Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The  Floyd Press on July 18, 2019.

“Helping to build a resilient local economy through agriculture, energy and education” read the SustainFloyd booth banner at the 3rd annual Floyd Energy Fest at Chantilly Farm.

The daylong Energy Fest featured speakers, vendors and exhibitors, presentations on renewable energy and technologies, a tiny house tour and panel discussion, local food and kid’s activities, which included nature walks and cooking with solar cookers.

The event was hosted by SustainFloyd and Apple Ridge Farm, described by the farm’s facilities manager, Inge Terrill, as a 40+ year old non-profit with a focus on providing cultural and environmental experiences for under-served children through summer camps and environmental education.

Biologists Jane Cundiff and Fred First presented a power point talk on “Weathering Climate Chaos Where We Live & Climate Change.”  “The carbon that we have taken out of the ground for the last 250 years and put in the atmosphere and ocean has caused a global crisis of unprecedented proportions in the history of humanity,” First told a crowd of attendees.  “That’s been “determined by 97% of the authorities who have studied the climate and the earth and how they interact,” he added.  He described the result of climate chaos as “colder cold, hotter hot, wetter wet and drier dry and spoke of local resiliency and the need for adaptation and transformation.

Extreme weather changes are happening much faster than first predicted, as reported by the U.N. and scientists across the world, Cundiff reported.  The UK, Canada and other countries have issued Climate Emergency Declarations, she said, adding that Floyd will experience more heat, floods and storms, as well as migration from coastal citizens. “Get to know your neighbors, plant trees, garden and have a disaster plan,” she recommended.

SustainFloyd’s Solar Voltzwagon was on display. SustainFloyd member and Solshine Energy Alternatives owner Rick Brown said volunteers came together about six years ago to design and build it. “We’ve provided the sound system at the Rubber Duck Race, powered an electric griddle for solar power pancakes and provided the sound system at SustainFloyd’s yearly Farmers Market breakfasts. It makes the rounds,” Brown said. The money for the Solar Voltzwagon came from a USDA grant, he added.

Martha Sullivan, a Virginia Tech assistant professor of Industrial Design (ID) practice, presented student posters representing the results of the first ID program-wide competition on energy conservation.  The competition was sponsored by SustainFloyd and Apple Ridge Farm and was spurred by a presentation that members of those organizations presented to the students.

Students split into groups of three or four across sophomore, junior and senior year and were given a week to come up with innovations for energy conservation that could create sustainable and meaningful change, Sullivan said.  Winners, Kylie Quinn, Andrew Gibson, Chrisina Dunning and Elise Holford were awarded first place for their energy monitoring design for school rooms.

Electric cars and bicycles and tiny houses were on display.  Solar-powered popsicles from Cocoa Mia were a popular treat of the day.

Speaker presentations that followed Cundiff and First included The Latest in Energy Efficient Systems for the Home, Solar Energy Answers and Updates, Geothermal Heating and Cooling: The Reliable Renewable, and Sustainable Materials and Product Development at Virginia Tech.

Check out the license plate. ______________Colleen Redman