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The 2012
Sustainable Alliance Festival
Check
back for details as the date gets closer!
The 2011
Sustainable Alliance Festival 
The Second Sustainable Alliance
Festival was a success! It featured movies, local watershed and
historic area
tours, family-friendly games and learning
experiences, food and music, and all things
sustainable! Click on this
link for a schedule of last fall's Festival events and locations (pdf
file).
Alliance Farmers’ Market a huge success!
Click
on
this
link
for
more
information on the ALLIANCE
FARMER'S
MARKET
Article about our Market in www.growingproduce.com
"Markets
in
Motion
-
A
new
farmers'
market
helps an Ohio grower generate sales
and capitalize
on
the
locally
grown
trend".
Alliance
Community Gardens 
Follow
this link to learn more about the activities of our community
gardeners!
Rodman Public Library
Sustainability and Gardening
resources
Find books, videos, and more on issues
around sustainability, and gardening!
Sustainable!
@
Your Library
Community
Gardening
@ Your Library
University of Mount Union
Sustainability Committee 
MISSION
It is the goal of the Mount
Union
Sustainability
Committee to meet the growing concern for
sustainability on our
campus. Through education and communication, we will encourage
and facilitate awareness and action on our campus and throughout the
Alliance community. We will assist the University in its decision
making process in these aspects, and will search out opportunities that
are socially, financially and environmentally sound in order to create
a sustainable, efficient, and healthy atmosphere for our
students, faculty, and staff.
Mount Union President Dr.
Richard F. Giese has committed to reducing and eventually eliminating
the University’s global warming emissions, and accelerating educational
efforts toward sustainability. The pledge came with Giese’s
signing of the American College & University Presidents Climate
Commitment, joining the leaders of more than 450 other institutions
across the country. “Sustainability is a global issue that we all have
a responsibility to address,” Giese said. “This means taking serious
action today to assure the planet’s existence as we know it in the
future. Mount Union is committed to leading the way.”
The American College & University
Presidents Climate Commitment is a high-visibility effort to address
global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize
greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and
educational efforts of higher education to equip society to
re-stabilize the earth’s climate. Under the guidance and direction of
the Leadership Circle of presidents, the American College &
University Presidents Climate Commitment is being supported and
implemented by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in
Higher Education (AASHE), Second Nature, and ecoAmerica.
The University of Mount Union and the City of Alliance
have
created a statement of cooperation to encourage their working together
on issues relating to sustainability. The agreement was signed by
the President of the University and the Mayor of the City of Alliance
on
February 12, 2008
To read the agreement, click here.
Fuel-Less Fridays
Now to continue throughout the year!
The transportation subcommittee of GREEN
ALLIANCE has dubbed every Friday as an opportunity to voluntarily
reduce the area's carbon footprint by reducing our reliance on fossil
fuels. On Fridays residents would be encouraged to utilize
forms of transportation other than personal vehicles. They could choose
to walk, ride a bicycle, carpool or take the bus, thus using less
fossil fuel on that day.
The purpose of Fuel-Less Fridays is to:
• Reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our collective
use of fossil fuels
• build awareness of the need for safe alternative modes of
transportation in our city
• demonstrate the need for improved sidewalks and designated bike
routes
• encourage the health benefits of walking and riding a bike
• encourage drivers to act courteously towards pedestrians and
bicyclers
While participation in Fuel-Less Fridays could be done on an individual
basis we are asking businesses to support those employees who might
want to participate by encouraging them to form teams, and permitting
more casual dress on Fridays. If you would like to know more or
would like someone to give a presentation about Fuel-Less Fridays to
your group, please contact Martha McClaugherty at (330) 821-6020.
For a printable flier about Fuel-Less-Fridays, click here.
No Child Left Inside - Alliance
A national movement to reconnect children
with nature has developed over the last few years in response to the
bestselling book written by Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods:
Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Last Child in the
Woods is the first book to bring together a new and growing body of
research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for
healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health
of children and adults. More than just raising an alarm, Louv offers
practical solutions and simple ways to heal the broken bond—and many
are right in our own backyard.
Individuals and organizations involved in directing children’s health
and wellbeing have formed alliances locally, regionally and nationally
to assure that children in every community have opportunities to
experience nature directly. The rapid growth of this effort is in
response to the research that suggests our children (because they do
not play outside like former generations of children have) are at risk
of losing touch with the important health benefits of playing outside
in nature.
Fortunately, the Children & Nature Network (C&NN), in
collaboration with hundreds of organizations across the nation, was
created to encourage and support people and organizations working to
reconnect children with nature. The network provides a critical link
between researchers and individuals, educators and organizations
dedicated to children’s health and well-being. C&NN also promotes
fundamental institutional change and provides resources for sharing
information, strategic initiatives and success stories.
The C&NN news service and portal offers parents, youth, civic
leaders, educators and health-care providers access to the latest news
and research in this field as well as practical advice, including ways
to apply new-found knowledge at home school, in work environments and
the community. The network also engages a diverse community of
institutes, organizations and industries by providing a forum for
publishing and presenting research, reports and case studies on
children’s health and nature, and related program-development
strategies and support.
At the local level the Brumbaugh
Nature
Center of the University of
Mount Union is
working with the Mayor’s Green Task Force, GREEN ALLIANCE, to raise the
level of awareness of the importance of exposure to nature for Alliance
Children. Development of a “natural” play area in the woods of the
Brumbaugh Nature Center is currently underway to provide a space for
our children to explore, imagine and play in a natural setting.
For more information on the C&NN, visit www.childrenandnature.org.
To learn more about the local No Child Left Inside initiative and how
you can become involved contact the Brumbaugh
Nature
Center.
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