No Impact Week 2013!

The Campus Sustainability Initiative, in conjunction with the University’s Common Read, is sponsoring “No Impact Week” from October 6-12, 2013.  According to organizers, No Impact Week is a one-week “carbon cleanse”:

It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money. Each day of the week features an aspect of impact in your life. One day you’ll find out just how much waste you create in a day by carrying it around with you wherever you go. Another day you’ll evaluate how far your food travels to get to your plate and make an effort to eat foods grown within 100 miles of where you live.

Here is the daily event calendar:

NoImpactWeekPoster2013

To participate, stop by the Lincoln Campus Center Concourse between 10 am – 2 pm every day this week – or, for more information, click here.

Author Returning to Campus October 9!

cropped-2013-06-05_07-44-25.pngNo Impact Man author Colin Beavan will be returning to campus on Wednesday, October 9, 2013, for a full day of activities at UMass Amherst.  The main public event will be “A Conversation with Colin Beavan,” from 7:30-8:45 pm, in the Student Union Ballroom (moderated by Steve Goodwin, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences).  A book signing will take place immediately following.  More information about the event can be found here.

Essay Contest Winners Announced!

The following students were recognized at New Students Convocation, on August 31, 2013, for their prize-winning essays about this year’s Common Read:

Unknown1st Place: Kelly Anne Murphy, Middle Eastern Studies

2nd Place: Elizabeth McDermott, Biology

3rd Place: Alexander Brosseau, Mathematics

Thank you to all the students who submitted essays to the contest!  And thank you to the contest judges: Joel Martin, Vice Provost; Madeleine Charney, UMass Libraries; Alex Phillips, Commonwealth College; and David Fleming, English Department.

Author to Speak at New Students Convocation!

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Colin Beavan, author of No Impact Man

After a summer of solitary reading and online discussion, the UMass Amherst Common Read will get up-close and personal this week.  That’s because new first-year students will arrive on campus, with their copies of No Impact Man, on Friday, August 30, to begin Fall New Students Orientation (NSO).  A busy and exciting lineup of activities is planned for August 30 – September 2, including a keynote address by No Impact Man author Colin Beavan at Saturday’s New Students Convocation, August 31 at 11:30 am in the Mullins Center.  And that event will be just the beginning of a semester’s worth of activities connected to the Common Read, all leading up to Beavan’s re-visit to campus on October 9!  Stay tuned here for more information!

Essay Contest Deadline: August 19!

2013-06-04_08-35-39.pngThe deadline for the Common Read Essay Contest is fast approaching!  If you’re interested in submitting an essay about Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man, be sure to get it in by 5:00 pm on Monday, August 19.  Essay contest prompt and guidelines can be found here.  First-, second- and third-place winners will receive gift cards from the University Store and have a chance to meet Colin Beavan!  This is a great way to engage the book more deeply and make your own voice heard on the issues that it addresses.

Questions?  Email Prof. David Fleming at dfleming@english.umass.edu.

No Impact Resources at UMass Libraries!

This week’s post was written by Madeleine Charney, Sustainability Studies Librarian at UMass Amherst.  She writes that the best part of her job is working one-on-one with students on their sustainability-related projects.  Outside of academia, Madeleine is an avid gardener, learning to make medicine from the plants she grows. 

As the Sustainability Studies Librarian at the UMass Amherst Libraries, I found Colin Beavan’s tale of transformation, in No Impact Man, fascinating and inspiring.  His story is entertaining, educational, and humble.  He admits up front to being a newbie in the world of “going green.”  We learn alongside him as he navigates (and sometimes stumbles) through unfamiliar territory and shifting ideals and identities.  May we all be inspired to “just try.”  This is his primary message: Just try.

Along the way, Beavan makes specific references to organizations, projects, places, and people who support his journey.  Wisely, he provides all this information at the end of his book.  You can find the same information, one click away, in the UMass Amherst Library’s Subject Guide for the Common Read 2013: No Impact Man.

Use the Library’s guide to expand your experience of the Common Read.  Click Books and travel up the 26-story tower where you’ll discover other stories of simple living, the local food movement, the history of waste, and more (stop on floor 23 for a spectacular view!).  Click Films and pick one of these gems off the shelf on floor 6 (pop some corn and invite friends over for movie night!).  Got a research paper or project related to these topics?  Click Articles for quick access to databases such as GreenR, GreenFile, and Sustainabilty Watch.  Need assistance?  Send me an email and we’ll find time to work together.

On your way to checking out your books and movies, stop by the Common Read exhibit in the Learning Commons, on the ground floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Display of Common Read - Du Bois Library

Finally, the Library invites you to a screening of the documentary No Impact Man on August 23, 2013, at noon in the Teaching Commons (26th floor).  I will lead a discussion from 1:30-2:00 pm while we enjoy some light refreshments.  Joining us will be staff from the Jones Library, the public library in downtown Amherst.  Please RSVP to Linda Merritt.

What change will YOU make?

This week’s post was written by Saulo DePaula, a rising junior at UMass Amherst who studies sociology and legal studies.  Along with being a New Students Orientation counselor, he is also a resident assistant and a peer advisor in the sociology department.

Prior to beginning his No Impact project, Colin Beavan had spent most of his life pointing out the errors of others, trying to correct them and help them become better citizens of Earth. Criticisms against exorbitance were thrown around in an attempt to fix what he perceived as broken. With all his external reflection, however, Beavan never looked at his own faults; he had not questioned what he was doing wrong, what he could do more of, and what he needed to eliminate from his life altogether.

2013-08-06_07-53-15Within the first chapter of No Impact Man, Beavan details a revelatory interaction between his wife, Michelle, and himself. Michelle, who was raised in the upper middle class, had been used to a life of financial expenditure and elegance, in extreme contrast to Beavan, who grew up with only the bare necessities. The couple’s debate was whether or not Michelle should own a white-fox shawl, with Beavan firmly stating that she should not. Throughout the back and forth, Beavan made sure that his point was well established and eventually changed his wife’s attitude about owning fur. Despite his personal victory, however, Beavan came to the realization that he was making the “mistake of thinking that condemning other people’s misdeeds somehow made [him] virtuous” (5). That is, he was more than willing to correct others, while paying no attention to himself.

With this newly-acquired understanding in mind, Beavan set out to improve himself as an eco-friendly person, because “if [he] was the type of person who left his air conditioners on when no one was home, not only did [he] not have the professional authority to talk about the environment, [he] didn’t have the moral authority, either” (12). Talking about reducing his impact was one thing, and it could only accomplish so much, but actually acting upon those beliefs opens up a world of real opportunities. To Beavan, this began with how to blow his nose without causing an environmental impact. It may seem pretty silly, but from then on there was a variety of personal changes to be discovered, such as what kind of bag to use when grocery shopping and what method of transportation to take on the way to said shopping.

DSCN1346Changes that you make to your own life can serve as an influence to others; it could be the extra push they need to generate improvement of their own. While there is a chance that your changes may be dismissed by some as unnecessary or silly, others may admire it and try to follow and contribute. This influence is indirect; it doesn’t require telling people that what they’re doing is wrong. If you want to promote a healthier lifestyle, for example, all it takes is for you to set a positive example, and surely others will join you.

What change will you make?

Making an impact . . . to save our way of life

This week’s post was written by Stephanie Anjos, a rising senior who studies psychology at UMass Amherst.  As well as serving as a New Students Orientation counselor, she works at the International Programs Office and is one of two new co-presidents of Latinos Unidos, a multicultural organization on campus.

On pages 23-24 of No Impact Man, author Colin Beavan writes that:

The trick to environmental living might not be in choosing different products. Instead – at least for profligate citizens of the United States and Western Europe – it might partly be about choosing fewer products. [. . .] As the ancient Chinese Tao Te Ching says, “The man who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”

This is my favorite part of the entire book because it envelopes the purpose and reasoning behind this project in a single, brief passage. In life, we are consistently searching for new things to try, new things to do, and new things to satisfy us, but what we ultimately fail to seek out, most times, is a new approach/outlook/perspective, something fresh which can serve to guide us and keep us grounded along this path.

In encountering and adopting this view, we can learn to take things in stride, to fulfill our needs and accomplish our goals one step at a time, in contrast to leaping into it all at once. It is true that each case should be handled in its own way; however, there is usually a model that can be followed or used as a template. But here we must first acknowledge what is before us.

On page 25, Beavan asserts that “our desires are fundamental to who we are and therefore essentially good (even if we should not necessarily allow ourselves to be ruled by them).” To eat healthy, we don’t have to eliminate all unhealthy foods, for then we would never take on the art of self-control. To be happy, we don’t have to be drowning in a pool of money, having every bill paid for and buying all that we want, despite how great this may sound. There are certain parameters which can be used to assess the difference between ignorance and knowledge, between natural and exaggerated.

DSCN1352At UMass, all that you can imagine for the lifestyle you wish to have is offered to you, with the exception that you have to go out and make that all actually happen, find those opportunities, and grab them. Assistant Director of NSO Elizabeth Cleary once said “We are immobilized by having too many choices, making it difficult to choose because the newest and latest is always more visually appealing.” This is one thing that I feel is conflicting for students because everyone feels the need to have it all simultaneously. Realizing what meaning the word  “enough” holds for us will help direct us to success, not only at the university but in life overall.

I think freshmen will be able to connect with Beavan’s goal to change the world as they embark on their own adventures in transitioning to college, where they too will be provided with the opportunity to change their lives in addition to the lives of those around them. It all depends on how they go about this. My colleague Jose Cotto once told me that “Your net worth is your network.” There are several ways on campus to establish your own community, whether it be by getting a job or joining a registered student organization (RSO). In taking part in these activities, students receive their chance to have their voice heard by representing their cause or whatever it is that they wish to advocate on behalf of.

When Colin Beavan reflected intently on his actions, he decided to change them. It didn’t necessarily mean that he was going to change the whole world. I think this is the clincher for new students to realize in coming to UMass. Whatever you choose to study, participate in, advocate for, it is more beneficial to do it for the purpose of knowing that you yourself are making a difference because not everyone will notice or follow your lead or, if they do, might not have the same way of getting things done.  As Beavan announces on page 26, “a life lived with less emphasis on acquisition might have the effect of leaving more time for richer, less resource-intensive life rewards, making both the planet and the people happier.”

So readers, I ask you: what are some ways that we can go about saving the Earth and living healthier that weren’t mentioned in the book?

What do YOU think of the Common Read?

2013-06-04_08-35-39.pngWith Summer NSO sessions for first-year students now complete, thousands of incoming, new UMass Amherst students are back at home, enjoying the rest of their final summer before college, and perhaps wondering what to do with that free copy of Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man they received at NSO.  Well, if that’s you, here’s some advice: open the book and see what you think!  The Common Read is not a homework assignment – you’re not required to read it, and there will be no quiz when you return to campus in August.  But we hope you’ll read as much of the book as you can and come to college ready to think and talk about it.  The Common Read, now in its third year at UMass, has become an important part of our new students’ transition to the campus community; and this year it will play an even bigger part in the First Year Experience here.

462If you’re curious about the history and purpose of the Common Read at UMass, check out this blog post from last year: So, what is a “Common Read,” anyway?  Common reading projects remain popular on college campuses and in local communities across the United States and beyond – my own local library in Northampton, for example, is teaming up this summer with other libraries in the area to sponsor a four-town reading project based on Warren St. John’s Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference, which, in the words of project organizers, “tells the inspiring story of Smith alumna Luma Mufleh’s work in the greater Atlanta community of Clarkston establishing a soccer program for the children of war refugees and the transformation of a small American town.”

Our Common Read has similar goals: to build community among participants and foster discussion, practical action, and even change.  No Impact Man is only 224 pages long: if you just read 15 or so pages a day, you can finish the book in two weeks.  But even if you read only one chapter, we think you’ll get a lot out of this book.

And if you’re feeling more ambitious, you can do even more than read; you can join a conversation on this blog – or even submit an essay to our essay contest!  In the meantime, tell us what you think of the Common Read – either the project as a whole, or the particular book we’ve chosen this year.  Just click “leave a comment” below!

On handkerchiefs and Mason jars

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn No Impact Man, Colin Beavan and his family begin their year-long experiment in environmental living with small steps: using cloth handkerchiefs instead of disposable paper towels to blow their noses, for example.  Perhaps the best symbol in the book of how such small changes, aggregated over time and across communities, can have big consequences, is the Mason jar that Colin carries around for his water and coffee.

We first hear about the jars on p. 57 when Colin, trying to rid his family’s garbage of take-out containers, plastic wrap, and cardboard boxes, begins taking empty glass jars in canvas bags to the grocery store to fill with pasta, rice, raisins, and other items.  Immensely proud of his eco-efforts, he gets nothing but hostility from the woman behind the cash register.

But he persists in his attempt to avoid excessive waste.  His family stops eating take-out food in plastic tubs and styrofoam boxes; they cancel their newspaper subscriptions; they collect used printer paper to write on; and they carry cloths with them to use as napkins.  And, later, we learn that Colin has begun carrying a glass Mason jar around for tap water and coffee:

I like it better than something that you buy because it signals the reuse of resources.  After all, my jar once had peanut butter in it.  Anyway, very often, when I put the jar down on the counter at the coffee shop, the baristas like it so much they give me my coffee for free. (101)

You’ll be seeing a lot of Mason jars around campus this year as part of our own attempt, as a community, to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  First-year students attending Common Read events in the fall will get their own glass Mason jars with green EcoJarz lids, a great way to support  campus-wide sustainability initiatives.

The jars are also helping put UMass Amherst on the environmental map; in fact, a recent article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle mentions our Common Read and other eco-friendly projects!