WWDJD?

Hello there!

Throughout this past week, I really tried my hardest to live as sustainably as I could. But it proved to be a very difficult task. My two main goals were to

1.       Not eat out at restaurants/fast food places.

2.       Eat the food that I have in my apartment.

I’ve been successful at eating the rest of the food that I have in my apartment, because I don’t really have a lot of things left.

I’m not sure what it is, but since it’s the end of the school year, all of my friends want to go out to eat and celebrate the end of school, so as hard as I tried, I did eat out twice this week. I really tried my hardest to resist, but who am I to turn down delicious food and good company? I thought to myself – WWDJD? What would Dr. Justice Do? And I thought...she would want me to go!

Although I did happen to eat out a couple of times, we did do our part to help mother earth by carpooling to where we ate, rather than taking many different cars.

I’ve also been walking…a lot. I tend to not drive my car while I’m at school because most things are within walking distance, but today is a GREAT day for a walk – so ditch the car and work out your legs!

As promised, I will have posts up ASAP about Kingsolver, King Corn and Pollan. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a very stressful, busy week. I seem to half-write entries and plan on getting back to them afterwards and then I end up forgetting about them! So I promise, I will get those up! I never go back on a promise!

I told some of my friends that I was starting a blog about sustainability, and one of them offered me a link to the No Impact Project. It was all started by a man named Colin Beavan, also known as “No Impact Man”. Beavan decided that, with his family, he would live a completely sustainable lifestyle for one year in New York City. This means that they walked or biked everywhere, bought only locally grown food, produced absolutely no trash, AND lived without electricity. They shrunk their energy output and truly lived a happy, sustainable lifestyle.

I find this project so amazing by the fact that people could actually live that way today and it makes me want to try it, but I know how incredibly difficult it would be. I know it’s important to live a sustainable lifestyle, but I just don’t see how a regular college student, like myself, could life a 100% sustainable lifestyle as the Beavan’s did. His website has a lot of tips on how to live a sustainable lifestyle and steps to take, so definitely check it out.

ISU even did the No Impact Experiment, which is based off of Colin Beavan’s project. They did this during Earth Week, and I thought it was a good way to see how normal college students could actually live this project. The No Impact Experiment is “a week-long carbon cleanse” which asked students to give up some of the necessities in our lives, so you can see how they did here in our own town!

Have a wonderful Saturday! Good luck with the end of the semester!

Sustainability tip of the day: Ditch the paper or plastic option at your local grocery store and instead buy re-useable bags for your grocery shopping needs! Have an abundance of plastic bags? Take them with you to the store and re-use them!

Take Care,

Julia

Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Hey out there!

This past week, I decided to take a close look at what I was doing with my life – concerning sustainability. The biggest things that I’ve realized are:

1.       That I eat out at restaurants/fast food places WAY too much, and

2.       I also tend to waste the food that I buy because I don’t eat it fast enough.

This week, I’m going to try my hardest to not eat out AT ALL; to eat the food that I have left for my time here at ISU before summer break; and to eat less meat!

I don’t generally eat a lot of meat, mostly because I just don’t enjoy it that much, I even tried to be a vegetarian for awhile, but I just couldn’t cut it. But, did you know…”if you cut out one meal of chicken every week for a year and replaced it with vegetarian food, it would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road?” (6 Ways to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle). This is something I can easily do, since I already don’t eat a lot of meat!

I’m also going to go buy some locally grown food to enjoy this week! If you are interested in finding locally grown foods/local food places in the Bloomington/Normal area, you can visit -- http://hlfn.org/BFBL%20DIRECTORY%202010%20Bloomington%20Web%20PDF.pdf

I hope this will help in my fight to be a more sustainable person!

I also found that I have been doing some good things:

1.       I recycle at home, and I try to recycle often at school.

2.       I use power strips for many of the outlets in my apartment – which means I’m able to cut off the energy used! I learned that even if an appliance is off, it can still use electricity from your wall, so using power strips is superb because it cuts off the energy completely!

I will definitely keep up with these two, easy ways to live sustainably!

Also, I wrote in my last entry that I was going to visit the Food Co-Op in Champaign (my hometown), I unfortunately was unable to make it because of my crazy Easter weekend, BUT I did happen to make my way into The Blind Pig Brewery. My sister had the American Pale Ale and my sister’s fiancé had the Hard Cider. I must say, although I’m not a huge beer drinker, the Hard Cider was pretty delicious!

Anyways, how does The Blind Pig Brewery factor into sustainability? Well, I’ll explain how!

Home brewing beer can be incredibly sustainable. While perusing the internet, I stumbled across a blog called “Brewess: The Blog for Women Who Brew Beer” and found an article about a man named Chris O’Brien, who is the sustainability director at American U. The article states, “… the craft-beer movement has exploded, and beers of that kind often support pillars of sustainability ethics: reliance on local ingredients and labor, a regard for community values, and a love of the artistry and authenticity of the brewing process” (http://brewess.wordpress.com/category/sustainable-brewing/)

In class, we talked about home-brewing beer with Chef Keith, and the sustainability aspect of it, so if you think about it…it can be a win-win situation! You’ll have beer AND you’ll have done it in a more sustainable fashion.

Have a wonderful, healthy week!

-Julia

Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Today is the ultimate holiday for those who choose to live a sustainable lifestyle.

The first Earth Day was celebrated April 22, 1970. “Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center” (Earth Day Network). Earth day was supported by all types of people, the rich, the poor, farmers, businessmen, even democrats and republicans.

 According to http://www.earthday.org/, on the first ever Earth Day, “…20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.”

This awesome day and these amazing ideas were brought together by so many different types of people who are all concerned about one thing…the health of the earth!

 Here, you can find a video and more information about the very first Earth Day: http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement.

So although the weather outside has been a bit frightful today, I’ve tried to do my part in living a sustainable lifestyle, but have not been very successful. I unfortunately have a six page paper due tonight, so I’ve been on my computer using up more energy than I’ve put out for most of the day.

I can however pledge an act of green (and so can you!) at http://act.earthday.org/. I am pledging to plant a home garden so that I can do my part in living a more sustainable lifestyle and helping mother earth!

I’m also planning on heading over to our local food co-op later today to buy some local goods! I will let you all know what I come out with!

Have a wonderful Earth Day! Go hug a tree!
-Julia

Sustainability ISU

Hey! Just a really quick post! Check out this awesome site I found, provided by our very own, ISU! Check out what's going on through our university, to help become a more sustainable you!

oh yes, and...
HAPPY EARTH WEEK!

http://sustainability.illinoisstate.edu/involved/earth_day.shtml

-Julia

Corn Walking

**More to come on the topics of The Omnivore's Dilemma and the movie "King Corn"!

The Basics

Sustainability. This is a word we’ve heard a lot in our ENG 308 class and one that looms over our heads every day. I hear more and more people say “live a more sustainable lifestyle!” but really, what does it mean? And what does it mean for a college student living on a fixed budget?

According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) , sustainability is reflected by public and private policy perspectives…

“A public policy perspective would define sustainability as the satisfaction of basic economic, social, and security needs now and in the future without undermining the natural resource base and environmental quality on which life depends. From a business perspective, the goal of sustainability is to increase long-term shareholder and social value, while decreasing industry’s use of materials and reducing negative impacts on the environment.” (EPA)

In a nut-shell, living your life in a way that does not hurt the environment and does not uselessly use up our natural resources; or trying to live a simpler life!

Our guest speaker, Dave, from PrairiErth Farms explained sustainability, concerning food systems, like so…

“1. Your food system must not consume more energy than it creates in the production and processing.

2. The food system must not be dependent on any non-renewable energy source

3. It must not degrade the environment.”

Sounds simple enough, right? Well…not so much. For a college student like myself, I rely on the every day, non-sustainable lifestyle that I’ve grown up on. I buy my groceries at Walmart, I LOVE fast food, and I keep my fan on…all night.

I’m going to try to change this, though. Although I’m not completely sold on all of the facts of sustainability and the benefits of simply buying locally, I’m all for helping out mother earth and making her a happier and healthier place!

Sustainability tip of the day: Support local foods and goods! If you’re in the Bloomington/Normal area, be sure to hit up the Farmer’s Market in downtown Bloomington every Saturday starting May 14th.

Have a wonderful night!

-Julia

1st Post!

Hey out there!

My name is Julia Frederick and this is my blog for my final project for my ENG 308 class at Illinois State University. This is my journey on inventing a more sustainable me! I'll be offering up different ideas, trying to change my lifestyle (especially concerning food), and giving out tips for normal, college students like myself!

Enjoy!
-Julia