Back-to-School, House Plant Ethics, and More! |
Dear Baltimore Office of Sustainability Friends,
It’s August - a time when many students, teachers, and faculty begin returning to schools. As students transition back into the classroom, we wanted to remind readers of some key environmental considerations. Untapped social distancing opportunities are being realized through outdoor classrooms which play an important role in connecting children to nature. Schools also provide an opportunity to teach a waste-conscious culture. We challenge parents, guardians, educators, and others who work with students to think critically about how to reuse, repurpose, and upcycle much-needed school supplies. For example, SCRAP in Pigtown manages a Creative Reuse Center featuring low-cost art and school supplies. Visit them today!
As a reminder, the Baltimore City Department of Public Works is collecting food waste at five (5) residential drop-off centers across the city. If you cannot make the Saturday or Sunday Farmers’ Markets, don’t fret. Residents are encouraged to drop off food scraps at any one of the convenience sites Monday through Friday during business hours (see flyer for locations and times).
Keep reading to learn more about amazing sustainability happenings across the city! This month we uplift a recently awarded $1 million grant to support the city's Community Resiliency Hub Program, share a report about a traffic calming project called 'The Big Jump', give tips to ethically source indoor plants, and link to various funding and job opportunities.
Happy Reading!
Baltimore Office of Sustainability Staff
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Members of Let's Thrive Baltimore at their Ribbons for Remembrance & Healing event. Photo c/o Let's Thrive Baltimore |
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The Baltimore City Intergenerational Initiative for Trauma and Youth (B-CIITY) Coalition reflects the best of Baltimore's ingenuity and resilience. B-CIITY is a coalition of 60+ organizations working to advance trauma-informed care approaches across the city. Grassroot organizations including the Black Mental Health Alliance (BMHA) provide much-needed healing resources to marginalized communities through events like their Sawubona Circles that encourage youth to activate their voice and choice and use the strengths that are already within. Other organizations include Bmore Empowered, which implemented a youth-focused PhotoVoice project, and B-360, which combines STEM and Baltimore Dirt Bike culture to close the STEM gap while encouraging youth to express themselves.
B-CIITY Coalition also works collaboratively with numerous organizations to host city-wide events like Let's Thrive Baltimore's city-wide Healing Vigil that honors those who have been impacted by gun violence. B-CIITY's efforts support its mission to continuously create community change through community-based, participatory approaches that promote community and youth engagement, leadership development, improved governance, and capacity building. Learn more about the B-CIITY Coalition and their work by connecting with them via social media!
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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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Baltimore's Community Resiliency Hub Program Receives $1 Million in State Funding |
The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) has awarded Baltimore City’s Community Resiliency Hub Program $1,000,000 in grant funding to install solar and battery storage systems for three Community Resiliency Hub partner organizations. The three organizations are: City of Refuge in South Baltimore, Empowerment Temple in NW Baltimore, and Miracle City Church in SW Baltimore.
These installations will serve to reduce utility costs for the organizations and enable critical community services to continue when the power grid goes down. The Community Resiliency Hub Program’s solar project team was essential in securing this funding and will be overseeing the purchase, installation, and management of the systems. The team includes Groundswell, Inc, A.F. Mensah, SunCatch Energy, and SunLight General Capital.
Thanks to this award, there will soon be 7 Community Resiliency Hub partner organizations in low to moderate-income communities with solar and battery backup systems!
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A section of City of Refuge's rooftop that will soon be covered with solar panels! Photo c/o Brad Boston of SunCatch Energy |
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Sustainable Survival Kit Project Success |
Our office's Youth Environmental Leadership high school intern team, organizing as Baltimore Beyond Plastic, has been focusing on the relationship between climate change, environmental injustice, and homelessness/resource deprivation this year. Over the winter and spring, they engaged in interviews, conversations, and volunteering with a wide range of individuals with lived experience of homelessness and organizations who work to help meet the day-to-day material survival needs of Baltimore's unhoused population. The team compiled a list of most-needed items, especially any that were reusable, and aimed to source them as ethically and sustainably as they could on a limited budget.
Calling it the Sustainable Survival Kits project, the team solicited donations of gently-used backpacks and attracted over $11,000 in retail value of donated items from a long list of agencies and businesses. In July, in partnership with the Giving Love Bash at the Red Shed Village & Garden Space, the team gave out 50 backpacks, each containing snacks and essential hygiene items, as well as reusable items like zippered canvas bags, metal water bottles, folding metal sporks, and more. Backpacks were customized by their recipients. In the end, approximately 100 people were served and a lot of great conversations were had. The team is now looking at how to broaden its reach.
Thank you to the city agencies and community organizations who advised on and donated to this project!
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Members of Baltimore Beyond Plastic at their July give-away! Photo c/o BOS Staff |
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Sustainability Highlights |
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A young kid rides his bike along The Big Jump. Photo c/o BCDOT |
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How Did The Big Jump Perform? |
The Big Jump Shared Use Path is an initiative by the Baltimore City Department of Transportation (BCDOT) and community partners to create a safe and comfortable pedestrian/bicycle connection between the Reservoir Hill and Remington neighborhoods. BCDOT conducted an evaluation of the project, which included a public survey and data analyses. The report's recommendations include making the project permanent, instituting additional improvements to the street design and shared-use path to improve safety and access, and implementing additional traffic calming measures along Druid Park Lake Drive.
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Photo of the study c/o CLF. |
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Safe Urban Harvest Study Released |
This summer, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) released the long-awaited Safe Urban Harvests Study, which assessed soil at urban farms and community gardens throughout Baltimore City. It found that the vast majority of our city's food production sites have safe levels of heavy metals. The study - which was designed in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, as well as with the Farm Alliance of Baltimore, University of Maryland Extension, and the Parks & People Foundation - examined soil, water, and produce samples from 104 farms and gardens. Urban produce samples were compared to samples of organic produce from farmers' markets and grocery stores, with no significant difference in safety detected. CLF also released 3 videos: a short video about the results of the study; a video on best practices for growing food safely in urban soils; and a video covering changes to our urban agriculture Soil Safety Policy that were prompted by the findings.
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Books + Articles our Staff are Reading |
"...citizens are taking advantage of the project as a convenient (and free) way to compost. It’s a good sign for city officials, who hope that the initiative will change how Baltimoreans think about their food waste overall."
"Amid a round of futuristic planning underway, city officials, neighbors and other stakeholders agree that Baltimore must simultaneously reckon with the racially divisive planning decisions of the past. Acknowledging that history and weighing how to reflect Baltimore’s Black culture — with educational and Black-led programming, for example — at Druid Lake has figured prominently into the public engagement phase so far, officials and stakeholders say."
Baltimore County Re-Use Directory 2021-2022 -- Bookmark this great directory for your donations! Our neighbors in Baltimore County have created a directory of more than 50 organizations in greater Baltimore, including many organizations based in Baltimore City, that accept various items and materials for reuse. The directory lists organization by type of materials, allowing readers to learn how to close the loop on various items including books, bicycles, clothing, and appliances.
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Photo from New York Times article entitled 'Global Cactus Traffickers Are Cleaning Out the Deserts.' |
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How to Shop Smarter (for Plants!) |
Did you know that 1/3 of cacti are threatened with extinction? This is because the house plant trend has sparked the growth of online independent plant sellers. These unregulated platforms have created incentives for individuals to harvest plants in the wild to be sold on marketplaces or social media. Though indoor plants are great for improving indoor air quality and interior aesthetics, it is important for you to know if the plants you purchase are sustainably cultivated. Likewise, supporting the conservation of native plants in the wild is critical to helping mitigate this illegal trade.
How you can help:
- Ask where plant-sellers source their plants (especially when buying online)
- Know if your plants are cultivated or wild harvested
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Buy from approved growers (that can supply CITES permits)
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If buying slow-growing cacti or rare plants, look up their status on The IUCN Red List.
- If a plant is threatened according to The IUCN Red List, request proof from growers that plants are nursery grown or have a CITES permit.
- Donate towards plant conservation!
Content for this section was provided by B.Willow. Learn more about how they are helping with plant conservation here.
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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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Lead Editor: 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; Ava Richardson, Sustainability Manager; Lauryn Countess, Communications Intern; Sara Kaiser, Baltimore Public Allies Fellow
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