Sustainability for All of Us: Accessible Organizing

By Jay Luce Nelson, CUIP Intern for the Sustainability Office Education and Outreach Team 

Everyone in this world has different experiences, capabilities, limitations, and tolerances. Why should anyone be excluded from sustainable organizing? Next time you or an organization you are involved with plans an event, consider what can be done to make it more accessible.

If your usual programming includes lots of social activities with a high volume level, consider occasionally hosting a low-volume event. 

Accessibility, like sustainability, is not a finite list of boxes to check. They are not linear processes with set ending points. Both are continuous journeys based on a constant sense of wanting to do more to create a better world for ourselves and those who come after us, and both must begin somewhere. Checklists exist to provide a starting point and guide us to learn more.

Below are only a few ways we can begin to create events for all of us to enjoy based on the idea that accessible programming's main goals include providing access to safety and content for all guests. These ideas focus on (dis)ability with a few tips on creating safe spaces for transgender students based on personal accounts.


1. Will every attendee have physical access, safety, and comfort?

• For off-campus events, use a venue within three blocks of public transportation or provide transport
• Choose a location with wheelchair-accessible gender neutral bathrooms
• Only use areas accessible by ramp, elevator, or stair lift
• Provide seating
• Avoid intense hot or cold temperatures
• Encourage guests to go scent-free and avoid strong odors
• Avoid flashing lights or loud noises
• Clearly label allergens on any food provided
• Do not make statements assuming ability (such as the ability to walk, ride a bike, etc.)
• Avoid assuming pronouns; include space for pronouns on (reusable) name tags 
• Encourage everyone to tell the pronouns they use during introductions but do not force anyone to disclose theirs; transgender students may be forced to choose between outing themselves as trans or misgendering themselves if they are forced
• Avoid referring to bodies or their parts as male or female

Image by Adventures of an Allergic Foodie

Listing all of the ingredients in a dish is an easy way to make dinner confusion-free for those with dietary restrictions.

2. Will every attendee have access to the content presented?

• Provide interpreters, captions or audio transcripts for videos
• Provide descriptive audio for visuals
• Provide large print versions of text 
• Allow participants to request an interpreter, transcripts or captions of speeches and videos, or a hearing loop
• Allow participants to request screen readers or braille versions of text

Image by HearingLoop.com

Numerous classrooms on campus have hearing loops installed!

Remember that everyone needs accommodations at some point; artificial lighting is an accommodation for the human inability to see in the dark! Next time you plan, take the extra steps to provide the accommodations someone may need.

2nd Annual UCSC Bioneers Conference Report

By Mani Sandhu, Education & Outreach Team Associate for the Sustainability Office 

Bioneers is a national organization that is dedicated to social and environmental justice for all of humanity through practical and innovation solutions. They promote a philosophy that emphasizes the intrinsic value and wisdom that the natural world has to offer. In fact, the National Bioneers Conference has developed an efficacious core of innovation and collaboration for achieving social, cultural, and environmental justice through their annual conference in Marin County that attracts more than 2000 scholars, visionary activists, and innovators.

Here at UCSC, I had the privilege of not only attending the 2nd Annual UCSC Bioneers Conference, but also helping plan the event. Some of the purposes of the UCSC off-shoot of the national Bioneers conference were to expand the dialogue and to bring awareness to issues and connect at the local level. The event featured around 54 speakers and 30 workshops by community members, activists, scholars, and students--all related to different "tracks" of sustainability such as eco-nomics, women and youth leadership, indigenous knowledge, media, nature/culture/spirit, restorative practices for food systems and the bio-sphere, and ecological design, literacy, and medicine.

I was able to attend the plenaries and workshops of moving speakers such as Chairman Valentin Lopez of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Executive Director of Bioneers Joshua Fouts, Marco Vangelisti of Slow Money, permaculture and aquaponics expert May Meyers, author and Director of Stanford Forgiveness Project Dr. Frederic Luskin, Lindsay Andrews and Chris Omer of the Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project, and many others.

I learned about how disenfranchised groups are bringing awareness to race and socioeconomic disparities, as well as food and labor inequalities. Some examples I heard about include the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band's efforts to restore lost traditional ecological knowledge and reintroduce it to land stewardship; Lightwood Pictures' film illuminating the benefits of discovering sustainable solutions to preserve local land and food; and Kelsey Ott's plenary on the significance of seeing someone for their mind, perspective, personality, and values instead of focusing on the preconceived notions, prejudices, and stereotypes based on physical appearance that are enforced by our society and culture everyday.

Additionally, I learned that we must begin to consider our natural resources as capital assets that provide a significant, sustained flow of economic benefits and require investment in order to properly conserve them, how peaceful environmental and social protests can be strengthened by university support and facilitation, and how to campaign and outreach to fight against current systems of injustice. It was both thought-provoking and gut-wrenching to hear about the injustices committed against the environment and people everyday. However, as such, the conference was also an enlightening outlet that allowed us to collaborate and come together to find creative solutions to combat these issues.

The two-day conference was an eye-opening, prolific experience of transformation, connection, and community that filled me with inspiration and empowerment to help create a just, sustainable world.

Ken Foster of Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping made this beautiful mandala out of "waste" materials like beer mash, tea, and other natural materials in his workshop titled "Mining the Urban Waste Stream."

Dr. Fred Luskin speaking about the power of forgiveness on Sunday.

Mira Michelle hosting a workshop on Sunday titled "Building Resilience: at the Personal, Community, and Ecological Levels."

To check out the rest of pictures from the weekend, click here!

Notes from Indigethanx

Introduction and Welcome

Dr. Rosser introduced the first guest, who cleansed the air with smoke and honored the Four Directions and the ancestors who lived on this Ohlone land. I did not catch her name. 

“My mother said, ‘When ceremony ends, so does the Earth.’ I too believe this.”

A student performed a Chumash song honoring our grandmothers and their grandmothers in turn.

Dr. Rosser explained the Mutsun word noson, as breath as it is in spirit, and introduced Professor Melissa Nelson, an activist for Native American rights who works with the Cultural Conservancy.

Professor Melissa Nelson

Revitalizing Native Foodways/Renewing America’s Food Traditions

• Thanksgiving is a complex holiday both protested and celebrated
• “There’s really a global renaissance going on” regarding the revitalization of Native foodways
• Mentioned ceremonies regarding food and religious and cultural importance of strawberries- one of the first foods to be grown on Turtle Island in First Nations’ creation stories.
• A Chippewa prophecy made about 500 years before Columbus’s arrival foretold that danger would come from the east; it foretold “we will know where our new home is when we find the food that grows upon the water,” referring to the staple food of wild rice.
• Food sources are affected by pesticides, damming, climate change, and diseases such as Sudden Oak Death.
• Climate change and damming lead to lower numbers of salmon and less access to them, affecting culture, nutrition, and ceremony.
• Identifying foodsheds and the “first foods” of American lands is a way to reclaim identity.
• Seven key foods eaten globally as staples originate from North America
• Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, squash, chocolate (cacao), sunflowers
• Many more important foods come from North America, but these are considered the 7 most important

Food Sovereignty

• Regarding food sovereignty, “you have the right to be self-defining.”
• Food sovereignty as “the production of traditional and sacred foods by Tribal Nations with the objective of feeding the local community, and only after the community is sustained, to provide these foods to the larger community.”
• Workers are highly involved; sovereignty includes protection from dangers such as pesticides.
• Native foodways are cultural, spiritual, physical, and ecological, a web of life.

Columbian Devastation

• “What happened to the Native world . . . was a total apocalypse” regarding colonial settlement.
• Fried bread became a survival food, a creation of “Indigenuity,” but lead in part to the Type II Diabetes epidemic in Native communities.
• Over half of tribal community members in the United States live with Type II Diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or heart disease.
• “100%” of the community is affected; family and community is affected through healthcare and transporting those who need healthcare.
• Sacred buffalo were overkilled to remove the primary food source of tribes of the Northern Plains; damming cut off access to salmon and other fish.
• "The value of food is weighed in dollars . . . not in its ability to nourish." —John Mohawk.
• The slow food movement focuses on slowing down to take time to cook and eat our food.

Current Food Movements and Actions

• Tsyunhehkwa
• Muskoke
• Taos Food Center
• Traditional North American Farmers Association
• Slow Food Terra Madre
• Parque de la Papa (Potato Park)
• Protects heirloom seeds; relates to food sovereignty and social connections
• Biocultural Heritage Territories
• Bay Area intertribal urban youth education programs
• Tribal intergenerational CSA pilot programs partner with local communities and create food distribution systems
• Youth interns glean and distribute crops not up to market standards
• Some use traditional three-sisters planting or mound-style cultivation
• The Tohono O'odham Nation grows easy to grow, extremely drought resistant beans
• “There’s an incredible culinary revolution happening.”
• e.g. the Native American Culinary Association

Misc. Quotes

• “Food is good for the body, but also good for the soul.”
• “We’re all kernels of the same cob.”
• “Seed to seed, soul to soul”; regarding to the restoration of international treaties

Resources/References

• Seeds of our Ancestors film
• The Cultural Conservancy
• Linda Hogan’s Ceremony for the Seeds poem
• Activist Patricia Gualinga

Enrique Salmón

• “Environmentalists and [people involved in sustainability] want to keep us in one place.”
• Before 1492, over 400 bean species existed in North America.
• “Stop using ‘how it used to be’ and ‘was’[ . . .]” there are and always will be maintaining cultural practices
• “A lot of my students don’t realize that corn was created by human beings…”; “We are children of the corn”
• Biodiversity is linked to cultural diversity
• “Native people are a keystone species”
• “Indigenous knowledge is local knowledge,” unique to each area
• Formed over vast amounts of time, much longer than Western scientists have studied North America
• “Small ancestral fields are the refugia of resilience”
• Small fields are microhabitats
• The Hopi Tribe of the Colorado Plateau has followed the same planting method for over a thousand years: 5 to 6 seeds are planted 18 inches underground. The deep earth provides the plants with moisture and the multiple stalks protect each other from topping in the wind. Nitrogen is fixed in the soil by beans that grow there.

Resilience and Connections to Food

• “One has to find the time to [learn about] long term memory”
• Long term memory is cultural history
• Short term history is a driving force of new ideas guided by advice from elders
• Resilience relates to cultural capital, primarily elders and farmers
• On his family asking for farming help from neighbors: “It was a way of creating community”
• “Every now and then you need to revolt… without forgetting the traditions.”
• “We don’t spend enough time directly connected to the environment”
• [As Native people,] “We’ve had a very direct relationship with our food”
• There is a loss of ancestral diets; pre-Columbian diets had relatively lower fat content and more fiber, insoluble fibers, amylose, and chromium. Ancestral diets slowed down the digestive systems.
• “We are that landscape… we’ve been eating our landscape.”
• “Choosing to eat our Ancestral foods in a political/decolonizing act”
• Quote from PowerPoint

• “We need to decolonize our food as much as possible.”
• “When we eat our Ancestral foods… we reject [harmful] agricultural practices.”
• “This is more than being political, this is embracing our identity.”
• “Our identity is only as strong as our actions.”

What’s Being Done

• Natwani Coalition works with Native CSAs
• Navajo farmers have identified and have revitalized ancient Puebloan fields that had lain dormant

Wrap-Up/End

• Enrique Salmon: “[Native people] are the juniper tree… with the next big gust that comes along, we’re still going to be standing.”
• Dr. Rosser: “We have always been here and we will always be here.”
• Survivance: survival and resilience
• “Remember, it’s not just about survival, it’s about resistance too,” -Professor Nelson
• “Food is more than just something we eat… You relearn the ceremonies… before long you revitalize your entire culture.”

Q&A

• GMOs:
• Both agreed that GMOs are a spiritual question
• Enrique: “We rely on the High Priest of Western science”
• We need to relate more to the world and our food
• Prof. Nelson: “Water is our first food;” water sovereignty is a part of food sovereignty.
• Regarding to the drought and purification of water, “we can use nature to heal nature.”

Favorite Recipes

• Prof. Nelson: an Ojibwe meal of wild rice with pecans and cranberries and braised buffalo
• Enrique: a Hopi bean sprout stew with herbs and mutton, a favorite food of the kachina- rain spirits, but more; “when we pass we become the rain.”
• Dr. Rosser: green chili stew

Indigethanx reflection

Jay L. Nelson, the Sustainability Office CUIP Events Coordinator, attended Indigethanx and reported their experience. 

On November 19th, I had the opportunity to attend Indigethanx, an annual event put on by the American Indian Resource Center to teach about and celebrate Native foodways and the reclamation of food sovereignty by Indigenous communities. After a welcome honoring the Four Directions and a song for generations of grandmothers, UCSC alumna and San Francisco State University professor Melissa Nelson and California State University professor Dr. Enrique Salmón each gave a presentation regarding Native food justice issues as well as connection to food.

Main themes included the epidemic of nutrition-based health afflictions in Native communities, particularly Type II Diabetes caused by lack of access to fresh and traditional foods due to food deserts; the cultural role of food such as strawberries and corns in creation stories, ceremonies, nutrition and culture in general; eating traditional food as a way to reclaim an identity and oppose harmful agricultural practices; and the inherent connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity.

The event was an amazing experience full of opportunities to get educated and get involved with Native food sovereignty movements. I appreciate all of the resources (books, movies, quotes, opportunities, and more) provided through each presentation and hope to learn more and stay updated on ways to get involved. There are a number of tribes and nations using traditional growing techniques in community supported agriculture to provide food to children and other community members, which I particularly wish to continue to research.

Here are notes from the event.

UCSC Alumni Panel at Inter-Org Retreat

The Planning Committee for the 6th Annual UCSC Inter-Organizational Sustainability Retreat is in the midst of preparing for our 2016 retreat, which will take place Friday, January 8 - Sunday, January 10. We are currently seeking alumni who were active with campus sustainability, social justice, equity, and/or inclusion efforts as a student who have continued to do this kind of work in the "real world" beyond UCSC. We have space for five panelists to participate in a discussion about the opportunities, challenges, and experiences that they have faced in their chosen fields that might be interesting, helpful, or valuable to current students doing this kind of work at UCSC. This panel will take place Friday, January 8, between 5-8 PM on the UCSC campus.

If you are interested in being considered for the panel, please reply to sustain.education [at] ucsc [dot] edu by December 7 and include the following information:

• Graduation year
• What you were involved with as a student at UCSC (organizations, college affiliation, major of study, etc.)
• What you currently do (either professionally or as a volunteer)
• One story or experience you might share with students about your work after UCSC
• The Planning Committee will review all emails and notify those who have been selected by mid-December.

Alumni are also invited to attend the Friday night event, even if you are not selected for the panel. Please RSVP by December 7th to guarantee your spot.

We are also seeking alumni proposals for workshops to lead on Saturday, January 9th at Camp Campbell in Boulder Creek. There is limited space for alumni-led workshops, so please let us know soon if you are interested, and we can send you detailed information about workshop criteria.


What is Inter-Org Retreat?

This annual retreat brings together students, staff, and faculty from many campus sustainability organizations for a weekend of team building, skills sharing, collaboration, and fun. This year, we are hoping to reimagine what "sustainability" means to our campus, and the planning committee--made up of students and staff from a number of organizations--is working to bring topics like social justice, equity, and inclusion into the forefront of the retreat. Learn more on the website.

National Bioneers Conference Report-Back

Melissa Ott, the Office Manager and Events Coordinator in the Sustainability Office, shares her experience at the National Bioneers Conference.

For 25 years, the National Bioneers Conference has connected thousands of people with practical, visionary solutions for humanity's most pressing environmental and social challenges." This year was my first time attending the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA, and it was a powerful experience that was made possible through a scholarship from UCSC's Common Ground Center. Bioneers, for me, brought the many threads of "sustainability" - environment, people, ecology, biodiversity, diversity, justice, equity, celebration of difference, purpose, conservation, conversation, art, climate, water, community, etc. - into a beautifully, vibrantly, amazingly woven cloth that held all of the attendees in its embrace for a weekend, bringing us in contact with new ideas and new people, encouraging us to sink into the realities of our world in their fullness. It was challenging to face some of those realities in their fullness--such as injustices, racism, and lack of inclusion within the sustainability movement and throughout society--but it was also necessary and important and motivating to participate in being the change. And of course many of those realities that I faced at Bioneers were beautiful examples of ways humans have brought justice and love and compassion for people and planet into the world and into their work. 

Throughout the weekend, I witnessed inspiring speakers such as Paul Hawken, Rinku Sen of Race Forward, author Kim Stanley Robinson, Ben Knight of Loomio, storyteller Michael Meade, Saru Jayarama of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and many others. I learned about work taking place to identify the most worthwhile approaches to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, such as reducing food waste, adding compost to soil, and capturing energy from tides and waves in our oceans. I heard about experiences individuals and organizations have had in illuminating race disparities and inequities in sectors like the labor, media, and food industries. There was even a dance party on the agenda for Saturday night, and it was a unique way to process the weekend's teachings, experiences, and ideas through movement. The conference was an amazing experience! I have brought back to UCSC with me a renewed inspiration to be the change I wish to see in the world and support my fellow banana slugs in the exciting, necessary, and oftentimes challenging work that we face in making the world more just and thriving.

Eight year old Lorelei Browman hangs her wish "of black and white together" for the Singing Tree Mural Collective Project at Bioneers 2015. Photo via: Susanna Frohman Photography

"The deepest part of the human soul is imagination." - Michael Meade performs with John Densmore at Bioneers 2015 during one of my favorite presentations. Photo via Josué Rivas Fotographer

Rinku Sen spoke about inclusion and social justice as a keynote speaker and as moderator of the "Racing Up Your Movement" session at Bioneers 2015. Photo: Josué Rivas Fotographer

December Sustainability Profile: Catherine Alfaro and Amran Khan

Each month, our newsletter features a person or group on campus that is working toward a more sustainable world. 

This month features American Indian Resource Center and People of Color Sustainability Collective interns Catherine Alfaro and Amran Khan. Catherine and Amran work together to showcase the historical, current, and future impact of people of color in the sustainability movement.

What is your title, affiliation, and year?

Amran: American Indian Resource Center and People of Color Sustainability Collective intern; College 10 affiliated junior.

Catherine: Intern for the American Indian Resource Center and Student Coordinator for People of Color Sustainability Collective; College 10 affiliated senior.

What does “sustainability” mean to you? 

Amran: Sustainability to me is more than just trying to preserve our environment, but also our culture, language, history, people, and future. There is no way of talking about sustainability without talking about issues like social justice and inequality. Sustainability involves everyone and everything from class, color, religion, et cetera. Being sustainable is important because it helps us to remember our roots and how we got to where we are.  

Catherine: Sustainability to me means sustaining the balance of many parts of life. A great reference for me is the web of life which shows the interconnectedness of everyone and everything. Culture, community, health, education, animals, individuals, food, the living and non-living things, et cetera are all connected. We all affect each other in positive and negative ways, but learning how to sustain every aspect of life is important. By sustaining I mean learning about culture, community, education, animals, health, food, the living and non-living things and preserving these entities. One important thing that I have learned is that there are many ways to define and practice sustainability. There is not a one size fits all or guidelines to being sustainable. I would only think about ecology when people would mention sustainability. It took a long time for me to define sustainability in a holistic way.

How would you describe the goals of the People of Color Sustainability Collective?

Amran: The goal of People of Color Sustainability Collective is to educate and show UCSC students the contributions people of color have made and will make for environmental justice. We also want to create spaces for people to be able to share their knowledge and experiences in the environmental justice movement.

Catherine: I would say that our main goals are to bring awareness and highlight the work that People of Color are doing in regards to sustainability. Also, to create spaces where people of color feel comfortable to share their views, experiences, and outlooks on sustainability as well as to redefine sustainability to include a variety of interpretations.

Any projects you're looking forward to this year?

Amran: People of Color Sustainability Collective has a lot of exciting projects in the future ahead. I am excited for more discussion, events, and activities in the future and next quarter to come. Also in the winter quarter, People of Color Sustainability Collective will be conducting research at UCSC, based on environmental and social justice.

Catherine: I am excited for the research Amran, Adriana (the People of Color Sustainability Collective Coordinator), and I will be working on in regards to student opinions, experiences, and perceptions about inclusivity in the campus sustainability movements. Also, I am excited for the different collaborations and events that we will be working on throughout the year.

What made you interested in sustainability?

Amran: Growing up as a person of color, I became interested in sustainability when I realized how much people of color are impacted by environmental issues and how little people recognized this. 

Catherine: Before joining the People of Color Sustainability Collective, I thought I did not know much about sustainability. I did not think I was sustainable myself. What changed my outlook on sustainability was re-defining what it meant to me. Both mentor Adriana Renteria and Dr. Rosser’s recommendation that I read the book by Enrique Salmon, Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience, helped me re-define sustainability. Learning that there are many components to sustainability and realizing that my family, my culture, and the work that I do are sustainable practices made me feel comfortable with the concept of sustainability. Realizing that all my life my family has been sustainable through actions that are seen as minuscule things like wearing hand-me-downs, re-using containers, trying our best to not waste food, and finding ingenious ways to work with what we have made me interested in sustainability. Validating the work that I have done within College 10 and the Ethnic Resource Centers that foster community, culture, and retention of students as something sustainable also made me interested. Being able to highlight the work that I do and redefine sustainability has been a big motivation.

If you could send one message about sustainability to everyone at UCSC, what would you say?
Amran: You can be sustainable about anything that impacts you or your greater interests.

Catherine: What I would say to people is that it would be good to reflect a little about their own definition of sustainability, why they think that, and how they could link it to the work they do. Also, that we might want to rethink our strategies on how to sustain our earth, and that people from a multitude of backgrounds and disciplines need to get together and talk about what is going on. All the different perspectives are needed to create a more inclusive and sustainable campus.

You can find the information and contact page for the People of Color Sustainability Collective here and check out the Facebook page here!