By: Allison Forsythe
Are you tired of only hearing about doom and gloom when it comes to the environment? It can get to be a little overwhelming at times. I take a lot of environmental classes, and although informative about current problems and potential solutions, it does seem like there is no hope to the never-ending domino effect of environmental issues. BUT THERE IS!Here are some cool environmental advances that are happening around us!- Cleveland 2030 District: 2030 districts are urban districts across America that bring in the private sector to create areas for sustainability and economic growth. Their district-wide goals are to reduce their building energy use, water consumption and transportation GHG emissions by 50 percent by 2030. This is a way for businesses to take lead in environmentally-friendly ways, as well as stimulating the economy in their cities. Cleveland is just one of the many cities who have 2030 districts. You can go look at their website to see if there are any other cities you know on the list! While you’re there, they give each district’s more detailed plans if you’re interested.
- The first fully automated indoor farm is being built in Hamilton, OH: The farm is called 80 Acres Farm, and they have an Instagramm (@80acresfarms) if you want to get updates on their project. This farm is more efficient than normal farms, as well as greenhouses. One issue farmers tend to have is dealing with water supply and limiting their usage. 80 Acres Farm will have a closed loop hydroponic delivery system, which allows them to use 95 percent less water than other traditional farms. To reduce their carbon footprint they try to use only renewable energy to fuel their farm and also only give their product to local stores. Their artificial intelligence/machines used to monitor these plants 24/7, 365 days a year enables them to successfully and efficiently grow these vegetables and herbs year round. They plan to sell their produce to Whole Foods and other groceries in the Cincinnati area. For more information visit their website.
- UP’s Summer 2018 Issue: Our very own fashion magazine on campus, UP, has even started to get interested and advocate for going green. Their summer issue featured various articles on celebrities’ sustainable fashion choices, defining fast fashion the environmental impacts, organic makeup products and so much more. The words fashion and environmentally-friendly don’t usually go very well together due to fast fashion, but the fact that people are starting the conversation about how to fix this is huge. Especially since they brought up issues not necessarily about fashion, but about Miami. In Julia Plant’s story Thinking Ecologically, she brought to attention the fact that our Eco Rep’s found that 57 percent of items thrown away in dorms could’ve been recycled. This is important news to spread around to students to create change, and reaching a new audience with different primary interests could lead to even greater change. Huge shoutout to UP for not only bringing attention to fast fashion but other environmental issues as well. Loved reading what they had to say! Here is the link to their Summer issue.. For new articles from UP, visit their website.
Image via Pixabay.