Nature Village, Sustainable Family Living at UC Berkeley

TGIF first update (October 2012)

Nature Village is a multidisciplinary and multicultural group incorporating University Village

residents, UC Berkeley students, staff, nonprofit organization and volunteers, collaborating to

achieve sustainable living practices at the University Village.

It activities begun in the month of May 2012 and as a first step, Nature Village’s activities were

focused in collecting information about utilities consumption, trash production and University

Village general management as an assessment that allow us to find and design better

alternatives both at Village-wide and household levels.

The role of the Village Manager (Tavie Tipton) as part of Nature Village’s team has been crucial

to have fast access to all this data and information as well with her experience in previous

activities in the Village.

Once identified that the apartments don’t have any way to keep track of individual utility

consumption, and a evident waste management problem, we decided to use recreational and

educational activities to make residents more conscious about the use of resources and waste

production.

During the Village Festival, conducted the past September 22nd, we launched Nature Village’s

project to work with residents, who received the project with excitement, identifying a need for

these kinds of activities, and now we have families participating in our Green Family Program.

Till this moment Nature Village represents the only group working toward sustainability in the

Village and the funding provided by TGIF has been vital to start working with this project. Other

very important in kind contributions comes from the participation of Nature Village volunteers

and the collaborations with UC Berkeley student groups (Green Campus and BS@C).

Even when at this point we don’t have much metrics of the progress, the benefit of these

activities comes in different dimensions, including the environmental, health, social and

economical.

Since the Village is economically independent from the University and all the services offered

are paid with money coming from resident’s payment, we can find a direct economical benefit,

with the reduction in expenses for bills of electricity, gas (PG&E) and water (EBMUD) once

residents start using more consciously these resources. We can save money also with the

reduction in trash production. At this moment the Village pays $18,788 for trash collection

(CRRS) and $4,243 for recyclables pick up (Civicorps), including an extra fee due the not proper

assortment of recyclable materials.

Environmentally, we can reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill, used water, do better

disposal of recyclables and special waste (electronics and hazardous waste), and reduce our

emissions of greenhouse gases.

Socially, these kinds of activities open opportunities for the residents to know each other and

gather families for a meaningful goal, which strength the sense of community, promote a

healthier lifestyle and makes better citizens.

Activities, events and pictures of the past 5 months

Bulky Waste and Donation Day (July 28th 2012)

Nature Village’s image

Logo (August 2012)

Designed by Eiko Kielty, Nature Village team member

Advertising materials

Bookmarks

Stickers

Infocards

Green Family Program

Family Cycling Workshop

University Village’s electricity, gas and water consumption per year

What happens with the used water?

Greenhouse gases effect and global warming explanation

Carbon Footprint assessments and water consumption results

Pictures of Activities

Bulky Waste Day (July 29th 2012)

Drop off point (for small items)

Pickup truck (for furniture and big items)

Village residents taking materials donated to be reused.

Handprinting at the Playground (September 19th 2012)

VillageFestival (September 22nd 2012)

Susan sharing information about Nature Village and e-waste proper disposal

East Bay Bicycle Coalition table sharing information

Building Sustainability at Cal (BS@C) conducting games for kids

Rising a reader and Barefoot books

Nature Village Team!

Family Bicycle Workshop (September 30th 2012)

Families having practice while riding in the Village