Furman Greenbelt Sustainable Living Community

Kitties at Greenbelt

For me, life in Greenbelt is not only having three new roommates but also meeting three new kitties. I don’t know if Greenbelters have ever noticed or not that there are three (maybe more) kitties around us. I can see them walking in and out the woods, doing sunbath at the back door, frolicking with each other.

I LOVE kitties. I made a decision to feed them regularly the first time I saw them. Two of them are black and the other one is yellow. I haven’t given them name yet, so let’s do alpha, beta, and gamma currently. (I would really appreciate if anyone who can offer pretty names for them!) Alpha is the biggest and the fluffiest among the three. He is the friendliest one, though I still cannot pat him. It cost almost two months that he finally didn’t run away when he saw me. It eats a lot! When I placed the food on the stairs, alpha is always the first one rushing to the bowl, while the other two are extremely polite that they won’t even get closer to the bowl when alpha is eating. After alpha finished, beta, the smaller black kitty would move close to the bowl. It has brightening and smooth fur. It would come out from the bush immediately with alpha when I prepare the food. Unlike alpha, who can wait next to the bowl while I am pouring the food into the bowl, beta will run away even it knows that I am their friend and I won’t hurt it. Maybe it will take a longer time to let it get used to me. Gamma is the most unsociable kitty among the three. I will so lucky if I can see it once in a week.

As a Greenbelter, I need to follow some rules to live sustainable. Same for three kitties. They live in Greenbelt, then please have a sense of sustainability. I try to not feed them wet food that are used plastic package. If I feel that I need to offer them some treats, I’ll go for the metal package. More often, I bought a large recycled paper package of dried food, and also two stainless steel bowls. I pour then dried food into one bowl, and our some water into another bowl every day, which makes the kitties’ life more sustainable.

 

Be kind to the kitties,

Ruiwei

In November 2009, Furman University put the “Sustainability Master Plan” into action to achieve it’s goal of meeting all of the LEED sustainability requirements for the Charles H. Townes Center for Science building. The LEED sustainability requirements are basically guidelines to making buildings more sustainable and having less of an impact on the Earth. For example, the big window in Hipp Hall is a LEED sustainability feature because it allows a certain amount of sunlight and heat to enter the building such that less heat and electricity needs to be generated.

A comparison of alternate waste treatment systems quickly established that “The Living Machine” was the most energy efficient form of waste management with the lowest life cycle costs. It works by pumping five thousand gallons of wastewater from a campus sewer into tanks underneath the greenhouse outside of Plyler Hall. The wastewater is then cycled between different cells where it is oxygenated. The nutrients from the wastewater allows for abnormally large plants to be grown and studied by Furman students and professors. After this water is cycled through, it is treated and disinfected by UV light and then reused inside the Townes Center for toilet flushing.

If you have been in Greenville for more than two days, you have probably heard the phrase “Yeah that Greenville!”. I didn’t truly understand this phrase until I moved to Furman. Since I am from Virginia, I didn’t know a lot about Greenville when I moved here and so I was curious to learn all that I could about Greenville when I started school at Furman. Greenville is one of those places that is truly unique and is one that I have really grown to love during my time at Furman.

Over this past weekend, me and my friends decided to spend a day exploring Greenville. We just drove around exploring and found some new and interesting places in Greenville while doing so. While we were exploring we walked down part of the Swamp Rabbit trail, found a reclaimed skatepark, and visited some of our favorite hangout spots downtown (such as falls park). Just driving around Greenville really helped show me how many interesting parts of Greenville that I had never even seen before. It is really great to live in a place with so many unique opportunities and places. Greenville truly is my home away from home and I am so lucky to be able to go to school in such an awesome place.

Yours Truly,

Bella Metts

This past week in class, we all had the opportunity to make green cleaning products. We made a multi-purpose cleaner and a deodorizer. One of the main ingredients in both of them was vinegar, so you can guess how that smelled. We usually do rotations of cleaning to make sure the cottage stays clean, so when it came time for the group of the week to clean, we tried out the new products. We used the multi-purpose cleaner on the kitchen counter but once we noticed the smell, we stopped using it. It may have actually cleaned the counter, but there wasn’t any way to tell.

One of my roommates, Celia, said that the cleaner did not work and that it smelled bad. Actually, everyone in the house agreed that the cleaners didn’t smell great but it was fun making them. However, we’ll probably just stick to Lysol and Clorox even if they may be carcinogenic. (Just kidding, i’m not sure if they actually cause cancer)

One of my favorite parts about living in the Greenbelt Community, is always being able to meet with our neighbors every Friday for class. We often have interesting discussions or fun activities planned which makes it one of my favorite classes.

We here at the Greenbelt are often mistaken for hippies as many of my peers have mentioned. However, I’m here to confess to a bit of a hippie-esque hobby of mine. I love to hike.

This happens to be a great thing for where we live though, here at Furman because there are lots of places to go hiking nearby. In fact, this past summer I discovered that, there is indeed an app for that. It is called AllTrails and if you are also an avid hiker, this will be your new favorite app. It is great because it shows you all the trails near you, listed from nearest to farthest. It even includes all those obscure ones that you might not know about without having done intense research that no one has time for. In addition, each trail description is rated from easy to hard, includes pictures people took on the trail and has reviews from fellow hikers! And the thing I loved about it is that it goes with you when you’re traveling, adjusting for where you go.

Or even if hiking isn’t your thing, there are still lots of places to go just bask in the nature of it all. For example, if you’ve never been to Paris Mountain in the fall, you didn’t really go to Furman. It is surely one of the easiest places to go walking and hang out and maybe have a picnic with your friends. Or if you’re up for making a day out of it, you could drive up to Bald Rock, take that perfect insta photo at sunset and then chill out and have a campfire with your friends (Disclaimer: via personal experience I know that it gets very very cold at Bald Rock in the winter so layer up and if you need to improvise, socks will indeed keep your hands quite warm).

Regardless of how you choose to get your dose of nature, I’m a big proponent of the idea that the outdoors is good for the soul. That right there is my motivation to save it. My motivation to live a more sustainable life. So I’m here to encourage you to grab a friend and spend some quality time with the trees.

See you on the trails,

Noa Camp

Hey everybody! It’s Allie here. This week, as a Greenbelt cohort, we got together and made our own green cleaning supplies. Most of the name brand cleaning supplies that people use are actually pretty toxic and, as you probably already know, are expensive. By making your own, you can not only significantly reduce cost but also have a product that’s a lot easier on the environment and on your body.

My roommate and I made an all-purpose cleaner and deodorizer that’s great for kitchen appliances and counters. This cleaner was 1 part baking soda and 16 parts warm water. We added a smidge of lemon essential oil so it would have a pleasant smell but you can choose to add any essential oil you would like or not include one at all. This was all put into a spray bottle which you can get for under $2. What’s nice about using your own bottle is that you can keep reusing it too! I included a picture of what our finished cleaner looked like!

Some of our fellow Greenbelters made window cleaners, lemon oil dusters, and drain cleaners. There are plenty of other types of cleaners and “recipes” that can be found with a quick google search if this is something you’d like to try! Also, I recommend visiting www.ewg.org/skindeep/. This website allows you to search for any product that’s used on your body like shampoo, conditioner, makeup, fragrance, sun care, and oral care among many others. Once you find the product you’re looking for, the website will provide a hazard score from 1-10 as well as break down the hazard score and concern for each ingredient in your product. Give it a try; I think you’ll be surprised. I definitely was.

Being a senior this year, I have definitely found myself venturing off Furman’s campus and into the Greenville and TR area a lot more. One of the things I love that is right outside our cabin is the Swamp Rabbit trail. Whether it is running, biking or walking on it, I always enjoy it. Especially in the fall.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Swamp Rabbit Trail, it is a 21 mile multi-use greenway system that runs along the Reedy River. The Furman trail entrance is located right in the middle and you can ride your bike or any non-motorized transportation to downtown Greenville or TR, depending which way you go.

Some fun activities to do is to bike to Tandem for a delicious crepe or to the local farmers market that is held on Saturdays. For those of you that have never been to the downtown farmer’s market I highly recommend it. The last one is next Saturday, October 29. The fruit and vegetables that are sold there are always amazing quality and delicious. Right now, apples are in season and they make a great snack any day!

Another great place to bike to on the Swamp Rabbit Trail is to the Swamp Rabbit Café. The Swamp Rabbit Café is located just alongside the trail, close to downtown. They serve all organic and local food. It is a great detour to take and enjoy delicious local food. They also sell groceries that are perfect for making an organic and locally grown meal.

Furman students should take advantage of this amazing trail system we have just in our backyard. If you don’t own a bike you can always rent one from the PAC or FUOC. The next time you are looking for something to do, I strongly recommend going on a bike ride on the swamp and enjoying the great outdoors here in Greenville.

 

Nature around us uses solar energy constantly and efficiently. Energy form the sun powers the growth of plants, and as a result, through different food cycles, life in general. Like all living things, we rely heavily on solar energy even without knowing it.

 

Our household appliances are powered by electricity, including our washing machines, electric stoves, hair driers, and fridges all use electricity, not to mention the light bulbs that illuminate the house. The list of devices that use electricity goes on endlessly. If the electric energy comes from fossil fuels, a flip of a light switch or recharging a cellphone produces carbon emissions and depletes natural resources. Therefore, the quest to turn solar energy directly to electricity is a very important step toward sustainable living.

 

Solar cells are becoming more efficient and reliable today, and Furman is committed to use this option to replace our source of electricity to a sustainable form. There was an announcement in August that a new solar farm along Poinsett Highway will substitute another 5% of the university’s total energy usage to solar. The increased use of this clean source of power is great news for everyone who cares about sustainable living.

 

This complex way of using energy from the sun, however, is not the only way we can use this great resource in our everyday life. There are creative ways to get away without the use electric power. Here is one idea: instead of using the dryer one could let the warm South Carolina sun  dry all the laundry.

-Adel Takacs

Sustainability. We hear such a term often. However, not many know it’s meaning. The more optimistic of us conceptualizes it as movement to a more eco-friendly society. The more pessimistic of us entitles it to a hindrance on normative lifestyles; surrendering the things we value (foods, water use, and electricity) for sole survival of nature. Whether optimist or pessimist, neither of two suffice. The optimist is too forward in his/her generalization of the concept, while the pessimist does not consider the proper values based on stereotype and prejudice toward media’s portrayal of the concept. Falling too far on either side of the optimistic-pessimistic spectrum can be hindrance on sustainability itself.

Allow me to provide a scenario.

A girl and guy, who have never previously met, are sitting down for lunch. The guy orders a large hamburger with bacon and every other meet one can think of. However, the girl orders a small salad. Noticing guys ‘meatful’ meal, the girl is prompted to discuss the harms of the foods that he is eating. The girl proceeds to discuss the horrors of GMOs and factory farming. Not only does she criticize his diet, she begins discussing the importance of sustainability, barring on the fact that the guy is not being sustainable in his food choice.

There are a few things wrong with this picture.

The girl is the optimist. She understands the value of being eco-friendly and feels the need teach others the same. However, she seems to think that the idea of eating meats is unsustainable and expresses that notion to the guy. The guy is the pessimist. He doesn’t quite understand what being sustainable is other than the ‘tree huggers’ and ‘nature worshipers’ he’s seen on TV. The girls confrontation with him only furthers the guys prejudice toward sustainability.

In reality, sustainability may appear as a hard concept to describe. Can anyone truly form one unfalsifiable definition? More than likely, one can’t. That’s because we are all considering the wrong factors. I know the first idea that comes to mind is behavioral factors such as greener diets, using less electricity, composting, and recycling. However, neither of those define sustainability. Sustainabilty, in its most simple definition, is ‘awareness’.

This is not quite what you were probably thinking, but allow me to explain.

Sustainability is the deliberate awareness of the actions we make in our everyday- lives. It’s knowing the consequence of every action we make. When we throw away trash, it asking ourselves: Where is it going and what happens to it after? Does it get recycled? Does it just go to a landfill? Even when taking a shower, you could ask yourself: Where is is the water coming from? How much of it am I using? Where is it going when it goes down the drain?

The answers to these questions is what changes behavior. It is what pushes us to be more eco-friendly, because we are aware of the consequences of our actions. Sustainability is not being optimistic or pessimistic. It is the most simple thing we can do – PAY ATTENTION.

 

• Joshua Perry

I cook a lot. So energy used in the kitchen is the primary and the most significant part of my energy consumption. One day when I was cooking my “fabulous” Friday dinner, I thought, “What I can do to reduce my personal energy consumption and therefore contribute to sustainability?”

 

Eating according to the seasons has for many people been largely consigned to the past. But nowadays, we can buy any produce, such as strawberries and asparagus, year-round thanks to refrigeration, heated greenhouses, and global transportation. However, when we benefit from such amenities like technology and globalization, we unconsciously create “food miles,” which adds to the food’s carbon footprint. Therefore, I started looking into what kind of food is more sustainable.

 

To achieve sustainability, food should be sourced “locally” wherever possible. So energy used in production, transportation, and storage can be minimized. In addition, eating local food preserves genetic diversity. In the modern industrial agriculture system, varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously and withstand harvesting equipment. In contrast, local farms grow a huge number of varieties to provide a long season of harvest and the best flavors. These varieties contain genetic material from hundreds of years of human selection and abilities to survive in a changing climate.

 

One source of local food is the farmers’ market. Downtown Greenville has a farmers’ market on Saturdays to which I go frequently. I can find almost everything I want from the market: from eggplants to breads; from plants to locally made ice-creams; and from tomatoes to cheeses. Being sustainable is possible. So go for it!

 

-Tingyu Wang  10/7/2016