Long Live Les Éco-Olympiades

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are a week away, beginning on July 26 and running until August 11th. Excitement is building across many sectors for this global, quadrennial event of celebrated humanity and athleticism.

As with events like this, each successive one wants to be bigger and better in as many ways as possible. Paris' Olympics this year is no different:

As mentioned in the video above, one of the ways Paris' Olympics plan to lead are through its green initiatives.  Interesting Engineering's Sujita Sinha's 7-15-2024 post and Forbes' Claire Poole's 7-19-2024 article detail some pretty cool eco-initiatives in place here for this summer's olympics:

• When planning the events, emphasis was put on minimal new construction while also improving existing ones to house the events. Examples include adding a retractable roof to the Georges Vallerey pool and restoration of the Grand Palais.

• When new buildings were built (such as the new aquatics center), sustainable elements were put into place including specialty roof design and solar energy farms. Likewise, seats constructed of recycled plastic were installed where needed. (11,000 to be exact!)  Additionally, these structures were purposely built for reuse.

• The Olympic Village incorporated seashell pavements and air purifiers near the roads.Additionally, the Village is outfitted with furniture specifically created from reused or recycled materials such as badminton shuttlecock-created tables and bottle cap-created chairs, parachute fiber covered bean bags, and couches constructed from metal sidewalk barriers at their base.

• 
  After the games, furnishings in the Olympic Village are planned to reused, donated, or repurposed, giving thousands of items second life rather than have them be a part of the throw-away mentality.
• Using famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Seine River, and the Palace of Versailles as backdrop settings for a number of sporting events.

• The opening ceremony will be help in the streets of Paris as well as on a Seine River in a flotilla-stryle boat parade. 

• Environmental strides to improve the urban infrastructure include "250 miles of new bike lanes, an extended Métro network, a cleaner Seine, and 300,000 new trees planted."

• Food options for the athletes have emphasis on plant-based menu items as well as being locally sourced.

• The event-winning medals have an emphasis on reuse with each of them containing "18 grams of original iron from the Eiffel Tower inserted, placed at the heart of the medals, to highlight circular economy messaging. The metal was removed and preserved during previous renovation campaigns."

• In an effort to protect seagrasses near Calanques National Park in Marseille where some of the sailing competitions are planned to occur, organizers are preparing to use drone-like buoys. In doing so, this is more protective to the carbon-soaking grasses because there will be less disruption to them due to not being dredged by anchors.

To do a deep dive on the 2024 Paris Olympic's commitment to sustainability and see their nods to the 2015 Paris Agreement (with goal date of 2030),  check out their website and their multitude of reference points, remarks, and reports. Then also watch this video from Interesting Engineering to see how their plan for fewer building projects for these games is both a sustainable AND money-saving move.

 

Videos from https://youtu.be/IMLMJVX4NsU?si=9Mxpz3x42iSjeMJJ and https://youtu.be/WBiPdEcyAlM?si=Voaq7QhXzKhys-Dk, Logo from https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-10-24/paris-olympics-2024-logo and https://olympics.com/ioc/sustainability

Earth Day 2024: Planet Vs. Plastics

Earth Day is on its way, swiftly approaching on April 22nd. Since its first one in 1970, Earth Day has been a day dedicated to the betterment of our planet.

The 2024 Theme: Planet vs. Plastics

The goal: to remove 60% of the plastics by 2040...with the true goal to aim for a plastic-free planet. 

When you think of plastics, it's everywhere--and sometimes it's necessary. Think about its role in the medical field. However, the overuse of single use plastic has got to go. Not only is it a waste of a valuable, non-renewable resource (petroleum), but it is an endocrine disruptor and toxic hazard which can cause cancer. It's everywhere--in our food, in our fast fashion, in our air and water. And it's not recycled like we all wishfully think it is--only 5% is recycled globally. 

For a bounty of ideas, check out the Earth Day Action Toolkit 2024 from EarthDay.org. You can find many of their other Earth Day and beyond toolkits here.

Additionally, here are more resources:

• Maine's Department of Education Earth Day 2024 website of Educator Resources (There's a wealth in here!! Way to go, Maine!)

• EarthDay.org's Plastic Pollution Fact Sheets

• EarthDay.org's "End Plastics" online quizzes (and more!)

• Pedagogue's Earth Day 2024 Teaching Resources--with 8 online resources of what websites specifically to visit.

• Scholastic's Celebrate Earth Day activities

• Teach Starter's Earth Day 2024 Teaching Resources

• Planetpal's Earth Day page of resources

What will you do for Earth Day this year?

HERE

Earth Day PSA video: https://youtu.be/xP-iIilHQsU?si=OMGF2Ja2tIbfY_fr, image from https://www.dreamstime.com/illustration/plastic-vs-planet.html and https://www.earthday.org/planet-vs-plastics/, Earth Month Calendar from https://subjecttoclimate.org/blog/2024-earth-day-activity-guide-for-6-8#Lesson%20Plans

Turning Industrial Waste into Art Installations

Making trash into treasure is a frequent favorite of mine. This video highlights the art of 7 Egyptian artists have created art installations entirely from factory waste materials such as scrap wood, iron, and plastic. The challenge was to create a display out of things that are typically not noticed. Upcycling these items to draw attention to sustainability through art was part of the artists' mission. These are on display at the Alamein Art Festival from the end of July 2022 through August.

Video from https://youtu.be/YCbgJ7ntJYo

Trailforks: Making It Easy to Trailblaze

In the attempt to unplug and get more hours out in the great outdoors, hiking and biking are two great ways to go about that. State or National Parks make sense for that, but sometimes you just want a little something closer to home. With that though, sometimes you don't know where to begin that quest. Trailforks makes it easy!

Trailforks is a trail management system that ties with its own app to help you find where to go and what level of difficulty the trail holds. It's crowd-sourced with the help of GPS to create a common community. This means that users can update the information to help you know about the condition and other user-data that may be helpful. It gives recommended rides, notes the popularity of the trail, and reviews. You can also check out trail-specific photos and videos other people have uploaded to the database. You can also use GPS to map your trail while traversing on it. Not only does it accommodate the hikers or bikers out there, but it provides information for skiers, snowshoe'ers, snowmobile'ers, ATV'ers, horseback riders, dirt bikers, and electric bikers too.

Makes you want to go forth and plan some outdoor adventures!



Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNPkKe3U6I4; logo from https://www.trailforks.com

Holiday Shopping in the Resale Market

'Tis the season... for holiday shopping. Yet trends in shopping are shifting. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have already passed us by... so if you missed those deals and the big box stores, boutiques, and shopping online isn't doing it for you, maybe you need to check out one of these trending gift destinations, where you're destined to get something one of a kind. What's this new shop in town?  Well, it's really not new. It's the idea of "thrifting," or getting your gifts from thrift stores, consignment or second hand shops, and taking advantage of a circular economy by saving money and saving resources.

Articles such as the November 14th, 2019 Bloomberg's "Used Stuff Is the Next Big Trend in Christmas Shopping" reiterate this concept. The "pre-owned marked" isn't as frowned-upon as it once was. In fact, ThredUp (an online thrift store) has forecasted resale as a booming and growing industry. Projections suggest the resale market could grow to a $51 billion industry by 2023. (There are a lot of great infographics here on ThredUp's 2019 Resale Report, including the screenshots shared here.)

Some big name companies are getting into the game as the resale market shops have been booming:

• Fashionphile, an online portal for pre-owned purses and accessories, is a Neiman Marcus investment.
• ThredUp partnered with Macy's Inc. & J.C. Penny Co. this August.
• RealReal Inc is a high end consignment shop that went public in June to the tune of $300 million.
• Poshmark has been on the resale rise since its founding last year.

Other shops that might be new to you in this "new-to-you" market:

• Depop
• Heroine
• Thrilling
• And of course, eBay's been around for awhile. As have Goodwill, Salvation Army, and your local consignment shops.

With all this in mind, clearly people are beginning to shop differently. Might be worth a pursuit or two this year as you are looking for "that perfect gift." Or, some of these platforms might be worth pursuing when you are looking to downsize old sizes or make room for all the new holiday gifts coming your way later this month!

All images from ThredUp's 2019 Resale Report: https://www.thredup.com/resale