Week 5 - Community Efforts

Profile a community-based environmental effort either in Cincinnati or your hometown. Use a combination of media, including (but not necessarily limited to) videos, photos, sketches, and links to news articles and relevant websites, to create a holistic snapshot of the problem the effort confronts and the effort’s mission, activities, accomplishments, and challenges. Supplement these materials with your own narrative as necessary to introduce and tie together each media element. Cite materials not your own as appropriate. This profile must contain at least three different types of media (e.g., photos, news articles, and a video; or news articles, organizational website screen shots, and photos) and have 3–6 paragraphs of narrative in total.

Image source:  Cincinnati.com

In 2014, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley announced a new sustainable program was coming to the City of Cincinnati - the Bike Sharing program.  Intended to help reduce traffic congestion as well as our carbon footprint, the bike sharing program was an initiative that drew ample media attention.  This program was spearheaded by long term environmental activist mogul, Brewster Rhoads, an eccentric but energetic man that runs the Green Umbrella, an environmentalist coalition across the tri-state.   

http://www.cincyredbike.org/

The initiative is given life by CinyRedBike.org, a non-profit program created by the City in order to help oversee the success of the program as well as revitalize the 4 bike trails in the city.  Over 200 new bikes are set up at designated areas.  Simply insert your credit card or pay in cash to 'loan' a bike for the day.  The iconic red shape of the bikes stand out in a unique fashion, which help prevent theft.  Although these counter measures exist, this program operates very much on the honor system.  The program stands out as very attractive especially to downtown users, who might rather want to use the bike instead of hailing a cab or walking across town for a meeting or lunch.  

Image Source:  Cincinnati.com

So what are the economics behind the program?  The program emphasizes accessibility and affordability.  It only costs $8 to rent a bike for a full day, or $80 for a yearly membership.  The program itself was originally allocated $1.9 million and each of the four bike trails were allocated $200,000.  Since its inception in late 2014, the bike program has received additional funding increasing its total to $2.2 million.  

So was it successful??  Initially the answer is:  Yes.  By its third day, the program had seen over 300 unique users.  However what about one year later?  Downtown, you can still see at least one bike user every few city blocks, but that's a far cry from its proclaimed 300 number a year ago.  During the school year, locations such as Uptown remain unused, as they compete with UC's own bike rental program from the UC Recreation Center.  

The final verdict is that the bike share program undisputed provides a positive resource to Cincinnatians.  It adds youth, vibrancy, options, and most importantly - environmental options to its residents.  However at over $2 million dollars, it may not have been the most environmentally cost effective model.  The money might have been better spent installing solar panels in the new development projects in downtown and across the city.  Still, the program is self sustaining and will exist for years to come.  Ultimately, visibility is a good indicator of success, and this program by its own existence helps promote a culture of environmentalism in Cincinnati, and that in and of itself is priceless.  

Environmentally Motivated: Behind the Scenes at UC

UC: a Case Study

In class we have talked/are talking about the three general types of environmental policy instruments: market-based, government standards and regulations and legal bans/restrictions.  Remember the practical difference between the three: market-based policies do not impose restrictions on “bad behavior,” as much as provide incentives for “good behavior,” or correct market failure to enable “the market” to regulate behavior, government imposed standards limit behavior, as in air quality standards, but do not necessarily prohibit it, and legal restrictions prohibit unwanted behavior, as was the case for use of DDT and lead in gasoline.

For this week’s journal post, describe one UC environmental program that uses government regulation as its primary instrument, one that uses market-based approaches, and one that uses law as its primary instrument. In this writeup, “government” regulation can encompass policy made by the university. Similarly, university policy can be considered “law.” Also feel free to choose policy measures pursued by Cincinnati’s city government or your home town or county.

      Environmental policy nowadays is generally shaped in one of three ways.  Rules and requirements can be written and formed from either a market-based, government-based, or legally based perspective.  Each of these three policy methods have different pro's and con's, and there are different reasons and situations that distinctly favor one over the other.  Ultimately, good policies come together as a mixture of all three aforementioned focuses, and the policies at the University of Cincinnati reflect this.  From a higher view, the many different policies at UC come together to help mesh together as best as possible to create a dynamic and healthy environmental focus - even if we can find serious flaws in individual programs.   

      Lets take a closer look at some of UC's programs and dive into them - beginning with government-based programs.  The best example of any that comes to mind is by far UC's recycling initiatives.  According to UC's webpages, "Since 2000, the University of Cincinnati has decreased the amount of its waste sent to landfills by 63%".  This is quite impressive due to the thousands of tons of waste that UC disposes of every year.  Truly, if one is looking for a successful case of how environmental policies can be when mandated by a governing body (in this case being UC's board of trustees), seeing the success of the recycling program should create no contenders.  

      Now there are other government-inspired programs to consider, such as UC's fossil fuel reduction campaign, which is actually born out of a student body grassroots movement - which is actually born from a much larger regional movement by certain corporations, but I won't get into that here.  Why pick this example over the other?  While discussing fossil fuel reduction might be a more attractive topic, the matter at hand is simply shown that improving recycling not only saves UC money, but firmly and clearly helps the environment!

      Moving onto a second program at UC's, I would like to examine market based policies.  Market based policies are similar to government policies in a way, but are driven by economic principles.  There are dozens of environmental programs at UC that are adopted from a financial point of view, in fact, one can argue that nearly all of UC's programs are based in some financial realm.  However one that sticks out to me as the most interesting are UC's water conservation efforts.  UC has implemented an entire department within Facilities Management dedicated to innovating better water conservation methods.  These range from improving bathroom efficiency to reducing water waste in campus green maintenance.  

      It's due to the fact that saving water at a large scale institution like UC adds up quickly, in a similar manner as the recycling program.  It's economically viable and smart to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund a department and budget dedicated to reducing water waste, than to simply ignore the problem and treat it as a cost of business.    A perfect example that demonstrates this effectiveness is take straight from UC's website.  "A dripping faucet can waste over 600 gallons per year; a running toilet more than 131,000 gallons".  In TUC alone there are 14 toilets and 14 sinks in public restrooms for students on both the 300 and 400 levels.  Ensuring that water is well maintained on campus in just this one building, saves thousands of dollars a year and allows budgets to be redirected towards improvement programs, as opposed to maintenance programs.  

     Lastly, there are law-based policies and programs at UC.  Law based programs are policies that are mandated, they are standards that must be minimally met.  Within the law, some programs require that regulations must be followed no matter what, such as having appropriately spaced hallways in classroom buildings and maximum occupancy signs in place.  Failure to meet these standards result in punishments and/or fines.  There are other standards too that are regulated by laws, but do not carry penalties for not following.  Rather, they carry benefits for reaching.  The federal LEED program is one such example of the latter.  LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design and is a federally supported program ran by the US Green Building Association.  LEED seeks to push the bar on what the minimum laws require, and benefit those who seek to strengthen environmental standards when the benefits might not present themselves otherwise.  

      Since 2009, UC has made great efforts to incorporate LEED practices in its building renovations and future works projects.  DAAP professors are LEED certified, and two of the larger buildings on Medical campus (CARE and Crawley) are both LEED recognized.  The latest dormitory renovation, Morgans Hall, is also LEED certified. The benefits that comes from LEED certification manifest in federal grants, accreditation, and national recognition.  Not to mention the fact that UC's campus is now more green and more efficient than it was before - and more beautiful for it!  Morgan's transperant design was incorporated because of LEED architecture.  It is more cost effective and difficult to go the extra mile to reach LEED status, but it is clearly a policy and program worth aiming for by the University.  


works cited:
http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/9635/
http://www.uc.edu/af/utilities.html
http://www.uc.edu/af/pdc/sustainability/campus_initiatives/landscape.html
http://www.usgbc.org/leed

The Tragedy of the Commons

The Tragedy of the Commons

The Growing Pains of a New Industry

By Chris Postell

In my life, I partake in a growing and exciting new industry:  The world of E-sports.  E-sports is a term coined that represents competitive and professional video gaming.  It is a realm where players, young or old, can display their skills and dedication on a stage and win worldwide respect, fame, and millions of dollars.  Behind these professional gamers are the organizers behind the events in which players compete.  Those of us who build these stages of competition, whether they be large or small, are known as E-sports organizers.  

Press Start, a 3 day expo. with a $30,000 prize pool.  Over 1,000 gamers attended. 

My role in the E-sports industry centers around the collegiate scene.  I run the E-sports scene at the University of Cincinnati, and over the last four years, I have grown to encapsulate the majority of the state of Ohio and the surrounding region as my 'area of expertise'.  While there exist other organizers who do what I do, many of them fall into a similar camp that I oversee.  If this sounds a bit problematic already, it is and you're absolutely correct.  If you haven't yet begun to pick up on that, allow me to explain why what I just said above is a problem.

Miami Esports at Miami University hosts once-a-semester gaming parties.

The state of Ohio is not a particularly large state, but it is not small either.  Within the collegiate scene, there are over sixteen Universities that have gaming clubs or E-sports programs.  Outside of the college scene, there are dozens of gaming stores, franchises, and even some national brands located here and there throughout. Ohio is not a particularly special state, but rather Ohio finds itself quite average compared to the rest of the country.  However that being said, within Ohio, out of all of those schools and private enterprises, why am I considered a leader within the scene?  Why is it that other people will listen to my directions and opinions when I'm just simply a college student?

Esports Initiative at The Ohio State hosts the largest Super Smash Brothers tournaments in Ohio. 

The answer lies a bit outside the box and is endemic to the industry itself.  The world of E-sports is defined by events, competitions, and people who gather to show off their skills.  However the question that emerges is thus:  How often can you have these events and competitions?  If there are too few, the scene suffers, if there are too many, the scene becomes too spread thin.  You can only host as many events as there is growth and population within the local and regional environment to sustain them.  In Ohio, one can only have a certain number of large events every year, because that is the limit of what people are able to commit to.  Each year, that number grows, but very slowly.  Now if there can only be so many events, but there are so many universities and private practices that are involved and have an interest in E-sports, the question becomes:  Who hosts them, and where? 

However the University of Cincinnati, does the very best out of all of them.  Our events are both casual and competitive, with a heavy emphasis on professionalism. 

This is the Tragedy of the (E-sports) Commons that we live in.  By our nature as organizers, everyone wants to host successful and large scale events.  However the industry only has room for so many a year.  Those who have the most experience hosting events of their nature, people like myself, have developed a brand of trust that gamers respect, and so they will attend my event as opposed to someone else's.  But this means because they are attending my event, someone else's event will fail or suffer as a result.  And because events take a considerable amount of time to plan and organize, that limits how many times people can put forth the risk in hosting events.  This is similar to the example of an employee taking M&M's from an office jar.  An office has only so many Employees, but a greater number of M&M's  - both however, are finite.  The employees represent organizers like myself, and the M&M's are what we all want - the gamers and attendees for our events.  However our stock of M&M's only replenishes periodically, and each employee wants a handful.  If too many people grab at once, then the dish of M&M's disappears entirely and we all have to wait for it to come back.  The alternative is that only a few people eat them, and do it slowly, but that forces the others who want M&M's to the sidelines.  To spell it out in laymans terms, the scene only supports so many events a year.  There are more organizers than there are organizers who can host successful events, so there is heavy competition but ultimately you will see the same people hosting the large events consistently.  This is great for individuals, but also ultimately hampers the long term growth of the scene because the barrier for new entry remains high.  

The budget for Press Start was over $90,000 and was funded entirely out of pocket and through sponsorships.  Talk about a high entry!