GreenEDP Review

The culminating project for the Sustainable Design course resulted in the creation of a website called GreenEDP. This site serves as an informational platform for the Solar EDP project and the Global Software Bundle.  I think that the website could be improved with better graphics for the projects as well as more imagery throughout the site. People are lazy and would rather look at pictures than read full paragraphs. I also think the site could become more succinct with the writing style.

In the future I could see this site growing to include other sustainability projects or endeavors that EDP makes as well as growing the information contained therein regarding the two current projects as future progress is made.

Software Bundle: Mapping Review

Maps are the essential vehicle for presenting gathered data like that collected in a data collection bundle. They allow for accessibility to often complex and complicated ideas as well as allowing complex data to be easily and quickly interpreted by both the citizen and the scientist. Below are several options for free data mapping services that are recommended for us in the data collection bundle.

CartoDB

This free, online mapping application creates visually stunning maps powered by Google Earth. The user-friendly interface is easily understood and allows anyone to produce high quality, professional maps to visual geo-located data points or information. The application allows for users to upload data in CSV, ESRI, Shapefiles, and several other standard file formats for data exportation.

Unfolding Maps

Using the open-source coding software, Processing, Unfolding Maps is a powerful data visualization generator. Because it relies more heavily on coding because of its format as a Processing package, it is less user-friendly and requires background knowledge of the language and formatting of Processing. However, with maps from OpenStreetMap, a user-generated map source, it can create very stunning results if harnessed correctly.

My Maps Google

Within the Google suite, one can create unique maps online and for free. Google Maps allows for data to be imported or added manually as individual data points. When making the maps, a specific testing area can be identified and includes spatial measuring tools. This platform is highly accessible and easily understood and shared. Also, using the Google Suite, these maps can be accessed remotely with a data or wifi connection on a mobile device.

Shwayder Solar Imaginings

Why has the University of Denver not pursued solar energy? Surely we have the donors and thus the funding to make such a transition and there is ample real estate on the many rooftops and walls throughout campus. One of these buildings, the Shwayder Art Building, has become one of the most antiquated and out of date buildings on campus. Compared to the newly renovated or recently built structures, it is a complete eye-sore that contributes very little to the look and feel of campus. But with the addition of solar panels, could become a beacon for clean, renewable energy and proof that the University is invested in protecting the environment (a huge selling point for prospective students.)  Below are some concept renderings of potential layouts for solar panels on the Art Building. 

CDOT Seatbelt Media Critique

In the past few weeks, The Colorado Department of Transportation, or CDOT, launched a billboard campaign that has received a lot of negative feedback from the Denver community. The billboards initially had large statements like “Brain Damage,” “Life or Death,” and “Windshield Ejection” without any explanation. Last week, the billboards were completed with a large, 3D seatbelt covering up the later half of these messages, conveying the message that by wearing a seatbelt, you can avoid tragedy such as damage, death, or ejection from the vehicle. The modified billboards also included the message “Buckle Up. Seatbelt enforcement is on.”

Many people view this campaign as unhelpful, dangerous, and wasteful. The billboards in total cost $200,000, money which many felt should be being used to repair potholes left from the winter and road maintenance. However, CDOT received these funds specifically for public safety campaigns like this one in a grant from the federal government. They have to use it for such purposes and the money cannot be spent on things like potholes.

I was left on the fence with this campaign. I think, from a marketing and PR standpoint, it is a very effective and powerful campaign that is simple and easy to understand. Plus, it is visually memorable and utilizes this form of media extremely effectively. But, I can see where the public outcry is stemming from. It does avert a driver’s eyes from the road and distracts them, leading to the potential for an accident and the types of damage the billboards describe. Also, the separation between initial installation and the installation of the final messaging and seat belts could be that many people didn’t get the full effect or message of the campaign, effectively rendering it a failure. Furthermore, I feel like the department should be requesting more funds for road maintenance rather than PSA funding. Yes, the messages they are spreading are important but the fact of the matter is that if the roads themselves aren’t safe to drive on, the message may not be as relevant.

CDOT’s Newest Seatbelt Campaign

Sodexo Sustainability – Media Critique

This past April, the food provider on DU’s Campus, Sodexo, issued several pieces of media in a campaign aimed at presenting Sodexo’s efforts toward being more sustainable. Their campaign consisted of several mission statements being played on the menu screens in dining halls, advertisements and posters throughout campus, and emails to students. Overall, their campaign was abysmal to say the least. The main focus of the campaign was on Sodexo’s “Real Food Challenge,” which aims to have 20% real food used by 2020. To me, this far from being a positive point. Rather, this indicates that currently “real food” is being used at a far lower rate, leading students to wonder what they are putting in their bodies. As they define it, real food is from a 300 mile radius of campus. They don’t even touch on whether these foods would be organic, GMO free, or even sustainably raised rather than from factory farms that happen to be in Colorado. For me, this was very troubling as I have spoken with many students who fear that the food they consume has lost most all of the nutrients it should have from travel and farming practices. Most don’t trust the food, don’t have the opportunity to eat fresh fruits of vegetables, and generally are extremely unhappy with Sodexo’s services.

The campaign mirrored Sodexo’s lack of care for the environment, quality food, and student health in that it was haphazardly composed and showed little effort. The main means of delivery was a photo campaign of students and Sodexo staff showing a board with their ideas of how to be more “green.” While students were able to come up with great ideas of how to reduce their carbon footprint, many of the Sodexo employees seemed to miss the point entirely. Some even admitted to not composting or recycling anything that students would put in the compost and recycling bins, proving that the lack of sustainability in our living spaces is not due to a lack of student engagement but rather a lack of participation or follow through from the University and its partners.

Overall, Sodexo’s Earth Month campaign fell short in my eyes. It proposed little change, disheartened students with cheap promises, and aesthetically seemed sloppy and last minute.

Cradle to Cradle Media: The Eco-Gym

Waste Land–Media Critique

Waste Land, the 2010 documentary, follows the work of renowned multimedia artist ViK Muniz, as he seeks to transform the lives and stories of the Jardim Gramacho, the largest garbage dump in the world located just outside of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. During a three year period, the documentary presents the daily lives, struggles, and hopes of some of the recyclables collectors at the dump as Vik works to amass a series of portraits of these workers made entirely out of recycled materials from the dump. Ultimately, the documentary focuses in on a select group which Vik selects to make portraits of and then enlists to help construct the massive garbage portraits.

In my opinion, the film is entertaining but is very troubling. It seems as though this affluent artist is coming in with little to offer these people but much to take. His work feels exploitative of these communities and doesn’t offer them any escape or reprieve from the daily prison of poverty. At best, it feels like he’s offering them some semblance of hope only to leave them with nothing more than a print of what they made. The whole project seems selfish and dishonest.

The documentary did serve to reveal the conditions of the Rio dump as well as a brief glimpse into the conditions of some of the favelas of Rio. However, it doesn’t give a call to action or a real purpose at the end other than to show off this artist’s “humanitarianism” or false charity. In my opinion, it was not an effective use of media for cause or for sustainability.

The Cove–Media Critique

The documentary, The Cove,  follows the efforts of Ric O’Berry, the renowned dolphin trainer from the TV show Flipper, as he and his team work to uncover the atrocities against dolphins taking place in Taiji, Japan. The documentary by Louis Psihoyos seeks to present the horrors of the Dolphin industry and the impact it is having on these creatures and on society. The Cove uncovers the mass capture, slaughter, and mistreatment of dolphins in a secret cove in the small fishing town of Taiji. The fishermen use completely inhumane methods to corral the wild dolphins and forcibly remove them from the ocean for use in live exhibits and attractions around the world. The dolphins which cannot be sold or are still babies are then forced into a shallow cove where they are speared, leaving them to bleed out and left for dead. Some of these slaughtered dolphins are then sold to the masses, labeled as various other expensive fish meat, in spite of the lethal levels mercury dolphin meat contains.

The documentary uses raw footage to demonstrate the extent to which this is happening and the lengths that the Japanese are going to in order to perpetuate and protect this “industry” and “culture”.  This method is extremely powerful as it juxtaposes the passion of those trying to save the dolphins and their solid facts against those killing them with the sheer ignorance and corruption of these individuals who support this mass slaughter. The film relies heavily on emotional appeal and very thoroughly shocks the audience into caring and taking a stand against these atrocities. The filming was skilled and the editing was exceptional, furthering the legitimacy of their actions, some of which were technically illegal in Taiji, as well as the legitimacy of their cause. The documentary served as a great motivator and consciousness raising medium that leaves the audience enraged and wanting to help stop this.

I personally was deeply impacted by the film as I had no idea of the types of horrors taking place to obtain dolphins. I recently was in Mexico and in my travels, every single resort that we passed advertised a “swim with dolphins” exhibit on their grounds. The resort I stayed at even had one; the dolphins were given a shallow pool barely big enough to swim in. I was appalled and refused to let my family members contribute to the mistreatment and the demand for dolphins by partaking in the exhibit. While this small action may not have much of an impact in the grand scheme of things, it is the result of seeing this film and is my personal act of solidarity with those fighting this problem on a grand scale.

Overall, this film was extraordinarily effective using media to raise awareness of an issue of animal rights and sustainability that most people don’t even think about otherwise. It leaves a lasting impression and urges the audience to seek out ways to help.