This My Nature Outing project inquires into questions surrounding sustainable design and examines local efforts at the University of Pittburgh. My Nature Outing is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's John C. Mascaro Center for Sustainable Engineering and the Office of the Provost's Year of Data and Society.
Sustainable design is trying to make our world more sustainable,better for the environment, and better for everyone. It can make life better for everyone. Its goal is to make things longer lasting and better for everyone, without harming the environment. It is important because we have done a lot to harm our planet and we need to fix it and stop hurting it before it is too late. We already have many initiatives to help the world, but we need to make them more widespread in order to really help.
Bee gardens are a garden with native flowers meant to protect bees and encourage bee population growth.Pitt manages about 7 of these.
The Bike Cave is an open-air, student-run, DIY bike shop meant to conserve resources and to teach people to repair bikes.
Pittsburghs student-run thrift store is a working modeeel of sustainability that encourages students to think about how to reuse and recycle in a new light.
The Pitt food pantry is my favorite sustainable location. It gives free food and household items to people who consider themselves "food insecure". It is important because many people are food insecure and we do not have enough organizations to help them. We could expand this idea to other locatoins through student groups to help more people.
The food pantry has many foods that are shelf stable for people to eat.
It is a student run organization that gives food to people in need.
They even take food from nearby resteraunts that did not get eaten that day and take it to put in their food pantry.
I met with my campmate Faraday and learned about his perspective on what we had seen.
Bee gardens are a home for bees to protect them, because according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 40% of invertebrate pollinator species currently face extinction. Pollinators must be protected because they are integral to the growth of 75 to 95% of plants that need pollination to reproduce.
The Bike Cave is a student run center to offer bike repairs, bike modifications using the parts avaliable at the Cave, bike sales and the occasional giveaway of bike lights and helmets. It accepts donations and teaches maintenance and repair, and offers free shop time.
Thriftsburgh has regular hours in the O'Hara Student center, online sales, and holds an annual Fall Reuse Rummage Sale for clothing and household goods as students return to campus. It is important because buying secondhand clothing reduces textile waste, cuts carbon, and promotes a culture of reuse.
