact on the world. You may begin to recognize what you are taking and giving back to the environment and begin to think about ways to take less.

Mental

Often ignored, mental health is extremely important and should be a top priority for all of us. When you begin to practice mindfulness or find some sort of spiritual way of looking at the world, mental health may also begin to improve. I have found for me that yoga can really help my mental, spiritual, and physical health. Yoga teaches us how to work through a practice. It may initially be really intense, but through the sweat and the movement you will find yourself sinking into a peaceful headspace. Getting out in nature is another wonderful way to clear your mind. Or if nature is less your speed maybe staying in bed and drinking a mug of tea.

Essentially, we cannot expect to take care of the environment when we are not taking care of our bodies that do so much for us. By living in a healthy, sustainable way you will find that mindfulness begins to seep into other aspects of your life! I believe that by making this year my Sustainable Year I will find myself much healthier physically, spiritually, and mentally and I too will find my impact on the environment growing smaller and smaller.

Words and Photo by Emma Berry

Progress…

Progress is your mom talking to strangers about climate change.
Progress is your dad getting the small coffee because the cup isn’t styrofoam.
Progress is your older brother asking you if he can compost grains.
Progress is your little brother boycotting Cookout because it uses styrofoam.
Progress is your sister shaking her wet hands dry refusing to use paper towels.

Maybe in the grand scheme of things today it doesn’t seem like we are making progress in the fight against climate change. But it’s the change in an individual person that gives me hope. Because as Margaret Mead so famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Bless.

By Caroline Kelly

The College of Charleston Office of Sustainability’s mission is much more than “greening” the campus. It’s creating a resilient, holistic, and equitable environment.

“We create pathways for societal transformation based on political, social and ecological principles designed to make our systems – that we all depend upon – more sustaining,” explains Director of the program, Dr. Brian Fisher.

As public awareness of environmental issues grew in the past decade – particularly on issues such as climate change and plastic pollution – the need for a paradigm shift towards a more sustainable society became clear to a group of College of Charleston students back in 2009.

These students pushed for and received a green fee initiative – an extra $10 per semester built into students’ tuition.

Once the green fee had been collected, Business Affairs appointed Dr. Fisher, an interdisciplinary professor in the Environmental Studies and Political Science department, to be the Director of Sustainability.

Within an hour of holding his new position, Dr. Fisher created the Office of Sustainability.

“Initially it was really about moving the campus in a direction that took some form of action on the environmental and social issues,” said Dr. Fisher. “As the Office of Sustainability grew, it has become a growth hub that allows students self –exploration while professionalizing and building skills that then operationalize their values in eco-social ways.”

Since its implementation on campus in the Spring of 2011, the Office of Sustainability has developed several initiatives on campus including Zero Waste, Social Justice Coffee Hour, Garden Apprenticeship Program, the Bike Share Program, DIY Workshops and many more.

These projects reflect the Office’s unique five-pillar approach to sustainability that engages environmental, political, social, economic and personal systems.

Adrian Barry, one of the founding students for the campus group, noted that most sustainability organizations do “typical” eco-efficiency projects that focus on cost-saving measures to reduce consumption and move toward alternative energy sources.

“Whereas, we’re spending maybe 10 percent of our time on eco-efficiency, we’re tackling things like racial justice, gender equity and reaching out to a-typical groups like Greek life to incorporate them into the fold,” Barry said.

What is also unique about the Office of Sustainability is that it is truly student-run.

Take for example, Kevin Duda and his new Bee Campus Initiative.

Last summer, Duda partnered with the Office of Sustainability and the MUSC Urban Garden to make MUSC the first certified Bee Campus in South Carolina.

After his success at MUSC, he decided he wanted to make the College of Charleston a certified Bee Campus as well.

“The Bee Campus initiative’s goal is to promote and maintain healthy pollinator habitats on college campuses,” said Duda. “After the so-called ‘bee-pocalypse’ last summer, I felt it was a great time to implement the project and raise awareness.”

Although it is not official yet, Duda is in the process of completing the Bee Campus certification application and working with campus administrators to achieve his goal.

Just like Duda, all other sustainability interns – or “sustainabilibuddies” as they like to call themselves – came to the Office with an idea and were given the freedom, materials and access to make those ideas realities.

Interns also have the option of taking over an existing initiative when the current project leads graduate.

“So if you compare this internship to internships at a typical place you’re probably going to be doing grunt work. If you’re lucky that grunt work isn’t just getting coffee, it’s doing research at a law firm or something. But that’s still tedious and you don’t really learn applied practice,” said Barry. “I think the value that we offer to the students is they get to do a lot more than a typical intern which in turn can give them a more competitive resume which is what an internship should be about.”

To Dr. Fisher, the students are the pride and glory of the Office of Sustainability.

“The students, particularly in this political climate, represent hope – whether they know it yet or not,” said Dr. Fisher. “They work hard, they are seekers, and they are becoming highly adaptable.”

Words by Sophie Beyer; Illustration by Nikki Scioscia

There are these preconceived ideas about what Western studio yoga is- something like tight bellies, a hot room, and lots of perfect headstands. And just like ideas about what sustainability is- recycling, wearing sandals, and protecting the environment- these aspects are present, but by no means do they encompass all that there is.

To me, being a yogi means practicing movement and breath in order to become more mindful and to bring the lessons I learn in class into the world. Often I hear from people who are afraid to start practicing yoga because of their ideas about what it means to be a yogi. In this same way, people become intimidated to be more sustainable. You may be intimidated to think about how much trash you produce or to grapple with the fact that the changes or sacrifices you make will not reverse the spiraling future of our planet. Often I hear people argue that they do not use reusable water bottles or other non-disposable items because it is too much work, or that it won’t make a real impact, just like some people never try yoga because they cannot touch their toes.

There is no end goal in yoga. There is no point when you fold your body into an impossibly perfect shape or extend your toes to the ceiling and then exit your mat feeling like you have mastered yoga. Yoga is about the process. It’s about alignment and how your individual body on that particular day fits into a pose. It’s a process that has no conclusion. You could spend months gaining strength, flexibility, and confidence to position your knees into your armpits and your hands firmly placed on the ground. Hell- it could look good enough to be shared on Instagram, but the process begins as you glide to your next posture or your next breath, and that is the point.

Like yoga, sustainability is about the process. It’s about living day to day with more awareness and understanding that there is no achievable end goal. There is no point at which you’ve mastered sustainability or you’ve reached a nirvana that makes the practice unnecessary. Sustainability is an approach that you can apply to every part of your life and to the world around you.

Yoga and sustainability are also both about breaking habits. They teach me to break down self-judgment and the attitude that nothing I can do can help the world. This month I convinced my 50-year-old mom to come to a Yoga Introduction Series with me. As someone who has practiced yoga for many years, I started the process again from the beginning with my mom by my side. We took it slow and week by week learned how to reach forward, how to breathe from the back of our throats, and how to stand still. A year ago, I would have felt discouraged to start from the beginning because I would have felt that I was already past the fundamentals of yoga. This time, I understood that as important as it was for me to relearn why I practice yoga, it was also important that I joined my mom in her first yoga class.

I see similar tendencies in the sustainability world. I see how my mom and other adults in my life can be stuck in a routine, never thinking about how many bags they waste at the grocery store or where their plastic bottles go when they throw them out. I also see these people changing. I see my mom using her reusable coffee mug, proud of the small changes she has made. I see how my attitudes and actions are passed off to those close to me, even if they don’t realize it. Overall, yoga and sustainability have both taught me that my actions are the only reliable thing I can change, but often, my actions end up having a great effect on the world around me.

By Caroline Kelly

What if I told you there is a good chance you have been washing your face with tiny pieces of plastic? What if I then told you these plastic particles are polluting the ocean at a rapid rate, seeping into our food web, and potentially damaging our health?

What are Microplastics?

Microplastics are tiny particles that are less than 5mm in diameter. These microscopic fragments can be found in household supplies, clothing, and even personal care products. When I first learned about the vast amount of damage microplastics have on our ecosystem and our health, I immediately began to rid myself of all beauty products containing them.

How did I know which products to dispose of?

I downloaded two apps called Beat The Microbead and Think Dirty. Beat the Microbead is a nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness about microplastic contamination, and a list of microplastic free companies can be found on their website. Think Dirty will actually scan your products and report the carcinogen, reproductive damage, and allergen levels present and rank their danger on a scale of 1 to 10. As it turned out, all the skin care products I was using contained microplastics and were rated above a 7 by Think Dirty.

After ridding myself of these products, I had trouble finding affordable, natural skin care products that accommodated my needs. Instead of continuing my search, I stumbled upon a recipe for making my own face wash, and I’ve never looked back. I’m breaking out less, and my skin has never felt softer. The best part is, there’s no preparation involved! Just measure, pour, and shake!

Ingredients:

– 1 & 1/2 tbsp organic honey

– 7 tbsp Castile soap

– 1 & 1/2 tbsp Almond oil

– 2-3 drops Tea Tree extract

– 2-3 drops Lemon extract

– 2-3 drops Lavender extract

– 1 & 1/2 tbsp Organic coffee grounds (optional exfoliant)

All of these ingredients can be purchased through Amazon or at your local health food store. My Amazon cart totaled around $60. While this price seems steep, I have been able to make around 10 bottles since I purchased the ingredients in early February, and I still have plenty left.

Information on Microplastics retrieved from http://www.unep.org/yearbook/microplastics.asp.

Visit beatthemicrobead.org and thinkdirtyapp.com for more information.  

By Adrian Barry

Greetings! Welcome to the Office of Sustainability’s Synergies. It is my pleasure to provide an introduction to the history of the Office. Over the years, there were a number of different individual initiatives on our campus. However, we lacked a point of coordination for all ongoing activities. The sustainability effort received a strong endorsement from the students themselves who requested a student fee be established for the support of projects. Our Board of Trustees authorized a $20 per student fee, and additional student-inspired projects began to evolve.

During the summer of 2011, a search was conducted for the director’s position and our own Dr. Brian Fisher was selected. Dr. Fisher has been busy organizing a very small staff and students into a working network. The Office is a decentralized network hub designed to facilitate and expedite the transformation of campus buildings, designs, approaches, and behavior/attitudes on sustainability issues.

Below, you will read a more thorough, first-hand account of the journey that led to the establishment of the Office of Sustainability at the College of Charleston. I am personally excited about the direction in which our campus is headed. We are poised to be a national leader in sustainability, but it will take each and everyone one of us to do so.

A first-hand account

The Office of Sustainability has a little-known history that spans several years, previous incarnations, and preliminary initiatives before reaching the point of its establishment.  All of these past events, and the people who drove them, served to form and inform the establishment of the current Office of Sustainability.

The earliest direct precursor was the College of Charleston’s Recycling Committee, which in October 2007 transitioned into the faculty, staff, and student-run Sustainability Committee under the leadership of Burton Callicott. The Committee’s tenure saw many advances in campus sustainability initiatives, thanks in large part to Burton’s enthusiasm and the broad range of representation on the committee, including a permanent Student Government seat. The Committee successfully advised President Benson to sign the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2008. Later that year, the Committee was awarded a $10,000 Collegiate Recycling grant. In 2010, a 1,200-gallon cistern was installed in the Political Science Department courtyard garden. All of this was achieved while the Committee consistently advocated for the appointment of a Director of Sustainability. However, one initiative served as an especially powerful catalyst in the development of what would become the Office of Sustainability: the Green Fee.

The Green Fee was unique in that it was purely student-driven from the beginning, first championed by Alliance for Planet Earth member Madison Hohman. By 2008, a survey of 1,100 students had been conducted, showing that over 90 percent of the student body supported paying a Green Fee, with more than 70 percent supporting a fee of at least $20 per year. In 2009, a Cougar Pulse survey question confirmed the overwhelming student support for the Green Fee. In response, the Student Government Association passed a resolution supporting its adoption by the College’s Board of Trustees. By March 2010, Madison and collaborator Jen Jones, a recent addition to the Masters of Environmental Studies program, had formalized a proposal and presented it to the Board of Trustees Finance Committee, where it was approved and forwarded to the full Board later that June.  Taking the advice of its Finance Committee and upon hearing the supporting statements from student representatives, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $10 per semester Green Fee, to be collected into what would ultimately become the ECOllective Fund.

With funds in place, the question became how to administer them and for what.  Dr. Fisher had established a small “Sustainability Task Force” consisting of himself, Burton Callicott, Dr. Timothy Callahan (Director of the Masters in Environmental Studies program), Jen Jones as the graduate class representative and Adrian Barry as the undergraduate class representative. The Task Force was charged with deciding the best way in which the funds could be administered and what kind of criteria to establish for its use. In the spring of 2011, Dr. Fisher taught a capstone course on climate change in which a student group researched how students wanted their Green Fee to be spent as their final project. Dr. Fisher connected them with Jen and Adrian, and the two teams collaborated on a series of presentations representing potential projects that would be viable on campus, ranging from a compost facility to producing our own bio-diesel from cafeteria cooking oil for campus vehicles. The group chose the moniker Green CofC in order to brand their public presentation under a unified name. The presentation itself consisted of a poster session in the Stern Center Garden, catered with locally purchased foods and organized to reduce waste of any kind. The session was followed by formal presentations for each project in the Physicians Auditorium, both of which were well attended by faculty, staff, and students. Green CofC remained active throughout the summer, collaborating with members of Dr. Fisher’s foundational sustainability class from the fall of that year, and in the fall of 2011 became an officially sanctioned student organization that remains active today.

During the interim period addressed by Green CofC, funds from the Green Fee were put to almost immediate use through the funding of several student projects, internships, and graduate assistantships. Most importantly, the Green Fee highlighted the necessity of creating a Director of Sustainability to administer the funds, and it made the position possible by representing a new and secure revenue stream at a time when budget cuts and tuition increases were hotly debated. The College’s administration began the formal candidate search by submitting a job description and soliciting applicants for an interview in the spring of 2011. Due to the close association with the student body and their clear interest in the process, student voices were encouraged at the earliest stages of the search, with Jen Jones and Adrian Barry solicited for their suggestions by Steve Osborne, Executive Vice President for Business Affairs, and Jen serving on the candidate search committee. Following several in-person interviews and student forums with prospective directors, members of the search committee as well as students active in the forums agreed that the candidates did not meet their expectations for the position.

Over the course of the summer of 2011, the job description was revised and the position was re-imagined. Through this process, and in light of the changes being made to the position itself, a clear choice emerged right here at home in Dr. Fisher. In August 2011, Dr. Fisher accepted the position of director of the Office of Sustainability.  The Office has since become a hub for student-driven projects and currently houses two full-time staff members focused on sustainability in facilities, infrastructure, and academics, as well as a number of faculty/staff liaisons, graduate assistants, graduate research assistants, and undergraduate interns, all of whom are given unique levels of autonomy and responsibility.

And that’s where our story begins.