For this journal entry I’d like you to think about the things Bill Hayes discussed with us. Please spend a couple of paragraphs talking about what was most interesting to you and why. Also, I’d like you to consider our action project and its importance in our community. What are we achieving by our collaboration with local businesses and is it worth it? As always, your comments should be lengthy and edited for errors.
Thanks.
Torie
The most interesting thing I found out from Bill was that when you throw away produce in the trash it does not compost because there is no oxygen. I think restaurant should really be composting because there is SO much extra food is thrown away.
The information we where given about exit signs and halogen lights are something that is going to be great to know when collaborating with these businesses.
When it comes to our action project, yeah, I do think it is worth it. I think that after we hand the audits back we could follow-through with committing to writing an article about the business once we see that they are going to make those changes.
lily wick
i wasn’t present when this mr. hayes came by, but i did overhear a little bit about it. those lightbulbs are the flourescent twisty kind with compacted mercury in them. they save energy and i assume they last for longer as well if they have more mercury in it.
our action project is bringing to the attention of our community’s stores to be a little bit more aware of the environment and what they’re doing to it and the easy ways they could lessen their impact on nature.
and as to the question about whether or not it’s worth it, of course it’s worth it if it doesn’t hurt either.
battle axe warrior
When bill came and spoke to our class I found the piece about light bulbs the most fascinating. I had no idea that all light bulbs contained mercury in them, and whenever they break the mercury get released into the air we breathe. The light bulbs that we use are also energy taker-er-up-ers. I was thinking that we could talk to local businesses and convince them to use compact florescent light bulbs that last longer and reduce the amount of energy that is being used. Someday I shall rid our world of evil, and vanquish those who oppose us. CAP will prevail through the good and the bad… so help me God.
Jon Endicott
I thought it was interesting that he acknowledge that not everything is black and white. It seems to be a common misconception that environmentalists only want things to be done one very specific way, but he showed that that theres lots of clashes inside even their inner circles. One thing might have a good effect on something, but have a negative impact in a different area.
As far as our action project, i feel that it is good for the businesses. They are operating in a very green focused community, so doing these things will actually help increase their profits. In other places it might be seen as a waste of time because they wouldn’t necessarily see more business coming in because of it.
I don’t feel its that important of a thing overall. I mean, its good to be as sustainable as possible and do to your own part just to be responsible. But its not important to me to be perfect about it, and i also wouldn’t judge businesses on their ability to be sustainable.
frances
The presentation that Bill Hayes gave addressed most of the things that we have talked about already. He went more in-depth about the compact fluorescent light bulbs and a few other things. The part of the presentation that I found most interesting was when he brought up the business’s point of view in regard to things like this audit. He pointed out that money is the first priority and everything else only happens if it is fast easy and cheap.
When he talked about the reaction that businesses would have toward our project he brought up some things that I hadn’t really thought of before . When we first started this project I thought that business would be a little bit more resistant and hostile toward us and it would be hard to find places that would collaborate with us. When Bill talked about this in his presentation he pointed out that the priority is money in every situation so if they can get gain customers by advertising as a ‘green’ business then they will cooperate. On the other hand if they think that it will cost them or take up their time in any way they will very quickly drop the project. If we do the research and the work to present them with a nice condensed plan that they can easily execute then they will cooperate.
This project is important to our community for a number of reasons. Like Bill said the health of our community relies heavily on the environment we live in also projects like these bring our community together. On of the most obvious reasons why this project is important is the future of our environment. It was good to start of the quarter with An Inconvenient Truth because it really put things in perspective and made you want to change.