JJ Wishes Goodbye to Its Finest

JJ wants to send its best wishes to those who are departing us after the fall semester. Cary Fukui and Amanda Kamor are studying abroad next semester. We wish them the best of luck! We also are thinking about Shannon Osselaer and are hoping she can join us healthily next semester! Miss you all, and see you soon!

Cary Fukui, off to KENYA!!!!!

Amanda Kamor, off to Atlanta, GA!

Shannon Osselaer, our inspiration!

Eco-Challenge

And the energy ratings are in! Looks like we at Building JJ have done a great job reducing our energy usage this winter, and are definitely "lowering" the bar quite a bit since last year. Check out our energy standings below!

(click the image to make it larger)

Happy Thanksgiving!

On behalf of Building JJ, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of the holiday, here's a great little article on a group of high school students from Chicago that's asking everyone for their leftover turkey grease- to use as biofuel!

Turkey Grease as Biofuel?!

Enjoy, and stay tuned for more!

Tree Planting With Casey Trees

Friday, November 20th at 8:15 a.m. three residents of Building JJ (Ruby, Yin Min and Blair) made their way out to Massachusetts Ave and joined 60 other volunteers to plant trees at the embassies! Yin Min found out about this lovely event through Casey Trees, who partners with Restore Mass Ave for tree planting projects in the city.

We began the morning with coffee and donuts at the Cote d'Ivoire Embassy, who hosted us for the day. While we ate, the Founder and President of Restore Mass Ave, Deborah Shapley (right) and the Director of Tree Planting at Casey Trees, Jim Woodworth (left) gave us a little background on the project and riled up our excitement!

Director Woodworth welcoming us

After their presentation, representatives of Casey Trees gave us a little tutorial on tool safety. Then they handed off a shovel to Ambassador Koffi Y. Charles of Cote d'Ivoire (below), who was given the honor of making the first dig for the tree we were planting on his embassy's territory.

Check out the Ivoirien guards above! Their uniforms were so cool!

Next we made our way to our respective tree planting sites. We were part of group six, and got to plant one tree at the Venezuelan Embassy and one at the Slovenian Embassy. Pictures from both of those are shown below.

Here's our awesome Casey Trees Rep, showing off our finished tree! He was so great!

The sixty volunteers present planted sixteen trees altogether. We finished the morning around 11:30, at which point we were all invited into the Cote d'Ivoire Embassy for lunch and a short presentation of gratitude from Restore Mass Ave and Casey Trees to the Ambassador of Cote d'Ivoire. Above, a student volunteer from City Collegiate Public Charter School and President Shapley present the Ambassador with a token of thanks from Restore Mass Ave. What a wonderful morning! You will definitely see Building JJ with Casey Trees again in the future!

Find out more about Casey Trees

Find out more about Restore Mass Ave

Camping Trip

Matt, Amanda, Nicole, Rachel, Ali, Wade, James, Ian, Cary, Amber, Blair

On Saturday, November 7th, twelve members of building JJ trekked out into the forests of Maryland for our first ever house camping trip! We started the day early, (8 am, to be precise) and drove out to The Common Market, a community owned co-op in Northern Maryland that carries local and organic produce.

Nicole, Amanda, Ian and Amber trying to decide on groceries (note the reusable shopping bag)

After a little grocery shopping, we continued on to the camp site, where we pitched our tents and ate lunch.

Amanda and Blair, setting up the tent and gathering wood

Amber, Ali, Wade and Ian

Rachel, Amber, Amanda, Nicole, Wade and Ali

Rachel and James

Giving the tree some JJ loving, Rachel, Ali Wade, Amber, Amanda and Blair

Not long after, the group went hiking to a lookout. We met a friendly dog named Bear, who we adopted as our mascot.

Matt, Nicole, Amanda, Rachel, Ali

On the trail

Back row: James, Matt, Ali, Rachel, Blair, Nicole, Amanda

Front Row: Ian, Wade, Amber

Bear & Blair, looking over the Potomac into West Virginia

Matt, Rachel, Ali, Wade and James

Watching the sunset from the lookout, Cary, Ali and Ian

On into the evening we built our fire, cooked some hot dogs and made some 'smores. With an early morning ahead of us, we called it a night around 10:30.

Cary, Blair, Ian, and Ali starting the fire

Just getting the fire going

Matt, Amanda, James, Blair

Wade, James, Ali, Blair, Ian

Quality bonding time, Amanda, James, Blair (with a Sigg water bottle in hand, no plastic here!)

Around 7:00 the next morning we emerged from our tents, slightly chilly but ready to go, and bid farewell to our campsite in order to get brunch at the delicious Cafe-Nola.

The last of the camping trip

Cafe-Nola serves coffee and food, including vegetarian and vegan cuisine! We stopped there on the way back to the city as our last group activity before returning to the wear and tear of Washington, DC.

Cafe-Nola from the outside

Thanks goes out to Amber Hunnicutt for planning this great outing, Ian Goldin for the use of his car and sleeping equipment, Matt Bevilacqua for his tents, GW Trails for supplies, and everyone else who helped make this possible! Hopefully this is an event we will be able to recreate in the future.

Green Roof Birthday Party

On October 26th, JJers joined Green GW and many others in celebrating the Green Roof's first year anniversary on top of the Elliott School. Cake from Sticky Fingers, a local vegan bakery, was served on compostable plates with compostable forks and cups and the office of sustainability gave watering cans made of recycled material to help water the roof. President Knapp, who helped kick off the green roof last year by signing the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, gave a small speech on the push for sustainability at George Washington's Campus. Revolution Green can be seen in the background of a picture of President Knapp, featured below. (note- they are the ones in the party hats)

President Knapp- “This is a great, ‘roof-breaking’ example of this mission. It’s a practical implementation of sustainability at the University. Congratulations to everyone who was involved in this project.”

Read the full article

Green Roof Gardening at the Elliott School

On Thursday, September 24th from 8-10 am, a few members of Revolution 

Green made their way to the top of George Washington's Elliott School of International Affairs to participate in green roof gardening.

A newly established project, the Elliott's green roof adds a layer of vegetation and waterproofing to the building’s existing structure.

 It's intent is to draw nature to its urban setting, creating a habitat conducive to city-dwelling birds as well as offsetting carbon emissions. (GW Hatchet)

Our students were trained in how to look after the garden, so that in the future we will be able to go back and garden on our own! Below are some photos of Ruby, Erica, Nicole R. and Nicole P.  diving into their first green roof gardening experience!