Author: Ella

It was very interesting too see the te papa museum. It was very large and immersive. I was not a fan of all the taxidermy, however it is very impressive how large of a collection they have. My favorite areas were the top two floors. The landscape paintings and hanging ceramic piece were my favorites….

Today I learned a lot about really unique ways that everyday people can become more sustainable. There is a huge amount of waste that comes with consumer culture, and simply repairing or repurposing old items can save so much waste from the landfill. I especially liked the focus on low income communities, and having their…

My two favorite lectures of today were the first two at the architecture school. The first lecture got me thinking about how sustainability is promoted to the consumer. Companies greenwash sustainability campaigns such as plastic straws and paper bags, when things like eating beef has a much bigger environmental impact. The second lecture I loved…

Today we had a discussion and presentation from Tourism Industry Aotearoa. We learned a lot about how they are creating specific goals to help all of their members become more sustainable. They divided sustainability into four categories with targets in each. This is a relatively new plan and topic in this organization. That being said…

Today the most interesting thing I learned was about the Living Pa. I had never heard of the living building challenge before. I thought that this was a really cool way to inspire people to not only incorporate sustainable initiatives, but really be innovative and go to the extremes of sustainability. It was interesting to…

Today I learned a lot about the natural history of some of New Zealand’s environment. It was interesting to learn that some of the bacteria in the lakes were a large part of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. This reminded me that although people often only talk about trees, there are a lot more options…

Today we visited Stanford fishing. So far I found this sustainable business most interesting. Supplying fish to over 500 customers, and holding 20% of the islands catch quote, it’s a very large business. I think it is often a lot easier to look at sustainability in small businesses, because there impact can easily be small….

Today we took a ferry to Waiheke island where we met with the Waiheke Island Resource Trust to plant trees as well as learned about sustainable wine practices. It was very cool to see how much progress this non profit had made on turning farmland into full forests. Their goal was to plant 10,000 trees…

We started off the day by walking to the Sky City hotel and tower. There we met Anthony, the head of sustainability for serval of the hotel locations. It was very interesting to hear the specifics of his job, since I’ve only every discussed sustainability topics in vague in classrooms. He told us of how…

Hi all, my name is Ella Maurer. I am currently a junior at Whittier double majoring in Environmental Sustainability(WSP) and Studio Art. I am from Seattle, Washington. I also help run Whittier’s Sustainability Club. I am super excited to see all the different aspects of sustainability that I have been learning applied in a different…