Sustainability in the Workshop

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Sustainability in Our Workshop
Tessa Colbrese Sept 27, 2008 Great Lakes Regional
Workshop
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Engineers Without Borders - USA (EWB-USA) is
a non-profit humanitarian organization
established to partner with developing
communities worldwide in order to improve their
quality of life. This partnership involves the
implementation of sustainable engineering
projects, while involving and training
internationally responsible engineers and
engineering students.
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Environmental Impact of Meat

• A 2006 UN commission concluded that
• the livestock sector emerges as one of the top
  two or three most significant contributors to the
  most serious environmental problems, at every
  scale from local to global.

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Efficiency

• Food Chain!
• It takes 10 times the amount of grain to get the
  same amount of calories from beef than to get
  those calories from the grain itself
• Cattle mass building efficiency 10

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World Hunger

• Cornell Professor David Pimentel has claimed
• "If all the grain currently fed to livestock in
  the United States were consumed directly by
  people, the number of people who could be fed
  would be nearly 800 million,"

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Pollution

• World Greenhouse gas emissions
• Animal Agriculture - 18
• Transportation - 13.5
• Reducing meat consumption by 20
• Is equal to
• Switching from a standard Sedan to Prius

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Pollution Continued - Factory Farms

• Animals kept in crowded conditions
• Need added chemicals to keep them healthy
• Animal waste leaks into ground water, rivers,
  streams.

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Water Pollution
According to the Environmental Protection
Agency Agriculture in the United States much
of which now serves the demand for meat
contributes to nearly three-quarters of all
water-quality problems in the nations rivers and
streams
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Protecting Resources
Live stock is land and water intensive.
Deforestation common in developing countries to
accommodate a growing demand. Brazil - 1,250
square miles of rainforest in 5 months
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Biodegradable Utensils, Cups, Plates!

• Bagasse, the natural cellouse fibers that remain
  after sugarcane has been processed to remove all
  the liquid "juice" from the sugarcane stalk.
• Biopolymers that are similar to hydrocarbon-based
  thermoplastics, but are made from plants instead
  of oil.
• They break down in a composter or landfill.

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Food in Bulk

• Serve-yourself food for 20
• 1 package for 20 people
• Box Lunches
• 1-5 plastic packages per person.
• Wasteful

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Local Vendors

• Strawberry Fields Catering
• Basil Thai
• Red Herring
• Each less than a mile away.
• Less pollution due to transportation.
• Money towards independent producers.
• Money kept in the local community.

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Recycled Notebooks

• Environotes notebooks!
• Take notes!
• Write down contact information and ideas!

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CDM Carbon Emissionshttp//www.sustainabletraveli
nternational.org

• Sustainable Travel International Carbon Footprint
  Calculator
• Contributions support project like
• Reforestation in China
• Electricity, Power, and Heat from Biomass in
  India
• Hydraulic Power in Indonesia
• Wind Energy in Madagascar
• Electricity from Sewage in South Africa

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Thank You!

• Sources
• http//www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27b
  ittman.html
• http//www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/docu
  ments/carboncalculator_about.html
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7600005.
  stm