Rethink/ News | Building the PARK at St. Andrew's

BUILDING THE PARK

How St. Andrew's is inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards

The Upper School campus at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School boasts a meandering network of trails that wind through Texas wildflowers and native oak groves. A couple of ponds on the property offer places for reflection and mindfulness, as well as habitat for birds, lizards, and insects. But, it wasn’t always this way. The students and faculty at St. Andrew’s have made great strides in restoring this land, while also making it accessible for young learners.

Last year, Greg Mele became the new Director of Outdoor Education at St. Andrew’s, tasked with improving the school’s outdoor engagement program, fostering student environmental awareness, and enhancing and maintaining the land. He set about developing a plan for the roughly 70 acres of newly acquired and existing property next to the Upper School and expanded the initial vision for the land from a “school farm” to a more expansive “school park” concept. This area is now known as “The PARK-Outdoor Engagement Space”, or “The PARK” for short.

To help make his plan a reality, Greg applied for and was awarded a Bright Green Future Grant from our office. The grant helped the school pay for equipment like shovels, chainsaws, work gloves, and loppers. Using these supplies, Greg, the students, and their teachers were able to create the park’s trail system.

Net-Zero Hero: Joi Chevalier

Our newest Net-Zero Hero is Joi Chevalier! Joi started The Cook’s Nook, Austin’s first shared commercial kitchen and culinary incubator. Prior to opening the Cook’s Nook, Joi worked as an e-commerce product manager and marketing director in the tech industry for nearly 20 years. After leaving the tech field, she decided to pursue her passion for cooking and graduated from the Auguste Escoffier’s School of Culinary Arts.

Soon after, she decided to merge her love of culinary arts with her technology background — eventually opening The Cook’s Nook. Since then, her business has helped more than 30 businesses in the Austin area do research and development, develop products, hold staff meetings, put together business plans, and more. Joi Also serves on the Austin-Travis County Food Policy Board, which advises City Council on matters related to our local food system.

We spoke with Joi about her commitment to Net-Zero, what her toughest challenges have been, and what advice she has for others.

Do you know a sustainable superstar who should be recognized as a Net-Zero Hero? Send your nominations to sustainability@austintexas.gov.

Meet our newest team members: Phoebe, Sam, and Brooks

Our office is growing! Recently, we hired three new team members to support our office's work.

Phoebe Romero was hired to support our Climate Team's Air Quality Program and to assist with the Community Climate Plan Revision. Phoebe grew up on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. She went to undergrad at Brown University and earned her Master's at St. Edward's. She is a world traveler and a dog lover. Read more about Phoebe.

Sam Night joined our Food Team as a Food Policy Advisor on a two-year assignment. She attended the University of North Carolina and is currently studying at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs. Her work background is in federal food assistance programs and she's working on doing a food policy scan for our office. Sam loves to shop at the Mueller Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings! Read more about Sam.

Brooks Bailey recently joined the Food Team as a Food Policy Intern. He attended Texas State University's Geography Program and will be working on creating a series of maps for our office that will direct our team to the most severely food-insecure communities in Austin. Brooks is also a pianist, trail runner, yoga practitioner, and cat lover. Read more about Brooks.

Community Carbon Footprint Update

Each year, the Office of Sustainability tracks community-wide progress toward meeting the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The most recent available data shows that the 2017 Travis County community carbon footprint has decreased slightly despite a growing population and rising GDP.

Our interim target for 2020 is 11.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent, which will require a 10 percent reduction from our current total of 12.5 million metric tons. We're on track to achieve that target because of the City's commitment to meet 65 percent of energy needs with renewables by 2027. Beyond that, it will be increasingly important to reduce emissions from transportation sources, which will account for more than half of our community-wide emissions in 2030.

EXPLORE COMMUNITY CARBON FOOTPRINT DATA

Curbside Composting will roll out to more homes this September

Austin's Curbside Composting Collection Program is expanding again! Green carts will be delivered to 53,000 more households and service will begin the week of September 23. After this expansion, around 75% of curbside customers will be receiving the service. The plan is for all remaining customers to be on the program by next year.

If you're included in this expansion, you've been mailed the postcard shown above. You can also double-check by heading to the "my schedule" tool and entering your address. When the calendar pops up, scroll to September to see if "compost" is listed.

Curbside Composting customer will be able to place food scraps, yard trimmings, and food-soiled paper in their green carts. The material will then be collected by the City and converted into nutrient-rich compost. When you use the green cart, you'll likely have less trash each week. This may allow you to downsize to a smaller, less expensive trash cart.

LEARN MORE

SHOW YOUR STRIPES: TEXAS

This visualization, created by Climate Scientist Ed Hawkins, shows Texas' average annual temperatures from 1895 to 2018.

Each stripe represents the temperature in Texas averaged over a year. Years that are warmer than average show up red, while cooler than average years are blue. Notice the trend? It's getting warmer here in Texas, and around the world.

Head over to the Show Your Stripes project website to see what the global temperature average graphic looks like, and to view graphics for most countries and US cities.

SEE THE STRIPES

CITY WINS AWARD FOR GREEN PURCHASING

Did you know that the City of Austin workforce is made up of about 14,000 employees? Many of them use laptops, desktop computers, tablets, and other technology in their daily work. This is why the City's Purchasing Office follows the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, which helps purchasers evaluate technology based on environmental attributes. Recently, the City won an award from the Green Electronics Council for our efforts.

VIDEO: RESTORING ELIZA SPRING

You have probably visited Barton Springs Pool and Zilker Park, but have you heard of Eliza Spring?

This video explores the importance of this little-known local spring to the habitat of our endangered salamanders, as well as the City's efforts to restore it.

WATCH VIDEO

SPEAKING WITH FUTURE LEADERS ABOUT CAREERS IN SUSTAINABILITY

Our office's Phoebe Romero and Jen Cregar each spoke about their career journey in the sustainability field to a group of energetic middle schoolers as part of AusPREP Career Awareness. Phoebe and Jen also led an activity where the students estimated their carbon footprint, measured against the carbon footprint of others across the world. The event was held on July 11 at Huston-Tillotson University.

WELCOME OUR NEWEST GREEN BUSINESS LEADERS

We'd like to extend a warm welcome to our newest Austin Green Business Leaders!

Welcome to the AGBL family!

USEFUL LINKS

Office of Sustainability
rethink/ mobile app
Green Business Leaders
Climate Change
Austin's Food System
Citywide Sustainability

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