To Sum It All Up...

I hope you guys all had a great learning experience through your internships! I know I did. 

Having this internship was truly a great experience. I learned a lot about the actual role of sustainability within Maricopa County as well as county procedures for executing projects, whether sustainability-foucused or not. The county, like many other organizations and institutions, still has a long road, but getting on the road is the biggest step. All of the events I spoke of in this blog, with exception of the career fairs, I found out threw my internship and the people I met during that time. Threw my supervisor, I met many fascinating people that are at the center of transforming Phoenix into city that can be called sustainable, instead of being known as the "Least Sustainable City" as Andrew Ross represents it in Bird on Fire. It was truly priceless. 

Almost There!

This is the last full week of the semester, and I have to admit I have been on a bad case of senioritis, but I am sure I am not alone. We are almost there guys!

In the end, we ended up evaluating five different departments for OffSET. Our goal was eight, but we hit a minor road block when our supervisor had jury duty for a couple of weeks. We completed and distributed all of the assessments and recommendations between 4-7 days of the evaluation. I would like to know, and this is a possible task for future interns of GGP, if any of the departments considered our recommendations and if they executed them. 

Phoenix Urban Design Week - Day 5

Day 2 of the Retrofitting Sprawl Symposium consisted of a panel of local developers, including the Ranch Mine, Habitat Metro, Desert Viking, and Venue Projects: Kitchell-Perez, who discussed historic preservation, adaptive reuse for industrial and commercial properties, and residential rehabilitation in making the "American Dream" a sustainable one. It was interesting to see the corporate perspective on how to go about changing neighborhoods, and whole cities for that matter, to become more sustainable. I must admit, it was not as insightful as the first day, but still very informative.

Phoenix Urban Design Week - Day 4

Today was the first day of the Retrofitting Sprawl Symposium. Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williams -- authors of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs -- Presented on how abandoned stipmalls and big box stores on the fringe of cities don't have to become blight but instead be retrofitted into schools, community centers, urban hubs, etc. Nan Ellin, who is a former ASU faculty and creator of CanalScape, presented on what constitutes good urbanism, which she argues to be knowledge, skills and talent, and resources. Sh also spoke of her project CanalScape, which aimed at creating urban hubs throughout metropolitan Phoenix where canals meet major streets, and spoke of her new project along an old rail line Salt Lake City. Galina Techevia, Urban Planner, presented on a strategy to repair sprawl and promote sustainable communities. The symposium was attended by insightful people with innovative ideas.

Phoenix Urban Design Week - Day 3

I had the great opportunity to attend a debate focused on sustainability in Phoenix between Andrew Ross, author of Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable Phoenix, and Grady Gammage Jr., Senior Research Fellow at the Morrsion Institute for Public Policy. Topics included water, the economy, policy and social sustainability. When speaking of revitalization, regarding urban design and economy, Grady Gammage had a top-down approach to the argument in saying that experts should go into places -- neighborhoods, communities, etc -- and fix the problem. Andre Ross argues that an alternative model should be executed where people from within the community are given resources which allow the capacity to create leaders and promoters; communities need to change organically. This debate was really insightful to what experts and residents alike think and have to say about the growth of Phoenix.

Phoenix Urban Design Week- Day 1

Today marked the beginning of Phoenix's first Urban Design Week. Urban Design Week is meant to focus on the importance of urban design as being essential to the city's community development, economic growth, and sustainability. Today consisted of a lecture, Images of America: Downtown Phoenix, which was a reflection of the book with the same name. The presenters, Jim McPherson, Seth Anderson, and Suad Mahmaljin, promoted historic preservation, adaptive refuse, and quality development for downtown Phoenix, as well as the rest of the valley. The book came out to promote the Arizona Centennial and highlight Phoenix and its rich history in this young state. It was a very informative lecture that included photos of Phoenix, then and now.

Bike Racks in County Buildings

A project that my supervisor, Jonce, was in the process of implementing was installing bike racks in all of the county departments in downtown Phoenix. In order to figure out where the best places to install them, we walked around all of downtown, going to each county building and projecting where the racks should be placed. We had a map of the buildings in the downtown area, and would mark on the map where the bike racks should be placed. In, addition we took pictures of what the area looked like. Th goal is to have bike racks in every building by the end of next year.

Internship Block

There was a little block in my internship last semester where my supervisor had jury duty for two weeks. This led to a few OffSET evaluations to be set back. One of the mornings that my supervisor had jury duty we had the opportunity to attend the grand opening of Divine Legacy, which is the first sustainable affordable housing development in downtown Phoenix. The building is locate on Central and Campbell, which is right next to the Light Rail stop in that area -- T.O.D. It consists of 65 units on 0.6 of an acre, is built right off of the sidewalk, has shared parking with other organizations on the block, and is the first LEED Platinum TOD (Transit Oriented Development) in Phoenix. The units range from studios to 2-story family apartments and has a courtyard in the middle that has a playground. It was a great learning and networking experience.

Downtown Phoenix Career Fair

I hope you guys had a good spring break!

This week I volunteered at the Career Fair in downtown for a few hours. It was interesting to see how different it was than the one held in Tempe. Downtown's was definitely much smaller, but also had employers that pertained to the downtown colleges instead of a general population of professions. I noticed that in the lobby there was a booth that would review your resume. I'm curious to find if students found that helpful. Did any of you go to the Career Fair? What did you think of it?

Internship routine

As my time at GGP progressed, I found myself having a set list of tasks to complete and my time there was beginning to have a routine. Upon arriving I would research events occurring around the valley that dealt with sustainability and environmental issues and would update the GGP calendar. I then work on the OffSET programs that need to be finished for that day, while listening to NPR. However, there were those days where I was able to attend meetings and events and learn about the different aspects of GGP's in the county, which was always insightful.

Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk

During my internship last semester, I had the opportunity to visit PURL, Phoenix Urban Research Lab, a few times. I also met some employees including Aaron Kimberlin, the Associate Director of PURL. Through this connection I was able to go to an event yesterday, that promoted the importance of walkability and how it can be accomplished in downtown Phoenix. Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk was a lecture/workshop explaining how certain traffic calming practices, alternative transportation facilitates, and sustainable community design enhance walkability within a city. Dan Burden, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, led the lecture and informed the audience of his successful practices.

The group was able to conduct a walkability audit by taking a walking tour of the downtown area. At each stop ideas were explained of what can be done to those areas in order to become more pedestrian friendly. The workshop consisted of small groups focused on a certain street section and adding elements that would make it easier to walk through. It's amazing what people can come up with when given the opportunity to be creative. 

This presentation is part of PURL's Transit Town Initiative, which aims to help Phoenix achieve its goal in providing more transportation choices. 

I hope everyone has a great Spring Break!

Downtown Park Development

This week I had the opportunity to attend a Hance Park Steering Committee Meeting, which is a project I had been following during my internship. Hance Park is a downtown Phoenix park in the process of getting revitalized. Currently, a master plan is being created for the park. The steering committee is creating a set of guidelines for what should be in the park (i.e. park amenities, parking, etc.). The meeting I attended focused on the development of a dog park, skate plaza, amphitheater, concession stands, and bike community center within the park. Most of the time was focused on the dog park. The issue wasn't having a dog park in Hance Park, but where it would be located. There were some neighborhood residents opposed to having the dog park next to their homes. The committee members listened to what they had to say and voted on the location, which was next to the resident homes. All of the other amenities were past as well.

It was interesting to hear both sides of the discussion, from the public and from committee members. As each topic was addressed, the public was able to share their input right away instead of waiting for their names on the speaker's list, which allowed for a more natural conversation. Granted this wasn't a city council meeting, it was more informal, but I thought it made each side's discussion be taken into deeper consideration when the argument and the rebuttal occurring one after the next. Overall, it was an effective meeting.

Go Green '11

My supervisor informed me about Go Green '11, which is a yearly conference held in different cities, and last year Phoenix hosted it at the Phoenix Convention Center. He informed me that if you volunteered for the event, you can attend for free. So I volunteered by passing out flyers around downtown Phoenix. The event had several lectures including, greenwashing and paying for sustainable development. It was definitely an experience.

Something to learn: Networking!

I hope all of your internships are going well!

I believe the most important lesson I took away from my internship is to NETWORK. It could not be stressed enough how important it is to get out there and meet people, who can potentially become professional contacts. There are actual events that organizations and institutions plan out on a monthly or bi-monthly basis that primarily focus on networking. It's shocking to see where a simple question or small talk can go. Some tips I for when it comes to networking

• Ask questions, especially if you don't like to talk about yourself
• Have a speech prepared when people ask what you do or what you want to do after you graduate 
• PRACTICE, either with friends, classmates, or anyone who will give you suggestions
• Have a business card; even if you are a student, because it allows people to better remember you

Do you guys have anymore tips from what you have learned?

Valley of the Sunflowers

A special trip we made during my time at GGP was taking the long walk down to 3rd St. and Garfield to Kitchen Sink studios. There we met the historic preservation advocate, Jim McPherson, and the art and park advocate, Dorina Bustamante. As we spoke about their roles in Phoenix, we walked down to a previously vacant lot down the street. A lot behind Bioscience High School was vacant and, through much effort and hard work, was transformed into a sunflower lot, name Valley of the Sunflowers. This project is meant to start up conversation about vacant lots in downtown Phoenix and how they can easily be filled by temporary uses, while waiting to be developed. The sunflower seeds of the flowers being grown on the lot will be used to extract oil, which will then be used for an automobile that Bioscience High School students are building. Currently, there are a number of initiatives taking place that revolve around vacant lots, including the Ro2 lot or "The Lot: What Should Go Here?", where Mayor Stanton discussed the need to temporary projects on vacant lots.

OffSET App?

One of the weeks of my internship I focused on attempting to make OffSET a mobile app. Let me just say, that making an app is not an easy task. You have to come up with the right coding, go through various trials and formatting, and put in many many hours of work. Honestly, I am not that technologically savvy, though I would like to be. I found that there are websites where you can just input that information you want in  your app and they make the coding for you, but the app never comes out the way you really wanted it to. Though it takes time and critical thinking, I would rather make an app out of scratch, however long it takes.

Career Fair in Tempe

Today I had the opportunity of attending the Career Fair at the MU on Tempe Campus. I have to say that I was not to impressed with the companies that attended. The vast majority dealt with sales, investment, or insurance. I know this is not a time to be picky, but I was not interested in any. I spoke with a few representatives, but none really sold me on the job. I currently have two jobs, bot in retail, equalling out to ~50 hours per week. I would love to find a job I can make a career of after I graduate, but at the moment, I don't know what that job is (I just know it's not in sales, insurance, or investment). If any of you attended, I hope you had better luck than I did.

The elevator speech.

Since I took my internship last semester, my post will not be as detailed as the rest of yours. I apologize in advance. The first few weeks at GGP entailed studying OffSET, the program itself, how it was created, the research that was used in order to create it, and how to calculate what we evaluate as far as kilowatts used and the money it costs. It was a great deal to comprehend, but after looking over the documents dozens of times it becomes pretty straight forward.

Something Jonce ask the other intern and I is how would we describe sustainability, in terms of our degree, for someone who doesn't understand the concept? He advised us that the best way to think about an answer is to pretend that we were doing an elevator speech. It is important to give a direct and comprehensible answer in the time it took to get from one floor to another. This is what I came up with:

A degree in sustainability entails balancing the economic, social, and environmental sectors within a certain institution, city, region, or country, through a diverse skill set ranging from innovative problem-solving to building effective and strategic efforts that will have a long-term effect. I am able to focus on a specific project, such as bringing affordable, sustainable development along a transit line or using the holistic approach on a broader scale by creating a sustainable program within a company or region that will in turn become a part of the company or region's problem-solving mechanisms.

Hopefully, my explanation was understandable. 

Something to talk about...

I hope all of your internship are going well so far!

According the Class Information, we are supposed to have 5 posts about anything we want to write about... This will be my first.

A bit of exciting news, I officially applied for graduation this week and am contemplating on ordering my cap and gown. I have a cap bedazzling date with miss Holly Williamson, who is also in this class, sometime this semester which I am really looking forward to. But that's not what i would like to talk about.

I am currently taking a class, Intro to Urban Planning, where the professor likes to updates us on news, any news, mostly political. Anyway, this week he showed us an article called "McDonald's confirms that its no longer using 'pink slime' chemical in hamburgers." I have attached the link to the article if you are interested in reading it. The 'pink slime' the article is referring to is ammonium hydroxide, which is a chemical used in fertilizers and households cleaners, among other things. This chemical is being used in the process of making ground beef. Not just McDonald's used it. The ground beef you find in grocery stores and other fast food places uses it as well. A video about 'pink slime' is also included on the page and we watched it in class. It pretty much shows the process of how ground beef is made. I don't want to state my opinion, but instead want to hear what you guys think about this article. Enjoy!

P.S. Ammonium hydroxide is not required to be put on the label for ground beef.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mcdonald-confirms-no-longer-using-pink-slime-chemicals-171209662.html

What is Maricopa County Green Government Program?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I learned about the Maricopa County Green Government Program (GGP) through a Luncheon held at ASU a few semesters ago. GGP was actually written developed by my Supervisor, Jonce Walker, along with a few colleagues. The main purpose of the program is to is "to develop a long-term strategy whereby the County will reduce it's carbon footprint, help save money, and enhance the region's environment" (Maricopa County GGP website). The overall environmental focus of the program is divided into subcategories: air, community, energy, land use, waste and recycling, transportation, and water. So far, GGP has undergone several projects such as creating a greenhouse gas inventory for the county, creating an Environmentally friendly Purchasing Policy (EPP), developing a county wide recycling program: "bin here, do that," undergoing renewable energy projects for county buildings, and taking part in assuring that the county's buildings are LEED certified.

The most recent project GGP is focusing on, other than OffSET, is opening a bike cellar in downtown Phoenix close to the Van Buren and Central Light Rail stop. This project is still in the early stages, but it will be interesting how it plays out.

My focus

I hope all of your internships are going well so far!

The position I took on at Maricopa County Green Government Program was focused on a program called OffSET (Office Sustainability Empowerment Tool). The other intern and I were going to evaluate different county departments such as Flood Control, Environmental Services, Air Quality, Library District, Medical Examiner's Office, and Public Health among others and determine their sustainability efforts focusing on air, energy, waste, and transportation. We worked with a program the previous interns created that provided a checklist of what to look for when doing these assessments. There are three levels for these departments to complete along with certificate with the completion of each level. In addition, the standing of each department for OffSET is posted on the GGP website to show what each department has done and how much further it needs to go. We looked at how many lights were being used and what kind they are, how many plants offices had, how many offices had natural light capability, what is getting recycled, how employees get to work in terms of transportation, etc. Assessing these departments not only taught me about the efforts they are putting forward, but also the type of work they are doing and how they implement office sustainability into their everyday routines.

About Me...

My name is Amelia Liliana Herrera. I usually go by Liliana or Lili. I am a senior on my last semester (Woohoo!) majoring in Sustainability and Urban & Metropolitan Studies. I look forward to read about all the internships you guys are doing this semester and what you learn from them! My blog is going to be a little different since I had my internship last semester, so I will write what I can mostly remember and I apologize ahead of time if my posts are not at detailed as the rest of yours.

Last semester, I interned with the Maricopa County Green Government Program. Jonce Walker, who is the Sustainability Manager, was my supervisor.  I heard about the Maricopa County GGP at a luncheon I attended a few semesters ago. The Second Annual EcoAid Luncheon persisted of careers focusing on different aspects of sustainability where four different panelists, Mr. Walker included, spoke about their careers and answered a few questions about sustainability within their careers. I emailed Mr. Walker a few months later about possibly getting an internship with GGP. I interviewed and got the position along with another ASU student. It was a great opportunity from which a learned a great deal and meet very bright people.