Council for Sustainability and Eco Practices at SCAD

A group of SCAD Historic Preservation students urged shoppers to spend their money locally over the Labor Day Weekend with a Web site and merchant outreach program that garnered plenty of attention from local media. A Savannah Morning News story described the sustainability angle at work in Savannah’s Shop Local Challenge:

“The benefits of shopping in locally owned stores are highlighted in the student campaign and include local character and well-being, environmental sustainability by providing walkable town centers that reduce automobile use and suburban sprawl.”

A second Savannah Morning News story is here.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Patterson

From the Savannah Morning News:

When Scott Boylston began hearing about nuclear power as a clean, safe and cheap solution to global warming, he knew it was a great topic for his graphic design students.

“Poster design is all about generating a public dialogue,” said Boylston, professor of graphic design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. “Every project in the class focuses on socially relevant material.”

Making the subject even more pressing locally is a plan to expand the nuclear power plant closest to Savannah - Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River near Augusta.

In Alison Johnson’s poster, poker chips stack up in the shape of cooling towers. The poster reads: “Nuclear bets … the risks aren’t worth it.”

Read more of Mary Landers’ story here.

With high gas prices on everyone’s mind, Friday, June 20 is a great time to Dump the Pump, again! While Dump the Pump continues to promote the use of all forms of alternative transportation (bikes, scooters, feet) this month’s event focuses on encouraging people to leave their cars at home and ride public transportation to save money, conserve gasoline, and help reduce traffic congestion.

Chatham Area Transit Authority offers an extensive system of routes throughout the Savannah/Chatham County community, free downtown shuttles as well as ferry service across the Savannah River to Savannah Harbour. Bus, shuttle and ferry schedules are available on CATs website at catchacat.org or by calling 912-233-5767. Once in downtown, three free shuttle routes are available. To encourage increased bus ridership, the Savannah Mall continually offers parking for commuters choosing to access bus routes at the stops located at the mall.

Recognizing that public transportation may not be a feasible option for some commuters, those who want to participate in Dump the Pump are encouraged to find carpool partners through Coastal Commuters. Dump the Pump also encourages commuters to take advantage of the connectivity offered by Savannah and walk or bike to their destinations.

And finally, remember to take the pledge to Dump the Pump at savannahtransit.com.

Dump the Pump is a collaborative effort of the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority (SDRA), Chatham Area Transit Authority (CAT), the City of Savannah, Coastal Commuters, Council for Sustainability and Eco Practices at SCAD, the Savannah Bicycle Campaign and the Pedestrian Advocates of the Coastal Empire.

Click here to download a .pdf of the Dump the Pump poster to post in your workplace. To download a map of free downtown shuttle routes, click here.

District TV News, the television news arm of SCAD’s student newspaper, produced a nice profile of Jason Dean. In it, he describes his role in recycling efforts at the Oglethorpe House residence hall. Watch it here.

Meghan Woodcock, an interior design M.F.A. candidate at SCAD, was awarded Best of Competition for the 2008 Student Sustainable Design Competition, sponsored by the International Interior Design Association. Woodcock will receive $1,000 and a complimentary IIDA student membership for the 2008-09 school year for her “Disaster Relief Transportable Schools” design. Read more here.

The Council for Sustainability and Eco Practices at SCAD has joined the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority, the City of Savannah, Chatham Area Transit Authority, Coastal Commuters, the Savannah Bicycle Campaign and Pedestrian Advocates of the Coastal Empire to encourage people who work downtown to Dump the Pump and leave their cars at home on Friday, May 16.

The purpose of Dump the Pump: Leave Your Car At Home Day is to raise awareness about the benefits of using alternative modes of transportation and to encourage people from throughout the community to commute by carpooling, mass transit, bicycling and walking.

Scheduled during National Bike-to-Work week, the next Dump the Pump will focus on promoting bicycles as a viable mode of transportation in Savannah. Featuring connectivity, level terrain, great weather and tree lined streets, Savannah is a great town for bicycles. In addition to having a great city to cycle in, commuting by bicycle reduces fuel consumption and traffic congestion while providing economic, health, and environmental benefits to individuals and to the community. Furthermore, it has been proven that bicycle commuters provide significant economic benefits in downtowns including increased sales at local restaurants and retail stores.

On May 16th, a Dump the Pump Coffee Break will be held in Davant Park located at the south end of Colonial Park Cemetery on Abercorn from 7 – 9 a.m. The Dump the Pump Coffee Break will celebrate Dump the Pump participants by offering free coffee provided by Jittery Joe’s Coffee, doughnuts provided by Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and fresh fruit from Fresh Point Produce. Prizes have been donated by Bicycle Link, Georgia Bike Law, and the City of Savannah.

Recognizing that distance might serve as a deterrent for some commuters to ride bicycles, those who want to participate in Dump the Pump are encouraged to use the public transportation system offered by Chatham Area Transit or find carpool partners through Coastal Commuters.

May 16 will also feature a PACE Crosswalk Action at Liberty and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard from 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. Crosswalk Action is an organized event in which a group of pedestrians repeatedly cross a street in a marked crosswalk in a legal fashion. The goal is to communicate pedestrian safety messages in a fun and friendly way. Members of the organized group carry cheerful, non-confrontational signs featuring educational and advocacy messages. Successful crosswalk actions require people! So if you are interested in participating please let us know or just meet us at the southwest corner of Liberty and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

The spirit of Dump the Pump will continue on Sunday, May 18 with the Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s second Savannah Wheelie ride. The ride will begin at 1 p.m. from Grayson Stadium in Daffin Park. Participants will be eligible for a discounted Sand Gnats ticket to that afternoon’s game.

Information regarding Dump the Pump: Leave Your Car At Home Day will be featured at www.savannahtransit.com. We ask SCAD community members to pledge to Dump the Pump and mention SCAD in their pledges.

The SCAD Sustainability Council reminds the SCAD community that Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day, and encourages participation through one or more of the following activities.

What you can do to make a difference:

• Practice a paperless teaching day
• Ride your bike to class or carpool
• Reduce energy use by turning off lights and computers, and using natural light when permitted
• Do not buy bottled drinks or use takeout containers
• Eat locally and buy locally, particularly in your neighborhood

The 12th consecutive annual celebration in Savannah Earth Day will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 19th at Forsyth Park. Events include:

RecycleRama (8 - 11 a.m.),
Earth Day 5K Run (9 a.m.)
Earth Day Festival (11 a.m. - 3 p.m.).
Savannah Wheelie Earth Day Bike Ride (3 p.m.)

Attractions include:

• Live Oak Exhibition Alley with information and giveaways to make households more energy and water efficient.
• Green Bistro: more than 15 food vendors preparing tasty delights using local produce.
• Frees classes on Kitchen Composting, Rain Barrel assembly, and Native Landscaping
• Live Reptile and Bird Exhibit
• Coast Guard Helicopter
• Music and Entertainment featuring the Cajun band Feufollet from Louisiana.

For more information, visit the Earth Day Savannah Web site.

By Verena Paepcke

(Originally published on Friday, Jan. 4, 2008 in The Chronicle)

Sustainability and green design are hot topics at the Savannah College of Art and Design and throughout the United States. In fact, the college has a new faculty council — the Sustainability and Eco Practices at SCAD Council — that formed in Fall 2007 to focus on SCAD’s environmental stewardship. The council is made up of faculty and staff from the schools of Building Arts, Communication, Design and Liberal Arts, as well as from the SCAD communications and student media departments. The council’s mission is to support SCAD’s sustainability practices and goals to green the curriculum and the college’s institutional activities by channeling the efforts and expertise of faculty and staff.

Beginning with this issue, The Chronicle will feature a weekly column titled The Green Scene that will inform the SCAD community about activities on and around campus that are focusing on sustainability practices from the micro level to the macro. The column will highlight activities in the classroom, initiatives on campus, projects in Savannah and more. Several groups already exist at SCAD and in Savannah with the same goals, and this column will be one of the platforms where we can combine efforts to inform the community. Student groups already in existence are Project Green, led by Brian Bessenaire; the Student Vegetarian Association; Students for a Better Environment and the student group with the U.S. Green Building Council.

One of the newest initiatives is a “teach-in” that SCAD will host Jan. 31, coordinated by FOCUS THE NATION. For more information, e-mail or check out the Web site. Additionally, the council changed requirements for the campus printing service that made double-sided printing a standard procedure at the college. Also, an interdisciplinary major, design for sustainability, is in the development process.

Council members are open to ideas. Members include School of Building Arts professors LaRaine Montgomery and Deborah Brooks; School of Communication Arts professor Scott Boylston; School of Design professors Robert Fee, Peter Fossick, Christine Miller, Verena Paepcke and Pamela Wiley; Faculty Ombudsman Daniel Levine; Assistant Director of Internal Communications Seth Michalak; and Director of Student Media John Bennett.

By Scott Boylston

(Originally published on Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 in The Chronicle)

As I sit in the Melbourne (Australia) Airport writing this, I can feel somewhat sanguine knowing that the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from my air travel to Australia for a conference on sustainable urban development were “neutralized” by the conference’s offsetting of all carbon emissions from their guest speakers’ travel. Judging from the variety of the speakers’ countries of origin — China, Norway, Germany, Colombia, India, Denmark, Lebanon, Kenya and Holland, to name a few — the offsets must have been substantial.

EcoEdge2: The Urgent Design Challenge in Building Sustainable Cities featured some of the world’s most innovative green architects and urban planners, including James Brearley, Bernard Khoury and Stefan Behnisch. They spoke of heroic endeavors, such as building entire green cities in China from the riverbed up, creating meaningful architecture in post-war Beirut and developing impressive green architecture portfolios. I talked about Savannah.

Over the last eight months I’ve investigated the emerging sustainable attributes of the city, interviewing urban planners, city officials, architects, nonprofit directors, organic farmers, environmentalists and many other individuals interested in creating a greener Savannah. And while Savannah still faces a host of challenges in terms of environmental sustainability, it also possesses a rapidly crystallizing promise for a much greener future. What had long been a personal hunch before my interviews and research soon transformed itself into an intriguing mosaic of efforts by many individuals to make use of the city’s embodied “green wealth.” The dynamic interplay of Savannah’s historic patterns of organization, coupled with its varied yet increasingly harmonized, emergent sustainable properties, has created an urban landscape that hints at what a sustainable city for the 21st century might look like during its nascent stages.

Make no mistake: We are a long way from realizing that promise. But rather than delving into the shortcomings here, I’d like to highlight the need for individuals who are interested in contributing to positive change to step forward, to actively involve themselves, and to seek out sources that can help them become founts of information and inspiration in their own right. The EcoEdge conference wasn’t filled with people bemoaning the slow rate of change with tirades against the problems of the world. It was filled with individuals who are doing something about it. They are all creative to their very bones, but their creativity is not trapped in some isolated notion of what their particular discipline demands of them. Instead, their creativity is applied to their disciplines in relation to a much broader context — the struggle of humankind to carve out an existence that isn’t, at its core, destructive to the rest of the living systems on Earth.

Savannah’s best hope for a green future is not Oglethorpe’s human-scaled city grid — that’s already done its job by getting us to this particular point. Neither is it SCAD’s impressive adaptive re-use of historic buildings throughout the city — that, too, is firmly established as a part of the important foundation. Savannah’s best hope is now in the hands of the creative individuals who reside within its city limits, and in the city’s willingness to look outward for its inspiration even as it looks inward for its opportunities.