Tag: MotivationMonday

Monday Motivation: Julia Schneider

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Greetings ATLiens! This week our #motivationmonday feature is local chef and locavore expert, Julia Schneider! You may recognize her if you ever frequented (pre-COVID) the Ponce City Market Farmers Market by CFM where she has been a featured Chef.  She is a private chef and also works with Moveable Feast ATL, a local catering company. COVID of course has her changing gears a bit and these days her Instagram is filled with all kinds of mouthwatering baked goods and other treats. 

Originally from Michigan, she grew up cooking mostly Eastern European food with her adoptive grandmother, though her parents avidly grew food they were not very into cooking.  She didn’t enroll in culinary school until her move to the ATL in 2009, but even then found that the best training was directly from the industry itself and moved on to start working with Octane in 2010.  She was in charge of the food at all their locations and eventually their catering.  In 2017, she began working with CFM as a Market Chef and doing private chef work.  Her favorite part about working and living in Atlanta is the community.  She connected with the founders of her current venture, Moveable Feast ATL, through work contacts that are also dear friends.  She finds the strong locavore community and access to incredible locally sourced food in ATL to be one of the gems of this city. 

As a chef diving into at home quarantine baking projects, Julia is not just a chef, she also represents a consumer in this climate conscious world.  Julia says that climate is always something she is conscious of when preparing food for private clients or doing things at home.  In her own kitchen she makes sure to use reusable containers, source from as many local farms as possible, and use as much of the ingredients as possible, including cooking with scraps.  Some of her favorite places to source local ingredients are: 

  • Freedom Farmers Market
  • Woodland Gardens Veggie Box
  • Georgia Organics Veggie Box with pick ups at Wrecking Bar
  • Freewheel Farms online pre-order 
  • Levity Farms online ordering and pickup (both in town and in Roswell pickups available) 
  • Chop Shop
  • Evergreen Butcher and Baker

Her call to action for ATL’s Green Foodies? It is way easier to eat local than you might think it is.  Her advice is to take advantage of the Georgia summer fruits, if you peep her instagram @parkmeejung you will see delicious strawberry poptarts and pies.

End up with a bunch of random local foraged veggies like mushrooms and greens? Keep it simple! A big bowl of pasta, butter (or olive oil to keep it vegan friendly) and a little lemon juice.  Let the veggies do their thing. Julia believes cooking for people is a way to show love and friendship, so until we can all get back out and safely enjoy market taste tests again- follow along with her and get some inspiration on how you can bring local food to those you love! 

Meredith is GreenATLiens’ Foodie ATLien writing and reporting on all things sustainable food systems in Atlanta. She is an actor and a low-waster transplant originally from Cincinnati, OH. She will likely talk your ear off about locally grown food, carbon emissions, or animal welfare. But when she is not, she can be found hiking with her dog, kayaking, or riding her horse. Her latest obsession is the connection between growing your own food and the rich fertilizer that is manure. In short, she’s trying to grow tomatoes out of horse poop. She also does stand up comedy.

Motivation Monday #18 – March on Georgia Demonstrators

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Happy #MotivationMonday GreenATLiens! Today we’re feeling motivated by the demonstrators who used their First Amendment rights today at the March On Georgia organized by the NAACP of Atlanta.

It was GreenATLiens’ privilege to chat with a few of the demonstrators present today. Below are direct quotes from March on Georgia demonstrators on their recommended calls to action for all ATLiens:

“Use your privilege for GOOD.”

–Perri

“Reparations now! Police reform immediately. Mandatory punishment for failure to use body cams. [Prosecute] police for hate crimes. Shoot below the waist. [Use non-lethal] rubber bullets.”

– Angelique De La Croix

“Stand up for justice. Reform the justice system. Make sure to get out to vote. Join Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight.”

– Jesse

“Use your vote as your voice. We have to fight to get access [to voting rights]. United we stand. Divided we fall.”

– Corey Baty

Feeling motivated yet? If you find inspiration through music might we suggest Spotify’s Liberation Playlist or Black to the Future Playlist? Let’s take that energy and apply it to making real, sustainable change for a more just and equitable society!

Stay committed, ATLiens! ✌️👽

Motivation Monday #17 – Dr. Brian L. Davis

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Greetings ATLiens 🖖  This #MotivationMonday in observance of #WorldOceansDay we would like to meet Dr. Brian Davis, President and CEO of the Georgia Aquarium. Originally from New Jersey, Dr. Davis earned his B.S. in Environmental Science at Rutgers University in 1992 and shortly thereafter migrated to Atlanta for a position at Zoo Atlanta. The rest is history.

Since moving to Atlanta 26 years ago, Dr. Davis has paid his dues teaching science for over 8 cumulative years in Cobb County schools, serving in senior leadership roles within a number of zoological and educational institutions, and earning his Masters of Education and Ph.D. in Secondary Science Education at Georgia State University. What you may not know about Dr. Davis is that he’s played an integral role in shaping the Georgia Aquarium’s educational programming since 2003.

If you take just one thing away from today’s #WorldOceansDay #MotivationMonday, let it be that Dr. Brian Davis has been working on and advocating for ocean conservation way before most of us were even cognizant of the impacts of plastic in our oceans.

Dr. Brian Davis states:

“I believe scientific literacy and a comprehensive cultural enrichment plan are vital to the continued progress of our students and society. In my current role as President and CEO of the Maritime Aquarium, I will continue my efforts to develop educational experiences that reflect the interconnectedness of scientific literacy to our daily lives.”

Source: Dr. Brian L. Davis (LinkedIn bio)

As President and CEO of the Georgia Aquarium, Dr. Brian Davis oversees the Georgia Aquarium’s research, animal rehabilitation, and education initiatives, including the Seafood Savvy campaign aimed at educating the public on the types of seafood to avoid in the interest of ocean conservation (see wallet insert here, and below), as well as the ongoing expansion of strategic partnerships with local and global organizations to fundraise, research, and promote ocean ecosystems conservation.

Call to Action

GreenATLiens everywhere can join Dr. Brian Davis in taking action for our oceans by practicing the 3 R’s: Reduce Reuse Recycle. See the quote below for more nuance:

“Remember to cut apart plastic beverage rings. Marine mammals can become entangled in the loops, which can be harmful and potentially fatal. Properly dispose of toxic wastes, such as oil from automobile engines or lawnmowers. Never dump waste chemicals down a sewer which can pollute water sources. Limit your use of disposable products, particularly plastic. Take a canvas bag with you when you shop instead of using paper and plastic ones from stores.”

Source: Georgia Aquarium website

GreenATLiens with a little cash may want to #redistributewealth to increase access to the educational experiences the Georgia Aquarium has to offer –just $14 gives one Title 1 student the opportunity to experience the Georgia Aquarium’s education programming. If you have the means, chip in to inspire our next generation of conservationists!

Stay Green, ATLiens, and Happy World Oceans Day!

✌️ 👽  🌊 

Motivation Monday #16 – Atlanta Protesters

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Last Friday our spaceship landed at Centennial Olympic Park for a march to the Georgia State Capitol to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other black lives that have been taken by police and white supremacists in this country for centuries.

The protest we participated in on Friday, May 29 was a large gathering of peaceful protesters holding cardboard signs with messages such as “Stop Killing Us,” “Black Lives Matter,” “White Silence is Violence,” and “I Can’t Breathe”. For what seemed like the majority of the march, hundreds of Atlantans marched in complete silence holding signs of cardboard over their heads. As we neared the Georgia State Capitol, marchers began to chant “No Justice (No Peace)” “Black Lives Matter,” “What Do We Want? (Justice) When do we Want it? (Now),” and “When Black Lives Are Under Attack, What Do We Do? (Stand Up Fight Back)”.

Once the crowd reached the Capitol, many people dispersed by way of Uber/Lyft, MARTA, their bicycles, etc. Only when our space ship arrived back home did the majority of protesters hear about apparent vandalism that took place, which the Mayor, T.I., Killer Mike, and others addressed in a press conference that evening.

While many weaponize quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. to condemn rioting and promote peaceful protest, it is important that we remember Dr. King’s less-cited quote:

A riot is the language of the unheard

-Martin Luther King Jr.

The infographic below sheds further light on the nature of what happened Friday night in Atlanta.

Source: @drew_droege

Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

What is the connection between environmentalism and racial justice?

Here are a few suggested readings to better understand how racial justice and environmentalism are inextricably linked:

Stay informed and motivated, ATLiens. The fight for justice is not over.

✊🏾👽 ✊🏼👽 ✊🏻👽 ✊🏿👽 ✊🏽👽 ✊🏾👽 ✊🏼👽

Motivation Monday #15 – Tanya “Tea” Povolny

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Happy #MotivationMonday Green ATLiens!! We are headed into week ???? of Quarantine 2020 and who else is tired of staring at that English Ivy in their yard? This week’s Motivation Monday feature is Tanya “Tea” Povolny, founder of EcoLogic, an invasive plant removal service, and she is an expert on just that! 

Tea grew up moving around quite a bit before landing in Atlanta in 2016 by way of Austin, TX.  One of the things she immediately admired after growing her ATLien antennae is the ecological landscape and beautifully integrated urban forests that call our city home.  As she says on the EcoLogic website, “Atlanta’s forest is in our backyards.” 

Tanya founded EcoLogic after working on several similar restoration-based efforts (including the Fernbank Forest) and discovering how important this work is to our native habitats. EcoLogic specializes in invasive plant removal, such as English Ivy and privet, relying strongly on a “light touch, heavy effect” approach.  According to Tea, sometimes she will leave a site and there will be no noticeable difference, but that’s the point.  Much of her work is tailored specifically to the space and the current native species there, so any invasive plant removal is done in such a way that they will not create a vacuum in the landscape, or cause later erosion problems in the soil.  So in fairness, it is a little more than just pulling up ivy! The overall goal of Ecologic’s work at a site is to return the landscape to an equilibrium that allows native species to flourish, with as minimal human touch as possible.  

EcoLogic is strongly based in restoration rather than conservation.  The difference is that conservation is as an effort to keep things the same, and restoration takes into account changes to the area and how to create success in a way that factors in those changes. For this reason, some spaces require aftercare, such as replanting of native species following the removal of invasive ones, or being aware of erosion factors following the removal of an invasive species. 

Tea recently began volunteering with the Georgia Native Plant Society’s propagation site and is excited to potentially grow that connection in regard to planting native species. 

Tea’s Call to Action

Of course, Tea has done quite a bit of research and field study to know our native plants so well and best understand a space’s needs.  But she advises do not let that stop you from bringing these practices into your own yard’s landscaping. According to Tea, the most important thing she would like ATLiens to know about her work is that truly anyone can do it.  Tea’s mission was founded on the desire to spread knowledge in Atlanta about how to be good stewards to our native species.  A little effort each day can go a long way, so spend a little time each day pulling out privet, or removing ivy, and you will start to see a difference. As we head into another week of quarantine, maybe it is time to #getmotivated and #getoutside to tend to some of Atlanta’s urban forest that might be in your very own backyard! 

Stay green, ATLiens! ✌️👽

Motivation Monday #14 – Stephanie Melara

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Happy #MotivationMonday ATLiens! Meet Stephanie Melara, sustainable fashion stylist and ethical slow fashion boutique owner based in Atlanta. Originally from San Francisco and a long-time Floridian, Stephanie grew her ATLien antennae >3 years ago when she moved here with her fiancee and life partner for work.

Stephanie brought with her impressive credentials in sustainable fashion -her BA in Fashion Merchandise & Marketing from the Miami International Institute of Art & Design + >15 years of fashion industry experience where she’s pushed the envelope from within to reduce waste and improve sustainable practices. While many retailers would landfill merchandise, hangers, and mannequins without batting an eye, Stephanie organized a mannequin swap in Gainesville, FL while working at a big box fashion retailer, and has consistently made an effort to repurpose waste through the secondhand economy. It hasn’t always been easy, for many fashion retailers this is against company policy, but when a policy is unjust should it be followed?

Stephanie founded her ethical fashion boutique ShopCaliRose in 2016, partnering with L.A.-based designed Lily Chavez of Together California to design bathing suits made from bamboo and recycled plastic.

After arriving on the scene in Atlanta, Stephanie became actively involved in the OwlSwap clothing swaps on the KSU campus. Post-pandemic Stephanie looks forward to getting involved in facilitating more clothing swaps in Atlanta once it is safe to do so.

Stephanie’s passion for sustainability began with family camping trips as a child. Her Dad was really big on camping and from those early experiences Stephanie grew to appreciate nature – and by extension want to protect it from environmental degradation. Having climbed the ranks in the sustainable fashion world, the next challenge she’s chosen is to conquer sustainable built environment. Stephanie is currently completing her real estate license to become an environmental agent and looks forward to applying her passion for sustainability to that realm as well.

Stephanie’s Call To Action

Go thrifting more! Go to a clothing swap! There’s so much quality, usable secondhand fashion to go around, it would be such a waste not to tap into that overly abundant resource.

To learn more head to Steph’s ethical slow fashion boutique @shopcalirose and check out her Alive & Lovely blog at stephyymel.wordpress.com!

Motivation Monday #13 – Natasha Dörr-Kapczynski

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Happy #MotivationMonday GreenATLiens! Meet Natasha Dörr-Kapczynski, one of Atlanta’s leading youth climate organizers. Dörr-Kapczynski is making Atlanta greener through grassroots community organizing and education centered around climate change both on and off her high school campus! Currently completing her senior year at Campbell High School in Smyrna, Dörr-Kapczynski founded Atlanta for the Planet in March 2019 and has been involved in local environmental activism since the sixth grade.

Atlanta for the Planet is an Atlanta youth-led organization working in coordination with other local climate advocacy groups to organize climate strikes, educational campaigns, and legislative advocacy efforts. Dörr-Kapczynski and her team have successfully mobilized hundreds of students to the Global Climate Strikes last fall (one of which fell on her 18th birthday), and more recently the GA Earth Day Live event taking place April 22-24.

Dörr-Kapczynski is celebrating her third and final year as president of Campbell High School’s Earth Club. In addition to managing Campbell High School’s recycling program, Earth Club is preparing the next generation of youth leaders as well as engaging the wider community through local events. Under Dörr-Kapczynski’s supervision Campbell High School’s Earth Club provides regular after-school programming at Smyrna Elementary School, engaging 2nd-5th graders in nature appreciation activities, upcycling crafts, and recycling education. This year was Dörr-Kapczynski’s second year in a row co-organizing @sustainablesmyrna’s Earth Day Festival -this year virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dörr-Kapczynski is looking forward to starting her freshman year as a Foundation Fellow at UGA in the Fall. She hasn’t yet decided on her major, but you can rest assured she’ll continue her climate activism both in Athens and Atlanta for the foreseeable future (:

Natasha’s Call to Action:
Get involved! Come to our next climate strikes and events! Follow @atlantafortheplanet for updates, or sign up for their email list here.

Motivation Monday #12 – Ree Shreeves

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Annnnnnd we’re back! We temporarily pressed pause on our regular postings so we could form a larger team of writers and activists to keep this thing going! So without further ado, GreenATLiens is very proud to introduce one of Atlanta’s greenest, Anamarie “Ree” Shreeves!

Meet Ree Shreeves. Ree is the founder of Fort Negrita, Atlanta’s first zero waste community outreach and education organization. Founded in 2013, Fort Negrita has evolved over the years from spreading awareness about proper recycling practices and eco-travel to becoming not only an online zero waste guide to Atlanta but also an organizer of community events, outreach to Haiti, and providing accessible upcycled, handmade items to support the transition to a zero waste lifestyle.

Originally from the D.C. area, Ree came to Atlanta in 2013 and ended up falling in love with the city. Upon completing a 30-day zero waste challenge in 2014, Ree decided there was no turning back and decided to share what she’d learned with the community. Check out this CNN article featuring Ree describing the zero waste lifestyle years before many of us had ever heard of it!

At the start of Ree’s zero waste journey, she bought a reusable pad at Sevananda and thought to herself, “I can make this!” Always community-minded, soon thereafter Ree began organizing “pad parties,” first among friends in people’s homes, then later at Wombfest, a women’s wellness and reproductive health festival, and most recently in Haiti! Ree is not one to boast of all she’s accomplished, however the event programming side of Fort Negrita is nothing short of impressive. Are you one of Zero Waste Atlanta’s >1,700 members? Founded by Ree in 2016. In addition to building community through the Zero Waste Atlanta group and zero waste period parties, Ree has also organized community clothing swaps, Earth Day events, a 15-day outreach trip to Haiti, among other environmental education events over the years.

Having just recently completed her master’s degree in Environmental Geography from Georgia State University, Ree is currently working with the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WaWa) engaging Atlanta’s youth in environmental stewardship and education. Ree affirms the way forward starts with educating our youth.

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Ree’s call to action:

For beginners: Start examining your trash. Little by little, find ways to reduce your waste and ecological footprint.

For intermediate-advanced: Read this one-pager “How to Build Community” by Syracuse Cultural Workers and brainstorm ideas for how you can begin implementing them in your community.

Image by Syracuse Cultural Workers

To join Ree in the Fort and learn more ways to get involved with Fort Negrita, visit FortNegrita.com.

Motivation Monday #11 – 74K ATLiens Fighting Climate Change & More with MARTA

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Thank you, MARTA Martians!

Happy #MotivationMonday, GreenATLiens! Today’s Monday Motivation is the >74K MARTA Martians who make the city greener and the air cleaner every day by riding MARTA! Here’s a quick rundown of how MARTA Martians are helping reduce traffic, slow down climate change, and improve local public health.

MARTA & Traffic

Can you imagine another 74 THOUSAND cars on Atlanta’s interstates during rush hour? Neither can we. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, public transit users shave 32% off the time people spend in traffic on average (source). Taking public transit isn’t just good for alleviating traffic, it’s also good for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for improving public health outcomes.

MARTA & Climate Change

According to a 2017 EPA study, transportation accounted for 29% of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions (see below). No other sector, not even energy, surpassed transportation’s GHG emissions. Personal vehicles accounted for 59% of U.S. transport emissions. By contrast, rail accounted for 2% and “other,” which includes buses, accounted for 4%. The fuel efficiency of public transit allows transport of a greater number of people at lower emissions rates than car travel. MARTA riders, or MARTA Martians, are taking positive climate action every time they board, in addition to helping reduce traffic and improve local air quality.

source
source

MARTA & Public Health

Air pollution is known to be a trigger of asthma (source). While the national average for asthma prevalence among children hovers at 7.5% (source), the most recent data available from the Georgia Department of Public Health reports 13.9% of Georgians ages 0-17 have been diagnosed with asthma (source). It’s worth noting that asthma prevalence and asthma hospitalization rates are higher for black and Latinx children than for white children (source). Public transit’s positive impact on public health was demonstrated during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, when fewer people in metro Atlanta drove cars and more used transit. Child emergency room visits for asthma dropped by as much as 45% (source).

Image source: Environment America Note, although cars do not emit ozone, cars’ CO2 emissions heat the atmosphere, increasing problematic ozone levels (source).

Riding MARTA doesn’t just help Atlantans breathe easier. Air pollution from cars is linked to a number of other health problems including heart attack, stroke, cancer and mental health problems (source). Mothers exposed to air pollution are at a higher risk of low birth weight, pre-term birth and stillbirth, which disproportionately impacts women of color (source, source). For older adults, long-term exposure to particulate pollution has been associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia (source).

Thank you to all you MARTA Martians out there taking climate action on the daily and improving traffic and public health for all ATLiens in the process!

✌️❤️ 👽

Sources list 

“Asthma Surveillance.” Georgia Department of Public Health, 2016, dph.georgia.gov/asthma-surveillance.

Bishop, Kelly C, et al. “Hazed and Confused: The Effect of Air Pollution on Dementia.” NBER, National Bureau of Economic Research, 30 Aug. 2018, www.nber.org/papers/w24970.

“Burden of Asthma on Minorities.” AAFA.org, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 2005, www.aafa.org/burden-of-asthma-on-minorities/.

Casale, Matt, et al. “Trouble in the Air.” Environment America, Feb. 2020, environmentamerica.org/feature/ame/trouble-air.

“Facing the Facts about Atlanta’s Air Quality.” Southern Environmental Law Center, 2005, www.southernenvironment.org/cases-and-projects/fact-sheets/facing-the-facts-about-atlantas-air-quality.

“Fast Facts on Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 16 July 2019, www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions.

“FastStats – Asthma.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 Jan. 2017, www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/asthma.htm.

Mehra, Renee, et al. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Adverse Birth Outcomes: Differences by Racial Residential Segregation.” SSM Population Health, El Sevier, 28 May 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545386/.

Montgomery, William K. “Cars and Air Pollution.” ADEQ, 2008, www.adeq.state.ar.us/air/planning/ozone/cars.aspx.

“What Triggers or Causes Asthma?” AAFA.org, Oct. 2019, www.aafa.org/asthma-triggers-causes/.

Wickert, David. “Atlanta Gambles on MARTA Expansion amid Declining Transit Use.” AJC.com, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 13 June 2018, www.ajc.com/news/local-govt–politics/atlanta-gambles-marta-expansion-amid-declining-transit-use/df7NwwbopQmkuueHHJm40I/.

Motivation Monday #10 – Gwen Lynn

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Meet Gwen Lynn, environmental scientist and consultant, owner and founder of @inagreenminute! In a Green Minute provides short educational videos on climate change and environmental science to disseminate information and know-how to the public. It only takes a minute to be green! When she’s not creating and circulating educational content on climate change and sustainability, Gwen is busy organizing local events such as flower plantings, litter pickups, and engaging local youth in science education. Be on the lookout for more details on @inagreenminute’s annual event coming up in May!

Hatched by childhood dreams of seeing the Earth from an astronaut’s space vessel, Gwen decided to save the Earth by studying Environmental Science. Born and raised in the Bronx, Gwen earned her Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from Rutgers and her Master’s in Environmental Science and Occupational Health and Safety from the City University of NY (CUNY). As an EnviroSafety Scientist, Gwen applies the disciplines of environmental science, occupational health and safety, and industrial hygiene to solve real world problems. Think environmental science with a workers’ rights flair! Gwen has forged a path in climate education to make sure everyone, not just scientists, do their part to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Gwen’s #calltoaction is buy less and choose well. Humans are the only living species that leaves accumulated junk when their lives are over.

✌️❤️👽