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In the Tivoli on April 2 during the Sustainable Campus Fair, legislators lined up at a microphone in the multicultural lounge to say the kind of things that legislators say about sustainability. They talked about a commitment to a new energy economy in Colorado. They encouraged adaptability. They mentioned tax breaks.
"We can't plan for the future by assuming things are going to continue as they do today," said State Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Larimer.
Outside, at a table in the sun, one UC-Denver sophomore was promoting a plan that would change some of the green space on the Auraria Campus, and help college students live healthier, more sustainable lifestyles. Cynthia Negron has given her project the name "Food not Lawns," and that's just what she wants to see on campus.
Her mission is to create a garden on the Auraria campus that will give students the opportunity to grow fruit and vegetables, some of which they could take home for themselves, but most of which would be donated to homeless.
Based on her mission statement, it's a vision that takes into consideration the need to build community, to understand the environment in order to better protect it, to create a less oil-hungry economy, and to provide financially struggling college students with an alternative to Ramen noodles for nutrition.
Negron has met with representatives from the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board (SACAB) and the Auraria Higher Education Center, including some of the grounds-keeping staff, to work on getting approval for the project.
"This is one of those things that we wouldn't move forward with if we don't have everyone on board," said Rachel Wear, the UCD SACAB representative and Chair of the Sustainable Campus Program, who heard Negron speak before SACAB when she introduced her project several weeks ago.
Selecting an appropriate piece of land requires finding one that Negron describes as suitable for gardening- sunny, visible, and accessible, but out of a direct path of traffic-while also checking on the utilities for the space, and even the historical use of the space.
Behind the houses on 9th Street, there's a stretch of grass, trees, and tables.
"It's the best soil on campus because it used to be back yards and it gets city water," said Negron. She's still working with campus staff to get cleared to use the space.
"I think it's a great that we can get students involved in projects like this, and I think that one important part of sustainability is using an urban setting to grow food," Wear said. And of re-designing the space at 9th Street, she said, "Either way, it's plants. It's just grass that's there now, so if it's corn or lettuce, [it's still plants], so it's more oxygen for all of us."
Negron campaigned for her cause among booths of vendors marketing earth-friendly products or vouching for sustainable business practices for companies from Chipotle to the Odell Brewing Company.
Hers wasn't the only opportunity to get involved. The National Outdoor Leadership School was tabling. The Colorado Renewable Energy Society was talking about solar home tours and a webcast lecture series. Bands for Lands, another group working on outreach and land use, provided music through the afternoon.
According to Mark Risius, who was organizing the event on campus, Bands for Lands works to "spread the message of environmental sustainability and social awareness issues." Their latest project is to work on purchasing a land trust, and they're focusing on buying what Risius describes as "gems of land"-wetlands or other rare ecosystems that are being threatened with development.
"Our goal is to have opportunities [at the Sustainability Fair] for students to get involved in the community and to let different organizations promote themselves," said Rachel Brett, campus organizer for UC-Denver's CoPIRG student chapter, which co-hosted the Sustainability Fair with the Auraria Sustainable Campus Program. A job fair focused on green jobs was added to this semester's Sustainability Fair to help students understand the range of jobs out there that can be considered "green."
"A green job is not just someone digging in the dirt. It can be working in a bank," said Brett. "We're only going to make progress in the way we need to if we expand the idea of what sustainability is."
And for some of the passers-by who stopped to talk to Negron about her "Food Not Lawns," campaign, the idea of converting grass to gardens was a new but not unwelcome idea of sustainability.
"Awareness is skyrocketing," Negron said, looking over the pages of email addresses she collected from people interested in gardening at Auraria. "We're drumming up interest and support to go to the board [for SACAB and AHEC]."
One thing administrators at campus are watching for is the community and student support necessary to give the program longevity past Negron's remaining years on campus.
Negron has been working on the project since February and estimates she has since found a core of 15 people seriously committed to making this garden grow.
The idea came to her after watching the documentary How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. The film showed Negron how Cuban residents used small urban gardens that didn't need petroleum-based pesticides to produce food in a time when the county's oil imports had been reduced by half.
Negron has been talking to University of Denver students who started working on a similar program last fall and are having their first planting on April 10.
"Before we can get our own plot going, to get experience because a lot of students have never planted before, we're going to volunteer with Denver Urban Gardens and with DU," she said.
Negron wants to make sure her project is represented, so she's running for financial legislator in this spring's elections.
But at the moment, she's also got to worry about House Bill 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, a bill that would place restrictions on programs that grow and donate food. It could make growing food and donating it the way Negron plans to a much more difficult process.
So for now, Negron and her fellow would-be green-thumbs are taking their practices under the radar. The April 10 "Guerilla Gardening" groundbreaking at DU will start at 9 p.m., and their next activity will involve building "seed bombs" of native wildflower seeds to pass out on Earth Day.
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