How Boulder Fought for Bicycle Traffic and Won

Check out this awesome video on how Boulder, CO has made their city one of the top bike-friendly cities in the United States:

Zipcars cruise into Richmond

Richmond community members and Virginia Commonwealth University student, staff, and faculty members now have access to Zipcar, the world's largest car-sharing company as of this Monday, August 23rd. For individuals affiliated with VCU, as a special introductory offer, the $35 annual fee will be used as a credit towards rentals in your first month. To get an additional $25 worth of driving credit, click here to sign up with a special promotional code. Under "are there other ways to join" search for VCU to get the cheaper university registration rate if you are a faculty, staff, or student. There are currently 2 cars available at the MCV campus bookstore, and 2 cars at the Monroe Park campus Cabell Library. With a $50 total driving credit and 30-day money back guarantee, why delay, try Zipcar today!

Educational Outreach at VCU New Student Orientation

MCV Green Unity is working to integrate sustainability into new student orientation on MCV campus at Virginia Commonwealth University this year. Part of VCU's Climate Action Plan, this educational outreach effort aims to show students what VCU is doing to be green, and let them know what small, easy behavior changes they can make to help reduce their own environmental impact and CO2 emissions.

MCV is a medical campus consisting of five different academic schools (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Allied Health). The Schools and groups participating in this sustainability initiative so far include:

• Student Commons & Activities: Information table at the MCV Orientation Fair
• VCU Card Office: Information table, various dates and times
• Nursing: Information table
• Medicine: Information table at SOM organizational fair
• SOM, Dept. of Human Genetics: Sustainability presentation
• Pharmacy: Sustainability information in orientation packages
• Dentistry: Sustainability information in orientation packages, information table, recycling facilitators at luncheon events
• Allied Health, Dept. of Anesthesia: Sustainability presentation, sustainability information in orientation packages

For dates and times of events, please see our Google Events Calendar. If you would like your department or school to include a sustainability component in their student orientation or staff/faculty orientation let your administration know and/or contact us. We are also willing to give short presentations to your group, department, or school.

Recycle Your Printer Cartridges & Cell Phones To Support Green Unity

MCV Green Unity is collecting ink jet cartridges, toner cartridges, and cell phones (working or broken) to raise funds to support our sustainability efforts at VCU and the surrounding Richmond community. Your old printer cartridge or cell phone will be recycled or repurposed through Planet Green, which will then provide us with much-needed funds. Recycling drop-off locations are currently located at Sanger Hall (5th, 6th & 11th floor main elevators) and Biotech I (Room 1-146 at Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics). Please email MCV Green Unity to request recycling bins for your VCU building, or for your local business.

You can also support MCV Green Unity by purchasing quality remanufactured inkjet cartridges (100% satisfaction guarentee by Planet Green) . Just visit the MCV Green Unity page at Planet Green (http://www.planetgreenrecycle.com/mcvgreenunity), and click on "Buy Recycled".

• Green Unity wins: By receiving a 15% donation of the price of every inkjet cartridge purchased
• Your win: By saving up to 70% when purchasing high-quality, remanufactured inkjet cartridges vs. the original brand
• The Planet wins: By buying remanufactured inkjets which reduces landfill and helps the environment
• American wins: You are supporting an American Remanufacturer

First MCV Green Unity General Meeting A Success!

Thanks to all who came out for the first general meeting for MCV Green Unity. We had students, staff, and faculty from all over MCV campus, as well as from Monroe Park, and recent graduates. Some of the main ideas that came out of the meeting were to try to start a campaign for turning off lights/printers/computers, making sure people have contact information to request repair of the many leaky faucets on campus (Plant Ops, service calls, 828-9444 for Sanger Hall, but they can also direct your call for the appropriate building), getting all campus buildings assessed for energy usage and waste output, etc., and trying to get a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) drop point established at MCV campus.

The next general meeting is planned for the week of August 30th. I hope to see you all there! In the meantime, feel free to email MCV Green Unity with any comments/ideas/concerns you have about sustainability at MCV campus or the surrounding community. We are especially looking for new members to get involved!

The minutes from this meeting will be published on this blog in about a weeks time. In the meantime, fell free to browse through the MCV Green Unity general overview presentation below.

Keep Your Plants Happy & Lower Your Waterbill (Part I)

With record-breaking temperatures many gardeners are looking for ways to keep their garden from wilting in the heat and keep their water bills low. While mulching reduces the need for watering and rain barrels reduce the amount of municipal water you're using, you can reduce your dependence on municipal water even further by watering more efficiently. This involves using systems like drip-irrigation, soaker hoses, and water timers. In the first part of this series I will go over the basics of drip irrigation.

My First Farmstand!

With my garden having increased 5x in size since last year I have finally ventured into urban agriculture with my own farmstand. It just made sense - it allows me to grow and sample more varieties of vegetables, and planting a few extra vegetable plants doesn't increase my garden workload significantly. I'm located in Churchill (Richmond, VA) which doesn't have a proper supermarket, and corner stores either completely lack vegetables or have very poor selection and quality. I am grateful to be able to share organic, locally grown produce with the surrounding community in the hopes of improving nutrition, improving exposure to vegetable varieties not found in stores, and encouraging others to grow vegetables as well.

I'm selling tomato plants to start with, and have many varieties which are suitable for yards and/or containers. Determinate tomato plants reach a fixed height and produce fruit all at once, which makes them suitable for yards or containers. Varieties this year include: Totem Hybrid, Razzleberry Hybrid, and Container's Choice. Indeterminate keep growing in height as long as the season lasts and produce fruit over an extended period of time. Because of their large size and high nutrient demand they are not suitable for containers and should be planted in the yard. Varieties available this year include: Jelly Bean, Cherry, Rite Bite Hybrid, Yellow Pear, Better Boy Hybrid, Early Girl Hybrid, and Roma.

Small plants are $1 each or 4 for $3
Medium plants are $2 each or 2 for $3
Large plants are $4 each or 2 for $6

10-12pm every Saturday

12-2pm every Sunday

871 N 22ND ST (22ND & Carrington in Churchill)

View Tomato Plants in a larger map