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Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies Faculty Stipends
Pratt's Academic Director of Sustainability, Debera Johnson, has recently announced a Faculty Stipend Program a series of efforts to engage and support Pratt's educational community in creating innovative ways to bring environmental awareness to students. The program is offered through Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS), created and funded by the FIPSE grant awarded to Pratt last year, "Greener by Design". The program consists of 3 types of stipends: CSDS faculty Development Stipends: to support research, conferences and activities that will help faculty integrate sustainability into existing courses link to an application here. CSDS Creative Cluster Stipends: to support workshops, lectures and the development of courses and projects that include faculty from different departments CSDS Living Lab Stipends: to support faculty in integrating facilities and academic initiatives through the greening of Pratt's campus Link | 0 comments  Urban Planning, Passed by the Campaign Trail  Randall Crane, Vice-Chair of Urban Planning at UCLA, contributed a provocative opinion piece to Planetizen, entitled Cities: The Missing Presidential Campaign Issue. Crane also co-author of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Urban Planning, frames his writings on the advice he would give to presumptive Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain. That advice in one word...Cities! Crane makes some interesting points about place making and policy and how the importance of Cities as the agents of change concerning these issues is often overlooked. "Because the downtowns and suburbs of cities, where the supermajority of Americans toil, relax, and puzzleout their lives, are invisible in the 2008 campaign." He goes on to point out that only one candidate, Obama has a statement on urban policy. Agreed, this is an important issue, as the majority of our population now exists within urban areas. And it brings about a lot of questions.....why is rural policy the favorite of presidential campaigns, if the majority of voters reside in urban areas? Has Campaign strategy just not caught up with the population shift from rural to urban? I think not....Perhaps it is the political homogeneity that exists in cities, the majority tend to be Democratic, so possibly this is why the campaign targets those voters that do not consistently vote democratic and associate more with rural lifestyles. Link | 0 comments "Renewable" Petroleum  Yes, that's right, a "renewable" form of the black gold we are all advocating against. But this petroleum is not a fossil fuel, it just combusts like one. When the founding members of LS9, Inc. asked the question..."If you removed all constraints, what would the ideal biofuel be?" Their answer was petroleum. It is no surprise that such an idea would come from LS9's President, Bob Walsh, who spent 30+ years employed with Shell Oil. Before counting the ways in which calling petroleum a biofuel is totally absurd, let's look at the science.... LS9 has patented a process for turning fatty-acids into hydrocarbons or what they call petroleum replacement products. Where are they getting the fatty acids? From "renewable" sugars. The novel part comes from the process by which they ferment the sugars to create hydrocarbons. Most of us understand fermentation as the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide, like in beer and wine, a reaction driven by yeast, the enzyme that breaks down sugars into fatty acids then alcohols and CO2. The magic of LS9 is a proprietary process that converts sugars into oils not alcohols. How do they do it? With patented microbes that have patented enzymes that convert sugars (Carbons, hydrogens and oxygens) into hydrocarbons (carbons and hydrogens) so what are the patented microbes and their patented enzymes doing with the oxygens? Where did the oxygen go? LS9 will tell you its NOT contrary to the laws of thermodynamics, its just pushing the frontiers of synthetic biology and industrial biotechnology....!?! Link | 0 comments TRAIN Your Produce to Go Green  Last week the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council hosted a "brown bag" lunch presentation featuring Railex the newly formed closed loop track, 55 refrigerated car train line. Railex runs from Wallawalla Washington to Upstate New York in 5 days, hauling a mile long produce train of 55 refrigerated cars, each car containing 4 truckloads- roughly 190,000 pounds of produce per car - for a total of 200 truckloads per train. With the ever growing interest in local foods, Railex may not, at first, seem like a sustainable solution to our current food system. However as consumers continue to demand out of season lettuce and strawberries, a cost effective, diesel truck alternative to meet these demands is an environmental asset. Each train saves 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel and avoids the release of 85,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents. And that is just the first train route! Railex has plans to expand its territory, beginning in September they will run a similar train from California to New York, with plans to add facilities and acquire track in Tennessee and Florida, connecting all 4 corners of the US. Each route removing diesel trucks from the roadways and avoiding significant CO2 emissions from the air. Railex operates cost effectively on routes greater that 150 miles, and has therefor not pursued regional distribution from its facilities, ie. upstate NY to Hunt's Point in the South Bronx. However they are committed to building relationships and collaborating with Amtrak. Through such collaboration a distribution line from Selkirk, NY. to Oak Point and Hunt's Point may be possible....Cleaner Air for South Bronx! Link | 2 comments DOT Releases "Sustainable Streets"  New York City DOT has released a new strategic plan, Sustainable Streets. NYC has 6,000 miles of streets, about 1/4 of our land mass and the DOT has a plan to make our streets the safest and most pedestrian friendly of all big cities. A clear initiative in the report is to make the streets safer, most potential bikers and pedestrians feels the traffic on the streets is unsafe and are deterred from alternative transit. Other ideas include, Bus Rapid Transit Corridors, practices to decrease parking spot cruising and doubling bike rider-ship in the city. Link | 0 comments NYS DEC Offers Green Schools Challenge  Earth Day, April 22, 2008 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in collaboration with the Department of Education announced a new Green Schools Challenge contest to bolster recycling efforts in every school across the state. The year long competition will see just what schools, all public and private elementary, middle and high schools can do to: Recycle paper, metal glass and other materials Buy and promote recycled products, and reuse packaging Reduce waste and toxins Conserve water and energy Jumpstart composting programs Winners are eligible for prizes and will be announced on Earth Day 2009! Link | 0 comments Pratt Begins an Eco-Reps Program  Living and Visualizing a Greener Campus through Peer to Peer Outreach Engage* Empower* Conserve* Invest The Eco Reps Program, originally started at Tufts University directly involves students in applying their creativity and sustainable design skills to their own lives on campus. Through this program, students will be empowered to decrease their environmental impact and engage their peers and ultimately the whole campus to do the same. Through training and workshops Eco Reps will learn sustainable practices for energy & water conservation, waste management, recycling, sustainable food systems and eco-consumerism. Eco Reps will be the "go to" people on campus to inform all others of these best practices as well as disseminate updates on campus-wide events and initiatives. If you would like to learn more about the program or apply to be an Eco Rep contact info@sustainablepratt.org Link | 0 comments Fall 2008 Sustainable Design Course  Pratt Institute's Interior Design Department and Professor Carol Crawford will offer the Sustainable Design Course in the Fall 2008 semester. The 2 credit course will be offered on Thursdays from 2 - 4:50 pm on the Pratt Brooklyn campus. The goal of the course is to enable designers to make environmentally-sensitive decisions and how to implement them. Students may tailor a research or creative project to their individual interests. Please contact Carol Crawford at carol@ccenvironments.com Link | 0 comments Sustainable Food Systems  During Green Week, we mobilized around the social equity issue of access to healthy foods for all communities. And we got lots of support! There are many out there that want access to healthier food systems and believe in the power of healthy living through healthy eating! Sustainable Pratt is continuing to lead the sustainability movement by drafting a local foods procurement policy for Pratt's cafeteria. If you would like to help in this initiative, contact info@sustainablepratt.org Here are just a few of the NYC groups out there.... Green Market NYC Part of the NYC Council on the Environment and organizers of all green markets in NYC including the weekend one at Fort Greene Park, just blocks away from Pratt's Brooklyn Campus on DeKalb Avenue! Slow Food USA An organization committed to "a food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability and social justice." They also have a "Slow Food on Campus" initiative, visit the site to see participating schools. Just Food they work with Fort Greene and Clinton Hill Community Supported Agriculture groups The New York Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN) has an initiative called "Food From New York", showcasing local manufacturers of specialty foods And to learn more about the politics of food systems, visit Sustainable Table make sure to check out the Eat Well Guided Tour of America! Link | 0 comments Green Wood Design  As Pratt moves forward with the construction of its new Myrtle Avenue Building, slated to become LEED certified, it has come to our attention that 6 - 8 trees are currently within the buildings footprint. So to make the best of these natural resources, we challenge students and faculty to design creative uses for this green (meaning non-treated and wet) wood. Here is one idea..... "Turn your bowls out of green wood, the wetter the better, do the whole operation at one time, allow them to dry in paper bags, and then apply a finish." ~excerpt and image from California based woodworker Howard Lewin. To read the full document on how to turn bowls from Green Wood Sustainable Pratt recommends using a Propolis based finish for raw woods. Propolis is a remarkable substance created by honeybees to keep their hive healthy. It neutralizes any bacteria, fungi or virus which enters a hive. One of the most powerful antibiotics found in nature, it is a complex blend of waxes, resins, balsams, oils and a small amount of pollen. And it makes a good all natural finish for woods! Link | 0 comments Welcome to Sustainable Pratt  A message from Pratt President Schutte and the Academic Senate: President Schutte: As a leading school of art, design and architecture, Pratt is uniquely poised to develop creative responses to the major environmental challenges facing our society. The professional practices over the next 20 years of those who are now students of design will play a major role in determining whether recent innovations such as carbon-neutral buildings, design for recycling, and fabrication and construction processes that minimize waste and energy consumption become common practice in the United States. I join the committed faculty and student members of Sustainable Pratt in celebrating the Institute's accomplishments to date and look forward to working with them to integrate sustainability principles fully into curricula and campus operations. Academic Senate: http://www.prattsenate.org/ Jenny Lee, Academic Senate President Archives October 2006 | November 2006 | December 2006 | February 2007 | March 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | November 2007 | January 2008 | March 2008 | April 2008 | June 2008 | July 2008 |
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