[UA] Sustainability Newsletter - 11.2014

Tue Nov 25 20:27:07 EST 2014

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Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so excited to introduce the first UA Sustainability newsletter of the year! Our vision is to make MIT the most sustainable campus in the world, and we invite you to join us in this endeavor.

Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to, and please don't hesitate to contact us at ua-sustainability-exec at mit.edu for more information.

In This Issue

  *   Trashion Show (Fri, Dec 5 @ MIT Museum)
  *   Zero Waste Conference
  *   New! Universal Trash and Recycling Signage
  *   Student Feature: Dimitrios Pagonakis

Project Spotlight: Trashion Show

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MIT Trashion Show<https://www.facebook.com/events/318240858381516/>

Friday, December 5th 7-10 pm

MIT Museum

Featuring Resonance, Chorallaries, Roadkill Buffet

Buy tickets online<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kOZiIi8vCiptX-j0lF1gziSlJpLXhVio5a7i0vlWAjQ/viewform> or in Lobby 10 until 12/5

The annual MIT Trashion Show is back this year on December 5th  at the MIT Museum! Over 20 designers have signed up to be a part of the show, which will feature

  *   beautiful designs made of unconventional materials (plastic forks, bottle caps, you name it!),
  *   distinguished celebrity judges: Peter Dourmashkin, Chris Peterson, and designer Shubra,
  *   guest speakers:
     *   Julie Newman (Director of Sustainability)
     *   Maha Haji (Co-founder of the start-up California Wave Power Technologies, LLC.)
     *   Industry representative from A Better City
  *   performances by Resonance, Chorallaries, and Roadkill Buffet, and
  *   prizes for YOU to take home!
Founded in 2011, the Trashion Show aims to foster sustainable awareness in the larger Cambridge and Boston community by challenging professional and student designers to create high fashion pieces out of trash and recyclables. We invite notable guest lecturers from industry, nonprofits, and academia to discuss how they integrate sustainability into their work. We promote sustainable organizations by catering the event with sustainable restaurants, and raffling off gift cards from green companies. Most importantly, we aim to entertain a diverse audience with a fresh, creative perspective on sustainability!

Zero Waste Conference:
Members from the GSC Sustainability Committee attended the Zero Waste Conference at the University of New Hampshire on October 3-4, 2014. Over 160 students from across the United States attended the conference, which was the first of its kind. The conference was put on by the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) to facilitate dialogue on zero-waste campus initiatives. Trash2Treasure, a popular on-campus initiative to collect furniture and household items from out-going students in the summer to be re-distributed to incoming students in the fall, was among the programs discussed. Currently, UA Sustainability plans to expand and improve the Trash2Treasure initiative on the MIT campus. At the conference there were also discussions about standardizing signs for compost, recycling, and trash across campus.

Universal Signage

In brief:

  *   Goal: to make MIT a more sustainable campus by helping the community sort waste
  *   Implemented by Tech Trash Trendsetters and MIT’s Recycling Office in Facilities
  *   Areas where food is served to have signs for trash, compostables, and recyclables

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PC: Ruth Davis

The Tech Trash Trendsetters, a group created at the MIT Generator event during the spring semester, is working with MIT’s Recycling Office in Facilities on this. Universal signage is expected to help MIT become a more sustainable campus by making it easier for the community to separate waste into appropriate receptacles: trash, compostables, and recyclables. Reducing waste is especially relevant in cities, where there is little room for landfills and trash is often incinerated, leaving toxic chemicals in the air. These new signs for recycling and trash will be placed on waste containers in public areas all over campus, prioritizing for areas where food is served (e.g. Student Street in the Stata Center).

Introducing our Energy Task Force Representative… Dimitrios Pagonakis!

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“I am the Student Representative of the Campus Sustainability Task Force, and on the Exec of UA Sustainability. My position focuses on bridging the gap between the Faculty Sustainability Task Force, the Undergraduate Sustainability Committee and undergraduate students. I attend the faculty task force meetings, contribute to the MIT campus sustainability agenda promoting energy related projects critical for sustainable dorm living. Simultaneously I am in charge of the Dorm Sustainability Study Breaks, a new initiative that tries to introduce UA Sustainability to the undergraduates and teach them how to lead a sustainable life.”

Special thanks to:
Cherry Gao
GSC Sustainability co-Chair
Course 20
2nd year PhD student

Ruth Davis
Department of Facilities
Recycling and Materials Management

For more information or to provide feedback
Visit our website: sustain.scripts.mit.edu<http://sustain.scripts.mit.edu/>
Contact us at: ua-sustainability-exec at mit.edu
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mituasustainability

If you are doing research related to climate change, sustainability, or energy, or have something you'd like us to share in our next newsletter, please contact us! We would love to feature your event or research in our next issue.

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