Sustainability

Does changing one food item a day make any difference?

In the past few years I have changed my diet to be (mostly) a weekday vegetarian. If I’m honest this change was aided by also switching to one of the weekly meal kit boxes. I signed up for the vegetarian box and through it gained many delicious vegetarian recipes. Vegetarian on its own isn’t automatically … Continue reading →

What does “green infrastructure” actually mean?

I hadn’t really given this question any thought if I’m honest. I assumed green infrastructure included things like street trees, parks, stormwater retention facilities, and probably green roofs. As it turns out, I’m a little more inclusive in my definition compared to many and I may have thought about it more than many US municipalities. … Continue reading →

Trees store air pollutants

I’ve written before about the role of urban trees. They contribute to a number of positive outcomes. A newer area of research is whether the trees actually absorb air pollutants. Klingborn et al (2022) examined the levels of a specific type of pollutant in both deciduous (leafy) trees and coniferous (cone bearing) trees. They found … Continue reading →

When it’s -40 is a heat island a good thing?

We are having some extreme cold temperatures this week, with wind chills consistently sitting between -30 and -40°C. This is warmer than it is in the surrounding rural areas thanks to the urban heat island effect (UHI). UHI is typically discussed when we think of warm temperatures. Basically, the impact of heat leaking from buildings … Continue reading →

Challenge yourself

What can you gain from giving something up

The apparent legitimacy of celebration

Have high self-efficacy? Get out and volunteer

Sustainable development goals

In my sustainability classes we look at the United Nations sustainable development goals. I think there are positives and negatives with the goals but one of their benefits is that they do introduce a broad perspective on sustainability. With that in mind, I thought that I would connect the different ideas from my posts this … Continue reading →

Give yourself the gift of learning