Individual Action – What is your top personal priority this year, related to sustainability?
Please comment on March 11.
CATEGORIES: Corvallis Sustainability Coalition (Town Hall- Past Posts)
38 thoughts on “Corvallis Sustainability Coalition Question 2:”
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1. Debating how to track food miles to think about how to reduce
2. Every week high school teacher writes about house and garden activities, posts on Facebook for student friends to see
3. Get out of my car on local trips
4. Considering whether to replace older mini-van with smaller new car (he bikes to work)
5. Focusing on food and gardening, starting new food group at OSU. Wants to merge city and campus efforts, focus on different ways for people to get involved, eg music and art
6. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer
7. Have been working to reduce garbage
8. Stopped buying cotton clothes because synthetics last longer and take less time to dry (buys at thrift store)
9. SIS Food Action Team putting in 3 hoop houses at OSU to grow food, donated 30% to food pantry
10. Put in raised bed to grow vegetables.
* Alternative energy, such as working to get solar panels on campus.
* Informing and working with neighbors in the rural area about water usage. Telling them about harmful pesticides, how to landscape, and to make sure they keep from overusing water, resulting in a dry well.
* Canning, Freezing, and drying her foods. Eating seasonal like she did when she was a child.
* He wants to start his own company being an ethical consultant. Helping citizens invest in the things they find important to them. He also wants to build a larger worm bin.
* Start buying from a CSA
* Make a raise bed garden, to grow some of her own food
Growing as much food as possible to eat and for wedding.
More local food consumption
Chicken coop construction
bike more to work
growing more food on front lawn (southern exposure)
learn to preserve more food and do it.
Start a neighborhood gleaning tradition
Planting a garden
j – rides bike since no car, grow food (sometime) major natural resources, convince family to start a farm again Portland area
ma – starting new business this year, tried gardening last year – hard. Works for a farm which grows seeds and grains(former grass seed), addressing processing side. Have wheat but no one to process, setting up milling, most of wheat is shippd over to Asia, hope to change that.
H – works at ecnotech convert more to compostable(currently made in China)(Hope to make all local – grow plants, make products here). Mechanical eng going into manufacture now, wants to grow osn food at house
N – grow own food in winter, make cistern for water, electrical eng., at Hewlett Packard
A – no personal goals at moment since in transition phase for housing, former home had extra insulation etc. want to do that here soon
• No Car. CFLs. 90% local shopping. Support low income housing by donating time. Make own laundry detergent.
• Working with Unitarian fellowship as building manager. Making the fellowship more efficient.
• Local/seasonable food, bike, sun lights, vermiculture bin, no heat in house, don’t buy things.
• CFLS, insulation in apartment and in sliding glass doors. Working on electronics for electric vehicles and solar cells to find a better way to convert the solar energy.
• Started a compost bin at office. Addressing management to stop use of water bottles and vending machines.
• Conversion of grass lawn to white clover. Fixes nitrogen in soil and supports bees. Food crop in yard. 4th garden bed in yard. Difficult to build and sustain a natural lawn.
• Lives in Albany. Plans on bringing bus more and managing time better. Garden, turning designated wetland into native plants. Removing invasive species. Green lawns are a status symbol. Must make sustainable efforts a status symbol.
Get involved in community gardens and sharing garden overproduction.
Look into pay as you drive insurance. I never heard about that before.
Get involved in recycling at school.
Start composting at home.
Think about starting community composting in my neighborhood.
Get to know my property and prepare it for gardening.
Building a compost bin out of materials on hand.
De-paving half of my yard and converting a large part of it into an asparagus bed.
De-paving my driveway and installing pavers instead to diminish flooding.
Fly less in favor of using trains and public transit to visit grandpa in Florida.
Driving smarter on local errands.
Remaking the Coalition’s website.
Getting my house 100 percent energy efficient. I’m now 1700 kilowatts ahead.
Get involved with the Corvallis Cycling Cooperative and retrofitting bicycles.
Help people go car free by sharing my experience.
Teach people how to bicycle, regardless of the weather.
Look for ways to set up knowledge exchanges so people can teach each other to live sustainably.
Build social networks and turn of the TV.
Working on demonstration projects at City Parks as currently planned.
Park my clunker.
Finish my awesome clothesline drying system so I can hang clothes from my back porch.
Support a project at CoHo Housing to record loads of clothes not dried in a clothes dryer and putting the savings back into the community for use on other projects.
Set a goal of drying only one load of clothes a month.
Look into installing skylights that permit reading without using lights.
• Several people mentioned the collection of rain water.
• Build an inexpensive passive solar heater.
• Several people said to shop and eat more local foods.
• Small actions leading to larger actions. Educate folks and engage them to participate in sustainability. Small actions add up.
• Insulate walls in home
• Install tube skylight to light an interior bathroom, avoiding always needing to turn on the lights.
• Potentially purchase the new soon to be release (2010) Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (EV) rated at 100 miles per charge.
• Local gardening groups. Grow more food for the family.
• Charging stations this summer, EV vehicles this fall (Mayor Tomlison).
• Eat more local foods. Goal eat vegan twice a week.
• Car pool more
• Community education, bring more sustainability classes to LBCC.
• 2007 home, never had a blower test, so plan to have one done to see if there are things identified which could improve energy efficiency and/or air quality in the home.
-Taking the bus more (free pass for those over 75)
-Move to more sustainable location, otherwise improve heating system
-Preserve Witham Oaks wetlands
-Did energy audit last year, set priorities and implement more recommendations
-Hold neighborhood mtgs with experts in home sustainability changes
-Add insulation, wear arctic clothing
-New appliances are more energy efficient but do not last as long as older ones: Embodied energy not taken into account?
-Would mfgs respond to a market request for more durable (sustainable), appliances?
-Expand container gardening and get electric vehicle going
-Plant grape vines
-High-line system for harvesting firewood
-Replace spray irrigation with eco spray system that is easier to arrange than drip system
-Water less
-Make your own beer
1. Plant trees and shrubs that provide habitat and food for birds and bees to counter the number of properties in my neighborhood who are removing plants that provide berries and nectar.
2. Replace a 32-year-old gas furnace.
3. Build a ridiculously sustainable house, with used materials, passive and active solar, and energy efficient fixtures.
4. Work hard to maintain a sustainable lifestyle after OSU graduation and to continue to steer my life toward sustainable endeavors.
5. Work on personal sustainability by stopping the seven day work weeks and increasing conscious idleness.
6. Commit to riding my bike more and using my car less.
The discussion of personal priorities generated these concepts: not throwing away food, water action team at co-op, may get rid of car, share a car, educate community about recycling, low maintenance landscaping, examine ideas and try to determine consequences. Learn more about issues. Ultimately, we all need to decrease use of resources and consumption. All actions have a reaction.
More thorough discussions revolved around: someone is moving into a new house and planning a low-maintenance permaculture landscape. Another is planning to use less electricity by installing skylights in their window-less bathroom. One person vowed to speak out against nuclear power. The group questioned whether nuclear power is really the worst evil? What about the mining of minerals and battery waste from solar power? Everyone agreed that we must learn more about all issues and understand the real ramifications of actions and consumption of products. Additional personal goals included the following list. Move closer to work to be able to use alternative transportation (bike or walk). Study the impact of feedlot animal farming and the toxic chemicals and products connected with eating meat. Educate people about Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Start a car share cooperative. It was announced that John and Phil’s will rent a Prius for $25/day. How can we use automobiles less?
Work towards using a car less
Assisted bike to replace truck.
3-wheeled bike for larger loads.
Reduce water use.
Cut back on drip system use.
Minimize water use in winter time (nov-april), minimizes sewer cost in summertime.
Plant vegetables/compost.
Build raised beds.
Rain collection.
Bike solution for heavier hauling.
Bike trailers
Da Vinci Days project -> build your own bike trailer.
Bikeatwork.com (?) semi-customizable bike trailers. $400-500.
Paniers.
Extended bike.
Pay as you go driving insurance.
WeCar. (like ZIpCar)
2 cars, near administration building.
Energy detector via Google. Home metering system.
Can be hooked up to individual breakers.
Energydetective.com ($170-250)
Offers comparisons between days/week/months.
Wireless display.
Check usage of appliances, lights, etc
Solar Arrays at Qwest and SafeCo fields.
Lots of traveling, trying to reduce carbon footprint.
Window-sized heat pump.
~twice the size of an air conditioner.
More efficient.
— Working on a project to create affordable, healthy, food options on campus using local food sources. They have permission to use one of OSU’s kitchens and have already done two trial meals. They plan to launch the program the 2nd week of spring quarter with initial offers of cold meals only. Will use a bike trailer to deliver meals. Student Sustainability Initiative provided start-up costs.
— Drive less, bike more, walk to campus.
— Wants to learn to garden better to grow own food; wants to compost in back yard.
— Continued involvement with campus “Building Energy Challenge,” a competition between buildings to reduce energy usage.
— Continued involvement with the Corvallis Community Energy Project whose aim is to educate neighborhoods regarding energy usage, increase engagement in energy issues, create a problem solving community forum, and provide resources and create connections between residents and service providers/contractors. Jana is the first neighborhood of focus.
— Continue to educate the state planners on ‘big picture’ water resource issues.
— Discussed student gardens and potential for and placement of a student garden/s on campus.
IDEA: create rooftop food gardens on OSU buildings.
– Downsize my home
– Simplify life
– Reduce commute-related fuel use or change fuel type
– Shorter showers
– Use alternative transportation (bike and bus)
– Eat less processed / packaged food
– Recycle more items (e.g. not just curbside, but see what Coop accepts)
– Make more of my own food (breads, canning)
– Reuse unheated hot water (the water out of the faucet before hot water kicks in)
– Navy showers (turn off water when soaping)
– Buy local
– Conserve energy in dorms
Support locally grown food
Turn off lights
Radiant heat
Make sure our children understand the importance of recycling
Biking children to school
Developing a new local business North Jackson Company that will bring new dollars to community
Decrease water usage
Making choices about purchases, clothing as example, where and how made, ethics
If we all did just a little, would make a big difference
Use power strips and turn off
Pull plugs
Compost
Use big containers, avoid packets etc
Bike everywhere “our car is growing moss now”
Carpool kids activities
-coffee composting at work
-make workplace more sustainable
-communal bike for workplace
-help educate the masses through Willamette Living Magazine
-buy some chickens and eucate neighbors about chickens
-Put charging stations fr elextric vehicles at Corvallis schools and district offices
-continue reusing paper with teachrs/stdents
-ground source heat pumps installed in new house
Participant’s top personal priority for 2010 related to sustainability:
+ More involvement in house/shared garden, and valuing the opportunity to grow own food.
+ Encourage use of urban spaces for alternative energy generation (e.g., solar panels).
+ More bicycling, less hybrid-car driving.
+ Canning, preserving locally-grown fruits and vegetables for consumption and holiday gift-giving.
+ Taking classes on how to reduce carbon footprint.
Expand community gardens.
Purchase re-used items and avoid buying new stuff.
Work trade instead of just currency.
Reducing transportation impact. Trying to be creative in reducing gas consumption despite work commute/location issues.
Put up solar panels on newly purchased house and raised beds in back yard (kits for putting together raised bed).
Proper recycling by increasing awareness and education (at the North Coop in particular).
Removing blackberries from yard.
Riding bike more often.
Locally sourced meat (locally grown) for meals at home.
Building homes for the homeless and improving their lives
Removing invasive species: cutting ivy away, get rid of scotch broom along with other invasive species around the community
Keep litter down at schools
Ride bike more
Install a new low energy, efficient furnace.
Build a chicken coop, use recycled materials to build it
Eat local food
Creating a compost system at local places for all the compostable items that are being used in the community
Corvallis Clinic is planning on sharing local produce that workers are growing at home or obtaining in CSA boxes or other ways
What we are doing this year:
Live out in Lewisberg so it is hard to bike, use the car with better gas mileage. Some table solutions: Use the bus at Crescent Valley. A government plan is promoting electric vehicles and Corvallis is one of 7 test cities. Research should be a priority.
Getting great ideas from Corvallis to bring back to Alaska which has some serious barriers to sustainability.
Put solar panels on the roof this year, to make sure they are still eligible for tax rebates. Have been waiting because they get more efficient and cheaper all the time. From a physics perspective, they are fairly efficient now.
Focusing on local purchasing and where they money goes, what does it support.
Get better lights on the bike to encourage more frequent riding.
Going to get a high tech energy audit with an infra red camera to identify heat loss in the house. Insulation is a more cost effective method to reducing energy costs than solar panels.
Going to sell the car and go 100% bike from now on.
With more stable economic footing, after graduating from OSU and getting a job in town, excited to pursue a vast range of sustainability areas.
We didn’t know about pay as you go insurance and think that is something worth looking into.
Some of us rent houses. We plan on looking into our rights as renters for upgrading our properties and making our homes more sustainable.
We want to upgrade our gardens and make them more productive.
We have a reuse directory, which lists many things that are reusable, such as packing peanuts. We talked about reusing rugs, which can be donated to Heartland Humane Society (they take bedding and bath items as well as food). The Coalition has released this reuse directory online- or will be posted shortly.
We talked about implementing a rainwater garden.
Some of us are educators and talked about working with the state for sustainability education.
We talked about mulching and chipping wood instead of burning.
We plan to try canning our food. We feel that we need to be more self-sufficient. While we love supporting local foods, we realize the diffculties of trying to grow our own food. We want restaurants to identify their locally grown menu items. We feel that this will inspire other restaurants to join.
We talked about making gifts (especially out of sustainable materials) instead of buying them
We recognize that a very important part of sustainability is the social aspect. Some people live very far away from downtown and it is difficult for them to participate in things like these meetings. We believe that looking into transportation- sustainable ways of connecting people- is incredibly important.
We talked about group dinners- like an old fashioned potluck- to both connect with the community and talk about sustainability issues. The little things are what is really going to keep the mommentum going.
We talked about using our pets’ waste as fetilizer for lawns.
Our goals are spring cleaning, sustainable food, gardening, home improvements, connecting with the community, downsizing, and simplifying our lives.
-Expanding an existing school to serve twice as many 3-6 year old children. Will provide and office and will be energy efficient. Have a pro-bono architecture design from Broadleaf Lori Stevens.
-Bike everyday and buy a bike trailer to pull the dog.
-Look for a job in the sustainability sector. Also creating a job in this sector–a non-profit centered around community-based organization and sustainbaility action.
-Look for a walkable neighborhood when he moves. One that will also have local food options.
-Supporting a friend who is starting a farm. Her friend is in turn going to help her grown a garden in her food. Repoair work that needs to be done on the house will be green.
-Might join the economic vitality group. Looking into microfinancing options within Corvallis. Entreprenuership and local business.
-Building a chicken coup (3 chickens) and becoming a gardener.
FYI: There is a gardening class at the Horticulturist College.
-Learning more about sustainabillity and figuring out how to replicate it in other places around the globe.
Top priority?
Christine – Additional families gardening on their land. Bike more. Bought electric bike. Eat more naturally. Reduce packaging consumption. Waste collection bin.
Patricia –
Becky – food composting
Long discussion about composting.
Kathleen – do her own gardening.
Me – Still working on last year? Back to gardening, this time for certain.
Tona – cook more, less flying
Ride bike more! Would like to see bus service to Adiar Village soon.
Grow as much food as possible.
Helping do permaculture design for house– fun, effective and good to help demonstrate ideas to neighbors.
Planted trees and some other crops in home garden– see how
Solar panels on house that feed back into the grid– goal of obtaining 100 Kwh from roof and to educate others on tax credits and incentives, which make solar upgrades almost free.
Coop tour inspiring- idea of putting coop across fence line so that neighbors can share chicken duties and benefits.
Overhaul on the house for home office– reduced overall consumption. Goal of adding solar, other improvements.
Chicken/neighbor conflicts? Investigate breeds for quieter hens
Rainwater catchment on house– may be especially important in the face of global climate change
Working on disaster preparation– prepared for effects of natural disaster (like food and water) and educating/empowering others
Turn more yard into garden
Question: what exactly in the city’s ordinance on disconnecting downspouts??
Other uses for gray water? Buckets in the shower to catch cold water for re-use.
Compost toilets
Seed exchange for my book club and reading Just Food.
Action Team with housing.: Will keep working with them.
Reusing paper. Envelope reuse. one less piece of paper.
Nuture children. People who feel nuture will give back to community. Not headline grabbing stories, but we are not nurturing children enough. People in this room have more nuturing in their life and want to get more people to help get this subject to our community to our society. Positive nurturing with the children. How they connect is importanted. Get children need the connection.
Food web: getting more involved. Fruit trees picking. Trade. Take people on bike rides. Supply myself but help the neighbors get better self-sufficient. Electric dehydrator.
G.T: interview Ken Williams. TAble felt he needs to be interviewed.
Car repair and dentistry: get in hour trade program.
Vegan diet. Learn more about it. Bike rider that eats meat uses more footprint.
Not purchasing any new clothes. Reuse clothes
Convert my yard to bird habitat.More native spieces for bees and birds.
Gresham volunteer. Want to get a sustainable meeting for Gresham. Meet with Annette Mills.
Solar panels updated and modernized to hit both our house and pool house.
Get rain spouts to catch our water and divert it to our garden. Our water well runs out of water in August.
Hour Trader could help get rid of capitalism. Why should you get a profit or unearned wealth.
-Do more gardening, plenty of space and my family can do more
-Take more time thinking about each purchase and what’s the best enviro. choice
-Spend less (often equals being more sustainable)
-Improve our drip irrigation system for the veggie garden and flowers
-Use the veggie garden more
-Contribute more to the compost pile
-Make soup before the veggies rot
-Juice the veggies before they rot
-Use the car less
-Use our new plot at the community garden
-Learn more about canning (can more)
-Convert yard to native landscaping
-Figure out how to recycling things, like a bandage just received after donating blood
-Using the laundry dryer less. Drying by air, at least partially
-Take on the Homeowners Association because they don’t allow air drying of laundry
-Move closer to campus so that I can commute more easily without a car.
-Improve the rainwater collection system with a pumping system and rainwater garden
-Start winter gardening with cold frames
-Find out more about the pay as you go insurance
-Eating more whole foods, particularly cooking dried beans rather than buying the canned food
-Buy in bulk, esp. without packaging
-Buy environmentally friendly as much as economically possible
-Ride my bike more (including to work and shopping)
-Use Vanpool (carpooling)
-Get involved with some of the organizations with displays here at the Town Hall
-Volunteer with the Coalition, such as one of the action teams
-Being more involved at campus and their Student Sustainability Center, more connected with people and community
-Put bucket on back patio to use rainwater for cleaning dishes
-Fill bucket in shower with cold water until hot water comes on
-See more local restaurants compost leftovers
-See food business donate extra/left over food to homeless organizations
-Compost coffee grounds, such as from coffee shops
-Use natural alternatives to herbicides, such as going to barber shops and getting the hair to put around plants or bloodmeal
What sustainability activities are you excited about in Corvallis and Benton County?
-Gardening action team, individually, trying to conserve as much as can. pretty efficient. new gas heater – seeing if city has a sustainable one.
-Sustainability spirit has spread significantly throughout Corvallis. Bought all hybrid car – excited because it demonstrates passion and care
-higher influences such as businesses and OSU make community members more aware
-food processing should improved
-First alternative local 6 (6-county area). Wish more people would utilize local products, so we could minimize transportation costs
-Chef’s Show-Off and Food Fair – Sunday, April 11th 2-5pm, Linn Benton, CC Main Campus, $10 per person
-Concerned about the green food wast that’s going in the yard debris containers
-Have own compost pile; you can get compost containers at Allied Waste
YOUR top personal priority, THIS YEAR:
– I want to start gardening
– Participate in already existing opportunities (Farmer’s Market, Co-Op, Corvallis Local Foods, share with neighbors)
– Participate in CSA opportunity in a new community (Portland) after I move
– Learn to compost on my own
– Maybe garden with it
– Shop at the Co-Op or Market of Choice
– Help to elect a State Senator that will support environment/sustainability (Dan Rayfield)
– Reduce personal consumption of energy and water
– Previously lived in apartment where utilities were paid for, lacked financial incentive
– Unplugging unused items, less lights (use daylight hours for light), water waste
– Pay as you go water?
– Dual flushing systems? Available at Co-Op
– Started worm bin this year
– Learn how to use it
– Urine as a fertilizer (collecting it inside and then taking it outside)
– Remembering sustainability when choosing where to live (close to mass transit, energy efficient apartment, etc)
– Looking into “pay as you go” car insurance as an incentive to drive less and bike more
– Look into installing solar panels on roof at home
– Bought a new desktop PC and made energy consumption a major priority in decision
– Used a “Kill-a-Watt” meter to check on energy consumption and made changes
– Bought a bike trailer (could now use bikes for grocery shopping, laundry, etc)
– DItto
– Wildcrafting (picking plants to eat – even stinging nettles!)
Working with Benton County commissioners on water issues and ways to work together on willamette River
Bike route along rail lines and working with RR to work out issues
Put in double pane windows and increase insulation in walls to increase energy efficiency
Get rid of car and bike from Philomath to Corvallis or move closer to work
Add rainwater catchment system
Plant yard with natives and add garden and chicken run
Use clothes line and lobby to have them allowed in all areas in town
Replace dying plants with natives
Ride bike more
Work on threatened butterfly habitat and study butterfly behavior to understand how to restore habitat in Benton County
Grow veggies in garden throughout the year to diversify diet and freeze and can food so that have home grown veggies all year long
Plant trees throughout city with Sierra Club and water trees in summer to create a healthy root system
Work with city of corvallis to increase density of housing downtown
Reduce sterile lawns and create diverse meadow in yard
Decrease water use and turn off lights, monitor power bill to remind me to reduce energy use
Bike commuting – auto use is a huge concern to reduce energy and emissions.
Grow more food at home
Helping son on a Eagle Scout project – disconnect downspout and do rainwater harvesting demonstration
Worm Composting
Planning for a lager garden. Solar panels.
Continue to insulate my home. Rain garden.
Continue composting. Adding worms to my compost.
Buying – tracking – how much food I buy at the farmers market. Meet, eggs, dairy. Spending a lot more at the winter farmer’s market than at any other store.
Interest in ground-source heat pump. Interest in solar, but the contractor didn’t want to come out unless he was willing to put some money down. Pond where he’d like to raise his own fish for food – concern about nutrient balancing.
Supporting a local CSA to augment food produced at home
Organic lawn treatments to reduce pesticides and fertilizers
Replacing asphalt roofing with Energy Star roofing material that reflects light to keep cool in the summer.
Drive less ride bikes or bus more – reduce use of fossil fuel
Water capture
Figure out “personal priority”
Set goals for # of days in a row without using a car
Energy consumption
Replace old light bulbs with energy efficient ones
Gardening
Plant an herb garden
Sharing garden with neighbors
Composting
Use solar oven for cooking
Purchase local meat, eat seasonally & locally
Decrease water usage
Hiking/biking for health, take up a martial art taking care of self is part of taking care of the environment.
2000 acres of farmland beginning the transition to organic farming
Work to improve steady economy http://www.steadystate.org
Attempt to go for 30 days without bringing in any new plastic into home
Have fun without spending money
Keep heat down – wear sweaters, replace old bulbs with energy efficient ones
Slow food
Slow money
Ride the bus rather than driving
Riding the bike more
Not buy from large corporate stores
Learn more about green design and sustainability
More gardening
Networking – neighborhood connections particularly related to gardening
Avoid purchasing new items – purchase used only
Meet the neighbors – more community engagement
– Corvallis Local Foods, an online local foods marketplace http://www.corvallislocalfoods.com
– Bought a Hybrid vehicle, hang our laundry out to dry rather than machine dry. Use cold water primarily.
– Sharing one garbage collection between 4 town houses, saving the constant starting and stopping of the garbage truck.
– Trying to reduce the amount of gasoline.
– Commuting kids to school and myself to work via bike during the week.
– Attempting to eat a local, vegan diet.
– Try to commit to riding the bike at least once.
– Solar Panels on our house
– Donate some more money to the homeless foundation and Project Action
– Get into a groove of composting
– try to eat local, if only for one day a week.
– working on a committee to help school children understand life on the sea shore, etc.
– lessen water usage
– up bike riding
-Plans to reduce driving even more. Conscious about it, have only filled up once since Christmas. Plans to only fill up 4 or 5 more times this year. Wants to bicycle more often. Takes 30 to 40 minutes to bicycle all the way across time.
-Reduced working to 4 days a week to drive less. Going to agriculture, serious food production. Not just dabbling – growing food to store and freeze, put in fruit trees. The only thing working against me is the deer.
-Already fallen into a pattern – gotten terribly conscious about shutting off all of the lights everywhere. Always turning off the light – riding my bike as much as I can, I walk more, it’s a non-conscious effort. Just seems to be happening.
-Tries to never take single or extra trips into town. Carpool with friends to work. Wants to put in some wildlife ponds. Has two acres, wants to put in ponds and reroute gutters into a wetland that goes into a pond – will change water use and water routing. In the country, water doesn’t really route with as much damage, but part of it is for my heart, not for sustainability. I’m a creek freak so it comes naturally.
-Stopped using my clothes dryer completely, except when my grandchildren come to visit. Carries fabric bags everywhere – used to be the food stores, now it’s everywhere. Turning off the lights. When I lived in southeastern Alaska, we had a veggie garden, we hunted and fished, we lived off the land. I’ve never been in a town as big as Corvallis, and I find myself so busy that I don’t have time to garden or do this kind of work anymore. I’m having trouble with not being able to bike since I live on Timber Hill because it’s huge. Has started riding the bus. Buses aren’t consistent enough – never knows when to expect the bus. Needs to get oriented – not a good excuse but it does take a while to get used to.
-The base of Timber Hill – bike lockers – that would be a good solution… Park at bottom of hill and take the bus.
-City/county frames – no bus service or very little. Out HGHWY99 no bus service – how can we serve the community and support business with the bus service? I just don’t see it happening financially. Many low-income high density housing is not being served adequately by bus service. South town is good, Conifer area is good to. Much of West Corvallis service only goes until 6 pm.
-Grandchildren were stuck downtown when the bus didn’t come. Bus stop becomes a gathering place for drunks – 6 pm over the holidays! Not a suitable place to be.
-Stopped using a dryer. Don’t you get tired of having piles of junk around? Water use – 2.5 gallons of water per cycle.
-Habitat for Humanity – North Corvallis – 18 home sustainable community. Green Team worked hard on a variety of things. Often stopped by city policies. Goal: wants to allow state code to change graywater rules radically. You would need a megastorage to use that water for irrigation for a month. Water that you run through faucets you could keep on reusing. State law, not a local law. The rules are likely to change. Committee looking at recommending policy change.
Ride my bike to work in Philomath (6 miles each way).
Walk and bike more…partly by choice and partly not. Trying to use the heater less…more use of wood stove and wearing sweaters.
Shift back to vegetarianism. Play with diet to avoid energy intensive meats.
Take the bus to Portland, ride my bike to Amtrak or Greyhound or take the loop bus to Amtrak. Hate driving to Portland….ought to just do this.
Would like to do a raingarden or some other kind of improvement for water preservation…..perhaps solar hot water.
Want to buy what meat I buy, locally.
Want to buy and eat more vegies from the Farmer’s market.
Need to do the whole house w/r/t HVAC and water hearing systems.
Live in a quad, as a renter, and landlord will allow them to grow a garden. Would be a great place to have a community garden….and could be part of a network of gardens.
All going to write a letter to your representative demanding that the Energy Performance Score proposed by Senate Bill 79 be a mandatory performance score available at the time of lease OR sale.
Sustainability Objectives for the Year
-Become a farmer! Really – starting a farm apprenticeship to grow food for people.
-Moving into a cabin that is small and off the grid, and figuring out how to live without electricity. Learning to keep bees and support herself out of her garden.
-Small-scale contractor will make use of the Re-Use guide to source materials and also figure out how to help people dispose of older appliances and construction materials.
-Raising my son and helping people reuse diapers and reduce waste. Continue to raise my own food.
-Putting in gardens in my new house and trying to improve the energy efficiency of my new house in any way possible. Learning to garden in Oregon after living in Pennsylvania.
-Having a vegetable garden and beginning to volunteer with education programs more.
-Volunteering to build trails in Avery Park and learning how to reduce electricity in my apartment.
-Garden plots in SAGE are available from CEC – talk to Jen Myers.
-The amount of people who have huge objectives for sustainability in Corvallis is impressive.
-So many organizations in town are enabling individuals to undertake and complete sustainability projects.
-Inspiring to see how many people are attending this event that aren’t associated directly with the Sustainability Coalition but are just interested citizens.
-Would like to see more community inclusion with the sustainability movement for low-income Corvallis residents.
What is your top personal priority this year related to sustainability? This can be somethign at work/ personal life/ etc.
Ed: Working on housing the homeless! The grant money thats going towards the homeless coalition will be used to rebuild that building. It was originally 8 apartments. The state has different criteria. Each bedroom has to have a bathroom. The proposed plans need an okay from the state. When the building is all done, the state will purchase the building and continue the project. They believe the best use for money is to put a roof over peoples’ heads. The building was originally burned last fall. So we’re working on reconstruction. They spoke with homeless people around Corvallis. The biggest issue in Corvallis is the lack of housing. There are no strings attached for the people living there. They don’t have to sign up for drug treatment or anything, but there will be people there to provide it. And there are a lot of chronically homeless people living here.
Susan: Do you know the number of homeless people in Corvallis?
Ed: There are about 25 chronically homeless known of. They do a survey every year, but it’s difficult to know the exact number.
James: My wife and I are building a straw-bale house this year. We are installing a grey-water system, installing a new shop for abundant solar. It’s on a three acre plot out by Oak Creek. And we’re also using a bunch of recycled materials. We got a lot of windows from Craig’s List and found wood from demolition projects. It should be done by the end of 2011.
Michael: Are there any special issues with straw-bale homes?
James: Not really. This house will be the third straw-bale home. There aren’t any insurance issues. There are international policies. We’re doing an adobe floor in the downstairs. There will be lots of opportunities of getting muddy 🙂
Claire: Will this be carbon neutral?
James: Definitely carbon positive. We’ll zero out on energy and then make some.
Susan: We’re hoping to expand our garden and donate food to the county. We’d also like to reduce our energy use.
Ed: You were saying that you’re using a lot of recycled materials. It’s amazing how much energy that saves.
Brandon: I bought an old house this year. It’s amazing to see the changes that need to happen.
James: We’re using foam insulation that’s completely green.
Brandon: I want to do solar hot water. Storm windows, we’ve got to have.
Sarah: My husband and I are going to be selling crepes at the Newport Farmer’s market. Just a small side business.
Brandon: What made you decide Newport?
Sarah: Corvallis was already spoken for. It’s hard to become active in the food market here because there is so much activity.
Claire/ Mayrah: Get our solar panels up by May! We’re also hoping to continue the project and have community members invest so that this project can expand, even after we go to college!
-bought bicycles for daughters in college so that they can go around town car-free
-changing house to become mor energy efficient, getting energy audits, going to install double-pane windows
-Toyota was recalled, didn’t buy new car, been taking bus,walking almost gone one year without the car
-committing to making 50% of tansportation biking, install bike rack on car
-drip irrigation on timers for garden
-hope to grow all produce this year
-Keep bicycle at friends house so can drive into town and bike where they need to go on errands
-deciding to get rid of one car (they have two)
-working on green sanctuary program
-planning on joining employee boxed produce program
-planting natives along creek in backyard
-decrease consumption of packaged foods, eat more produce
-doing climate consultations
-volunterring with energy action teams to survery homes of families that participated in energy challenge
-bring own cup to coffee places, smoothie places
-bring own plates and wilverware to potlucks
-shop for clothes only at places like Goodwill, The Arc, bring old clothes to Goodwill
-shopping more at the Coop and farmer’s market
-eating more root vegetables
-eat more seasonable vegetables
-getting rid of noxious weeds by putting ad on Craigslist for volunteers to let their goats graze on the property and eat the weeds
Compost and recycle more.
Buy more local food. Afton Farms is a great place to buy local foods. Denison Farms, Gathering Together Farms, Davis Farms.
Bike more and public transportation.
Teaching re-use with small children in all aspects paper plates, clothing, napkins, cups, etc.
Grow more food this year – carrots, lettuce, zuchini.
Compost more this year.
Use biodiesel.
Master Gardener, Master Recycling, Climate Master.