Patel College of Global Sustainability

Second week in Washington DC

To date, I have been working on two tracks at the DDOE. The first, with less time input, are two legislative projects. The first involves designing a program outline for beekeeping in the city to support the urban Ag goals, and then legislative language to support this program.

The next involves review, analysis and rewrite of the Renewable Energy Portfolio, with specific focus on biomass and waste-to-energy. Both of these have had some unintended and controversial aspects arise, such as RECs (renewable energy credits) being purchased for electricity generated in paper mills from the burning of a particularly dirty fuel – black liquor- a mill process by-product.

Inclusion of waste-to-energy, of course, often means incineration. RECS are also being purchased for power from an older and no longer efficient incinerator in a neighboring state. Air quality and social equity concerns have followed.

It was suggested to remove these categories from Tier 1 eligibility. I do not want to eliminate either, but would rather specify expected high levels of efficiency and emissions. There are some really interesting new low pressure, low temp, technologies on the horizon that seem as if they may become feasible in the American, low-energy-cost, market.  This is a rapidly evolving field, so I do not want to preclude future opportunities.

Next assignment involves a longer term project of developing a matrix for tracking and monitoring the individual action steps and larger goals of the Sustainable DC plan. This effort will be informed by using the STAR community index developed through ICLEI as a platform.

Last, but not least, also following the proposed new Green Infrastructure regulations that have been released for public comment period.  These will then be revised to incorporate the comments and suggestions and be sent to City Council for a vote in Sept. This is a major step in moving several years of successful incentive and rebate programs forward into code. This will further support and drive the City’s green roof program as well as the City-wide LID and tree canopy goals.

Ann Pierce

Last week was my first week of internship in the Office of Policy and Sustainability within the District of Columbia’s Department of the Environment, DDOE.

This office was charged with writing and spearheading the implementation of the city’s sustainability plan. The plan, ‘Sustainable DC’, was published in February to much acclaim for its bold ambition. And, although they are a small staff, about seven, they share a building with the other several hundred DDOE staff who serve all the functions of a state dept of environment in meeting federal regulations.  All staff seem to cooperate and interact across disciplines.

My focus is on policies and regulations that can effectively drive and support sustainability throughout a community, with a particular regard for the measures by which these changes can be accounted for.

Attended a mtg last week with the Chief of Staff, legislative liaison to the Mayor’s office, and the two lead policy analysts of the writing team to define what my exact contributions would be. Attended another weekly planning meeting with same two policy analysts and Office of Planning (another dept and one typically called Community Development) liaison. Purpose of this meeting was to review and update the status and action steps of the Governance Element of the DC Plan, the part of the plan designed to make the plan a reality.

So far, I have assumed responsibility for reviewing and rewriting two portions of existing acts. One is a portion of the Renewable Energy Portfolio that designates Biomass as a Tier 1 renewable; eligible for the maximum in purchasable RECs (the city does not currently produce any of its own power, having closed their only coal burning plant some years ago). There is concern about this allowing the inclusion of inefficient burning of black liquor from paper mills. The question is whether to delete it or specifically qualify that it may only include use of such if from a high efficiency gasification process.  The other legislative project is to write a section allowing beekeeping within the city.

Next larger ongoing project is working on accountability measures within the DC Plan to align them with those of the STAR Community Index, a matrix of measurables developed through the international organization of local governments for sustainability or ICLEI.

DC is definitely a city with many transportation choices and very progressive plans coordinated through several different depts. and numerous agencies all working towards sustainability. It is amazing how many people regularly walk, bike, ride buses and take the metro. They have 110 bike share stations throughout the city, the most in the nation until about a week ago when NY City got theirs up and rolling.  All the bike share stations are heavily used for leisure riding, errands and work commuting. Already about 50% of the commuting trips in the District are by other that auto. The new Sustainable DC Plan calls for an additional 50% increase for a total of 75%, and cycling will play a big part in that. Zip Car and Car-to-go meet the occasional needs for automobiles.

This week I examined the efficiency of transportation in
Austria and where the future for demand lies. For this reason I created a chart
on the population growth over the past twenty years along with passengers domestically transported through rail, boat, ship, privately owned vehicles, and airway travel for the past ten years. When comparing these figures, Austria is
increasing its methods of sustainable mobility at a faster rate than its
population growth.

Positive signs included the discovery that in certain areas the amount of people per passenger car is increasing.  This means fewer cars for the increasing
population, thus resulting in greater dependence on the public transportation
system. Austria is taking advantage of this opportunity to provide affordable,
efficient, and highly sustainable access for transportation while reducing
green house gas emissions, reducing the dependence for privately owned vehicles
in any facet (smart car or not), while simultaneously increasing  incentives for green  technologies and development.

In my travel to the Alps duringrecord rainfall and flooding, utilizing over ground rail, the development of elevated avenues of transportation prevents delays in transportation through highway and rail. Meanwhile, entire houses are underwater.(See image)

I chose to do my research on ecotourism operations in the Auckland region because the region has a unique situation in that there are various ecotourism options available in close proximity to a large urban center. In other parts of the world, you usually have to travel quite a bit to get to the areas that offer nature based activities. In Auckland you only have to travel, at most, 30 minutes to reach nature-based activities. Most people think of mountains and large green spaces when they think of New Zealand, but many of those areas are priced out of reach for most people, even if you’re backpacking. So New Zealand has to figure out how to preserve their natural areas while still allowing people to enjoy them.

Several of the tourism operations I have spoken to provide nature-based activities, but they seem to equate nature-based activities with ecotourism. New Zealand’s current national tourism campaign is “100% Pure”, but as John Key, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, commented in an article last year, “‘It’s got to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt’” (Stewart).

Dr. Joy, an environmentalist, also remarked how “‘There are almost two worlds in New Zealand. There is the picture-postcard world, and then there is the reality.” Many environmentalists have accused New Zealand of greenwashing and not living up to their own tourism motto.When I first arrived I didn’t get the impression of Auckland as being a “green” city. For a country that relies mostly on the image of a pristine environment, there isn’t anything that lets people know that the country is “green”. As previously mentioned, diesel vehicles are the norm and train travel is, at best, an expensive tourist activity. Following through on their tourism campaign will ensure New Zealand remains competitive in the global tourism market. Making sure to protect and conserve the environment, the very aspect that draws people to the country, will definitely continue the influx of tourism dollars coming for years to come.

I am actually surprised that the government isn’t doing more in this regard. Personally, I wasn’t aware how expensive most of the tourism activities would be. I feel that there could be more options catered to a variety of tourist budgets; especially when there are cheaper options available closer to home that provide similar experiences. For example, I could probably book a trip to Yosemite, which offers hiking, mountains, geysers, and camping, for half of what it costs for a trip to New Zealand. To visit most areas of interest you need to book a tour, which start at around $200NZD for a half day trip. You want people to come  enjoy and appreciate what New Zealand has to offer, but they must be competitive with the global market. They have great environmental assets, but they are priced out of reach for most people.Perhaps if some of the cost would go towards environmental improvements it would be understandable.  I have also spoken to several Kiwis who comment that they’ve never been to the South Island, which is mostly comprised of natural and rural areas. New Zealand would also benefit from marketing domestic trips, similarly to what the United States does. I came to New Zealand thinking that I could note several aspects of ecotourism that could be applied in the US, but it seems it is the other way around.

Works Cited

Stewart, Matt. “100% Pure Fantasy? Living up to Our Brand.” Stuff. Fairfax New Zealand Limited, 1 Dec. 2012. Web. 03 June 2013 <http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/8023412/100-Pure-Fantasy-Living-up-to-our-brand>.

This week I learned a ton. I visited a local NGO called Chuyma Aru. Heres my findings.
Monday, 27 May 2013, I did an interview with two of the directors of Chuyma Aru, a local NGO that works with local populations to help them remember ancient or forgotten practices. They work with youth and schools as well to put local knowledge into the hands of kids through primary and secondary education curric…ulum. They say that there are 22 other similar organizations that work on projects like this throughout the country.
What I learned the most today is that my thesis of ecosystem services is just a fancy name for local knowledge and practice that has been part of Andean life and cosmovisión for millennia. The directors of Chuyma Aru say that part of the problem is that scientists and engineers come into a diverse region like the Andes and want to prescribe a single solution to variety of microclimates and ecological situations whereas local knowledge is much more adept at addressing these issues because local knowledge addresses the local ecosystem. The way this works is that these communities and each individual has an ongoing conversation with everything around them, from rocks to animals to water to the moon to the clouds. Because each of these things is an indicator of the climate and the ecosystem and the particular weather to come. Also, in the past, each person or each community has had an intimate relationship with everything around them. This relationship is one in which each person takes care of the earth and the earth takes care of them. This is also a relationship of equality where man or woman has no more value or ego than a rock or moss or the toad that has made a home in your garden. Ecosystem services have to brought down to the ground level. The directors explained that each farmer will tell you how he plants his garden but then at the end of the explanation they will tell you, “Pues así lo hago yo,” (well, this is the way I do it) because every single person has their own manner of going about planting and their own manner of relating to their surroundings. Also, even though they only have certain dates that they do big celebrations for Pachamama, what an outside observer doesn’t see is that ongoing conversation and the little things like blowing on coca leaves and letting them go in the wind as a constant relationship and closeness with the ecosystem and Pachamama. These are things that a scientist or ecologist or practitioner of sustainable development may not catch. The last observation is that local knowledge is much deeper and much more tailored to the ecosystem than any scientific system or technical solution. Local knowledge has enabled people to do all sorts of sustainable projects such as the waru waru, the qotañas, the andenes, even construct canals that go down a hill without promoting erosion because they have drops into small ponds at each level of the andene. Also, people here in the past have used different methods to ensure that water gets water, by using certain plants that attract water and making small ponds with fish that help with the microclimate and encourage a healthy ecosystem. I have more details in the recorded interview about these methods. In the end, ecosystem services appears to be a fancy name for reintroducing or revalorizing ancient and local knowledge that is becoming just a memory to those who have been influenced by the church, by school, by the government and by the introduction of new ideas via the highway. However, in those less developed areas, many of these practices still continue.

I compounded this knowledge with a unique experience with the same NGO in Umuchi, Peru.  Chuyma Aru was conducting a workshop with the population to document how many different varieties of potatoes they grow and to do a potato seed Exchange amongst themselves.  However, before they began they conducted an ancient ritual of giving thanks to the earth and putting their hopes into a successful next growing season.  They do this by paying respect to the earth, in spirit and in stuff.  They put down several rugs and on top of these they placed a huge mound of coca leaves.  They then took out two wooden chalices and began the ritual by filling the chalices with chica (purple corn beer), the best coca leaves, which they pick out from the pile and the stems and blossoms of the Inca flower cantuta.  They then pay respect to the earth by pouring this mixture into important places like the corner of the stairway leading to the municipal building and up the hill a little ways.  Absolutely amazing, the respect they have the and the rituals they still keep in their eyes, in order to keep everything in balance so that next years harvest will be as good as this one.  Then they began to identify the different types of potatoes that they each pulled from their gardens this year.  There had to be more than 200 varieties that about 12 farmers brought to this workshop.  They worked as a team to identify the different varieties and then conducted an Exchange to ensure that they each hedge their risks against disease and weather.  Throughout this workshop, they were reminded of their ancestors close relationship with the earth and that it is their duty to carry on and promulgate this local knowledge so generations to come can enjoy the same or better quality of life due to this intimate and elaborate system of customary ethnoecology.

The inside of a Monolithic Dome gymnasium.

One of the first drawbacks about Monolithic Domes for many people is their shape and appearance.  Several people I’ve spoken to on my travels have commented that space is lost around corners, that they are the homes of the future and they are reminded of Star Trek when they see one!  Certainly looks matter and the practicality of losing space around corners is important.  To those concerned with looks I would highly encourage you to take some time to par ooze the photos on http://www.monolithic.com/.  Click on any photo to enlarge and get direct access to more photos and/or use the search box on the top right-hand corner.  A stand-alone Monolithic Dome can be discouraging in looks, but the reality is that both the interior and exterior surfaces can be decked out with mostly any kind of front facade to make it look more traditional.

Some of the other aspects of adjusting to dome living?  FEMA has rated Monolithic Domes as earthquake, fire, tornado, hurricane, mold and termite proof.  This means we could adjust to several things:

1. Safety through storms!  Those of us living in areas prone to these types of risks should especially be able to appreciate the value in this, both in the physical sense and the mental piece of mind.
2. Lower home insurance premium cost.
3. Extremely lower maintenance costs in not having to rebuild after a natural disaster or replace walls because they’re termite infested or rotted out from moisture.  Type in the Monolithic website’s search box, “fire” or “hurricane” and you’ll find some relevant articles.
4. Lower monthly energy bills because of the superior insulation achieved.

Many of life’s choices are based on weighing out the pros and cons of a situation.  Certainly this is not always an easy thing to do.  Change is not widely accepted by many and envisioning a landscape of dome buildings instead of our traditional buildings is hard to do.  Yet, history has shown that new concepts and revolutions occur and what today some might consider normal others will consider outdated tomorrow.

I wonder how many people who are first learning about Monolithic Domes are prompted to or able to envision a future where they are the norm instead of the exception.

As I previously mentioned, I am working on a research project with NZTRI to gauge visitor interest in a “3 day island journey experience” on Motutapu Island, just off the coast of Auckland. When I got to NZTRI they had already gathered the data, which consisted of an online survey on ATEED’s Facebook page as well as a few in person interviews. Most of the visitors were from New Zealand, and many expressed their concern for opening up the islands to further commercialization. I have noticed that Kiwis are very interested in taking care of their environment. Since tourism is their second largest export earner (after dairy farming/agriculture), it’s in the country’s best interest to preserve and protect it. Although I am currently in Auckland where about a third of the country’s population resides, you only have to drive half an hour out of the city to experience some of the varied ecosystems. Volcanic islands are also just a 40 minute ferry ride away.

As with most cities, Auckland suffers from road congestion. Buses are the main mode of public transportation. When I first arrived and I began walking around the city, diesel fumes filled the air. Almost all vehicles run on diesel and I feel as if most of them haven’t passed an emissions test in years. The New Zealand government is trying to promote bicycling as a viable mode of transportation, but with the amount of fumes from all the vehicles on the road, it’s a health hazard. The central business district is not as pedestrian friendly as it should be; vehicles have the right of way. It’s very interesting because Auckland’s CBD is very compact with only 3 or 4 major areas all within walking distance. Yet, the city has many steep hills to climb so many people end up using vehicles within the city to get around. Many cafes and restaurants also have outside seating, which I never use because of the aforementioned fumes problem. New Zealand is still a relatively young country, but hopefully they will begin to change some of their environmental issues before they become a larger problem.