UEPI News and Commentary

Oxy Goes Green with Professional Wet Clean

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Amanda Shaffer 323-259-2759; cell: 626-818-2348; shaffer@oxy.edu
Elyse Leon-Reyes 323-259-2734; cell: 917-523-2639; eleonreyes@oxy.edu

Oxy Goes Green with Professional Wet Clean

Occidental makes sustainable chic as the first college in the nation to offer professional wet cleaning service to the campus community.

What: Professors and students model clothing that has been professionally wet cleaned by Sunny Brite Natural Cleaners. The fashion show will also highlight garments by green designer Stewart+Brown.
Where: Outside Herrick in the Academic Quad
When: February 12th, 2008 11:30am-1:30pm

 

Park[ing] Day!

It's a beautiful day and our park is set up!  Come by for a chat in the park. 

The Chicken and Egg Story – Park[ing] Day L.A.-- Park Poor, But Parking Rich

Los Angeles is one of the most park poor but parking rich cities in the country. Endowed with a Mediterranean climate, and mountains and ocean that span the region, what often passes for open space in areas like downtown L.A., are large open air parking lots.  It is not only that parking lots, wide streets, and rows of parking metered parking spaces are unattractive; they also have major impacts on quality of life and the environment by contributing to beach and ocean pollution, raising the temperature on already hot days, and increasing housing costs due to parking requirements imposed on developers.

Bill McKibben in Pasadena

The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, Progressive Christians Uniting and Sierra Club present:
the Eighth Day Conference: Faith Activism and Environmental Justice
with keynote speaker Bill McKibben

Download a flyer here for more information.

The first part of the conference will run from 4-6 PM, and will feature speakers on issues particularly important to environmental justice in Los Angeles: parks and wilderness conservation, local food availability, and air pollution.  Participants will learn about how these local issues are connected to national and international ones.  There will be plenty of time for question and answer, and each speaker will conclude by suggesting concrete action and advocacy.  Speakers include:

• Juana Torres, The Sierra Club
• Andrea Azuma, Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College
• Andrea Hricko, Keck School of Medicine, Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center

After a break for food and networking from 6-7, at 7 PM we welcome our keynote speaker, Christian environmentalist, activist, author Bill McKibben, who calls for a new environmentalism based on a commitment to justice and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all creation, in his new book Deep Economy.  Bill is the author of The End of Nature, one of the first books on global warming, translated into over 20 languages, and has written on sustainability, overpopulation, and the need for community in response to globalization.  Deep Economy: Wealth and the Durable Future, will be available for sale at the event.

Read some of his most recent articles online:
“Meltdown: A Call to Action of Global Warming” Christian Century
“A Deeper Shade of Green,” National Geographic
“Energizing America,” Sierra Club Magazine

This event is FREE and open to all; there will be a freewill donation.

Farm Fresh Food at Hospitals

UEPI's Center for Food and Justice joins Health Care Without Harm to present the Southern California Healthy Hospital Food Roundtable Meeting on February 23, 2007. Hospitals and other interested parties are invited to learn about purchasing sustainable and local foods for their institution's food service and nutrition programs. Also at the event, California hospitals with healthy food program will talk about what they are doing to improve food at their institutions.

 

The Roundtable will be held at the California Endowment's Center for Healthy Communities, in the Redwood Room. The center is located in Downtown Los Angeles at 1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012. (Directions)

 

To recieve more information or to reserve your spot, contact Moira Beery at the Center for Food & Justice. Moira can be reached by phone at (323) 341-5099 or by e-mail to beery@oxy.edu. 

For more information about healthy and sustainable food in health care visit Health Care Without Harm and/or check out our Farm to Hospital paper.

Enrique Penalosa

One of the groups UEPI is part of, the Alliance for a Livable Los Angeles, is co-hosting this exciting event.

Lessons Learned from Livable Cities:
An Evening with Enrique Peñalosa
Former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia

Monday, November 13, 2006
MTA Boardroom
One Gateway Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Union Station Metro Stop

As Mayor of Bogotá, Peñalosa built the world’s premiere
Bus Rapid Transit system and hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks,
bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks.

Who should attend: neighborhood residents, business owners, policy-makers,
students, advocates fighting childhood obesity, and anyone else who wants a
more livable Los Angeles!

Read the October 28 L.A. Times article
"Colombia city makes a U-turn" featuring Peñalosa.

Watch a short video of Enrique Penalosa discussing New York City, compliments of NYC Streets Renaissance.