Please invite your friends to these events, and while you’re there, thank a volunteer!

The Sustain Mizzou executive board started Mizzou Sustainability Week last year. It featured events such as an E-Waste Drive, Fresh Beets Benefit Concert, picnic on Lowry Mall, transportation fair, and keynote about dumpster diving.

Who funds the green roof?

The Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee (SFCIC) awards a maximum of $275,000 annually for equipment or renovations that benefit future MU students. Ben is president of Environmental Science Club and an active member of Sustain Mizzou. He presented this plan to the SFCIC, which graciously approved $27,000.

Additionally, Mizzou Advantage supplied $1,100 for an engineer to determine the roof holding capacity of Rollins Dining Hall in April 2012. Campus Facilities contracted Bob D. Campbell Structural Engineers from Kansas City, MO to conduct a review of the building’s structural integrity.

According to Ben’s documents, the Sustainability Office is also willing to contribute up to $3,000 toward the green roof irrigation system. Campus Dining and Campus Facilities have not made such financial commitments at this time.

Rollins residence and dining hall is the area slated for the green roof. It already features many sustainability components, including high-capacity bike racks, a rain garden, white roofs and porous pavement.

Where does the money go?

What’s next?

• Establish a final meeting with the stakeholders and confirm project approval
• Determine an installation date and purchase the materials
• Get the media involved and create awareness

The SFCIC grant will fund the construction of a green roof on Sector 1. The entire roof will be complete if additional funding can be found.

This is on top of a year’s worth of work, in which Ben worked with Sustain Mizzou and the Environmental Science club to:

• Find a sponsoring student organization
• Find a University employee that knows the approval process
• Research and networking
• Meet with Campus Dining (who owns the building)
• Meet with Campus Facilities (who deals with structural maintenance)
• Apply for the first round of grants
• Conduct a structural study by contracting an engineer (determine maximum pounds per square foot)
• Explore outside funding sources
• Find professors who can confirm a need for a green roof system
• Apply for the second round of grants
• Receive grant funding and communicate the message to all stakeholders
• Complete a permission request form (PRF) with Campus Facilities

If you have more questions for Ben, contact him at bgkxw7[at]mail.missouri.edu.

Hanging out at Three Creeks. Photo courtesy of Julie Zender.

It’s spring! Rain is falling. Robins are warbling. Woodcocks are sniffing around in the mud. No better place to be at a season-switch than beautiful Mid-Missouri, and no better time to go out than THIS WEEKEND! Sustain Mizzou treasurer Andrew has a hike planned to Rock Bridge State Park (details below), so lace up your hiking shoes and get outside! Here are some highlights from Great Outdoors trips of the past.

Grace and Julie biked to Big Tree at McBaine. This photo does not do it justice. Photo courtesy of Julie Zender.

Way super long ago camping trip. Photo courtesy of Tina Casagrand.

To have your own adventure this Saturday, follow these instructions, or RSVP on Facebook.

Hey all,

This Saturday we’re gonna head out to Rock Bridge Memorial State Park to enjoy the (hopefully) great weather and great outdoors. We will go rain or shine, and come prepared. Things you might need: water, sunglasses, boisterous spirits, rain stuff(?), goodwill, cheer, a sled and dog team, ice axe, bear spray, etc. (You know the drill) If you have a car, let us know! And if you don’t, that’s fine! We’ll be carpooling, and we are going to meet at the bike racks of Hitt St Garage.

If you see people dressed as bacon and eggs (or peapods, peppers or apples) this week on Speaker’s Circle or at Memorial Union, give them some cash! All proceeds go straight to local farmers in exchange for fresh produce for Tiger Pantry.

For the first time ever, Sustain Mizzou’s local food drive specifically benefits the MU community. As always, volunteers will dress up as fruits and vegetables on Speaker’s Circle and Memorial Union. Why? To cheer on people who donate to the cause! 100 percent of the money buys fresh food from nearby farmers.

Historically, project coordinators have sent the produce to the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri. Now, with new standards allowing fresh produce, Tiger Pantry will accept the Local Food Drive’s donations.

Think the MU campus doesn’t have a food insecurity problem? Think again.

• 15,000+ students on need based aid
• 6,000+ students that are recipients of pell grants
• 1,000+ students that have an EFC (Expected Family Contribution) between $0-$1,000
• Nearly 20 students reported that they were homeless Spring 2012
• Members of our large international student population sometimes struggle financially for many reasons
• Many staff members are paid at or below the poverty level and have to support families
• Some graduate students are paid extremely low stipends and have to support families

If you know someone who might benefit from Tiger Pantry, share this information with them. And if you have a loose change jar, empty it out on Speaker’s Circle or in front of Memorial Union all week.

The 2013 poster for the LFD touts the project’s mission to “Nourish our community and support local farmers.”

Paige had a novel idea: cut out old romance novel pages to send risque messages to friends.

‘Twas the night before Valentine’s Day (or Christmas, or any other card-worthy day) and oh no, a gaggle of friends are on their way into town! Don’t run out to buy them Valentines. Just make your own with things from home. Hand-made cards show people you really love them. Here are some ideas to get you started!

Homemade paper, shiny paper, brown paper. Don’t discriminate!

DIY card materials you probably have on hand:

• pages from old romance novels
• shiny candy wrappers
• brown paper bags
• bits of ribbon or string
• old magazines or books
• old cards you’ve kept from past holidays
• old pictures
• markers, pens, pencils
• adhesives: glue, tape, mod podge, sticky tack!

This bird of paradise is sporting a very fine moustache and some poppin’ glitter!

Craft supply investments:

• rubber stamps and at least three good colors of ink pads
• glitter and glitter glue
• punch-out shapes
• confetti to pop out of the envelope when your recipient opens it
• stickers and googly eyes

A heart-warming and locally relevant card: the MSA cabinet, with special new leader, Gandalf! Can’t make more than one? Photocopy it and send it to friends!

You could hand this Valentine to pretty much any patron of Uprise, and they would be quite happy.

Creatures and glitter and definitions galore!

Uh-oh! Looks like the Nixon family has a visitor! Photobomb to your heart’s content.

It’s the creature from the draft lagoon!

It’s a cruel fact of nature that cold temperatures mean high heating bills. But how can you weatherize your home when you don’t own it? If you’re renting a house or apartment, big insulation and replacement projects are out of your grasp. Fortunately, temporary products exist. One is removable sealant. It’s not as effective as some caulking methods, but you can peel it right off once open-window weather returns.

What should you caulk?

If you can put your hand near your windows and feel cold air physically rushing in to terrorize your comfort, then you should caulk that window. If for some reason your skin doesn’t work, then there’s this trick with moving a lit candle or incense stick in front of the window to see exactly where the draft is coming in. See the video below.

Things you need:

• A caulk gun, $3-10.
• Canisters of caulk, $6-8.
• Some muscle, free with a gym membership.

What brand and how much?

Keep pressure on the caulk as you work your way down the line; this prevents gaps.

The Gun: Mother Earth News says: “Ratchet guns (about $3) have a notched piston, which pushes the caulk out. To stop the flow of caulk, you have to twist the piston with your free hand to disengage the ratchet. Smooth-rod guns ($5 to $10) are easier to use. To release piston pressure and stop the flow of caulk, you simply press the quick-release plate above the handle with your thumb.”

The Caulk: DAP Seal N’ Peel gets good reviews (4/5 stars). Red Devil Zip-A-Way (1/5 stars) is said to be a pain to remove, especially if the sealant gets exposed to sunlight. Funny enough, this is the brand we used, so check back in a few months for a review!

Amount: Determine how much you need with this handy “Caulkulator.”

How do you caulk something?

If you don’t know how to load a caulk gun, you can just ask a hardware store employee to show you. Or YouTube it, if you don’t like talking to people. Actually, you could stop reading here. This lady knows what she’s talking about.

Flattening the bead with your fingernail or other tool will help fill in the corner and make the caulk look slightly more attractive.

Trim the tip of your caulk at a 45° angle for better results, but you’re not frosting a cake so don’t get too worried about it. Then pull the trigger! This pushes the caulk out of the tube and also helps you flex your big, strong, weatherizing muscles. Makers of the Zip-A-Way warn that the product may shrink over time. Make sure the bead fits well over the space you’re caulking.

Work the caulk into the corners with your fingernail (or if touching silicone freaks you out, get a tool) as you go or after you lay down the bead. Our caulk came out so slowly that our only entertainment was tooling the product as we went. But maybe your house is warmer than a refrigerator.

Yep, that’s it. Shouldn’t take long. Get off the internet and do it. Unsealed gaps in a house equal leaving a whole window open, and about 2% of your heat escapes through tricky places like your power outlets. Go!

DIY presents are all the rage nowadays, and for good reason. I think if you spend time making something for someone, instead of just going to the store and buying something, a person can really know that you care about them!

There are all different kinds of presents you can make. Here is one I am fond of: using a recycled wine bottle to make a decorative light. It’s a useful and pretty gift that can be personalized to anyone you are making it for. Example: my brother loves Mizzou stuff, and when my family did Secret Santa, I made him one of these painted black and gold with an MU on the front.

This project should cost less than 15 dollars.

You will need:

• Wine bottle ($3-$6)
• String of Christmas lights: I prefer white, but colored could be fun. I use a 20-light string. ($3)
• Paint ($2)
• Paint brush ($2)
• Glaze spray (optional) ($5)

Notes:

• All of this is available at Michael’s or any other craft store.
• If you can’t go buy a bottle of wine, or maybe you don’t want a bottle with a label, try an antique or thrift store, or see if a local restaurant will give you some; also try Top Ten Wines! They will give you some bottles for free.
• Or- maybe your gift-getter likes whiskey, or vodka or something else. You could make one of these out of their favorite drink.
• There are two different kinds of paint you can use. Acrylics and glass paint. You can buy a little glass paint kit at Michael’s for about $5. Acrylic paint will be solid and opaque, with a slightly chalky look. Glass paint will be translucent and look more like a stained glass window.
• If you paint with acrylics, you will want to buy some kind of finishing spray so that the paint won’t scratch off.
• Glaze spray will make the glass look frosted. Depending on what kind of look you want, this looks very pretty!

Step 1.

Buy a bottle of wine. Don’t bust your pocketbook—this bottle cost me $6.

Step 2.  

Drink wine (this is the most fun part).

I picked this for the color.

Step 3.

Take your paint and go to town. You can paint patterns, like I did here, or whatever you want.  Let dry.

Acrylic paint may take more than one layer.

You can do real painting or just do decorative designs, like so.

Step 4 (optional)

Make sure the kitty approves of your work. Kitty approval= it’s a good present.

Sage the kitty is pretty sure this is cool.

Step 5

Stuff the lights into the bottle and let the part of the string with no lights and the plug hang out. I prefer the strings of light that have white cords instead of green. But, you do what you can.

Step 6 

Plug in and check out your handiwork! Make sure the lights look good. Sometimes when I stuff them in the bottle, all the lights gets clumped up together and I use a stick to spread it out.

Not too shabby!

Step 7 & 8 (no photo)

I was going for a “beachy” unkempt look.

Spray on your glaze or finishing spray and let dry. This may take a few reapplications too.

Final optional step:

Get creative! If you want more, try adding ribbons or bedazzling or putting rocks or sand in the bottle. The options are limitless here.

Have fun!

Inside the trailer at the end of the Fall 2012 E-waste drive.

Photo by Hunter Maret, E-Waste leader. Updates to come or for more information, click here to read about the history of Sustain Mizzou’s E-Waste Drive.

Photos by Kat Seal.

Tigers for Community Agriculture, Sustain Mizzou’s gardening group, have sold 324 pounds of lettuce, chard and broccoli to MU Campus Dining Services and the University Club in just one month. The journey from seed to students resulted entirely from student volunteer efforts.

In early February, the students started romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, leek, onion and broccoli seed in the campus green house. Volunteers then transplanted the sprouts into hoop houses at Bradford Research and Extension Center and carpooled there to water it periodically. They used a drip-tape watering system, which waters at the roots and conserves water. There’s also a commercial benefit: “You don’t have water spots on the lettuce so it looks better when you try to sell them,” says Monica Everett, a project volunteer who has been with TCA since its inception in 2010. The group also sold 60 pounds of greens to the University Club, a higher-end dining establishment at the Alumni Center.

Setting up the business plan was surprisingly simple: they asked CDS to buy their produce. “After marching into the kitchen offices of the Student Center (not knowing what we were doing), we brought [sous chef] Jeremy out to the Ford Explorer,” says Kat Seal, project volunteer and former Sustain Mizzou president. “He looked at the lettuce and said, ‘we’d take it all.’”

TCA has other produce coming up for harvest, including peppers, spinach, carrots and tomatoes. They plan to sell it to the aforementioned businesses, as well as Centro Latino. All profit goes back to building the program and its assets.

In a boycott, everyone loses. In a Carrot Mob, everyone WINS! That’s the basic premise of today’s Carrot Mob at Shakespeare’s, part of Sustain Mizzou’s Sustainability Week.

Sustain Mizzou is challenging YOU to join the Carrot Mob campaign TODAY.

Print this flier, take it to Shake's, and 15% of their sales will go back into energy efficiency updates. Since commercial buildings use a significant amount of total U.S. energy, this is a small step toward a HUGE collective impact.

It’s a party, not a protest! On April 26th join us at the yummiest event of MU’s Sustainability Week to chow down and save the planet, all in one bite (or gulp). Here’s the deal: you buy pizza or beer, then Shakespeare’s will take 15% of the money from your purchase and re-invest it in an energy audit and energy efficiency retrofits at the store. Here’s the catch: for your money to count you’ll need a super-secret code from Sustain Mizzou. You’ll be able to find us at Earth Day, on Lowry Mall during Sustainability Week (April 23-27), on Facebook, and prancing around Columbia in carrot costumes.

Traditionally mobs have formed to protest businesses with bad practices, but this Carrotmob campaign will be the opposite of a boycott: we’ll party at Shake’s to bring more customers to a local company with good practices!

So grab some friends, track us down, and join the Carrotmob! You’ll have never felt so good about stuffing your face.