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By Angela Diana, Alliance Intern from Cornell University ‘28
On September 3, we had a table at the Eco Experience Building of the Minnesota State Fair. As an organization, the Alliance for Sustainability tries to practice what we preach, and that means we want sustainable sourcing in everything we use, including the table covering.
When I was given the assignment for finding one, I was warned it would be Mission Impossible. The Alliance had been debating various types of table covering options for years to embody as much sustainability as possible with reasonable costs.
Exploring Sustainability Options in Table Coverings
So here goes Mission Impossible. Wouldn’t it be nice to just go to your favorite big box store and be done with the whole process in ten minutes? I wish sustainability was that simple. I hope our journey can help you understand some of the considerations for making any kind of purchase and optimize as many aspects as possible – potentially saving you money and time.
There’s no question that it’s extremely difficult to find a reasonably priced, professional-looking, ready-made sustainable table covering. Let’s start with the fabric.
Organic Cotton – Originally, we wanted to use organic cotton to both support organic farmers and educate people about the importance of buying organic. We also liked its look and feel, even though it has a tendency to wrinkle and requires significant amounts of water to grow and process. Unfortunately, organic cotton is expensive, and getting the amount we wanted for a table covering would be around $500, which is more than the $250 we hoped to spend. And that doesn’t even include the cost to incorporate our logo. Our Communications Coordinator Amy Durr said she’d be willing to construct a patch if we could get a color logo printed on fabric.
Recycled Cotton – We could not find any pre-made 100% recycled cotton tablecloths, although we did find there are “sustainably made cotton tablecloths” with 50% upcycled materials at quite reasonable prices. The challenge is 50% is made from conventional, highly-pesticided cotton and we don’t know what’s in the “upcycled material.” And we could not find the colors we sought.
Organic Linen – We explored possibilities for organic linen, which is made from flax. It uses far less water and looks even better than cotton, but is even more expensive and wrinklier.
Organic Bamboo – We could not find any organic bamboo table coverings. The options for organic bamboo woven fabric were limited in the colors and weights we wanted, even though the price for the fabric was quite reasonable. Plus, we would have been required to cut and sew fabric in addition to putting on our logo.
Recycled Polyester – Recycled polyester is better for the planet than conventional virgin polyester, but it is not a truly sustainable or zero-impact material. It uses 30% to 59% less energy than virgin polyester and cuts greenhouse gas emissions significantly, while diverting plastic waste (primarily single-use plastic bottles) away from landfills and oceans, giving that plastic a second life. It also decreases the immediate demand for new petroleum and fossil-derived raw materials.
At the same time, there are drawbacks. Recycled polyester can shed more microfibers during washing than virgin polyester and turning bottles into fabric removes it from a closed-loop bottle recycling system. Also, it’s not biodegradable and takes hundreds of years to break down in a landfill.
Given these pros and cons, our feeling is it should only be considered an option for things that will remain in use for a very long time, which this tablecloth would be. Fortunately, there are numerous companies offering recycled polyester table coverings that offer full service with the colors and incorporation of a logo at reasonable prices with short turn-around times.
In addition to the fabric choice, there are questions that have to be answered about whether the dyes used are toxic or environmentally friendly. Furthermore, ideally we’d be able to find out about treatment of labor and health and safety concerns in manufacturing.
Our Choice
The answer for us ended up being a ready-made recycled polyester table covering. None of us loved the choice, but feel it was the best option considering the available information and products. The choice actually worked well and was easy to manage, giving us a wonderful look.
We hope there will be better options in the future that will fully embrace some combination of organic or reused and openly address a host of issues around labor and environmental impacts.
My Experience
I was asked to join this project following three years of exploration by the staff. I quickly understood why they labeled it Mission Impossible.
I felt like the exploration encapsulated the primary struggle of practicing sustainability in purchasing a particular product. Often, the choices are not so clear and even confusing.
The world is made for mass-production. Consumers are more and more distanced from where items are sourced. There are brands who seek to pay their workers a living wage and use sustainable practices in their own businesses. However, complex supply chains can make it difficult to know about the labor and environmental impacts from far away suppliers.
Ideally, all companies would need to have full disclosure of the practices being used throughout their supply chain. There are independent third-party certifiers (such as Fair Trade) that seek to provide such assurances, but it often gets difficult to truly know for sure in some countries. It also would be helpful if our government actually passed regulatory requirements, as they do when it comes to some drugs and meat production.
Making a sustainable choice for something as simple as a table covering can quickly spiral into weeks of research. In our Sustainability Tips, we try to share both the considerations and a range of products that we feel optimize as many parameters of sustainability as possible.
I hope this story can make it easier for you to make decisions and not succumb to the mainstream push for cheap, mass-produced items without regard for their sustainability impacts. You can do it for yourself, but it helps to have a village. Together, we can build a better world.
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By Alliance Intern Eleanor Hulan
“The fundamental urge behind labor organizing, the idea that workers have a right to be equitably paid for the work they do, to be treated with dignity, and to believe their efforts might better their own prospects and the lives of those dear to them, has always been legitimate and just.” — Philip Dray, 2011
Laborers in the classic sense, the ones that fill the pages of There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray, are often invoked by both American political parties. Praised for things like hard work, embodying upward mobility, and being the rhetorical heart and soul of America, their welfare is often just political noise, given this country has no labor party and progress on workers rights have largely stagnated.
I purchased There is Power in a Union from the Tenement Museum in New York, which also happens to be a recommendation I’d like to share, if you ever find yourself in NYC. The museum bookstore was one of the best I’ve seen, and also reminded me of the need to read American histories more, especially those from and about traditionally underrepresented people and groups.
First a warning: this is a long book. It will not be a one session read for most people. It is extremely captivating writing, well-researched but more accessible than strictly academic. Every chapter has personal stories of specific people, then situates these stories within movements, labor eras and politics.
It opens with a chronicling of labor movements in the textile industries in the early and mid 19th century in Massachusetts, which were almost exclusively led by women. These manufacturing jobs were entangled with women’s education and liberation; many of the workers wrote and edited for local labor journals, and were able to find more opportunities for education than in the agricultural areas they moved from.
Many of the issues, as Dray moves from the textile plants to iron forges to mines to railroads to the auto industry, are intersectional. He writes of these labor eras in conjunction with political movements like abolitionism, suffrage and civil rights, both because they cannot be untangled and also because labor leaders were often outspoken in these areas. Frederick Douglass, for example, headed the Colored National Labor Union in the late 19th century.
The first 60 years or so he chronicles were striking for their optimism. Workers did not yet have many protections but in spite and because of this, their aims were less limited than now. They envisioned, in articles and in collectivist groups and in rallies, a world without exploitation.
We have not achieved this. For example, North Carolina outright bans collective bargaining agreements with employers, a practice that was deemed in violation of international labor standards by the UN.
Towards the end of the book, Dray writes:
“It is doubtful most people would describe themselves as optimistic about the present state of organized labor. The labor movement described in this book, a cause that ‘uniquely embodied a vision, a generosity of spirit and the political courage to rescue society from selfishness, exploitation, and organized violence’, now belongs to history.”
This is true. But reading about the courageous, intelligent and passionate organizers who made the labor movement what it is both revived my admiration of Americans of the past and gave me some hope for a new kind of union. Trade unionism was legalized in the US mostly because of judiciary recognition of the political power ordinary workers, when organized, were beginning to wield. It may take new forms, but we can still wield that power.
A short version of this review is part of a collection: What We’re Reading When We Need to Remember Why We Do Our Work
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By Sofia Pavlenko, Alliance Intern from Rutgers University ‘25
My parents immigrated to this country in 1998 in search of opportunity and a better way of life. They fled the Soviet regime with the clothes on their backs and a small suitcase. Based on their experiences, I was raised to give back to those who need it most whenever I have the chance.
I adopted this mindset. As a child my sister and I donated half of our piggy banks. As we became teens we consistently donated clothing, food and personal items. Then, as a Rutgers student, I saw how food insecurity and poverty impacted my peers and New Brunswick residents. It made me wonder, how can I take initiative and help?
Embracing the values of my family, I began to organize my community and mobilize my peers and colleagues to take action on pressing local issues. I held both a clothing and food drive, to directly impact those struggling.
Facing Our Consumption Addiction, What Fuels It and What We Can Do About It
Many of us are overwhelmed by our consumption addiction. We may feel it and even see it, but it’s hard to take in just how much stuff we have. Nobody has actually counted a whole American house, but when UCLA anthropologists inventoried 32 middle-class homes, one family’s living room and two bedrooms alone held 2,260 visible objects, before opening a single drawer.
I was surprised by this number. With the ease of consumption being reduced to a click of a button, our society is hooked on buying without consequence. It feels like overconsumption has reached an all-time high.
Social media has acted as a catalyst for the increase in ‘micro-trends‘, a short-lived trend where clothing is quickly mass-produced, sold and phased out by another trend. A vicious cycle is created by purchasing garments, wearing them only once or twice and then discarding them. The Alliance has been writing about this troubling trend, especially with fast fashion, led by companies like SHEIN.
This stark increase in harmful “take-make-waste” cycles needs to be addressed. Fortunately, there are sustainability solutions that can be introduced into our cultural consumption. We can reject the present system, and instead focus on a circular economy. While there are many mini circular economies, they all share a common theme: items are bought mindfully (considering impacts on labor, health and the environment), used for a longer time, reused, donated responsibly, repaired, repurposed and ideally recycled or composted.
Some Incredibly Helpful Existing Rutgers Programs Meeting People’s Needs
I was curious about how I could transform my own ‘take-make-waste’ approach to embrace circularity and positively impact my community. As a Rutgers student, I looked at what programs are already in place to meet the needs of students and New Brunswick residents.
Rutgers has a variety of excellent support systems, food pantries and clothing drives run by the Office of Climate Action and RU Thrifty, an organization which educates the community about the dangers of fast fashion by creating pop-up thrift stores. Additionally, Rutgers provides a free Career Closet, offering business clothing free of charge for students in need of professional clothing for interviews, job fairs and other events. Among many more organizations, I knew that Rutgers had a social network designed to help others.
Two Urgent Unmet Needs I Chose to Address: Clothing and Food Drives
I’ve long been concerned about the challenges faced by people in war torn countries. This is heightened by the stories I’ve heard from my relatives in Ukraine, for whom having adequate winter clothing is a struggle given the lack of heating.
Consequently, I decided to take initiative in the Fall of 2022 and create a winter clothing drive to help people in Ukraine. I relied on word of mouth and set up a donation box at my former sorority’s home, where peers and fellow students donated clothing items. I collected two massive boxes of clothing. I then shipped the clothing to Ukraine, where my relatives distributed the collected items. Even though I wasn’t solving the larger issue of war and poverty, it was meaningful to take action.
I then wanted to do something for my local community as I knew food shelves were running low on supplies. I organized a food drive through my tennis club and was able to donate nearly a hundred cans to local food pantries around Thanksgiving! Taking time to help others during a busy holiday season gave me a new reason to look forward to holidays.
As all good things go, there were definitely some bumps in the road. I ran into issues with organizing college students in the midst of final exams, collecting responses, adequately communicating with other organizations who may have helped and actually collecting enough items to create a measurable impact.
I was able to mitigate some of these challenges by leaning on my community for support, reaching out to people experienced in driving initiatives. While some ideas never left the drawing board, they still served as an inspiration to me and my team.
Every Thing Can Make a Difference and Fill Your Cup
While at first I wished I could do more, I know that “anything helps” is a true fact. When someone has nothing, a winter coat or a warm meal can seem like everything. That’s why I’m going to keep donating clothing, blankets, towels and food at least once a month.
Giving back not only feels good, but drives like these help people in need save money while creating more awareness about overconsumption and connecting us with our communities. Seeing direct impacts fills my cup and those of others. Take the initiative and help your community today!
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By Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
On September 26, bi-partisan Save Public Lands will deliver their petition to Congress. Sign it to tell elected officials that public lands are a top five voting issue.
Americans have had enough with the sell offs, land giveaways and backroom deals. We’ve all got whiplash from the sheer number of attacks on public lands that Trump is trying to ram through. One of them is happening in the Alliance’s backyard.
Boundary Waters Mining Ban Overturned
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness draws more than 150,000 visitors a year, making it the most visited wilderness area in the US. Crucially, for 20 years, 225,000 acres of Superior National Forest near the BWCA Wilderness were off limits to mining.
Trump pushed Congress to end that, and the Senate passed the resolution by one vote, 50-49. This opened the door for Twin Metals (owned by the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta) to pursue copper-nickel mining 12 miles from the wilderness.
Gov. Walz signed a state executive order on August 18 banning nonferrous mining in the area. However, that executive order can be turned over by a new governor in January, thus underscoring the need for federal protection.
Sadly, the Attacks Are Here, There and Everywhere
Nearly every day, the news is bursting with stories about more wilderness areas, National Monuments and National Parks that the Trump Administration is trying to destroy.
An analysis by the Center for American Progress details how the Trump administration has moved to strip protections from more than 86 million acres of public land during his second term, focusing on resource extraction, commercial development, and privatization. Here are some specific examples:
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments further cut – In Trump’s first administration reductions were made. Now, he’s signed proclamations stripping protections from nearly 3 million acres, about 91% of Bears Ears and 90% of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Mining claims were staked on the land within days.
A private road through Yosemite – The Department of the Interior is reportedly pressing the Park Service to hand a Nevada developer an easement through the park so it can build a road connecting its property, just outside Yosemite’s boundary, to a road inside.
Roadless Rule on the chopping block – The USDA moved to end protections on tens of millions of acres of national forest, the Tongass included, clearing the way for logging roads.
The Senators Listened Once – Public Pressure Worked
In June 2025, Republican Sen. Mike Lee tried to force the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land through the “Big Beautiful Bill.” People called their senators. A lot of them. Lee pulled the sell-off before the final vote.
We later learned the Department of the Interior staff had fed him data and signed off on his talking points the day before he introduced it, while Secretary Burgum was telling reporters the plan “wasn’t part of the president’s agenda.” They didn’t stop wanting our land. They just got quieter about it. They may be quieter, but we won’t be.
One Day, One Thing
There’s a name for the Trump Administration’s strategy: flooding the zone. Throw enough chaos at people that no single outrage sticks long enough for anyone to answer for it. It only works if we let it wear us down. So choose this one action and take it today.
Join the Alliance in helping gather one million signatures by signing Save Public Lands’ petition. Tell DC lawmakers that Americans love and value their public lands and we want them protected. Period.
Extra Credit: Stay Up to Date
League of Conservation Voters: Attacks on Public Lands and Waters
Center for American Progress: Unprotecting American Lands
Harvard Law School: National Monuments Regulatory Tracker
Conservation Lands Foundation: Get Involved
Save Public Lands is on Instagram, alongside partners Save the Boundary Waters, Outdoor Alliance, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and the Wilderness Society.
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By the Alliance Newsletter Team
Now that the beach reads are behind us, a few of us at the Alliance got to talking about the books that have most deeply shaped how we see the world and how we live in it. Today, on National Read a Book Day, we’d like to share seven of them with you. Together, we feel they’ll give you some sense of the world we hope to co-create.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
By Robin Wall Kimmerer
I found this book tucked inside the pages of another I adore by Ross Gay, with no warning that it would quietly take my whole worldview apart and reassemble it into something new.
Braiding Sweetgrass gave me words for the vague notions of reciprocity that were trying to find a mooring in my brain, taught me how (and why) to honor other-than-human beings and opened a path to becoming indigenous to my place without overstepping. That’s a wish I’ve harbored since my suburban childhood.
Kimmerer names the ache so many of us live with: “species loneliness,” defined as “a deep, unnamed sadness stemming from estrangement from the rest of Creation, from the loss of relationship.” Reading that passage felt like being handed a diagnosis I didn’t know I needed. And then, like braiding three strands of sweetgrass into one, she shows you how healing actually works: indigenous wisdom, science and the quiet, direct teachings of plants.
Now I understand my compulsion to lie under the hardy hibiscus in my yard, staring up into its fascinating branches and smelling its unbloomed scent. If you’ve ever felt this particular loneliness, if you’ve ever had the sense that you’ve lost the language for belonging to the earth, here’s the book that gives it back to you.
– Contributed by Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability
By Paul Hawken
Business sustainability used to be an oxymoron. But no longer, in large part due to The Ecology of Commerce. When written in 1993, people felt business could never be environmentally responsible.
However, it illuminated a path forward, arguing we had no future unless business could fundamentally shift to sustainability. The book was a “spear in my chest”, said Interface CEO Ray Anderson, who consequently turned around the world’s largest commercial floor covering manufacturer from being a major polluter to a successful sustainability model.
This landmark book by long-time environmental leader, eco-entrepreneur, brilliant author and visionary Paul Hawken helped shift business thinking as he pointed out that everyday consumer items contained toxic chemicals. Hawken not only nailed how damaging our commerce was, but his beautiful prose called for a different business future based on nature. He explained there is no waste in nature, as each organism ultimately provides the life source for the next.
That concept was core to the Natural Step, the scientifically-based Swedish approach to sustainability he helped introduce to North America in this book. Better yet, Hawken went on to practice what he preached by becoming the Chair of the Natural Step in the US and invited me to become one of the first instructors, a move that helped shift me and the Alliance from a focus on agriculture to overall sustainability, including in business.
Thanks to this book, the Natural Step remains a core part of the Alliance, from our Akepa Youth & School Program to our business trainings and consulting.
– Contributed by Alliance President Terry Gips
The Hundred Dresses
By Eleanor Estes
The Hundred Dresses is my favorite book of all time. It was written in the 1940s for children, but it’s a timeless classic. A seemingly harmless schoolyard game gradually moves into youth bullying — perpetrated by children who don’t initially understand that they’re doing anything wrong. We’re never given the explicit perspective of the victim, Wanda, in her own narrative voice. Instead, we’re constantly encouraged to guess what she’s thinking and feeling.
We learn the complex idea that you must take responsibility for the consequences of your hurtful actions, regardless of your intentions. While most of us have already learned that, it’s a potent reminder and a portrayal of the need for empathy. The narration is done with all the innocence and brutal honesty you would expect from the second-grade characters.
It underscores the complexity of bullying as there is no clear line between differences – such as backgrounds and income levels – and crossing the line to mean behavior. It’s an anti-bullying book that dissects the entire underlying mindset that feeds into bullying.
The Hundred Dresses is the most effective fictional book I’ve read for teaching empathy for all ages. It does it through simple language and a poignant story that’s short enough to read over and over.
– Contributed by Alliance Intern Angela Diana
The Sabbath
By Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
My name is Terry and I once was a 24/7 Jewish environmentalist trying to save the world. But a curious thing happened one day that got me to stop and take a day off every week – a day for resting, renewal, appreciating all of Creation and being with myself, family and friends while celebrating freedom from slavery of all kinds – a veritable model of sustainability.
I was speaking at a Jewish environmental conference in Colorado and needed a break. I left the auditorium only to discover a long table of books with a woman standing behind it. I felt sort of smart-alecky so I asked her, “Is there one book on this table that if I read it, my life would be transformed? Oh, and it has to be short.” She smiled and without hesitation said “Yes” as she walked over and picked up a book and handed it to me: The Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
I sat down and read the entire book. Indeed, it fundamentally transformed my life. I got the hidden value of stopping work, taking a break, and observing a Sabbath. I have been observing it ever since and feel it’s been the greatest gift in my life. As this mystical Orthodox yet social justice Rabbi who marched in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote way back in 1951:
“To set apart one day a week for freedom, a day on which we would not use the instruments which have been so easily turned into weapons of destruction, a day for being with ourselves, a day of detachment from the vulgar, of independence of external obligation, a day on which we stop worshipping the idols of technical civilization, a day on which we use no money — is there any institution that holds out a greater hope for human progress than the Sabbath?”
– Contributed by Alliance President Terry Gips
There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America
By Philip Dray
Laborers in the classic sense, the ones that fill the pages of There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray, are often invoked by both American political parties. Praised for things like hard work, embodying upward mobility, and being the rhetorical heart and soul of America, their welfare is often just political noise, given this country has no labor party and progress on workers rights have largely stagnated.
I purchased There is Power in a Union from the Tenement Museum in New York, whose history reminded me of the need to read American histories to understand the plight of traditionally underrepresented people.
A warning: this is a long book. It will not be a one session read for most people. It is extremely captivating writing, well-researched but more accessible than strictly academic. Every chapter has personal stories of specific people, then situates these stories within movements, labor eras and politics.
Its opening highlights a surprising fact I wasn’t aware of: women almost exclusively led the labor movements in the textile industries in early- and mid-19th century Massachusetts. These manufacturing jobs were entangled with women’s education and liberation. In fact, many of the women wrote and edited for local labor journals. They were able to find more opportunities for education than in the agricultural areas they moved from.
The book then delves into nearly every societal institution – from iron forges and mines to railroads and the auto industry – highlighting the contentious battles that labor has fought and won to assure fundamental rights for workers that many of us take for granted today.
– Contributed by Alliance Intern Eleanor Hulan
Read a longer version of this review
This One Wild and Precious Life: The Path Back to Connection in a Fractured World
By Sarah Wilson
I had no idea who Sarah Wilson was when I picked up This One Wild and Precious Life – I was drawn in purely by the title’s nod to Mary Oliver’s famous question. Then came her first gut-punch: “Ironically, in such inverted times, it’s our disconnection that actually unites – or connects – us.” I began reading faster.
Wilson names the thing so many of us don’t want to say out loud: our “evolutionary response [is] to shut down and go numb” when faced with a “horrible threat.” One of her solutions, one we at the Alliance return to again and again, is kindness, and she makes it startlingly practical.
Ask someone, she suggests, “How is the state of your heart, in this breath?” Ten words that transform an ordinary moment with a friend into an opportunity for honest sharing, deep listening and meaningful connection.
I’ve started asking it myself, and my relationships are becoming more restorative. Oliver asked what we plan to do with our one wild and precious life. Wilson’s answer, quietly and urgently, is: come back to each other. We can begin together, right now.
– Contributed by Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
The Year of Magical Thinking
By Joan Didion
Joan Didon’s beautiful interpretation of human grieving and coping with loss found me during a tumultuous time in my life. While I was not coping with traditional grief, I was experiencing the loss of my childhood, and a transition to a life with new responsibilities and expectations.
Looking for a way to name the feelings I was feeling led me to Didion’s work. We discovered the complexities associated with grief’s unpredictable timeline together through The Year of Magical Thinking.
Grief is not ‘one size fits all’, and can be felt in an abundance of ways. We look back at times of grief and wonder why we acted a certain way, but the permanent space grief occupies leaves a vacuum of instability, making ‘reasonable’ responses almost impossible. Through her memoir, we see how Didion copes with her husband’s death, using bent logic to cope with the trauma and create sense within a senseless void.
It is not a simple path from sad to better, as illustrated in Didion’s writing – we see how her mental state ranges from shock to obsessive to delusional, all ways the human psyche copes with the idea of permanent loss, a seemingly inconceivable idea. Didion’s journey through grief reminds us of how loss is not one emotion, but an alteration of our beliefs, and an acceptance of an irreversible change.
Ultimately, Didion reminds us that the journey of grief can change an individual, but the true resilience is moving forward without letting the grief permanently consume you. Didion’s writing gave me permission to grieve and understand permanent loss through a lens of actual human emotion, rather than the cold and analytical explanations generically given to anyone struggling.
– Contributed by Alliance Intern Sofia Pavlenko
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By Alliance President Terry Gips
Want a frozen treat that’s “so refreshing” and “the perfect bite for a hot summer day” with a “creamy, but slightly icy” texture — “somewhere in between sorbet and ice cream?” Try watermelon ice cream as recommended by Kitchn editorial assistant Celia Funderburk.
OK, you’re wondering why we’re featuring watermelon ice cream as a Sustainability Tip? You’re not alone. Our entire Newsletter Team at the Alliance for Sustainability agreed. So, this is both my attempt to first explain why this DOES matter and has EVERYTHING to do with sustainability, followed by the recipe to see if you agree with me.
Reason #1 Summer is a Time to Take a Break from Our Rat Race
It’s summer. Let’s escape the intense heaviness of the state of our country and world. This is normally the time for a vacation or some kind of break before the every day busy of school and work.
In countries like France, everything shuts down in August. Don’t we get a break, too? Way too many Americans never take the little paid vacation time they have. We tend to be a nation of workaholics, whether by choice or force.
I’d argue that taking a break is essential to sustainability. I used to work 24/7 as an environmentalist trying to save the world. Then I discovered the Sabbath, taking just one day to stop working and be free to be….with myself, family, friends, animals and Creation. It’s made a world of difference in all aspects of my life. So, my fellow readers, we get a break as well!
Reason #2 Preparing and Enjoying Delicious, Nutritious Food is Core to Sustainability
Eating food is one of the most impactful activities we all do every day. Addressing what we put in our body and where and how it’s sourced is so essential because so many of us have lost touch with it and yet it impacts people and our planet in profound ways.
Most of us need help both understanding the connections and then shifting to healthier choices aligned with our values.
Plus, most people are buying more and more prepared food because they have little time or connection to what they eat. We’re missing the relationship to one of the most sacred gifts we are given, just gobbling it down as we run out the door. There’s little connection, in the same way we live our lives with our phones.
There’s a reason the Slow Food movement is growing as an increasing number of people seek a connection to the food they eat and the farmers who grew it.
The idea of us reconnecting with each other, farmers and food and how it’s produced is a core element of sustainability and was at the heart of the founding of the International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture 43 years ago. It’s in our DNA. There’s a reason we call it agri-culture.
Reason #3 It’s an Inexpensive DIY Dream Without Synthetic Ingredients and Added Sugar
Yes, you and your kids can easily make this with no artificial ingredients or added sugar that can be as good or better than store bought. In a world where “we do it all for you,” this is something that everyone can participate in and enjoy. And you can express your own creativity by adding other ingredients if you like.
Reason #4 Time Out to Enjoy Food
We’re not the French or Spanish who close shops down as they enjoy a two-hour lunch, filled with delicious food and connection. I’ve been there, done that and loved it.
Yet, we can still sit down and enjoy our food as we support a shift to sustainability, health, equity and kindness. While it’s great to have nutritious organic regenerative vegan food with zero-waste, how we prepare and enjoy that food is a key part of the culture of relationship, connection and time that’s also part of the world we’re trying to co-create.
Let me get personal and ask: Are you finding you are increasingly time crunched so that more and more of your “meals” are grab and go, take out/delivery, fast food and eating out?
If all of that food were organic regenerative with zero waste packaging would that be enough?
Do you struggle with taking the time to prepare healthy nutritious food?
If you answered yes to one or more of those questions, would you like a simple summer solution for one step you can take that’s on most people’s list of priority treats during these hot, humid Dog Days of Summer? Ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but delicious, nutritious 2-ingredient ice cream you can quickly make yourself if you just have a freezer: Watermelon Ice Cream.
Here’s the Recipe for Watermelon Ice Cream
As Celia Funderburk points out in her article, The Best Way to Eat Watermelon This Summer Requires Just 1 Extra Ingredient, “Nothing says summertime quite like watermelon. I always loved when my mom would buy one and slice it up for us when I was growing up. But now that I’m the one who has to do all the prep, buying a huge watermelon at the grocery store has limited appeal to me.”
“Once I’m done chopping up just half of it, my fridge is full, and I know I won’t be able to eat the entire other half before it gets mushy. So when I saw this two-ingredient watermelon ice cream recipe on TikTok, I was intrigued. Not only would it keep the other half of the watermelon fresh, but it would also deliver a delicious, refreshing dessert. I had to try it myself.”
“Cut a whole watermelon in half and scoop out a circle in the middle of one half of it. Cover this half with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for at least 24 hours. Save the other half to use for something else.”
“Once the watermelon is frozen, pour a small amount of milk into the hollow part. (I used coconut milk, but other recipes used heavy whipping cream.) Slowly scrape the sides and bottom of the circle in the watermelon with a spoon. As you scrape, mix the milk with the frozen watermelon. As the milk begins to combine with the watermelon and freeze, slowly add in a bit more milk.”
“Continue this process until you have your desired amount of ice cream. Scoop it into a small bowl and enjoy immediately or chill in the freezer so it can set longer.”
“Watermelon isn’t the most flavorful ingredient, so whichever milk you choose will likely be the dominant flavor. I opted for coconut milk because I saw comments that the coconut flavor complemented the dessert better than heavy cream. I would definitely choose coconut if I were to make this again.”
“Pour the milk or cream in slowly. I added too much coconut milk in the hole at first and quickly learned I needed to pour some out. When you use too much force to scrape the frozen watermelon, it’s easy to lose your grip and make a mess. I would play it safe and add the liquid in slowly and incrementally.”
Voila. That’s it. Simple, easy and healthy.
Want to make it healthier and more earth friendly? Use an organic watermelon.
I hope you enjoy and let us know if you agree with me!
The post Sustainability Tip: Delicious, Easy and Simple Homemade Watermelon Ice Cream – Sustainability Exemplified appeared first on Alliance for Sustainability.
]]>The post Our Intern’s Perspective: From Lying About a Reflecting Pool to Co-Creating a World that Works for Everyone appeared first on Alliance for Sustainability.
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By Angela Diana, Alliance Intern from Cornell University ‘28
Sadly, you can’t see your own face in the algae-filled waters of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool right now, but it does hold a clear mirror to the President’s and federal government’s failure to honestly communicate with the American people.
While Trump doubles down on his dishonest and misleading statements about the renovation of the Reflecting Pool, many Americans are losing even more trust about our government. The Trump administration’s inability to tell the truth about what should have been a routine renovation is just one glaring reason why his poll numbers have slumped to new low.
It reveals deeper issues within his approach to governance, showing an inability to solve larger current issues, such as the Iran War and the burgeoning climate crisis. It can also serve as an important lesson on what NOT to do when trying to build trust to enact badly-needed changes in the world. By telling the truth, we CAN co-create a world of sustainability, health, equity and kindness.
The Façade of Perfection and Glaring Lies Meant to Deceive
The Reflecting Pool is a potent metaphor for the remaking of America with a façade of perfection – usually gold, but in this case blue. This is part of a larger plan to imprint Trump’s name and likeness on anything and everything for his legacy.
Trump seeks to deflect and deceive as opposed to addressing the real world challenges most Americans face every day – just paying their bills, having health insurance and enough food to eat.
The story of the pool reflects a microcosm of the much larger issues about trust in government. As part of his plan to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of our country, Trump sought to rush renovations to the “dirty, disgusting” Reflecting Pool before the Fourth of July. He wanted to repaint it “American flag blue.” Consequently, he gave a no-bid contract to a home pool installer who was a donor with no experience with such a project.
Problems immediately arose when the work was finished, including a massive green algae bloom and huge tears in the pool coating itself. Ironically, one might struggle with the word “tears” because it could refer to crying “tears” about the state of our country.
With no evidence, the President claimed this damage was due to vandalism by left-wing activists. According to PBS News, he “has blamed people of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool by using a ‘box cutter or a knife’ to make a 300-foot slit on the bottom of the pool and dumping ‘fertilizer in the water’ to produce algae.” On June 23, six people were charged.
Since then, witnesses have come forward, but none saw the alleged vandals with knives, weapons, or huge bags of fertilizer. There is still no photographic or video evidence of any act.
Trump’s long-time loyalist, former Fox News anchor, and pick for US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro was tasked with prosecuting these alleged vandals. However, she recently dropped all the cases after reviewing the facts. She decided there simply wasn’t evidence to prosecute.
President Trump was furious with Pirro and publicly berated her, threatening her removal. Ultimately, he conceded on Truth Social that there was “some contractor error” during the process. However, he notably did not take back his accusations towards the vandals, even after Ms. Pirro did.
The Reflecting Pool Isn’t an Isolated Incident – There’s a Pattern
There is a trend within the administration. As an experienced Twitter and Truth Social user, Trump continually uses social media to say things that are provably wrong. Even in reference to the renovation itself, he has posted inaccurate cost estimates.
In the past, presidents used communication with the public in a way that played a positive role in helping to guide and bring them together, even though at times the President was intentionally lying or misleading. One famous example is President Roosevelt and his fireside chats. “They eventually became a source of hope and security for all Americans. The chats were influential in reformulating the American worldview from one of despair to one of hope during a time of multiple crises,” says Britannica.
But is that how we feel now? Increasingly, we’re feeling a lack of trust in our leaders, who too often seek to divide us. It’s pretty much impossible to make any headway against greater threats like climate change, pollution and the rapid depletion of natural resources unless we create some kind of consensus.
Public trust in the presidency and the government as a whole is being eroded by Trump’s firehose of daily lies, intentional miscommunication and over-focus on completely insignificant things – from the paving over of Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden and the Reflecting Pool renovations to his Ballroom, Triumphal Arch and attempt at renaming of the Kennedy Center.
He clearly seeks to mislead the public by claiming everything is the best ever while lying about truly consequential things like the Strait of Hormuz, which he constantly claims is open. How can we have trust and any sense of unity as a nation amidst false statements about the dangers of wind turbines, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and serious domestic and global challenges?
Disturbing Actions Add Fuel to the Fire of Lies
On top of the lies are a barrage of deeply troubling actions on everything from DEI and renewable energy to targeted legal prosecutions of any opponent and fundamental changes to science-based health policy and funding.
For example, during the president’s first term, he eliminated the pandemic warning service in 2018 — barely one year before the COVID pandemic began. More recently, Trump’s head of the CDC stopped monitoring several parasites and viruses including cyclospora, which is rapidly becoming a public health crisis. Decisions like these are not based on common sense, much less science.
This does not bode well for our future. There is no good outcome from starting a war in the Middle East, particularly with only optimistic assumptions and no plan for military support from other countries. Instead, Trump is focusing on DC construction projects to cement his legacy, while dragging us into a seemingly unresolvable war with Iran.
The result is that gas, grocery and other consumer prices are spiking from the war and tariffs. At the same time, our American servicemembers are exposed to deadly attacks, and our weapon stockpiles are dangerously depleted, as China focuses on attacking Taiwan.
America is not its landmarks or its fancy houses. It is its people, and extraordinary land and ecosystems. It is these that are experiencing the brunt of Trump’s policies and dishonesty. Too many are suffering from poverty and desperately need the social services the government could provide with this money. And our environment is threatened as never before.
Two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with the renovations and he is equally under water with his popularity and failure to address affordability, which he had campaigned on (a term he now claims is made up). Again, instead of listening to the voters who want him to stop and start focusing on what really matters, he seeks scapegoats whenever possible, such as claiming a few scattered vandals are responsible for a flawed plan for the Reflecting Pool.
As a young person, how is it that we can have any trust in a leader and government that acts against our best interests? Is he actually Making America Great Again?
We Can Co-Create a New Path Forward
It’s important to have leaders who listen to us and care about our struggles. If you’re here, reading articles about sustainability and our future, it’s because you’re someone who wants to improve and protect the world we share.
The way President Trump handled the Reflecting Pool renovation can serve as an important lesson to those of us trying to create real change in the world. Being able to team up and work together effectively is necessary for any group trying to address such a big issue as the climate crisis. Individual sustainable choices are essential, but these alone are not enough when the global economy and so many systems within it are dependent on polluting plastics and fossil fuels.
It’s difficult to organize collective solutions to the massive challenges we face. But in every case, we have to start with the truth. We need to honestly confront what we’re facing and engage the American people in coming together to develop transformative policies and actions.
Can we co-create a reflecting pool – and world – that embodies our values and vision for sustainability, health, equity and kindness?
The post Our Intern’s Perspective: From Lying About a Reflecting Pool to Co-Creating a World that Works for Everyone appeared first on Alliance for Sustainability.
]]>The post Song of the Month: The Time Has Come — A Warning from “Beds are Burning” We Still Haven’t Heeded appeared first on Alliance for Sustainability.
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By Alliance Intern Eleanor Hulan
This time last month, I walked the 15 minutes to work and got there with my eyes streaming, nausea threatening to fell me, and a sense of despair unhelped by staring out a floor to ceiling window all day. July 16, the Air Quality Index in MN reached hazardous levels due to fire and smoke particulate in counties across the state, including the Tribal Nations of Mille Lacs, Leech Lake, Red Lake, and White Earth.
That day, levels here were the second worst in the world. We’ve also been facing heat waves all summer that at times made it feel like a Herculean task to accomplish errands and get to work.
And this is in Minnesota, one of the so-called climate-haven states. Places like Australia have been contending with weather like this for decades. Australians, like the US, Canada, much of South America, and everywhere else with a history of colonialism, have also been contending with their history of the exploitation and displacement of natives for decades.
Where the Air Goes Orange, So Does the Music
A few Australians in particular, the members of Midnight Oil, have a prolific body of work dating back to 1977 revolving around both issues, as well as causes like disarmament and disaster relief. I can see why, because when you go outside and the air is orange and it feels like the world is ending, you can think of little else.
Climate issues affect the island country disproportionately because of its coastline and geography, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders even more so.
In 1987, the song Beds are Burning from the aptly named Diesel and Dust album was released. I first heard it when I was a young teen, just beginning to develop my own music tastes, and it resonated deeply.
The vocal style was a little foreign (I later came to love it) and I didn’t watch the music video until years later, but it hit me that: Oh these are artists who believe in something. The song was evocative and shocking and forceful and it made me want to wake up.
When I did eventually watch the music video, it added to my understanding. It features Aboriginal communities in Australia, which the band visited and would continue to return to throughout their career. It’s a condemnation of the colonialist forces that caused native Australians to live with less, but also a celebration of the power and love in their communities.
Forty Years Later, the Rent Is Still Unpaid
One of the most provocative aspects is the song’s invocation of now, the emphasis of the immediacy of the problem. They say “The time has come… to pay the rent, to pay our share” To the bandmembers, that time had come by 1987, and before. So it’s alarming that, more than 40 years later, we still have not done so. The people and companies most responsible are assuredly not paying the rent.
To me, even through the doom, it also has a hopeful bent. The land showcased in the music video has elements of beauty and the other part of the chorus “when our Earth is turning” inspires awe. It makes me think, yes these electromagnetic forces of the cosmos are acting on us in ways we still don’t fully understand, and that is incredible. We have to do something with the life that has been offered to us, not sleep through it.
The other inspiring piece of the puzzle is Midnight Oil’s advocacy work. Throughout their career, they advocated for environmental and aboriginal causes and raised money for aboriginal institutions and disaster relief. They scheduled release dates around events like UN Climate Change Conferences and Armistice Day. A band member – Peter Garrett was eventually elected as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
Give it a listen (or another one, if you’ve heard it before), and watch the video. It’s one of the great protest anthems of our time.
Beds are Burning
By Midnight Oil
Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boilin’ diesels
Steam in forty-five degrees
The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belongs to them
Let’s give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
The time has come to say fair’s fair
To pay the rent now, to pay our share
Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore, east to Yuendemu
The Western Desert lives and breathes
In forty-five degrees
The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belongs to them
Let’s give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
The post Song of the Month: The Time Has Come — A Warning from “Beds are Burning” We Still Haven’t Heeded appeared first on Alliance for Sustainability.
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