HDH Sustainability Manager Krista Mays on KPBS Radio Show "These Days"

San Diego just expanded its landfill in order to keep up with the growing demand of recycling food waste. HDH Sustainability Manager Krista Mays talks "trash" with the city and SDSU on KPBS's These Days. Listen here:

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/nov/10/san-diego-landfill-makes-room-food-waste-recycling/

It's Water Awareness Month!

Did you guys know that it takes 3 bottles of water to create one bottle of commercialized water??? YES and those plastic water bottles actually take 1000 years to naturally decompose. So why are we all using these plastic disposable water bottle when we can use a reusable water bottle! Currently all Housing and Dinning Cafeterias have Hydration Stations that give you guys unlimited supply of clear fresh water! You guys don't have to spend so much on buying water!

Like I said earlier this is Water Awareness Month, so through out November we will be doing all sorts of water conserving activities. We are currently getting ready to run our Warren Water Competition, we have installed these online electronic water gauging devices on each Warren building. So we can monitor how much water each building is using online. Isn't that cool! Which ever building saves the most water will receive a prize, so look out!

Also next week on Monday the 10th we will have our official Water Awareness Month kickoff, we will have many on campus organizations there including the EcoNauts! The EcoNauts will be providing a tap water taste test, this is to put the myth of tap water to the ultimate test! Be sure to try it out yourself! At the Water Awareness Kickoff there will also be a showing of the movie "Flow", this a film about private corporations that privatizes water and make loads of profit off what is flowing freely everywhere. Be sure to check that out!

Major Planet OUT

UC San Diego Catering: How Green is their Garden…

Another division of HDH (the folks that provide 3 hots & a cot) is Catering. Over at Catering, they have also been bitten by the green bug. As the thankful recipients of an HDH Green Grant, the Eucalyptus Point Terrace has been transformed into a viable container garden. A once under-used and unkempt space now houses an array of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. In partnering with Krista Mays (HDH Sustainability Coordinator) and through hours of research, Catering was able to place an order for the new space that utilized the latest in container garden techniques, self watering containers, raised beds and trellis’. Catering employees Carey & Mindi have spent hours assembling the new planters and arranging the space in a more friendly and eye appealing manner. They started from scratch with plants from seeds and in this short amount of time have already harvested radishes, lettuce, and bok choy. Stay tuned as carrots, turnips, and beets will soon follow! Their other winter vegetables include butternut squash, pumpkin, peppers, and an assortment of herbs. A nice collection of fruit trees and flowering shrubs that were donated at the conclusion of their life as Convocation centerpieces have also been recently added.



Catering’s hopes for the container garden are to not only offer a more inviting space for hosting events but to incorporate the freshly grown food into their menu. The butternut squash and pumpkin are currently being considered for the Holiday Menus while they continue to experiment and sample their other offerings through staff lunches.

Sometimes, all it takes is a seed. Check back and watch how it grows.

How are your classes??

Its sure has been an exciting week of classes!

I hope everyone has all their classes and schedules worked out. It's been a very exciting week for me as well. I have been working with Toby for the past few days and we planned out a lot of fun activities! On Thursday(10/08/2009) we celebrate the use of Cage-Free Eggs! So come join us and eat some Cage-Free Eggs. On that day one of the Econauts will dress up as a giant chicken (LOL) and run around from dining hall to dining hall giving all you guys discounted egg products. So if any of you guys see the giant chicken( don't start a fight with it!) then any food with eggs in it will receive a discount from the dining hall. It’s kinda like Finding Waldo except it will be a giant chicken and instead of only self satisfaction you will also get discounted breakfast burritos! I think HDH has done a really swell job of using Cage-Free Eggs, what that means is that all the chickens that lay these eggs are in a Cage-Free Environment where they can roam in an open space; not confined to a small dinky cage. They also have a really cool automatic sanitary cleaning machine that helps out the chickens when they make a mess—so robotic right???

Another event we have planned out is this Kick Off Party for the Sustainability Resource Center(SRC). Come join us this Friday afternoon in the Multipurpose room in the New Student Service Center(Near Croutons). There is going to be free food! Including some bbq vegetarian foods, maybe the chicken will join us..... Also you will get to see the Econauts along with a lot of the Environmental Student Orgs on campus! See you guys there!


Major Planet Out!

P.S.
The Econauts have also recently created a fan page on Facebook so follow it!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/EcoNauts/172344003168?ref=ts

Welcome Back!

Hello & Welcome to the new school year!
Toby & I are super excited this year to have a group of student EcoNauts to help spread the word & make change here in HDH.
Each EcoNaut has an assigned college to work with and they'll all work together too! The 7 EcoNauts & their assigned colleges are:
Warren College--Jessica Baltmanas
ERC--Michael Raimondi
The Village-- Hilary Wilhelm
Sixth College- Angela Cooper
Muir College-- Kim Tran
Revelle College-- Hannah Larson
Marshall College-- Truman Mak

Thanks to all of you who came by the Welcome Week Resource Fair Spin & Win booth. Over 400 people signed up to get updates & info from us.

There are so many small things that you can do to make a difference! Start today by Recycling.

See you on campus!
Major Planet