Art and Wilderness Institute
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SUSTAINABILITY

A RESOURCE PAGE

LOCAL COMPANIES

A healthy ecosystem provides for all the needs of the organisms within it.  Ecosystems are made up of millions of different actors, each playing a role that sustains the entire system. Human society is encompassed within the biological ecosystem that they inhabit, a microsystem that is inextricably linked to the broader web. In general, the human’s role is as steward and cultivator. There are as many ways to fulfill this role as there are passions and skills. If you could peer into the hearts of each one of your neighbors, you would find interests as varied as baking, chemical experimentation, urban planning, marketing, construction, organizing, gardening and pottery. And if we could know (rather, remember) the role of each plant and animal, we would find that just on our block there are expert dust cleaners, materials for making baskets, plenty of seasonal medicine and food. 
  • Getting to know the people, animals and plants in our neighborhood should be our first step when thinking about fulfilling our needs. When we use what is around us, we learn to appreciate the role they play in our lives and will feel responsible for helping them thrive. Take a class with AWI. Take a trip to a native nursery. Connect with indigenous people of the land. 
  • How can we support our neighbors, their livelihood and passions? Shopping local also helps reduce the emissions related to transportation of items. Ask around, someone is probably making soap in their kitchen as a hobby, or knitting cloth rounds that would serve as great make up removers.
There are so many great people being great stewards and following their passion. There are a dozen great companies I can think of that are making deodorant, which gives you lots of options. We’re all different so we need these options. Have fun exploring them at your local bulk shop, online and local community. Here are two examples of local companies that are taking their role as stewards and cultivators seriously: 
Backyard Bees was started by a beekeeper in Orange County that wanted to do something about the bee crisis. Janet Andrews and a team now help rescue bees from being exterminated by relocating them to welcoming homes around OC. The honey produced by these bees are given to the resident host, sold and the beeswax is used to make products ranging from soap to sunscreen. https://www.backyardbees.net/shop/
Brush with Bamboo/ Planet Cleanware is a business started by the Kumar family in Pomona. I love this family. Their toothbrushes are made from sustainably grown and harvested bamboo, crafted by artisans in a Chinese mountain village with more than a thousand years history of bamboo craftsmanship. In addition to oral hygiene, hairbrushes and luffa sponges, they carry some of my favorite stainless steel reusable containers. https://www.brushwithbamboo.com/shop/ Farmer Rishi started a regenerative urban garden which I apprentice at. Him and his mother, Manju, taught me everything I know about food systems. https://farmerrishi.com/

BULK STORES
in Southern
California

The Refill Shoppe – Ventura

The Nada Shop, Encinitas 

Eco Now CA, Costa Mesa
 

BYO Long Beach, Long Beach

Sustain LA Los Angeles

Refillery Los Angeles

No Tox Life Los Angeles 

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE VS. ECOSYSTEM FARMING

Industrial Agriculture VS Ecosystem Farming
Where does the food that we find at the grocery store come from? The general system looks something like this: an umbrella company contracts smaller farms, or several really big ones, to grow a certain vegetable, fruit or grain. They want them all to grow fast, look great, and look the same. To achieve this, they use pesticides to kill pests that see the vulnerable patch of vegetables, with no ecosystem diversity to balance them out. These pesticides are often sprayed by low payed workers that end up getting sick from the toxins. Also, because the pesticides destroy the microbiology that help vegetables grow, they put tons of fertilizer on the ground as well. More than what is needed, just in case. A lot of that fertilizer runs off with water into rivers and eventually the ocean where it fertilizes the plant life, causing an algae bloom. The algae take up a lot of the oxygen from the water, making it harder for marine life to life. Run off fertilizer ends up causing huge ‘dead zones’ in the ocean. Now back to the farm. Low payed workers pick the vegetables, they are transported to an refrigeration compound where they are washed and packaged. Then they travel all over the country to distribution centers in refrigerated trucks. All this refrigeration takes a lot of energy. Eventually it gets to the shelves of your grocery store. You’re probably going to explore the other aisles of the grocery store too. There are tons of manufactured food stuff. Many of them were thought up as a way to turn the crazy amount of excess corn into money. The meat aisle is basically a manufactured corn field as well. Most cows are taken off pasture and squeezed into concentrated animal factory operations to be fattened up with… again the excess corn. This modified diet makes them sick, so they need antibiotics. Their cramped living arrangement means that water, food and even their waste, which is fertilizer on pasture, needs to be shipped in and out. It’s a terrible situation for everyone: the animals, the land, the workers, and us. 
Farmers Markets:
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/docs/CurrentMrktsCounty.pdf

PACKAGING

Questions to Ask when thinking about packaging:
  • Did it travel a far distance? Lighter packaging materials mean less of a carbon footprint due to transportation. The impact of transportation is higher than the impact of packaging.
  • Is it sustainably harvested? Before coal was discovered, wood was used for everything. Diverse, old, established forests were cut down and replaced with whatever the prized plant was at the time. We need to preserve and restore these ecosystems. That includes the sand used to make glass and the mountains mined for metals. Look for well known certification labels and evidence of third-party assessments.  
  • What percentage is recycled content? Recycling is a business. If we aren’t buying recycled products, then there will be no market and incentive for businesses to be paying for recycled material.
  • Are there details about claims to being “biodegradable” or “compostable”? Everything will degrade into its chemical components, eventually. Is it 100 years in the ocean under constant heat or is it in 2 months, buried in your backyard? You want to ask similar questions about compostable: are you being told you can put it in your backyard compost pile or it requires a special facility that is not available in your community?
  • Can it be reused, reassembled or repurposed after use? This is the goal: that nothing is wasted

LETS GET EDUCATED!

CLIMATE CHANGE WITH BILL NYE
Podcasts
  • Reversing Climate Change by Nori
  • Carbon Removal Newsroom by Nori
  • Green Dreamer by Kamea Chayne
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
  • Costing the Earth by BBC Radio 4
  • Drilled: The Mad Men of Climate Denial

Books
  • This Changes Everything
  • Braiding Sweetgrass
  • Zero Waste Home
  • Project Drawdown
  • Silent Spring
Movies & Series
Documentaries, Movies & Series

Climate Change
  • Chasing Ice: National Geographic photographer that was skeptic about climate change uses time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers
  • Chasing Coral: climate change under the sea
  • Our Planet: scenes of an interconnected ecosystem, underscored by clear message that humans are ruining its balance. Attenborough warns: “What we do in the next 20 years will determine the future for all life on Earth.”
  • The Human Element: Americans on the frontlines of climate change, whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by extreme weather events, pollution, and rampant disrespect for natural resources
  • Ice on Fire: explores the many ways people around the world are feeling the effects of climate change
  • Fire in Paradise: Recounting the fires in Paradise, CA
  • After Maria: Displaced by Hurricane Maria, three Puerto Rican women navigate their families’ uncertain futures as their federal housing aid in New York expires.

Consumerism/Capitalism
  • The Story of Stuff: https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/
    • “The Story Of”: examines how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health- and offers a vision for change
  • Tidying Up with Marie Kondo: learn to clear clutter and choose joy
  • Dirty Money: series which tells stories of corporate corruption, securities fraud, and creative accounting.
    • Episodes: Volkswagen clean diesel, Payday lending, Pharmaceuticals, HSBC, Maple Syrup, Donald Trump, Wells Fargo, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Jared Kushner, Gold Laundering, Elderly Guardian Abuse, Plastics Plant
  • Broken: investigation into the negligence and deceit in the production and marketing of popular consumer items that result in dire outcomes.
    • Episodes: Makeup, Vapes, Dressers, Recycling
  • The Devil We Know: story of how one synthetic chemical, used to make Teflon products, contaminated a West Virginia community
  • Stink: a dad grapples with the discovery that some products on American store shelves are not safe, by design
  • Blood Diamonds: exposes the conflict diamond industry
  • Miss Representation: exposes how mainstream media and culture contribute to women’s perception of themselves

Food
  • Food Inc: American food is grown by just a few multinational corporations
  • Rotten: deep dive into the heart of the food supply chain to reveal unsavory truths and expose fraud, corruption and the consequences on our health of today’s global food industry
    • Episodes: Honey, Peanuts, Garlic, Chicken, Milk, Cod, Avocado, Bottled Water, Sugar, Wine, Chocolate, Marijuana
  • Cowspiracy: explores the impact of CAFOs on the environment (very biased but still informative)

Fast Fashion 
  • The True Cost: interviews with environmentalists, garment workers, factory owners, and people organizing fair trade companies or promoting sustainable clothing production

Plastic Pollution
  • The Story of Stuff: https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/
    • Plastic Documentaries: exposes the true cost or plastic pollution- and the heroes and villains at work behind the crisis
  • Plastic China: follows the story of a young girl working in a recycling facility and dreaming of attending school, a deep dive into global consumption and culture
  • A Plastic Ocean: world’s oceans are brimming with plastic waste, an investigation on pollution’s environmental impacts
  • Plastic Paradise: filmmaker follows plastic waste from disposal sites on land to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Solutions
  • The Story of Stuff: https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/
    • The Good Stuff: conversations about what it’s going to take to create a just and sustainable future. 
  • Catching the Sun: growth of the solar power industry
  • The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy: a VICE documentary that lays a road map to usher in a new economic system

Ecosystem Advocacy/Conservation
  • The Story of Stuff: https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/
    • Water Documentaries: consequences of water privatization and communities fighting back
  • Water & Power: A California Heist: National Geographic film exposes centers of power in conflict with small farmers and citizens as they suffer through drought years while others profit from the scarcity
  • Racing Extinction: explores the man-made causes of a sixth mass extinction
  • Blackfish: Sea World
  • How to Change the World: inspiring story of Greenpeace
  • Erin Brockovich: true story about the woman who took on PG&E by standing against pollution to protect human health and the environment.
  • There’s Something in the Water: the struggle of minority communities in Nova Scotia as they fight officials over the lethal effects of industrial waste.

Children Movies: https://eco-age.com/news/childrens-movies-green-theme
  • The Biggest Little Farm: explains regenerative agriculture
  • The Lorax: effects of deforestation
  • Wall-E: if we continue to use and dispose of more than we need, Earth won’t be a planet humans can live on
  • Avatar: ego and greed lead to mining and destruction of ecosystem for money and power
  • The Toy Story: the value of possessions, encouraging them to recycle and give toys a new life, like how Andy passed his toys on to Bonnie. A reminder that everything, inanimate or not, has a life cycle.
  • Over the Hedge: how urban development impacts the animals
  • Happy Feet: overfishing leaves the penguins in turmoil and one of Mumble’s friends finds himself chocked by plastic rings from ocean waste
  • Ice Age: The Meltdown: helps explain how the ice melting and water level rising in today’s world are problematic for not only the polar bears but for humans too: the characters race to escape the valley before the ice melts and floods it
The Day After Tomorrow: warns of the effects of global warming in the most frightening way: with collapsing arctic ice and walls of water pummeling NYC

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WORKSHOPS

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AWI SUSTAINABILITY COORDINATOR
Mona Benanni received her Permaculture Design Certification from Zaytuna College Center for Ethical Living, previously worked for the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office on a global youth study and as a water security consultant for EcoPeace Middle East to start a cross border environmental peacebuilding program in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She is the Sustainability Coordinator for the Art and Wilderness Institute and is passionately devoted to living a wholesome life. You can follow her instagram account to see her daily blog and lifestyle on transformative living.
She holds a MS in Global Affairs from New York University.
Art and Wilderness Institute LLC
info@artandwildernessinstitute.com
(909) 206-2226

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  • HOME
  • About
    • About
    • The Team
    • employment
    • Partners
    • HOUSES
    • Join our Mailing List
    • Contact Us
  • ENROLL
  • PROGRAMS
    • CALENDAR >
      • SPRING 2023 Classes
      • Semester Dates & Holidays
    • Charter School List
    • GPS ADVENTURES Knowledge Quest >
      • GPS LANDING Portal >
        • SPONSORSHIP GPS
      • GPS - ORANGE CRESCENT SCHOOL LANDING PAGE
    • Nature Unit Studies TK - 5th
    • Preschool at Redwood Raven Campus
    • Redwood Raven School K - 3
    • Mugworts Middle School 5th - 8th
    • PARENT & ME
    • Mentorship
    • Campouts/Retreats
  • RESOURCES
    • BOTANY VIDEOS
    • SCHOLARSHIPS >
      • DONOR PAGE
      • SCHOLARSHIPS- APPLICATION PAGE
    • OUTDOOR TEACHERS RESOURCE PAGE
    • OUTDOOR TEACHERS RESOURCE PAGE
    • FREE RESOURCES >
      • SUSTAINABILITY Resource Page
      • Butterflies & Habitat Restoration
      • PLANT MEDICINE RESOURCE PAGE
      • How to Draw RESOURCES Partial
      • Quizzes RESOURCES
    • CA NATIVES TRADING CARDS >
      • TRADING CARD DESIGN CONTEST
      • 2020 WINNER GALLERY
    • Community Craftsman Marketplace
  • COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Internships
    • AWI NEWSLETTER
    • PTO
    • CLUBS
    • ECO-SONGS with SAFIA
    • STUDENT SHOP- Shop to support Charity Projects
    • Green Masjid Initiative
    • CONTESTS >
      • T-shirt contest winners
      • 2022 TRADING CARD WINNER GALLERY