Dear Baltimore Office of Sustainability Friends,
Happy Earth Month/Week/Day! In this issue, we're sharing a wide variety of ways you can help "Restore Our Earth™" from composting to community cleanups to nature therapy. It also happens to be Flood Awareness Month. Here at the Office, we're marking Earth Day by releasing our 2019-2020 Annual Report, which shares stories of how the Baltimore community has worked over the last two years to make every day Earth Day. This Annual Report serves to summarize and highlight many of the accomplishments from the past two years that support the implementation of the Baltimore Sustainability Plan, which was adopted on Earth Day in 2019. The Sustainable Strategies and Actions Implementation section of the annual report illustrates the status and progress of each of the plan’s 243 actions, ranging from “still pending” to “implemented/ongoing.” As of the end of 2020, a total of 23%, or 55 actions, have reached mid-stages of implementation or beyond, with 71% of the actions reaching at least early-stage implementation. Five of the actions have been completed or have reached ongoing implementation. In addition to stories illustrating progress on Sustainability Plan strategies and actions, the Annual Report also includes data snapshots with many of the topics.
On a similar note, another exciting advancement is that you can now donate directly to our Office's community outreach and Sustainability Plan implementation efforts through the Baltimore Civic Fund! Thanks for your continued support and partnership as we work to make Earth Day every day in Baltimore City.
Warmly,
Baltimore Office of Sustainability Staff
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Marvin Hayes, Program Manager at The Baltimore Compost Collective. Photo c/o Mr. Hayes. |
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Marvin Hayes -- The Compost Collective |
Marvin Hayes grew up in West Baltimore and first became connected to nature through a trip with Outward Bound while he was at Frederick Douglass High School. Five trips later, he became an intern with Outward Bound, then received a job at a wilderness school in Connecticut. When he came back to Baltimore, he worked with the Chesapeake Center for Youth Development, where he met young people who taught him about urban composting.
Today, he's the Program Manager of the Baltimore Compost Collective, a youth-empowered food scrap collection service based in Curtis Bay's Filbert Street Garden whose motto is "Compost: Learn so we don't have to burn." Earlier this month, he was featured in a video by The Guardian as part of their "America's Dirty Divide" series on environmental justice. In the piece, he and other advocates discuss their efforts to move Baltimore past trash incineration. One of our Office's interns, Antonio Dismel, took a walk with Marvin the other week and received a tour of Filbert Street and a crash course on composting, which you can watch here.
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You don’t have to be a climate scientist or city planner to help improve the sustainability and resilience of Baltimore. Everyone has a story to tell about making Baltimore a stronger, fairer, and safer place for all of us. We’ve been collecting stories on our website, and we invite you to share yours with us by posting on social media with the hashtag #EveryStoryCounts and/or by emailing us.
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2019-2020 Sustainability Annual Report |
This week, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability is releasing our Sustainability Annual Report covering 2019 and 2020! This is the first report of progress made in advancing the 2019 Sustainability Plan. In the report, we provide an overview of actions and success stories around the 5 core themes -- Community, Human-Made Systems, Climate & Resilience, Nature in the City, and Economy -- and 23 topic areas of the 2019 Baltimore Sustainability Plan. Once the 2019-2020 Annual Report is released, it will be available here along with our past Annual Reports.
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Activating the Baltimore Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights (COBOR) |
April is Environmental Action Month, so we're celebrating by highlighting Baltimore's Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights! Throughout the month, we'll be sharing information on each of the 9 rights that the COBOR protects for our children, along with ideas for how you can act upon each one.
COBOR is, above all else, a document of environmental justice that outlines the right of every child in Baltimore to breathe fresh air, access safe green spaces, eat healthy foods, and build a sense of agency in their environments. It was adopted in 2019, and now needs the public's help to be put into practice! Follow along with us on Facebook @baltimoresustainability or Instagram @sustainbmore throughout April to see what you and your children can access in the city, and tag us if you participate in any of the activities we share!
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Baltimore Beyond Plastic Backpack Drive |
Our Office's high school intern team, organizing as Baltimore Beyond Plastic, is collecting donations of clean and gently used backpacks on May 1st & 2nd and 8th & 9th. Backpacks will be accepted at the composting stations at the Waverly Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8am-12pm and at the JFX Farmers Market on Sundays from 7am-12pm (see below under "Sustainability Highlights" for more details on composting). The backpacks will be distributed as part of the Sustainable Survival Kits project that the team is developing to provide essential items to Baltimore's homeless population.
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Sustainability Highlights |
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Food scrap do's and don'ts. |
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Food Scrap Drop Off Locations |
Food scrap collection is underway again at the Baltimore Farmers Market & Bazaar! The market is located in downtown Baltimore under I-83 at the corner of E. Saratoga & Holliday and will run every Sunday from 7am-12pm through December 19th, 2021. The scraps go toward feeding the hogs at Pahl's Farm, located in Woodstock, MD. You can also bring your scraps to the Waverly Farmers Market, 8am-12pm every Saturday. Please be sure to follow our composting guidelines by bringing only plant-based scraps (aside from eggshells, which are ok) and avoiding any compostable bags or paper items such as coffee filters, paper plates, bags, cups, and paper towels.
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The 17-year Brood X Cicadas will emerge in the next few weeks. Cicadas are large flying insects that feed on tree sap. Periodical cicadas, like Brood X, spend most of their lives underground, emerging in large numbers after 13 or 17 years to reproduce in May and into June. They are not dangerous to people or pets, but eating them could upset your pet's stomach. They are harmless to most plants, and using insecticides to get rid of them is not recommended, to avoid harming other beneficial insects. Cicadas are a beneficial food source for small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish, and as adult cicadas die off, their bodies decompose and fertilize the soil. The holes they make in the soil can help improve rainwater filtration into the soil. The University of Maryland Department of Entomology has a website full of photos, resources, and other information to answer any question you may have about cicadas.
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Books + Articles our Staff are Reading |
"Pattie Gonia is nothing short of an icon in the intersectional environmentalism movement. Hiking up Colorado’s rocky mountain range in six-inch heels, her aim is to bring positivity and inclusivity to the outdoors."
"Black innovators have made countless discoveries and contributions to the world of science and technology, including sustainability, climate science, and food tech -- all industries poised to slow or reverse the devastating effects of climate change."
"The past 20 years have seen an increase in the amount of climate-related disasters and the destruction they cause...Don’t wait till the storm is coming or the earthquake starts to grab these from the app store."
What the city, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other partners learned from the corps' first six months, including how to leverage the program beyond the pandemic.
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Food Matters illustration by artist Yifan Luo @yifanluoart. |
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Save Food, Save Money, Save the Planet |
Can you believe about 49% (almost HALF) of our residential waste is made up of things that could be composted? In the spirit of compost season and the reopening of Sunday collections at the JFX Farmers' Market, Turtle is here to give you some composting tips:
- Separate your produce scraps from the rest of your food waste. Animal products are not compostable.
- Store your produce scraps in the freezer to avoid pests. Remove all tags and stickers first.
- At the end of the week, bring those scraps to the Waverly (Saturday) or JFX (Sunday) Farmers' Markets, and look for the big compost bins!
- Or compost at home and use that rich soil additive to grow new fruits, veggies, and other plants!
Turtle also wants to remind you that while composting is vital, we should also try to reduce the presence of food waste in the first place. Here are some tips on doing this while saving money:
- Look in your pantry and fridge before going to the store to take stock of what you have.
- Plan out your meals and make a list.
- Many foods are still very safe to eat after their "Best By" dates -- that date is only telling you when the product is most fresh, so taste/smell/check for consistency before throwing it out.
- Freeze foods to extend their lifespan.
Buying less and wasting less is not only better for the environment, but it also saves you money. It's a win-win! Check out our website if you want to learn more about Baltimore's Food Matters Program to reduce food waste.
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We Love Feedback
Tell us what you want to hear! Do you have ideas on newsletter content? Or would you like to nominate an organization or person to be featured? Email us at sustainability@baltimorecity.gov.
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Our Mission
The Office of Sustainability develops and advocates for programs and policies that improve Baltimore's long-term environmental, social, and economic viability.
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417 E Fayette St, 8th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
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Editor-in-Chief: Aubrey Germ, Climate and Resilience Planner
Newsletter Contributors: Bruna Attila, Coastal Resources Planner + Acting Floodplain Manager; Abby Cocke, Environmental Planner; Amy Gilder-Busatti, Environmental Planner; Kim Knox, Green Network Coordinator; Lisa McNeilly, Sustainability Director; Anika Richter, Youth Sustainability Coordinator; Lauryn Countess, Communications Intern; Sara Kaiser, Baltimore Public Allies Fellow; Brianne Martin, STATS Intern
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