SUSTAINABILITY ACTION ANNUAL MEETING & “THE STORY OF PLASTIC” MOVIE
Saturday, 19 February 2021, 2:00pm – FREE
By Zoom only, Lawrence KS 66044
A screening of the film “The Story of Plastic” will be featured at our annual meeting. It’s a new documentary brought to us by Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff Project, who are known for their accessible short animated videos illustrating and simplifying complex issues around consumerism and waste. After a brief business meeting and officer elections, we’ll watch the film, have a discussion, and consider what local actions to take to end plastic waste, such as getting the City to adopt single-use bag restrictions. More at – The Story of Plastic – A Summary | Green and Grumpy.
Sustainability Action Network has been advancing ecological sustainability since 2007. We focus on helping individuals live a sustainable lifestyle, while pushing institutional policy change that can impact the broader population. We work in areas of energy conservation, decentralized renewable energy, healthy climate, local food and permaculture, multi-modal transportation, prime farm soils preservation, and ecosystem protection.
Some of our 2020 actions and accomplishments include:
- We introduced the concept of “agrivoltaics” to Douglas County during their creating regulations for industrial-scale solar, and it became central to the regs.
- One of our five bikeway proposals, the Atchison Creek Trail, was taken up by the City of Lawerence, K.U. Endowment, and Evergy in a collaborative effort to build it near Evergy’s new substation.
- We organized the 3rd annual Lawrence EV Showcase, with electric buses, trucks, bicycles, and cars.
- We collaborated with the Lawrence Sustainability Advisory Board in drafting a new natural landscaping ordinance to replace the draconian weed ordinance.
- We met with Evergy executives about coal ash cleanup, and their “Integrated Resource Plan” for retirement of the Lawrence Energy Center coal plant.
The meeting will also include: an introduction to our Board, a review of our 2020 accomplishments, an open discussion on projects for the upcoming year, a brief financial report, and Board of Directors election. The Zoom link for the meeting and film is – https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88575002818?pwd=VEZSSFR6QndKY1pETzJRLzk1QXlWdz09, and the password is 312836.
LAWRENCE ELECTRIC VEHICLE SHOWCASE
Saturday, 25 September 2021, 8:00am-3:00pm – FREE
South Park, east parking lot, Lawrence KS 66044
We’re excited to announce that we’re back this year with a Lawrence Electric Vehicle Showcase on 25 September. We’re making it bigger and better, since we had to skip last year. Due to popular demand, we’re partnering with the Rev It Up Hot Rod and Exotic Car Show. Check our national web page at – Lawrence Electric Vehicle Showcase 2021. Electric vehicle (EV) drivers can register at that web page to show their vehicles. And at the show, the public can compare makes of electric vehicles, and talk with EV owners. Here’s an EV guide showing the range and price of most vehicles – 2021 EV Guide: Plug In America.
We’ll have two electric buses, an electric terminal truck, and electric bicycles too. Electric cars are a great improvement over fossil fuel cars, but E-bicycles are the gold standard, using but a fraction of a percent of energy used by a motor vehicle. A 4000lb electric car requires up to 60 Kilowatts (60,000 Watts) of electricity per hour, and consumes about ten times the electricity used by a home. Pedaling a standard bicycle uses only 150 Watts to go 20mph, and slightly more if electric pedal assisted. Here’s one E-bicycle guide to help compare makes – 44 Best Electric Bikes (August 2021) | BikeRide.
The Lawrence Electric Vehicle Showcase is organized by
the Sustainability Action Network with local sponsors.
The National Drive Electric Week has many presenters and sponsors.
Dateline: 30 July 2021 – When the first Roundup cancer lawsuit against Monsanto-Bayer was won in 2018, the logjam broke, and thousands more suits were filed. Since 2018, Bayer-Monsanto settled around 95,000 cases in 2020 to the tune of $10 billion, 90% of which were residential users. As a result, the company decided to pull the product from the residential market in order to prevent more.
But more than 200 million pounds of glyphosate are dumped on American farmland each year. Andrew Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety said “As agricultural, large-scale use of this toxic pesticide continues, our farmworkers remain at risk. It’s time for EPA to act and ban glyphosate for all uses”. More at – Bayer to Pull Glyphosate Products, Including Roundup, From U.S. Home and Garden Market | EcoWatch.
For fourteen years now, since first producing The Story of Stuff in 2007, Annie Leonard has highlighted the wastefulness and ecological damage of a throw-away society, as well as the behind-the-scenes driving force of fossil fuel companies profits. The vast majority of products in modern industrial societies derive from petroleum, either as plastic items, plastic coatings, plastic packaging, or various chemicals and fuels. The corporations responsible try to maximize profits through a rapid replacement cycle, in large part by pushing planned obsolescence and single-use items. It’s called “throughput”, AKA “input/use/output”, by which petroleum is extracted, made into stuff, worn out, and discarded. The faster this materials extraction cycle can be driven, the greater the profits, and the more ecological and cultural damage occurs. This reality defines the classic opponents: the neo-liberal, laissez faire corporatists who want complete freedom, and the ecologically minded people who strive for community control and environmental protections.
Annie Leonard aligns herself with the environmentalists. She said in a Yes Magazine interview “Over the years, I’ve learned that we can’t solve the waste problem by working only on waste. We must examine the economic and cultural forces that drive such massive waste production” – Annie Leonard on Life After Stuff. And speaking about the approximately 8.3bn tons of plastics that have been produced worldwide since 1950 she said “Recycling alone will never stem the flow of plastics into our ocean. We must address the problem at the source” – Our plastic pollution crisis is too big for recycling to fix | Annie Leonard. We have to reduce the production plastics derived from petroleum, and keep petroleum in the ground. She has very creatively put her message into a series of videos in parallel to the Story of Stuff: The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Microbeads, and The Story of Microfibers. Many others in the series can be viewed at – Movies Archives – The Story of Stuff Project.
SUSTAINABILITY ACTION ANNUAL MEETING AND SCREENING OF “BAG IT” FILM
Friday, 22 January 2021, 7:00pm
virtual Zoom meeting, Lawrence KS 66044
You are invited! The Sustainability Action Network annual meeting will feature an on-line screening of the film “Bag It”, about plastics pollution and banning the bag. The film is an hour and fifteen minutes. Following the film will be a open discussion of plastic pollution, and how to get the City of Lawrence to finally ban the bag.
Sustainability Action has been advancing ecological sustainability since 2007. We focus on helping individuals live a sustainable lifestyle, while pushing institutional policy change that can impact the broader population. We work in areas of renewable energy, healthy climate, local food and permaculture, multi-modal transportation, prime farm soils preservation, and ecosystem protection.
Some of our 2020 actions and accomplishments include:
- Along with collaborating groups, we got the City of Lawrence to commit to 100% renewable energy
- The bicycle boulevard we promoted got built on 21st Street
- We helped stop for the fourth time a mega-retail center in the 100-year floodplain of the Wakarusa Wetlands
- We got the City of Lawrence to negotiate with Black Hills Energy to provide renewable biogas in Lawrence
- We challenged Evergy’s transparency in their cleanup of Lawrence coal ash pits, and in their plans for shutting the Lawrence Energy Center coal plant
- We sent testimony to the Kansas Corporation Commission in opposition to Evergy’s discriminatory rooftop solar rate proposals
The meeting will also include: an introduction to our Board, a review of our 2020 accomplishments, an open discussion on projects for the upcoming year, a brief financial report, and Board of Directors election. To join the meeting, just click this Zoom link at the time – https://zoom.us/j/91950806764?pwd=TUpEdzdUNUtMMGN4UWpvVmRQQ2FIdz09. The passcode for entry is 137922.
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