Thank You !! $1000 Matching Funds Provided By Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation - Tag You're It ~

FLASH Funding Weekend!! From now until this $1000 pot runs dry, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation will match every donation dollar for dollar – turn $25 into $50!!

 

https://www.ioby.org/project/sjcs-rain-gardens-art-campaign

We are nearing the end of this campaign, and these matching dollars from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation can push us over the edge with your help! Contribute now!

Warm regards,

Sustainable Jersey City

SustainableJC.org

Post Consumer Textile Recycling

The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) estimates that textile waste occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space. Ideally, there should be no textiles in our landfills. It almost seems like we are wired for a use and throw mindset which even prevents the user to see quality or value in currently owned items. The distancing of waste and landfills promotes a guilt free consumer economy. It is a norm to fashionably consume more and beyond the basic needs. This phenomenon has devastating effects on our Eco system not only in the terms of loss of resources but the accumulation of waste in our landfills.

Check out a Prezi on Textile Recycling

Why We Need to Design Streets for Pedestrians, Not Cars

http://www.good.is/posts/why-we-need-to-design-streets-for-pedestrians-not-cars?utm_medium=tdg&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=readon&utm_content=Why%20We%20Need%20to%20Design%20Streets%20for%20Pedestrians%2C%20Not%20Cars

Why We Need to Design Streets for Pedestrians, Not Cars

Lack of walking makes us fat and isolated. Walking is what our bodies are designed to do and needs to be a daily activity for our overall wellness. Streets need to be designed to promote walking more and driving less. The world can't take much more of our carbon emissions. And too much of our precious public space goes to parking lots and cars.

After World War II, a mass-exodus from the city to the suburbs occurred in America. There was an opportunity to spread out. Own a home with a green lawn. And drive your own car. These pursuits became associated with the American Dream. The sprawl that resulted left many Americans siloed. Distanced from each other. No longer connected to the wider community.

If we follow the logic that we are products of our environment, it stands to reason that social isolation fosters a need to further isolate. Our comfort zone leans towards staying at home watching TV rather than sitting on a cafe patio. We crave social interaction so we play World of Warcraft or other multi-player games. Deep at our core we know that we're social creatures who need to be socialized with a broad range of people to be happy. But our environment has made it difficult to run into new people.

Most city planners know all of this and agree that walkable cities make sense. The issue is that there aren't always enough statistics representing the pedestrian when tough design decisions need to be made. City planners are often pressured to defend designs that support walking. If city planners can't prove that walking is important to a wide enough consensus, the other side often wins. Many businesses still think more parking means more customers, even though the reverse is often more true.

The mindset for most people is that they need their cars to get around. And even though these same people agree that walkability is important, they fear it might mean giving up their cars entirely. For some this means giving up their security and freedom. So when it comes down to design decisions there's still a push to design streets with as many amenities as possible to support cars. Once again, pedestrians get pushed aside.

If we design streets for pedestrians first and cars second, it would be possible to start reversing our mindset. Cars cannot continue to dominate our streets because it's unsustainable and keeps us socially isolated. City planners know this but they need to hear from you to help them defend their position with urban developers. Tell city planners you want streets designed for pedestrians and not cars by signing this petition at change.org.

Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award Ceremony...open to the public!

Join BFI on Nov. 18th at Cooper Union To Celebrate! RSVP for the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award Ceremony Below | The Buckminster Fuller Institute

Welcome | The Buckminster Fuller Challenge

The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) will award and celebrate the winning entry to the 2013Buckminster Fuller Challenge in an evening ceremony November 18th, 2013 at 7:00 pm hosted by the Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design.

The ceremony will include a Keynote talk by architect and world-renowned sustainability expert John Picard in conversation with BFI Board Chair David McConville. The $100,000 prize will be awarded to this year's winner, Ecovative, and new in 2013, Dan Hendrix, CEO of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge's first corporate sponsor, Interface Inc., will award additional support to Waterbank Schools! Join BFI, CUISD and Interface for this exciting opportunity to hear about leading edge design solutions from around the globe and to celebrate their incredible work. Please RSVP at bfi.org/2013-ceremony.

Each year a distinguished jury awards a $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

Inspired by Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller's prolific life of exploration, discovery, invention and teaching was driven by his intention “to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.”

Fuller coupled this intention with a pioneering approach aimed at solving complex problems. This approach, which he called “comprehensive anticipatory design science”, combined an emphasis on individual initiative and integrity with whole systems thinking, scientific rigor and faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles. The designs he is best known for (the geodesic dome, the Dymaxion house, car, and map, and the global electric grid) were part of a visionary strategy to redesign the inter-related systems of shelter, transportation and energy.

After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing all humanity – he issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all.

Answering this call is what the Buckminster Fuller Challenge is all about.

Can ordinary residents help resolve flooding caused by Jersey City’s aging combined sewer system?

Yes they can! Just like it took all the Whos in Whoville singing for Horton to hear them, if enough residents of Jersey City say they want beautiful trees and plants to suck up the rain water rather than building big holding tanks, the City might hear them and move to develop a Green Infrastructure policy, saving us millions of dollar$$. Show your support for Sustainable Jersey City's Rain Garden + ART campaign by funding a rain garden here. Learn more in this great article in the Hudson Reporter:  Keeping the flood waters at bay