Generation Response

One of Greek life’s greatest achievements is Greeks Go
Green, a club dedicated to bringing environmental awareness
and activism to the Greek community. Greeks Go
Green was founded on Emory’s campus in 2006 by Nicolai
Lundy, of Alpha Tao Omega, and Whitney Hannan, of Kappa
Kappa Gamma, after the two attended a Pan-Hellenic
meeting their sophomore year, in which Greeks Go Green
from other schools were advertising the organization. When
Lundy won Emory’s highest senior honor, the Marion Luther
Brittain Award, he cited his work with Greeks Go Green as
his proudest.
Following the economic crisis, and Emory’s subsequent refusal
to grant the organization any money, I have found new
ways to involve the Greek community in environmental activism
as the organization’s new director. Through the new
Greeks Go Green Award, Greeks Go Green system of Representatives,
and sales of the Discount Food Card, I hope to
continue Lundy and Hannan’s legacy of success with environmentalism
on the Row.
In order to fund additional educational programs on campus
such as a speaker series and tree planting, Greeks
Go Green has paired up with Discount Food Cards to raise
money. The small business started by Zachary Garber and
Daniel Waltzer of the Goizetta Business School, Discount
Food Cards offers a year-long 20% discount at Med Grill,
and a 15% discount at Whole Foods, Artuzzis, Raging Burrito,
Yoforia, and many more restaurants around the Emory
area. The sale of every card sees a $2 donation to the club,
and, when used at Whole Foods, an organic and sustainable
food choice.
An important event that the proceeds will help fund is Greeks
Go Green’s annual spring Greeks Go Green Competition, in
which each fraternity and sorority vies to recycle the most
paper, plastic, and aluminum, and reduce energy consumption
in their houses. In place of the cash prize, Victor Felts,
Emory’s Director of Sorority and Fraternity Life, has added
a “Greeks Go Green” Award to the highly competitive Greek
Awards Ceremony, which will be given to the winner of the
competition.
A long term goal of the organization is to institute an efficient
and effective recycling program on the row, which unfortunately
is quite lacking. Despite the recycling dumpsters in
between the Row and the tennis courts, most fraternities still
do not recycle. In fact, the recycling bins that were given to
the houses by the Emory Recycles department have gone
missing (no comment on how they have mysteriously vanished),
so only trashcans are available for disposal. For
anyone who has ever attended a party on fraternity row, this
should come as a huge shock. The abundance of beer cans
consumed is downright excessive, especially given the fact
that fraternities cannot serve beer in kegs, but are required
to serve beer in cans. During a party, fraternities purchase
anywhere from 30 to 70 extra cases of beer; that’s over 700
to 1700 cans of beer per party.
Now, every sorority and fraternity must send representatives
to Greeks Go Green’s monthly meetings; these representatives
are responsible for filing a Recycling Form with Emory
Recycles for every event registered on campus. Once Emory
Recycles receives these forms, they will bring extra recycling
bins to the party and pick up the recycling at the end.
Assuming that the representatives actively file recycling request forms as directed in the Event Planning Forms required by Mr. Felts, this new
system will save thousands of beer cans from the landfill, and will help Emory University as a whole come closer to fulfilling its environmental goals.
-Rachel Gluck

We live in a world that puts no emphasis on slowing down.
Everyday, millions of Americans hastily grab dinner from
a fast food drive-through, scarfing down convenient meals
in the front seats of their cars. By the time they get home,
eating dinner has just become one less thing to think about
in this whirlwind lifestyle geared towards constantly moving
forward.
But let’s stop and think about that food for a second. Suddenly
this fast food routine may not seem like the best solution
to our daily time-crunch. Did the beef in our hamburger
come from a cow that spent its life grazing on a pasture,
eating a natural grass diet, or was it immobilized in a confined
animal feeding operation (CAFO) eating an unnatural
diet of corn and soybeans? Is the employee who handed
us our meal being paid a fair wage? What about the farmer
who supplied the beef? Is the worker at the processing
plant/slaughterhouse unionized? Finally, is this food nutritious
to us, our ecosystem, and our environment? Because
our ecosystem is a closed system, toxins in the manure
from a CAFO can seep into water run-off, producing harmful
contaminants in our drinking water and fish. Choosing
what we eat for dinner affects more than just our own bodies.
Now you probably have a better idea why the Slow Food
Movement is most easily defined as the opposite of Fast
Food. Slow Food is stopping to think about the broader
picture of the food we eat with an appreciation for what we
put into our bodies and our surrounding community. This is
achieved on many levels – from putting a face to your food
by starting a conversation with the farmer at the farmer’s
market who is selling you his heirloom tomatoes, or taking
the time to prepare and eat a meal with your closest friends
and family. Slow Food, simply put, is: “good, clean, and fair
food.” This international movement was started by Carlo
Petrini, an Italian who campaigned in the 1980’s against
the implementation of a McDonald’s on Rome’s Spanish
Steps.
It is impossible to deny the satisfaction of a delicious meal
prepared together by family and friends. Slow Food takes
this one step further by recognizing that from its roots, our
meal can be sustainable to our earth, grown and handled
by respectfully-treated people, and composed of healthy
plants and animals.
So, what can you do? Vote with your fork! Renowned
journalist and author Michael Pollan says: “The wonderful
thing about this is we got three votes a day to change the
world.” It’s important to remember that Slow Food is not about being a Purist, but rather about just doing what you can. Here are some tips on how you can get involved with the Slow Food Movement.
•Buy locally. Buying locally is an easy way to directly support your community.
It also cuts down on food miles: the amount of fossil-fuel energy used in the travel, packaging, and processing of your food. If you can, buy locally at the farmers market for an opportunity to meet the people who grow your food! Two markets close to Emory are the Morningside Farmers Market, which is open from 8-11am on Saturdays in the Virginia Highlands, and the Decatur Farmers Market, open 3-6pm on Wednesdays on the corner between Church and Commerce Street.
•Buy ethically. Fair Trade certified items produced by a
living-wage paid worker ensures social and environmental
standards and helps small farmers in developing countries.
Coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, honey, chocolate and bananas
are all common Fair Trade certified products.
•Go out to eat! Don’t feel like cooking? You can still support
the Slow Food Movement by going out to eat! Restaurants
that use local and organic ingredients in Atlanta are
plentiful. Rosebud, Restaurant Eugene, and Dynamic Dish
are a few examples of delicious and Slow Food supporting
eateries.
•Volunteer. Slow Food Emory often pairs up with Slow
Food Atlanta to engage in local volunteer efforts. Supporting
local farmers in need by donating to the Georgia Farm
Floods Relief Fund, marching in a parade to advocate slow
food in Atlanta public schools, and lending a hand at a local
farm are all examples of past Slow Food Emory events
dedicated to volunteering.
•Okay, I’m a freshman without a car or kitchen. Is there
anything else I can do? Yes! Every little action counts.
Choose the Fair Trade coffee option at Jazzman’s. Consider
skipping the roast beef at the DUC and challenge
yourself to eat vegetarian for a day to be more sustainable.
Buy some fresh bread, organic granola, and tasty fruits and
vegetables at the Cox Hall Bridge Farmers Market every
Tuesday on campus from 2-6pm. Join Emory Green Dining
Team to have a say in what type of food is served at
the DUC. Finally, eat with friends! Community building is a
cornerstone of the Slow Food Movement.
•Join Slow Food Emory. Slow Food Emory is dedicated
to contributing to the international Slow Food Movement in
a way that is both accessible and adaptable to students.
They seek different ways to be active in our local community,
cook together (of course!), and engage in educational
outreach. The more people who learn about the Slow Food
Movement, the more likely we are to make lasting and
meaningful changes in our food system to formally incorporate
our values and ensure pleasure in the food we eat.
-Rachel Levine

Since the beginning of the sustainability trend on college campuses, Emory has
defined sustainable programming and building as a major priority. A few years ago, the Office of Sustainability Initiatives began to offer grants to students with ideas for environmental projects on campus, and in 2007 junior Addie Davis and sophomore Sally Mengel applied. Wanting to do something big, they drew up a
business plan for a student-run coffee cart that would provide an ethical alternative for coffee consumption on campus. By taking a daily activity and joining it with grassroots education for fellow students, they hoped to reach a large community.
The application was approved, and they were given money to buy a used coffee cart. Originally called Second Nature coffee, the name was changed to the Green Bean, and the cart opened under the DUC in February 2008. Sally always referred to the cart as a “non-profit business student club group” because of its hybrid nature.
The cart took some time to get up and running, and it took a great deal of advertising in the first few months to get the word out about where the cart was located. As a democratically-run business, all employees are encouraged to provide input on any changes to the cart—adding iced coffee, changing the hours, and even changing the color of our beloved T-shirts. We strive to work with Sodexo, Emory Dining, and the university while maintaining independence and a high level of student input. This means working towards making the cart a profitable enterprise. Since beginning to take Dining Dollars this fall, our sales have already increased dramatically and we hope our recent move to Cannon Chapel will continue to increase our sales while bringing more visibility to the cart.
The Green Bean is not just about “greenwashing”…we’re not selling a label or a name just to make people feel better. We really care about the issues and believe that what we’re doing can make a difference. We’re also about ethical consumerism, making an effort to ensure that everything we sell comes from someone who was paid a fair wage to work under fair conditions. Working for the coffee cart is about being a part of something way bigger than we are. Maybe we can’t exactly achieve social justice with a cup of coffee, but it’s definitely a good place to start.

Location:
Outside Cannon Chapel
Hours:
Monday-Friday
8:30am-1pm
Visit these sites to learn more:
Coffee: http://www.counterculturecoffee.com/
Milk: http://www.sparkmanscreamvalley.com/
- Chelsea Duttweiler and Emily Cumbie-Drake

How to Compost:
1. Drill multiple, evenly-spaced half-inch holes in tub and
lid of an average plastic bin (~20 gallons). These holes
provide aeration for the worms.
2. Prepare bedding, a carbon source for the worms, by
combining any of the following ingredients: dead/dry
leaves, manure, newspaper strips, woodchips. straw, paper
shreds, weeds, grass clippings. Moisten the bedding
to provide damp environment conducive for worms.
3. Add red wriggler worms that can be purchased online or
at a local bait shop. The number of worms will depend
on anticipated amount of waste. Worms will crawl to bottom.
dark region of bin and bed ding.
4. Add kitchen scraps at least once a week. These are safe
items to feed the worms: fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee
grounds and filters, egg shells, paper napkins, dead
plants, and tea bags. Do not add meat, fish, dairy, or too
much citrus.
5. Remove worm castings (good soil fertilizer) and use
them in your garden every few months.
-Chloe Ekelem

I currently live in the SEED (Students Experimenting in Ecological
Design) house, which is the old Asbury House on
Peavine Creek Road, next to the Black Student Alliance and
the Spanish Houses. This is the first semester of the SEED
house at Emory. The theme, however, is based off of the
SEED house at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. The house
is an environment where students can experiment with different
“green-living” techniques that people can practice in
their own homes in order to decrease their environmental impact. Our goal is
to “lead by example,” and pass on our successful sustainable ways of living
to Emory students, staff and faculty as well as homeowners in Atlanta, who
can then pass them on to their families and friends.
RA and EEA President Chloe Ekelem explains, “Really the theme is designed to
educate and excite those who are involved and others about the environment and how we can best adapt to a new wave of awareness.” Chloe further explains, “Since the house’s progress has so much to do with the residents living in it and the funds available to us, the life style changes take president to technological
changes, such as insulation and solar heating. These life style habits are by no means mandatory, but rather designed to excite and influence voluntary and innovative life style changes that work best for each resident.” Water and energy conservation practices are the basics of our eco-friendly living. We conserve water by hand-washing dishes instead of using the dishwasher and are mindful
of how long our showers are; we also live by the following phrase: “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”
We practice energy conservation by using energy-efficient
compact fluorescent light bulbs, and turning off the lights and
unplugging chargers when they are not needed. We also eat
local and organic foods at monthly house dinners, and recycle
and reuse everything possible.
Our main project this semester was making an indoor and
outdoor vermicompost, which is compost with worms. Compost
is a great way to dispose of organic food wastes. When
food scraps go into the landfills, they do not return the nutrients
that they received from the soil as they grew. More so, as organic materials decompose in sealed landfills, they release methane, a strong greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. On the other hand, when food is composted, no methane is produced and nutrients can return to the soil, with or without worms. The worms increase the decomposition rate of the food as they eat the food and then excrete it into the soil. Their excretion provides the compost
with a natural fertilizer that is rich in nutrients. A vermicompost reduces food waste and produces fertile soil that can be used for gardening and growing other food. We plan on using the compost to grow a garden outside in the spring.
As with any new endeavor, the SEED house is, in fact, merely
a seed. There are so many ways we can take more steps
to be even more eco-friendly, yet that is just what the SEED
house is about: experimenting with new “green living” techniques.
Chloe adds, “Of course another very important part
of keeping a living space environmentally sound is weathering
the house, flow diffusing faucets, insulation, better wiring,
etc. These are projects that we hope to petition and earn
funding for.”
Before living in the SEED house, I knew what compost was,
but I didn’t know why it was so beneficial, and I definitely
didn’t know how to make my own compost. I’ve found that
living in the SEED house is a great way to learn small, yet
powerful eco-living practices that I can take with me for the
rest of my life. I feel very good knowing that I am trying to
“practice what I preach.”
The SEED house is also a special place in that it is tucked
away in the trees on a hill, surrounded by natural land. I
find that being surrounded by the natural environment really
inspires me to live more sustainably. Living with a group of
students is also empowering in that I feel more responsible
for my individual actions, as I am conscious of our collective
action. Yet on a much larger scale, all of our individual
actions impact the collective action of the human race; the
more sustainable we are in our own lives, the more sustainable
humans are as a whole. The SEED house reminds me
of that everyday.
If you are interested in applying to live in the SEED house in
the 2010-2011 school year, learnlink RA Chloe Ekelem.
- Jenna Shweitzer

“The Walmart of today is not the Walmart of 10 years ago,”
said Brad Killaly, Goizueta Business School professor, at Emory’s
Walmart sustainability competition information session
on September 29, 2009. Emory’s participation in a Walmart
suitability competition is getting students to realize the newly
recognized potential business has to make a sustainable impact.
In the information session for the competition, Ciannat
Howett, director of Emory’s Sustainability Initiatives, gave
an inspirational keynote speech on previous Emory student
sustainability projects and how these projects often lead to
business and green job opportunities after graduation, like
student Erik Fyfe’s biofuel run Emory Shuttle service.
My group and I have submitted a project proposal for the
competition that we hope will encourage Walmart to take an
even stronger stance on sustainable business. Our group
seeks to formulate a comprehensive contract that Walmart
could implement with its poultry and egg suppliers concerning
environmentally friendly poultry waste disposal. Currently,
because of insufficient industry regulations the poultry industry
does not take financial responsibility for the disposal
of poultry waste. Instead, the waste disposal is left to chicken
farmers lacking the financial means to properly process and
discard the waste. I formulated the idea for our project on
the day of the competition information session, where students
in other disciplines validated my idea. This gave me
hope that my proposal idea had the potential for implementation
in a competitive business environment.
Andrew Tate, one of the students participating in the competition
and president of the Emory Environmental Alliance,
said Howett’s speech “really connected us to the potential of
this project;” “we felt more part of an on-going legacy than
a small competition.” Daniel Baum, Tate’s group leader and
inventor of their sustainable idea, hopes to use the competition
“as a potential way to start up a business after he graduates,”
said Tate.
2010 Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge is the
3rd year Walmart has held a national student competition
for the best student invented sustainable product or service.
The winning student group will be awarded $20,000 towards
implementing their sustainability idea for the market, and
Howett’s office has pledged an additional $5,000 award, if
an Emory team wins. Approved Emory student groups (4-6
members) will present their product/service on January 29,
2010, and the winning group will then go onto regionals and
hopefully nationals at Walmart headquarters.
This is the first year Emory is participating in the competition,
and as seen by the nearly full lecture room at the competition’s
information session, there has been a tremendous
response from the student body. About nine groups have
submitted proposals for the Emory round of the competition,
said Tracy Yandle, Environmental Studies professor and
leader in implementing Emory’s involvement in the competition.
When asked about people’s initial reception to the competition,
Yandle said, “There’s a sense that this is a neat competition.
So it [people’s responses] actually wasn’t as skeptical
as I was expecting.” Yandle says this competition holds
tremendous opportunity for “the kind of experience you don’t
normally get in the university setting, experience that would
be very useful in the job market.”
“I hope to receive a better understanding of sustainable products and the sustainable marketplace,” said David Gimnich, an Environmental Studies
student. Gimnich believes this knowledge is important for his future, which he hopes will be in the field of environmental technologies. This competition is also an opportunity to expose students to different disciplines and to encourage them to think in different ways that would give them a competitive edge in the job market, said Tracy. Chrishantha Vedhanayagam, a Business student participating in the competition in my group said, “I expect to learn more about our topic, and gain valuable knowledge that will help me raise awareness about the importance of sustainability among my peers.” Lee Pasackow, Goizueta Business School Librarian, “worked around the clock to get the word out to as many people as possible,” said Tate. Yandle said that the competition groups “seem to be fairly mixed;” “a couple business and a couple others within one group.” Rollins School of Public Health graduate students, Emory Law students, Goizueta Business students, and many other students from various departments in the college are all participating in this competition, said Yandle.
During the information session, students were encouraged to
form mixed department groups because of the interdisciplinary
nature of sustainability issues, and the meeting ended
with time to share proposal ideas with each other. “I probably
would not have such a balanced team had it not been
for that,” said Tate, referring to the informal networking at the
session. Tate’s group consists of two Business School, one
Environmental Studies major, and an Anthropology-Religion
major (Tate). Tate said they have all contributed to making
the idea stronger and more viable for the market. My group
includes four Environmental Studies majors and two Business
School students.
Just after starting work on the competition proposal, Vedhanayagam
said she already better understands both the
necessity of making sustainability “a priority for any company
that wishes to succeed in the coming years,” and the
challenge that such a pursuit entails. Even though students
have just started work on their projects and thinking about
the benefits of sustainable business, it seems that Walmart’s
competition has already started teaching important
lessons about the usefulness of interdisciplinary
collaboration and about the challenge and
potential of implementing a green business plan.

Here, in this land, heroes, empires and dynasties are just breaths.
They inspire and then expire. But there is one line of power that seems to have remained unbroken.
These rulers who are notorious for literally displaying the heat of oppression in the summer are adored by their people because
through the rain they are responsible for the rich, ripe red soil.
See the earth is red because it is drenched in the blood carried by capillaries extending from the Indian Ocean.
These capillaries are channels carrying water, the blood of this land. And the line of power is respected because through the
rain the power line causes currents to charge through these channels.
Energizing ecosystems.
Powering crops to sprout.
And after the dry oppressive summer months, that green carpet on red soil might as well be green marijuana resting on red
coals because its presence is so mentally uplifting.
But recently the soil is not as red as it used to be.
The capillaries are thinning and the people are starving and thirsty.
All because the monsoon rains haven’t arrived. See the smog from pollution has created a contraceptive in the sky, preventing
the liquid that brings life from coming.
It seemed so unnatural.
Until I sat in that bus.
Through its window I witnessed the cityscape of Hyderabad India develop in to a message from God.
There is a oneness in all this.
Something natural about the unique scent of the monsoon playing with the aroma of gasoline as a river of automobiles chaotically
dodge a dog in a market place populated by countless survivors of a beautiful struggle called life.
The pollution comes from survivors like those that collect trash from upper and middle class homes so they can dig through
it to find food.
Then they burn the rest of the garbage to cook that food so they can survive another day. So how can we claim what they
are doing is unnatural?
Survival is natural.
After all it is only because of this instinct for survival and reproduction that humanity has created these tools responsible for
pollution. Its human nature.
So maybe this was the natural way for nature to end or rather the death of nature as we have gotten used to it.
Everything that has a beginning has an end.
Every breath in is followed by a breath out.
Fate is inevitable. But accepting it is another matter entirely. Especially when fate claims a loved one. Then even moments
matter. Why is fate so greedy?
My mother, with her little brother dying infront of her, pleaded with God promising she would climb the thousands of steps to
the temple in Thirumala, if her brother could just take another breath.
And Lord, if she knew how many tears she would shed for him she would do so much more.
She tells me that sometimes I remind her of him.
If I could only explain how much pride and pain that makes me feel.
As if I am that small distance between her and her brother keeping him close but also keeping him just out of reach.
And even though I am a constant reminder of how fate can separate to people who love each other,
my mother still loves me with all her heart.
I have learned from her that loving is like breathing, it indicates that a human being is still
alive. And though fate gets to control how we die, we can choose to control how we
live by loving in the face of fate.
Therefore lovers are the greatest fighters because they fight until the end for another
breath before the end.
So if you love someone in this world you would do anything to make sure they could
take another breath.
But what can they breath when there is no more clean air left?
- Anirudh Dhullipalla

I saw you in the news-
Steel home, savior of our environment!
O, celestial shipping container,
repellant of
Water, shrinker of my ecological
footprint.
O! Respite from termites,
Thou used to carry cargo around
the world,
Now thy walls envelop my little living
room –
A strong beacon of inspiration for
Those who saw a safe and green home within
thy formidable walls.
Fair thee well, O recycled glory
Illustrious creation of a beneficent maker
Mother nature thanks thee. For
The energy saved by transforming you into a home
Can power a standard 70 watt light bulb, and
Reduce mine own energy footprint by 95%!
Because our beloved country
Exports more than it imports
Thou art readily available-
Making you a home costs less than disposing of you
By the dreaded hand of the incinerator!
Thy low maintenance enchants me,
A saving grace keeping,
sustaining our green earth.
O! Recycled home.
- Amie Baumwell