A Summer of Green

Sustainable Tucson and Arizona Association for Environmental Education News and Updates

Summertime brings a new rhythm with film nights and meet ups around the Old Pueblo. Visit the website for ongoing activities and action groups meeting separately.

Water remains a central concern and so a contingent of Sustain-ers will be attending the Colorado River conference hosted by the Water Resources Research Center on June 24 at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix (http://ag.arizona.edu/azwater/events.php?rcd_id=65).

Members of Sustainable Tucson are participating in City/County water discussions, calling for incorporation of updated scientific data from climate change teams. Climate Code Red recommendations for action have been adopted by Sustainable Tucson leadership team. Read the full report on the ST website.

A Sustainability Plan for Tucson will be published on the Sustainable Tucson website by the end of the summer as a way of shaping community-wide discussion and action. The next three monthly General Meetings will be held at the Joe Valdez Main Library on Alameda in the community conference room. These are held on the second Tuesday of the month from 5:45 to 8 pm with networking beginning at 5:45. Check the website for dates and agenda.

Sustainable Tucson's 2nd Annual Green Festival is scheduled for October 25, Saturday, at the Tucson Convention Center. Contact Keely Sinclair at info@sustainabletucson.org.

The Arizona Association for Environmental Education is holding its Fall Event at Montezuma's Well in early September. This is a fabulous outdoor education weekend. Learn from the masters about the geological and ecological wonders of this beautiful Arizona treasure, and relax with fellow educators and interpreters. See the website to register: http://www.arizonaee.org/.

Please send any announcements about summer meetings or events by commenting on this blog.

Have a great summer and stay cool!

Susan

Tucson Basin EE Groups Reconvenes

After more than ten years the Tucson Basin Regional Environmental Educators reconvened at La Cocina restaurant at Old Town Artisans. Lorna Kraemer, founding member of the group, gave a brief history of how it was formed originally and the work accomplished. She showed copies of a resource guide with two editions published during the TBEE's history. Lorna explained that TBEE formed to prevent duplication of efforts and promote awareness of what various groups are working on.

A similar rationale prompted this informal meeting to explore whether a similar group might help us coordinate efforts across the city and county to leverage our work to a community-wide campaign for sustainability.

About 30 people enjoyed an organic buffet and beverage together on the patio. Represented were city, county, university, museum, youth, social justice and arts representatives as well as members of Sustainable Tucson and the Arizona Association for Environmental Education.

Sarajean Harwood and Anne Aiken-Browning described a proposal to write for National Science Foundation funding for multiple projects to create sustainability education opportunities for youth, school children, and adult learners. We learned from Nicole Urban-Lopez, Education Coordinator for the City of Tucson, what the Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development is planning on the launch of their website in the summer. Carla Clark, Sustainable Tucson's web info architect, described what ST is planning on its website to support action teams and the general public.

We decided to start a blog to keep the discussing rolling along. Since AAEE already has the Arizona Crossroads blog to help link groups working on conservation education and sustainbility objectives across the state, we decided to adopt it as our communication tool.

Since we just began the discussion, let's continue now. Just use the comment section to add ideas that may have occurred to you during or after the meeting. Also, all the people who could not make the meeting but asked to be included in the followup are now in the listserv with us. There are currently about 80 of us.

Let's just see what comes of it!

Thanks,

Susan

Sustainability Socials and Sundry

Sustainability Social
La Cocina at Old Town Artisans
March 11, Tuesday
4:30 -5:45 pm
Buffet and Beverage
$10 each at the door

Help re-convene the Tucson Environmental Education Regional planning group. We’re dusting it off and dressing it up in GREEN to work together Come enjoy great food, good company, and discuss the possibilities.

Following the Sustainability Social
Walk to the Main Library
For
Sustainable Tucson’s General Meeting
6-8:00 pm

Please RSVP to Susan Williams by March 8:
400-4117 or send an email to susanleewilliams@cox.net.

Moving on in Pima County

AAEE held its annual conference in Tucson, October 25-27, at the University of Arizona campus. Educating for Sustainability attracted over 100 educators and students. Area experts on climate change, permaculture, water conservation, and local food production offered hands-on classes and field trips that advanced participants’ knowledge about principles of sustainability. Guidelines for Excellence was held on Saturday morning to help educators identify effective environmental education materials correlated to national and state education standards.

The Conference culminated in the Livin’ la Vida Verde Festival, held in conjunction with Sunnyside Unified School District. Over seventy green vendors provided opportunities to learn about new energy and home building technologies. Honor of the Frog certificates (Green Frog News) were awarded to outstanding students and schools working on sustainability projects.

AAEE Awarded Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust Grant

The Arizona Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) received a grant of $45,000 from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust on November 16 to support conservation and environmental education in Tucson and Pima County.

During the project year, a Sustainability Coordinator will write grants to support the efforts of Sustainable Tucson.

The current funding supports a Models for Sustainability workshop to take place in Phoenix during 2008 that will feature Sustainable Tucson while inviting groups from around Arizona to come learn and to share what they are doing. The workshop will link sustainability efforts in Arizona cities and counties providing web site points of contact and downloadable resources to any community working toward sustainability goals.

AAEE will continue to provide regular professional development workshops such as Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Education as well as other workshops and opportunities for networking that support environmental educators’ efforts to promote environmental literacy.

For more information on the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust: http://www.nmpct.org/

Green October: Tucson's Sustainability Month

The month of October in Tucson is packed with events that focus on the city's transformation to a more sustainable place to live and work. The recognition that this activity is the beginning of what will become a lasting effort and a way of life is the shared sensibility among affiliates of Sustainable Tucson who recently attended a Special Action Meeting at the Main Library. Nearly 100 people gathered to form Affinity Groups focused on everything from water efficiency, to health and climate change impacts, to green faith initiatives in Tucson faith communities, to public education.

Affinity groups that formed will be supported by Sustainable Tucson with a list serve for each group, web space, and general support from the Core Team - a group of leaders whose focus is the administration of Sustainable Tucson and liaisons with city, county, university, and community leaders for coordinated action toward sustainability goals and objectives.

Sustainable Tucson will serve as the follow-up support to a Community Sustainability Forum organized by the City of Tucson, Pima County, University of Arizona, and Pima Association of Governments which will be held on October 31. This forum brings 150 representatives together from an array of community groups to held focus action on a few tangible goals for the next year. It is anticipated that people attending the forum will join Sustainable Tucson's affinity groups or form new ones that will come under Sustainable Tucson's supporting umbrella.

Here are links to upcoming events:

Sustainable Tucson Home Page and Calendar http://www.sustainabletucson.org/

Arizona Association for Environmental Education Fall Conference http://arizonaee.org/aaee-events/fall-conference

University of Arizona's Campus Sustainabilty Week http://www.sustainability.arizona.edu/

Community Sustainability Forum http://www.pagnet.org/calendar/SustainabilityForum/tabid/636/Default.aspx

Sustainably,
Susan

Sustainable Tucson Special Action Meeting

Sustainable Tucson Special Action Meeting

Dear Members of Sustainable Tucson,

This past year has been an exciting one for the ST Core Team as we have presented community events, expanded our membership, and organized our efforts toward our goal of a truly sustainable Tucson. We have reached a critical juncture where we now have the capacity to expand our efforts exponentially—and we need your help to do it.

You are receiving this email because you indicated, at a meeting or elsewhere, that you’d like to stay informed and take action as a member of Sustainable Tucson. Many of you expressed interest in joining an “affinity group” that seeks to tackle a particular aspect of Tucson’s sustainability. We are now ready to activate these affinity groups. We envision the groups organizing themselves with our assistance, engaging the sustainability conversation on their topic, and launching hands-on projects. The ST Core Team will facilitate the development, integration and networking of these groups to serve ST’s mission: to help build a sustainable community for all of us.

Interested? Mark your calendars to attend Sustainable Tucson’s Affinity Group Activation meeting on the evening of Tuesday, Oct 2, 6-8 pm at the Joel Valdez (Main downtown) Library. Meet other Tucsonans as passionate about sustainability as you are! We will provide light refreshments. Please R.S.V.P. to info@sustainabletucson.org if you plan to attend so we have a head count for refreshments. There will be a Sustainable Tucson presentation of who we are, short presentations describing the different affinity topics, and a networking session to organize Affinity Group members.

The current member-generated list of affinity topics include:
Water Building Economy Education Energy
Food/Agriculture Health Transportation Faith/Spirituality

Other Affinity Groups are encouraged to form as well. If you feel a sense of leadership arising within yourself and you would like to facilitate this first session organizing a particular Affiinity Group, please reply to this email address so we can help get you set up. We do need your help..

If Affinity Groups aren’t your gig, Sustainable Tucson needs ongoing internal help with our events, website, communications and administrative operations. Simply email info@sustainabletucson.org to join in our efforts on a volunteer basis.

Other upcoming events for you to be aware of:
• Oct 2: ST Gen. meeting, Activating Affinity groups, Main Library Downtown, 6-8pm.
• Oct 14: ST Film Festival, Main Library Downtown, large meeting room, 1-5pm
• Oct 25-27: Education for Sustainability Conference

Oct 26: Public Water Conference by Water Research Resource Center, UA
• Oct 27 Livin' La Viva Verde Green Festival
• Oct 31: City of Tucson Sustainability Forum

Check out http://www.sustainabletucson.org/ for more information on these events. We appreciate your continued support and enthusiasm. We invite you and others who are interested in joining us at this critical time for Tucson’s sustainable future.


Warmest Regards, the Sustainable Tucson Core Team

Focus on Water Sustainbility

August 23, 6 p.m. at Woods Library on First Avenue in Tucson, Sustainable Tucson will sponsor a panel of experts to discuss key issues about water sustainbility in the Old Pueblo and region. To read current reports and articles go to http://www.sustainabletucson.org./

The panel discussion on August 23rd is a prequel to the address by Dr. Peter Gleick, Director of the Pacific Intitute in California, and internationally recognized scholar on water and the West and impacts of climate change:

Peter Gleick Presents Tucson Public Lecture on Sustainable Water Use

Peter Gleick will discuss innovate strategies for achieving sustainable water use at a public lecture at Temple Emanu-El, 225 N. Country Club, Tucson at 7:30 on Thursday, Aug. 30. The lecture is free and open to the public. He is co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security.

Gleick has a Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water issues, and the BBC named him a "visionary on the environment" in its Essential Guide to the 21st Century. He is the principal author of the recent publication, "The World's Water 2006 - 2007, The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources," published by Island Press. Sponsors of the event include Pima County, Arizona Hydrological Society, Southwest Hydrology, Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Temple Emanu-El.

Along with Southwest Hydrology, the other University of Arizona sponsors are the Water Resources Research Center and the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. Gleick will be in Tucson participating in a regional water symposium, "Sustainable Water, Unlimited Growth, Quality of Life: Can We Have it All?," an event sponsored by the Arizona Hydrologic Society and Southwest Hydrology.

Check the symposium web site for information about the event: http://www.watersymposium.org/.

Contacts:Sharon Megdal, Water Resources Research Center, smegdal@cals.arizona.eduGregg Garfin, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, gmgarfin@email.arizona.edu
Cas Sprout, Administrative AssociateWater Resources Research Center350 N. Campbell Tucson AZ 85721Office: 520-792-9591 ext. 55 Fax: 520-792-8518