Videos From Earth Day 2010 (more forthcoming..)

First, The New School Facilities Staff and friends conduct the first waste audit (characterization study) of university stakeholders' trash on The New School campus.

Next, Parsons students from the Being Singular Plural course talking with us about some of their work. At an exhibition students were having leading up to this event, I bought a dress from Nikol Basoglu made from upcycled fabric and am eager to buy a piece of her jewelry.

Finally (for now, there's more coming) the First Amendment Battle, The City of NY & Parks Department v. NY Artists/Vendors. Alexandria Diaz, First Amendment Vendor, lends us some more insight.

Special thanks to Chris Crews, our friend, creator of the rv media channel, PhD student and University Student Senator who was recently selected to serve on our Advisory Committee for Investor Responsibility with Urban Policy student/soon to be alum Sherin Bennett. We could not have captured this event without your filming and my free video camera reservation-ha. More videos and updates on ACIR's efforts to follow.

Enjoy!

Spend the 40th Earth Day & Earth Night With The New School

The New School Sustainability Advisory Committee, spearheaded by some wonderful student leaders, has put together an Earth Day event in our beautiful courtyard!

22nd April, THIS Thursday 11am-3pm @ Lang Courtyard
66 West 12th Street

Thursday will feature a SWAP 'TIL YOU DROP, brainchild of our rockstar: Rita Luppino. Bring us your clean, unwanted clothes and swap 'em for something else! Your donation is your ticket to swap. Checkout student eco-vendors making upcycled clothing and jewelry and support them. Learn about the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility, S.T.E.M., the Solar Decathlon, Food Service at TNS and the state of the environmental movement today. All leftover items will be donated to charity. Carbon Rally allows everyone to track how much CO2 was saved by swapping instead of buying something new. Check this out! Students from The New School can join the Clothing Swap Challenge on Carbon Rally.com for a fun and interactive way to get involved with climate change solutions. There will be a computer set up so everyone who swaps can join The New School team to calculate our footprint. All monetary donations will go toward our new Green Fund :) Checkout local, essential artists and the status of public parks in NYC. ARTIST POWER!

Media Studies student activists will work with us to infuse interactive video, including rolling loops of Kilowatt Ours and other informative clips.

Ever wonder what makes New York City bagels and microbrews the best around? It's the NYC tap water!

From 6-8PM, ReNew School's Helene Wasserman is spearheading WATER AWARENESS NIGHT! FREE BAGELS! SIX POINT BREWING COMPANY!
2 West 13th Lobby orientation Room

Come find out what makes our tap water so precious, why it is threatened, and how we can preserve it. Watch videos and hear talks on water.

Both bagels and beer made in New York are even more delicious thanks to New York City tap water, which comes from a protected watershed. Special thanks to Nick Krebs for handling logistics. Come one, come all!

Thinking differently about Trash - Reposted from The Nonprofit Quarterly

Nonprofit Newswire | One Person's Trash is This Nonprofit's Treasure

Bruce Trachtenberg

April 17, 2010; Pittsburgh Gazette | We read a lot these days about dire economic conditions putting many nonprofits on the edge extinction. What about a nonprofit whose business thrives on failures? That's essentially the business model for Construction Junction, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that promotes conservation by salvaging salable items from old properties and in the process keeps lumber, tiles, flooring, plumbing and other building materials out of landfills. The 11-year-old organization feels it could do even more to help itself and the environment if the city and private property owners were more willing to let it have a go at buildings ready for the wrecking ball. According to the PIttsburgh Gazette, the city continues to hold on to several condemned properties it controls "because of liability and title issues." Among the reasons the city is reluctant to permit Construction Junction from doing deep salvage, where crews remove everything worth saving from a home or building, is that if the property is considered a hazard, the city can tear it down even if it doesn't have full title, but a third party can not. Construction Junction also would like more business from owners of private properties. But Mike Gable, the group's executive director, says a salvage job costs more than a straight demolition. For instance, it takes several weeks and about $15,000 to do deep salvage on a property, but an owner can bulldoze it for about half as much money and in just a few days. Gable maintains, though, the benefits of deep salvage far outweigh the costs. For one, it provides jobs. Second, the salvaged materials sell for less than the cost of new items. And finally, landfills are spared. More to the point is a 2006 study by Mercy Corps Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery and Penn State's Hamer Center for Community Design. Among its findings: "Recovering just 50 percent of the total lumber materials from 1,000 older wood-framed homes is equivalent to 5 million board feet valued at $2 million, which is enough lumber in turn to build approximately 400 new wood-framed houses at 2,000 square feet each. The conservative estimate of optimal labor to recover this quantity of materials from approximately 1,000 homes would create 160 full-time jobs for one full year at a living wage. The avoidance of waste from a 50 percent diversion rate is equal to about $1.04 million in disposal cost savings." We like to see someone try to rip apart that argument.—Bruce Trachtenberg

Climb the Green Ladder ...

with Shari Aaron, The New School's Net Impact, and Change Forum on April 20th, 4:30pm in the Klein Conference Room 501 - 66 West 12th Street.

Join Net Impact and Change Forum with author Shari Aaron in a presentation and book talk about making your work and personal environment "more sustainable." The book provides tools and motivation to move your company and career towards a better future by identifying the key themes that underpin successful sustainability strategies, including real-life case studies from people who have done it, to create a comprehensive tool-kit for action.

Books will be available at Barnes and Nobles.

Check out the book's (Climb the Green Ladder) website for more information.

Grants Available for Student Projects

Changemakers Competition Invites Entries of Innovative Community Change Projects From Northeastern States

Green Mountain Coffee and Ashoka's Changemakers have launched "Revelation to Action: Your Place. Your Idea. Your Change," a new competition designed to identify and help fund innovative ideas that strengthen and improve communities in Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Innovative solutions for motivating local citizens to build a better community may be submitted or nominated until April 21, 2010. The competition will consider all entries that reflect the theme of the competition, that demonstrate groundbreaking solutions that inspire others to help make their community a better place to live, and that indicate growth beyond the stage of idea, concept, or research. At a minimum, entries should be at the demonstration stage and indicate success. Entries must be submitted in English.

The competition is open to all types of individuals and organizations operating in the eligible states. Individuals or organizations not from the region must have local operations or partners on the ground in these states.

The three Changemakers competition winners — the finalist individuals or organizations that receive the most votes during the public voting phase — will each receive a cash prize of $5,000. The seven state winners — the best entry from each of the eligible states — will also receive cash prizes of $5,000. Nominators are also eligible for prizes. Visit the Changemakers Web site for complete program.

“Do Something” Offers Grants for Community Action Projects

Application Deadline: Rolling
Amount: 52 $500 grants
Description: “Do Something” will award one $500 grant each week to help young people implement or expand a community action project, program, or organization. Applicants must be no older than 25 and a U.S. or Canadian citizen.

For more information and additional requirements, please visit:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/15016678/dosomething

Exploring Microfinance: Models, Mission and Impact TONIGHT

Our friends at Milano Global are hosting what should be a stellar event tonight. I'm going, and you should too!

The Association for International Development and Milano Global Present:

Exploring Microfinance: Models, Mission and Impact

Thursday, April 1st 6PM – 8PM

55W13th (between 5th and 6th Avenues)

Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 2nd Floor



**Light refreshments will be served**



The booming field of microfinance is populated by a diverse group of institutions spanning the spectrum from commercial banks to grassroots NGOs. The panel will shed light on this increasingly complex world by presenting a variety of MFI operating models that reflect different organizational missions. The discussion will address the benefits and challenges as well as the differing impacts of each model. Among the issues covered will be sustainability and profitability, scale and outreach, social and financial services, gender and empowerment, as well as the impact of the financial crisis.

Panelists:

· Accion USA, Gina Harman, www.accion.com

· *BRAC, Susan Davis, http://www.bracusa.org

· IFMR Trust, Peter Bremberg, www.ifmrtrust.co.in

· Pro Mujer, Jana Smith, www.promujer.com

· Project Enterprise, Beth Dunphe, www.projectenterprise.org



Moderator:

· Howard J. Finkelstein, Law Offices of Howard J. Finkelstein, howard@hjflaw.com



Please contact milanoglobal@gmail.com with any questions and comments.

*To be finalized.