Another week, another amazing environmentalist to celebrate. In honor of the second week of Women’s History Month I present you a truly inspiring young woman, Ta’Kaiya Blaney.
Blaney is from the Tla’Amin First Nation in Canada and witnessed firsthand the effects of deforestation. The British Columbian logging industry’s rapid pace made it so that her Nation’s elders could no longer build traditional canoes.
In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating four leading ladies of sustainability. Whether they are prominent in environmental activism, climate research or just plain awesome we want you to know the important and diverse faces of the modern green movement.
The first spotlight is activist Sunita Narain, one of India’s most respected environmentalists. She led the Centre for Science and Environment since 1982 where she’s been busy fighting for better air quality in one of the world’s most polluted cities, New Delhi.
Contributed by Solange Fortenbach
On February 6th, a culmination of academics and environmentalists congregated in NYU Law School’s Greenberg Lounge to discuss and learn about the ways in which racial diversity is, and, needs to be increased in the environmental movement.
The event, hosted by Green 2.0 and the Institute for Policy Integrity, consisted of two panels and a few introductory speeches by Richard Revesz, Dean Emeritus at NYU Law; Lisa Coleman, NYU Chief Diversity Officer; and Robert Raben, founder of Green 2.0.
Green 2.0’s mission is to uplift both women and people of color in the workforce. Raben stated, “the closer I get to the epicenter of power, the more I see how messed up it is.”
Welcome to Green Grants: The People Behind the Projects. Below is an interview with Emily Hirsch (NYU Wagner School of Public Service, MPA Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy), who was awarded a Green Grant to install a dishwasher in the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life for her project, Bronfman Goes Green.
Emily Hirsch (EH): When I started working at the Bronfman Center, I was responsible for office management and I noticed how many paper goods we went through in a week. I’ve always been passionate about the environment, so I started thinking about ways we could reduce our paper good usage. Since this is the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, a dishwasher became more complex due to keeping it kosher.
Kashrut (Jewish dietary law) in its strictest form does not allow meat and milk to be combined in any way. This makes a dishwasher complicated because we can’t use the same cutlery for both meat and dairy and would also need separate dishwashers and sinks. Our solution was to pick either a meat or dairy dishwasher for the [Green Grant]. We serve more dairy meals than meat meals and a dairy dishwasher would have the most impact on our community to reduce the amount of paper waste we went through.
2017 has been an exciting year for the Office of Sustainability, check out some of our highlights!
Residence Halls Competed in NYUnplugged
For the second year in a row, Lipton Hall saved the most energy and raised awareness about conserving energy through the NYUnplugged residence hall energy competition. Residence halls put sustainable ideas into action by replacing their lightbulbs with LED, lowering their thermostats, and making delicious smoothies with a bike-powered blender.
We #MarchedForScience
Earth Month includes several interesting programs and activities. In addition to our Educating for Sustainability lecture with waste experts Robin Nagle and Dr. Cassandra Thiel, members of our community held events on meat consumption and food justice, religious perspectives on the environment, and urban ecology. Dr. Jane Goodall spoke at an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Jane Goodall Institute!
On Earth Day, 150 members of the NYU community, representing the Office of Sustainability, students organizations and activists, and President Andy Hamilton packed a DC-bound bus with beautiful posters and a desire to see evidence-based policy through the March for Science. The day was filled with marching, teach-ins, and an event with former EPA employees.
