A Clean Park is a Happy Park

Today, GU EcoAction, Green GW, and AU EcoSense all collaborated for a clean-up of Glover Archbold Park as part of the annual Potomac Watershed Cleanup.

Here are the stats:

Volunteers: 75 (approximately)---The three schools made up about 1/3 of this!

Bags of trash: 80

Plastic shopping bags: 250

Top 3 brands: Coke, McDonalds, Budweiser

Cigarette butts: 500

Tires: 3

Computers: 1

Car alternators: 1

Most unusual items: Washington Globe street light and a deer skeleton

Fantastic weather, beautiful nature, meaningful service, and good company--what's not to love?

Gearing up for the Holidays with GoodGuide

Yesterday, during my usual moseying around political and environmental blogs, I came across the Good Guide. I feel that I may have written about or mentioned this before, especially in my piece about Daniel Goleman's Ecological Intelligence. Nevertheless, as the holiday season approaches and purchases go up, I think it is a good time to start thinking more wisely about our consumer choices.

GoodGuide provides a comprehensive assessment of the environmental, health, and social impacts of the products you buy, whether they be food, health & beauty items, toys, cleaners, or anything else. It is designed to be used as a phone application--any item with a bar code can be scanned and the ratings will immediately register. However, you can use it as a go-to website as well for when you create your holiday shopping list.


The site has a wealth of valuable information; however, as it is still growing, it faces some notable limitations. Many of the entries seem to be missing information, which will lead to a lower rating. Moreover, being a personal opponent of chemically derived sugar substitutes (e.g. sucralose, aspartame, etc.), I have issues with their nutrition grading.

Nevertheless, I think the site is definitely worth a browse or a more frequent visit. You can look at their methodology if you are curious about what factors go into the ratings; Good Guide does not shy away from important issues, from labor issues (how much a company pays its employees/the benefits they offer, child labor history, working conditions), history of ethical violations, philanthropic activities, quality and safety controls, energy use, pollution (water, land, air), and just about anything you would be curious to find out.

If you like it a lot, you can even apply (they are hiring), and they are looking for a User and Community Ninja. Pretty cool, huh?

The logo above was taken from GoodGuide's website, linked above.

Canvassing with the DC Project

Yesterday, Emily, Keely and I went over to Dupont Circle to meet up with The DC Project, a new non-profit organization. The DC Project aims to address social justice and climate change on a two-fold level.

They aim to create demand for green jobs by asking people to weatherize their homes. They also try to connect people with green job training so the demand is answered.

As of late, there's been a lot of emphasis on the new "green economy." Unfortunately, it's been a lot of marketing and less substance - it's been proven difficult to connect people who need jobs the most with the training that they need to work in green-collar jobs. This is what the DC Project tries to fix.

So the three of us went around DC going door-to-door to tell people about weatherization.

Weatherization is the process of making your home more energy efficient. The idea is that homeowners should insulate their homes so less heat escapes from the home - saving money and also requiring less heating and therefore reducing your carbon footprint.

Some examples of weatherization are: sealing gaps/holes, installing storm windows, sealing air ducts, and installing insulation.

We had a great time walking around and telling people about the DC Project and about weatherization. Overall people were really receptive- and we look forward to working with this group in the future.

Image from: http://www.capriverside.org/

A Bag Tax for DC?

Tomorrow, the DC City Councilmen will be voting on the Anacostia Rivershed Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009.

The act would put a 5 cent tax on plastic bags and would ban the use of non-recyclable plastic bags, ensuring that all recyclable bags were labeled as such as well. The retailer would keep 1 cent (or 2 cents if the place has a credit program, e.g. Whole Foods) and the rest would go to the cleanup of the Anacostia River, historically the recipient of all of the District's trash.

What about low income residents, you ask? According to Trashfreeanacostia.com, "before the fee takes effect, the city will conduct an intensive outreach campaign that includes not only public education, but also provides reusable carryout bags to residents for free. The city will work with service providers to distribute multiple reusable bags to seniors and low-income households."

Why is this so important, and what can you do?

20,000 tons of trash enter the Anacostia River EVERY YEAR, and, according to a recent study by the DOE, plastic bags, Styrofoam, snack wrappers, bottles and cans as 85% of the trash in the River.

The Act would be a great model of environmental justice. It would work toward the goal of promoting a sustainable lifestyle, make such a lifestyle available to those across socioeconomic lines, and work to ensure that all citizens have the right to a clean environment.

What can you do?

Visit the website above (the source of my stats and photo), sign their petition, and follow these steps as well.

Please take 5 minutes out of your busy day to make 5 calls to the key Councilmembers whose votes will decide the future of the Anacostia:

* At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown – 202-724-8174 (kbrown@dccouncil.us)
* At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown – 202-724-8105 (mbrown@dccouncil.us)
* At-Large Councilmember David Catania – 202-724-7772 (dcatania@dccouncil.us)
* Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans – 202-724-8058 (jevans@dccouncil.us)
* Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh – 202-724-8062 (mcheh@dccouncil.us)

We suggest you say something like this (feel free to edit and make it personal):

“My name is ___________ and I live in _______________. I wanted to call and thank Councilmember __________________ for their support of the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009. When they vote this Thursday morning, I hope they’ll stay strong in their support to put renewed energy behind cleaning up the Anacostia River and making a lasting impact on the health of our communities.”

The District may be your home for only four years, but your impact can last far beyond that.

Connecting with Goods and with People

Every year, around this time, Georgetown experiences its Exodus. No, it isn't the Exodus you read about in Bib Lit: it is the end of the semester, when everyone goes home in a mad rush. Too much stuff to store for the next few months? Too many random items you packed for freshman year turn out unused? Leaving your townhouse (and all the furniture in it)? All too often, these items will get tossed into trash cans and dumpsters; however, there is another way.

For the past few years, there have been different attempts at coordinating a move out drive, to collect some of these unwanted items and connect them with those that truly need them. The drive has evolved every year, and I hope this year's will continue on an uphill climb. Specifically, I wanted to spend this blog post discussing the KEYS for the Homeless Foundation, one of the charities with which we are working.


KEYS for the Homeless was founded by Valerie Johnson about ten years ago as a youth project at Holy Trinity and has seen amazing successes since. If you have ever worked at a hotel or stayed in a hotel, you would probably know that these places need to go through habitual periods of refurnishing. The towels, linens, and furniture items might still be in perfectly good condition; however, for the sake of upkeep, they will be rotated out. For many years, these items would have ended up in a dumpster; however, in this problem, Valerie saw a solution. KEYS for the Homeless works with a number of hospitality services (hotels et al.) to collect these items and connect them with homeless shelters throughout the DC area. The life cycle of these goods are being continued, and the lives of thousands of DC residents are being made better.

In the past three years, KEYS has redistributed over $400,000 in goods and works with organizations that serve over 40,000 people. I am very proud that KEYS will be an integral part of the move out drive this year. KEYS's commitment to social justice and fostering the good of the community (on so many levels) is what Georgetown is all about.

Photo courtesy of http://keysforthehomeless.org/ak_history.html