THe Giving Tree: Swap Stuff for Sustainability
Monday - Thursday, November 3-6 (Dana Building & Duderstadt)
The newly-formed Michigan Artists for Sustainability – an interdisciplinary group of students in the arts, environment, and other fields – invites you to "Swap Stuff for Sustainability"at The Giving Tree, November 3 through 6 in the Duderstadt Connector Hallway across from the gallery and November 3 through 5 in the Dana Building Commons.
The Giving Trees are art pieces that we created from reused and reclaimed materials. You probably know Shel Silverstein's book, The Giving Tree, about humans destroying the environment that keeps them alive. Silverstein used art to make his message vivid, and we're hoping to do the same. The arts speak to people on a completely different level than just flat facts. We hope the Giving Trees will speak to you, and get you to think about sustainability in a new way.
Please – come to the Giving Trees and take stuff you need, and leave good stuff you don't need anymore, but think someone else on campus could use. We hope that, through this art project, we can motivate the U-M community to reduce waste, and raise awareness of environmental sustainability as one of the most urgent issues facing our generation.
Come and swap with us!
The students heading this up:
Adam Waugh, College of Literature, Science and the Arts
Annabeth Shirley, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Catherine Game, School of Natural Resources and Environment
John Cawood, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Shelby Roback, School of Art & Design
Join the Construction!
Saturday, November 1, 1:00pm in the Art and Architure Building to finish construction. Contact cgame for more info.
Sunday, November 2, 1:00pm in the Dana Building Ford Commons to install the first tree and later in the Connector hallway between the Duderstadt and Pierpont. Contact cgame for more info.
Join our mailing list: sustainableproject@umich.edu
In thinking about sustainability and life here on the UM campus we got to thinking, "What is sustainability?" and "What can I do?" among other questions. We hope this helps to generate ideas for the project and to motivate you to think about your everyday choices.
What does 'sustainability' mean?
A common definition of "sustainability" is "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Sustainability means finding ways to clothe, shelter, feed, and transport ourselves in ways that could go on forever because they don’t deplete the Earth's resources or upset vital ecosystems.
Why should I care?
Well, frankly, because we can’t destroy the Earth itself. No matter what we do to its surface, the Earth will go on for millions and millions of years. But we can destroy the ability of the Earth to sustain life as we know it. As you know, we seem to be going down that road right now. So, if not out of compassion for all of the other life forms on Earth, you could always care out of pure self-interest.
If I cared, what could I do?
Here are four easy things you can do:
1. Eat less meat. (0 minutes required)
Did you know that industrial meat production (all those giant farms that produce almost all our meat) generates more greenhouse gasses than the entire U.S. transportation sector (and we’re talking about a sector that includes millions of 18-wheelers that get a filthy four miles to the gallon!)?
Meat-rich meals require up to 10 times the land, energy, and water to produce as vegetarian meals. And, while several hundred million people go hungry worldwide, 40% of the world's grain supply is fed to livestock.
You don’t have to go all veggie, but if you and your friends ate just a couple of meat-free meals a week, you’d be helping the planet.
2. Turn off your computer if you're going to be away from it for more than 16 minutes – that's the point at which the energy needed to run the computer outweighs the start-up energy. (maybe 2-3 minutes required)
If the electricity in your area is generated by a coal-burning power plant – like U-M’s electricity – turning off your computer at night will save roughly four pounds of coal! So if you remember to turn off your computer 300 nights a year, you will save more than half a ton of coal.
If every one of the 40,000 computers on U-M's campus were turned off 300 nights a year, we'’d save 24,000 tons. Hard to believe? Annually, Americans burn more than a billion tons of coal to generate electricity. So . . . every 24,000 tons counts. Now imagine how much you can save if you turn off the lights when you leave a room too, and use task lamps with CFL bulbs instead of overhead lights . . . .
3. Recycle your electronics. (15 – 60 minutes required occasionally, depending on your location and transportation options)
Americans trash 2 – 3 million tons of electronic equipment and batteries every year – all of it full of toxic waste. When the heavy metals and other toxins that inhabit our cell phones, computers, and MP3 players are released into landfills, and sometimes burned, they sicken the soil, air, and water.
You can take it all – batteries, printer cartridges, and tape cassettes too – to Recycle Ann Arbor at 2950 E. Ellsworth (recycleannarbor.org).
If you're elsewhere and want to know where to go to recycle anything, check out www.gcycle.org
4. Recycle your plastic bottles (or, better yet, for water, carry a reusable one). (0 minutes required)
Just producing the plastic for Americans' bottled water last year took 17.6 million barrels of oil, generating about 2.3 million tons of greenhouse gases. When you add in all the bottles for sodas and juices and teas as well, and the gas used to ship them all over the country, the numbers more than double.
Americans suck up about 20 million barrels of oil a day – the oil used to produce our bottles equals about two days' worth. Cut it out!
Recycling bins are everywhere around campus – use them! (Right now, only 20% of bottles drained on campus are recycled). If you see a place that needs a recycling bin, call or e-mail Planet Blue (planetblue@umich.edu) and they'll spring into action.