By:   Marikay Shellman, BPW Colorado Virtual
Chair, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee (2022-2024)

Here’s a Simple Act for May: No mowing your lawn for a whole month!  “The goal of No Mow May is to allow grass to grow for the month of May, creating habitat and forage for early season pollinators.  This is particularly important in urban areas where floral resources are often limited.” (Bee City USA).  No Mow May is a catchy phrase, however, it depends upon where you live.  It might make more sense to have a No Mow April or No Mow Spring; whenever you notice the daffodils popping & robins eating worms, the native bees and bumblebees are beginning to emerge and need food and cover from the chilly nights. 

The start of growing season is a critical time to give lawn flowers a chance to bloom and provide nectar and pollen for these early emerging bees and pollinators to fed themselves & their offspring.  Don’t jump into Spring Garden cleanup.  Leave those leaves that you didn’t rake last Fall as they provide much needed protection from the Spring winds and lingering frosts for both plants and invertebrates. 

Many bees & butterflies don’t emerge until late May.  Notice chrysalides still clinging to the dried standing plant material you left last season.  Longer grass can provide shelter for many invertebrates, and several species including ground beetles and some butterflies (fiery skipper and sachem) use grasses as host plants. (Xerces Society).  

We need to re-think the American lawn.

40 million acres, 2% of the land in the US, are covered in lawns which are mowed, raked, fertilized, weeded, chemically treated, and watered.  These neatly kept monoculture lawns provide little food or habitat for native bees and pollinators, and the pesticides & lack of habitat are contributing to one in four bee species being on the verge of extinction.  “Weed and Feed” products contain toxins such as neonicotinoid insecticides, deadly to bees & other pollinators.

Last year I experimented with leaving half my lawn un-mowed for the month of May and the pollinators did come, for example this Sphinx moth on a dandelion flower (photo to the Left taken by my grandson Dylan Rickard).  When it is finally time to mow, turf grass extension specialist, Paul Koch, University of Wisconsin, explains that: “You never want to remove more than one-third of the green leafy tissue at any one time.”  By raising your mowing height to four inches and mowing every other week, your lawn will flower throughout the growing season attracting more bees & butterflies.  You can over-seed your lawn with of “bee lawn seed mix” typically including white clover and creeping thyme.  Longer grass shades the ground underneath keeping it cooler and maintaining moisture.  It’s a win-win situation.  Less time mowing, less expense in upkeep, less water use, and providing a diversity of plants equals a huge positive for pollinators and your pocketbook.

Balancing the urge to have a lawn for playing with your dog and wanting to create habitat for pollinators, try mowing a smaller portion of your lawn and leaving border areas of bunch grasses and shrubs.  You can always make your patio or balcony more pollinator-friendly by planting pesticide-free native plants.  If your neighbors or HOA are wondering about your long grass, print out free NO MOW MAY sign available from https://beecityusa.org>no-mow-may .  Office Depot will laminate them, “outside” thickness, for a minimal charge.  Involve your community members and city officials or HOA board members by asking them to adopt a No Mow Spring policy.

By:   Marikay Shellman, BPW Colorado Virtual Member

98% of insects are NOT pests and “yet most of the chemicals now used kill all insects, our friends and enemies alike.” (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)

Spring is springing and so are bugs. There is no need for pesticides as there are plenty of non-chemical tactics to battle the bugs: basil to keep flies away, dish soap to rid of ants, a spray bottle filled with water & lemon or lime juice for spiders, a cockroach trap from a wine bottle lined with maple syrup & rubbed with cooking oil, salt for a flea infestation, and Neem Oil for many types of pests.

The number & diversity of insects are declining at an alarming rate due to habitat loss, climate change & use of pesticides. By transforming part of your lawn into an insect friendly habitat, you can attract pollinators and provide habitat for native insects. Lawns are like deserts to insects. Simply leave a section of your yard untouched, allowing vegetation to grow & produce seeds & flowers. Fallen leaves & stems, sticks, and especially logs should be left for insects to use for habitation. Add native plants; they will thrive in your landscape, use less water and attract natural insect enemies to limit damage from those pest species.

Urban areas can exceed rural areas in providing diversity & abundance for pollinators including planting native species in containers on your balcony or on rooftops.

Limit your use of outdoor lighting which is one of the major causes of insect decline.  Nocturnal insects are attracted to artificial lights, killing many of them. Amber or red colored lights, best to use outdoors when a large amount of light is necessary, produce wavelengths that are not as attracting to bugs thus killing fewer. Do NOT use “bug zappers” which purposely kill all insects, especially our friendly insects.

For those of us that left the leaves and native flower stalks all winter, leave the leaves which are providing shelter for insects & pollinators. New growth will pop through this bed of dead leaves. Trim stalks at uneven heights between 6-12 inches. Leave the stubble on the ground as some stem nesting bees might be living in them. Ground nesting bees are 70% of our native bees. Leave some bare ground areas to provide for these ground nesters, especially sandy areas. Remember that a leaf being eaten is providing food for leafcutter bees, 30% of our native bees.

Bumble Bee Watch has put out a call for community collection of valuable data. “As you take your daily walk along your neighborhood trail, putter in your garden weeding and planting, or sip on your coffee on an outdoor patio, keep your eyes and ears open and your camera handy. If you spot a bumble bee foraging or crawling around on the ground, take a photo, a few photos. Then submit your photos to bumblebeewatch.org, along with the date and location of your sighting.” Bumble Bees, major pollinators for blueberries, tomatoes, & wildflowers, are nearing extinction.

Simple Acts:  From Your Table to Your Community

By Marikay Shellman, BPW Colorado, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee Chair (2022-2024)

Growing up in Florida, my mother would take me to the local farmer stands to purchase vegetables.  “They taste much better because they are fresh”, she would say.  And how true that still rings today.  Our supermarkets advertise their “fresh produce”, but the food is often grown thousands of miles away or in another country, picked well before it has ripened, stored in warehouses, shipped over miles, and placed on your grocery store shelves.  By the time this “fresh produce” hits your table, it is typically days if not a week or more old. 

Farmers Markets provide fruits & vegetables that are grown seasonally and grown near to where you live, therefore keeping your food money in your community and providing you with real fresh produce.  When you eat what is in season food is at its most nutritious in addition to tasting delicious.  Those fresh peas & spinach in the Spring, berries & tomatoes ripe in Summer, and crisp apples in the Fall are loaded with vitamins & minerals.  Feast on butternut squash soups to keep yourself nourished in the harsh winter months.  You are cutting your ecological footprint by purchasing your food from local farmers (food miles count for 11% of your meal’s carbon footprint.).  Couple that with using reusable bags, not plastic packaging, voila.  Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) have become a user-friendly way to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.  The consumer purchases a share in a farmer’s product & receives a box weekly of seasonal produce throughout the season.

Opt for Organic!  Organic foods are healthier for you, providing more beneficial nutrients, lowering levels of chemicals in your food, and containing no genetically modified (GMOs) ingredients.  “Organic” defines the methods & materials used by farmers to grow & process farm products including vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy products and meat.  No synthetic or sewage sludge fertilizers are added to soil, no synthetic pesticides are used for pest control, no irradiation is used to preserve food or rid of pests, no genetic engineering of crops used for disease or pest control or to increase crop harvests, and no antibiotics or growth hormones are used for farm animals.

“Organic” does not mean the same thing as “natural.”  Natural on a food label means only that the product has no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, having nothing to do with the way in which the food ingredients were grown.  The labels “free-range” or “hormone-free” do not mean that these items were grown organically.  Non organic foods are sprayed with extremely toxic chemicals which kill everything but the plant including beneficial insects and soil nutrients needed to grow the plant.  Then, because the soil has no organisms or nutrients to provide plant growth, synthetic fertilizers are used.  Millions of taxpayer dollars are handed out in subsidies for these extremely expensive, large scale, non-organic farming practices. 

In purchasing organic foods, you are keeping toxins out of the air, out of the drinking water, and out of the soil.  And remember, everything ends up in the ocean, leaching through soil into aquifers, into nearby rivers & lakes, into our landfills, and into our air. 

Organic farming supports pollinators and we need pollinators to support life on earth.  We need to maintain a level of biodiversity in plants, animals, insects, & birds. 

Eat healthily.

Environmentally displaced people are those who are forced to leave their homes and communities due to irreversible degradation of their environmental resources caused by sudden-onset events such as floods, wildfires, landslides, droughts, heat waves, or by slow-onset impacts such as desertification or sea level rise.  Secondary displacement occurs when people such as refugees, who are already displaced and typically reside in “hotspots”, must migrate again due to climate disasters.  Losing all of their assets and ability to produce food and unable to plan any future, these climate migrants are extremely vulnerable and suffer trauma.  Many women & girls are at high risk of gender-based violence.  The 1951 Refugee Convention “does not recognize the environment as a persecuting agent,” therefore people forced to leave their country for reasons related to climate stressors (over 145 million people in the past 6 years) cannot be considered refugees and do not receive refugee protections.   
Environmental Inequity- air pollution, climate disasters, unsafe drinking water, poor housing- is directly related to social inequality.  “Environmental racism is a problem where racism exposes minority groups to worse effects of environmental issues.” (EPA report 2023).  The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, is an example: low-income, minority residents.  A new analysis by the EPA finds that “oil refineries release billions of pounds of pollution annually into waterways, and that pollution disproportionately affects people of color.”

Heavy metals, nitrogen and other toxic compounds make these waterways dangerous for people to swim in, fish in and even touch.   Concentrated along the Gulf Coast, in California, and Chicago area, low-income communities all over the country are affected.  A recent headline in our local newspaper states, “EPA eyes Colorado for discriminatory pollution” and is investigating if Colorado’s air pollution regulations from industrial facilities is prejudicial against Hispanic and racial minority residents.  Another recent study of federal housing discrimination (Redlining) found that 45 million Americans are exposed to dirtier air, lower house values, lower job opportunities & poverty because race deemed their communities as “undesirable”.
NFBPWC members can explore Environmental Law Institute (www.eli.org) which provides legal tools for environmentally displaced persons & effective livelihoods for climate migrants.

Encourage your congressional representative to expand Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for climate migrants affected by slow-onset climate change (desertification and rising sea levels).  With expansion of TPS, citizens from these regions or countries could not be deported & could obtain a worker’s permit allowing them to establish a secure livelihood.
New York City’s WE ACT for Environmental Justice strives to provide people of color and low-income residents environmental protection.  WE ACT led efforts to clean up air pollution from diesel city busses and pushed for mandates of statewide testing of school’s drinking water and forced upgrades at a noxious sewage treatment plant.  Notably all of these pollutants were most common in communities of color.
Louisiana Bucket Bridge has been fighting against petroleum industry’s oil & chemical pollution impacting Black communities, “fence-line communities” describing people who live right next door to polluting facilities.
We can no longer ignore the unfair price being asked of our world’s poor and minority communities.  We must prioritize sustainable development and poverty eradication by financing environmental justice and join local and community-led fights.

Simple Acts to Reduce Food Waste, by Marikay Shellman, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee (2022-2024)


A dismal fact: While 1 in 8 Americans- including over 10 million children- suffer from food insecurity every day, we throw away nearly 80 billion pounds of food every year; about $2500 for a family of four of food is tossed into the garbage yearly. (www.foodprint.org). Most of this food waste ends up in landfills contributing to 11% of greenhouse gas emissions, methane, carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons & nitrogen pollutions.  This waste adds to the energy & resources it takes to produce this food- water, land, soil, labor, processing, & transportation.  We consumers are the #1 source of wasted food (www.nrdc.org).   What Simple Acts can we make?

• More than 80% of perfectly good food is discarded because we misunderstand food labels such as “sell by”, “use by”, “best by” and “expires by”.  According to FDA, these food packaging labels are “related to optimal quality-not safety” and are generally applied at the manufacturers’ discretion. 
• Keep food fresh by properly storing. www.savethefood.com  has an interactive encyclopedia on food storage.  Don’t wash vegetables or fruit before storing.  Cut off tops of root vegetables to extend their shelf life & use greens for making broth.  Store foods that emit ethylene gas- apples, bananas, citrus & tomatoes- separately to prevent the gas from spoiling other foods faster. 
•  The simplest preservation method is freezing which works with most foods.   Store leftovers in airtight containers & label them to avoid “the guessing game”.  What you can freeze: bananas with peel removed, grated hard cheese, pre-sliced bread, yogurt, low fat milk, Grapes, ginger, chilis, herbs to name a few. 
• Save bones & vegetable scraps in a bag in the freezer to make homemade broth to be used for soups, sauces, & gravy.

The good news is that several states are actively curbing food waste by passing laws that restrict the amount of food waste going into landfills (CA, CN, MS, NY, RI & VT).  Vermont’s “Universal Recycling Law” bans food scrap waste entirely which has increased by 40% food donations to Vermont Foodbanks.  CA, CO, & MS fund private sector composting & food collection programs.  MA & RI introduced legislation to reduce the amount of food waste in schools.  Thank your legislators if you live in one of these states.

USDA & EPA set a goal to reduce food waste by half by 2030.  (www.rts.com)

The holiday season is upon us with shopping & gifting and time with family & friends. It’s a joyous time, but unfortunately also a time of great waste & use of energy. How can we make our celebrations more sustainable?

Green Holiday Shopping

Make sure that you bring your own reusable tote when shopping for gifts or groceries. And totes make great gifts. There are so many styles & flavors of tote bags from Shutterfly Photo Cotton Tote Bag with memorable family photos to fancy designed totes that can be reused for everyone’s shopping needs.

Gifts that encourage sustainability such as a cookbook for leftovers or reusable carry-out containers are useful. Bar soaps purchased from bins at Whole Foods or Natural Grocers are always welcome. If you give gifts that require batteries include rechargeable batteries.

We can all use more life experiences such as gift certificates to local restaurants or museums, upcoming concerts, movie theatres, art classes. Grandkids can give coupons of things they would do such as “One free Foot Massage”. The gift of time is the best you can give a loved one.

Homemade gifts such as knitted or crocheted hat or scarf, herbed vinegars, jellies or jams, cookies, repurposed jewelry. My sister gives us a family calendar every year with photos, old & new, of our growing family. Such fun that we all submit photos year-long for her to include.

Climate Friendly Wrapping

Gift bags are a great alternative to wrapping paper and can be used over & over again. President Megan saved the Sunday Comics all year in which to wrap her gifts for this season. Another idea is to use the “wrapping” as part of the gift such as a garden pot filled with garden supplies or mixing bowl filled with goodies for the kitchen. I am always envious of the beautiful woven totes I see many women carry when shopping at Farmers Markets. Perfect to fill with breads or cookies. Make your own reusable gift bags; one needs only a glue gun, scissors, cloth, & ribbon.

Environmental Holiday Decorations

LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights are not only 90% more efficient than traditional lights, but they also last much longer. Many big box stores offer recycling or holiday light exchange programs for those old energy-sapping lights.

Rather than an artificial tree, cut trees are a much greener choice with, of course purchasing a potted native evergreen tree to be replanted after the holidays being the best. Stay away from tinsel & plastic ornaments (see NFBPWC ESD September 2022 newsletter on PLASTICS). Ornaments from berries, evergreen branches, dried flowers, & herbs add an essence of fragrance to your home.

Green Parties

It's time to bring out all those beautiful dishes and silverware. Avoid plasticware, paper plates & napkins. Stay away from individually packaged drinks. Purchase locally grown produce & foods whenever possible. Many Farmers Markets offer holiday markets for just this purpose. Plan your menu to minimize food waste. Ask guests to bring reusable containers to send them home with leftovers. Donate leftover food to local food banks and compost food that is not donated.

By: Marikay Shellman, Chair, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee (2022-2024)

Every member of the ESD Committee contributed to this article for our magazine:  Sue Oser, Daneene Monroe Rusnak, Megan Shellman Rickard & Laurie Dameron

As the cold weather begins & the holiday seasons are upon us, catalogues are arriving every day and tempting us with new fashionable clothes. However, shopping for new clothes- Fast Fashion- is generating 14 million tons of textile waste into our landfills. Textile waste can take up to 200+ years to decompose, releasing methane gas and toxic chemicals & dyes into our groundwater & soil. The average American discards approximately 80 pounds of textile waste -clothing, towels, linens, purses, shoes, etc.-each year.

Almost every kind of fabric if it is clean & dry, can be recycled, even the oldest pair of underwear, but not in curbside recycling bins. (www.greenmatters.com) Recycled textiles are sorted by type, fabric (synthetic versus natural fibers) & color, then pulled into fibers or shredded, re-spun into yarn to be woven, or compressed into filling such as insulation. Polyester-based textiles are granulated into polyester chips which can be melted to create new fibers. Recycle Nation suggests these recycling fabric locations:  GrownNYC a non-profit operating at Union Square Greenmarket & more than 50 local farmer’s markets & drop-off locations throughout NYC; East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, Oakland, CA; Western Pennsylvania Center for Creative Reuse; Quilts of Valor community chapters uses recycled fabric to make quilts for veterans; Project Linus accepts blankets & quilts for children in need.

As part of the clothing Circular Revolution, TakeBackBag has developed a program with Bombas & ForDays that recycles old clothes for in-store credit. By purchasing a $20 a 24” x 24” bag made of 100% recycled polyester (which will be recycled again), filling it with 10 pounds of clean & dry textiles, placing on a pre-paid shipping label and mailing this REDUCE, REUSE, RECYLE, REDUCE bag, you will receive a $10 credit with Bombas.

Patagonia is committed to the clothing circular economy. Their clothing made is from recycled material & they accept all Patagonia items to be returned for recycling. They launched Worn Wear, an online platform where one can buy, trade, or sell second-hand Patagonia goods.

Another ethical brand that supports textile sustainability, Levi Strauss creates jeans that are 100% recyclable. In response to the apparel industry’s over-consumption crisis, they are committed to sourcing high quality products that are produced responsibility, using less water to create & that last longer. Their partnership with Blue Jeans Go Green has developed a program recycles jeans into new items, diverting 2100+ tons of denim from landfills.

Vetta takes the ethical clothing business to the next level. Their factories are 70% solar powered, their packaging is recycled & recyclable, and their clothing made from sustainable fabric & organic cotton & “dead stock fabric”- leftover fabric made from landfill textiles. They have a family run factory in NYC & their sweaters are knit in LA. Vetta encourages their customers to buy a “lean timeless collection” and sell, donate or recycle their clothing. Focused on sustainability since its onset, Urban Outfitters offers upcycled & repurposed & remade clothing, it’s a fully recycled line of clothes. They are known as an ethical business model, part of the circular economy.

Ecoalf produces their clothing from used fishing nets, plastic bottles, coffee grounds. Their mission is “to create the first generation of recycled products with the same quality and design as non-recycled products.” By reducing consumption of natural resources, Ecoalf has removed over 500 tons of waste from the ocean floor & recycled over 120 million plastic bottles.

North Face developed Clothes the Loop program, a program that accepts & sends clothing & shoes to Soles4Souls, creating sustainable jobs in recycling clothing & shoes saving approximately 95,000 pounds of clothing & footwear from landfills.

As part of “In the loop, out of the landfill” recycling program, Madewell has developed a unique partnership with Habitat for Humanity and Blue Jeans Go Green where donated jeans are recycled into housing insulation, pet beds & food & pharmaceutical packaging, and saving 415 tons from landfills & recycling 830,700 pairs of jeans.

But back to my stack of Fashion design catalogues calling for my attention…. ThredUP sells 55,000 brands of clothing. Their mission, “Inspiring a new generation to think secondhand first”. They decided the best way to propel the clothing sustainable movement forward was to join forces with the fashion industry. ThredUP teamed up with fashion designer Zero Waste Daniel to create an upcycled collection made exclusively from fabric scraps & secondhand clothing. They are an online consignment & thrift store where you can find your favorite brands & find amazing deals. To do my part in helping solve the fashion waste crisis, I took the time to check out thredUP.com. It’s amazing! Moving to Circular Fashion, shopping secondhand, buying a used item instead of a new item is possible and easy.

Join the Clothing Circular Economy by shopping with intention & standing for sustainability.

Thanks to Evie Hudak (BPW Colorado President) for her shout out to our committee, “I want to learn about textiles.”

By: Marikay Shellman, Chair, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee (2022-2024)

Every member of the ESD Committee contributed to this article for our magazine:  Sue Oser, Daneene Monroe Rusnak, Megan Shellman Rickard & Laurie Dameron

As we build upon our SIMPLE ACTS in ways that each & every member of NFBPWC can make a difference in tackling Climate Change, here’s an easy one:  

DO FEWER AUTUMN CHORES!

By leaving your yard & garden & even your planter boxes a little messy & wild, LEAVING LEAVES, dead flower stems, small brush piles, fallen branches & flower heads, you are providing winter habitat for native invertebrates & pollinators.
Moderation is the key.  You don’t need to allow the leaves to pile up on your lawn, but don’t mow them with a mower as many insects & their eggs are living among the leaves.  Rake leaves onto garden beds & around the base of trees & shrubs and onto bare soil.  Many invertebrates overwinter in leaves a couple of inches thick.  (Avoid Spring clean-up until late in the season to allow for invertebrates to emerge from overwintering.)

Some examples of Invertebrates and their winter habitats (https://xerces.org/leave-the-leaves):

*Luna Moths & Swallowtail Butterflies blend in with real leaves by disguising their cocoons & chrysalises as dried leaves and crawling into seed pods to overwinter.

*Tucked into leaf piles to protect themselves from cold & predators are Spangled Fritillary & Wooly Bear Caterpillars.

*Brush piles & cavities in the soil provide winter cover for mated Queen Bumblebees.  An extra layer of leaves is extra protection for these endangered Bumblebees.

*Leafcutters & Mason Bees & 30% of Native Bees are tunnel nesting invertebrates.  Dead wood & hollow stems & brush piles provide solitary-nesting spaces for these species to overwinter.

By simply doing nothing, leaving the leaves & not tidying- leaving habitats for the Winter & early Spring, you are providing safe overwintering spaces for invertebrates & pollinators.

By: Marikay Shellman, Chair, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee (2022-2024)

Every member of the ESD Committee contributed to this article for our magazine:  Sue Oser, Daneene Monroe Rusnak, Megan Shellman Rickard & Laurie Dameron

by Hyon K. Rah – Chair, Environment & Sustainable Development Committee

September 2021

When I tell people about my work in sustainability and climate resilience planning in the built environment, I am often asked this question: “Where would you go to stay safe from the impacts of climate change?” While there is no certain safe place from the disruptions of climate change—hence the importance of and responsibility for prevention and mitigation—some regions are expected to feel the impacts less than others. One of the first places I would have mentioned is my hometown of Seattle. Although there are other risks there—including the “Big One,” a magnitude 9 earthquake that’s said to be coming any time—the Pacific Northwest was expected to fare better than other regions.

This, of course, was before the crazy heatwave in late June of this year. Instead of the relatively cool weather that’s characteristic of June in Seattle (locally known as “June gloom”), the temperature reached three digits and stayed there for three days, peaking at a record-breaking 108 degrees on June 28th. In the evenings, temperatures only cooled into the 70s. To put into context how unusual this is, there were only three days above 100 degrees in Seattle in the last century before the heat wave in June. Seattle’s average daytime high in June is in the upper 60s to lower 70s, and it drops to the mid to low 50s in the evenings. Typically, the mild temperatures and low humidity levels in the summer in Seattle meant natural ventilation was enough to cool most buildings. During the heat wave, however, most people were left to power through the 100+ degree heat without air conditioning. The heat wave was linked to hundreds of deaths across the Pacific Northwest.

My family and friends in the area told me it would pass and things would return to normal soon. Sadly, less than two months of normalcy was all they were afforded. The temperature gauge hit the upper 90s again in mid-August, about 20 degrees higher than the monthly average. The word “abnormal” was starting to seem inappropriate to describe the extreme heat in Seattle. I started to hear friends and family who never had air conditioning say they were considering installing it in their homes. I completely understand where they are coming from, having experienced a rather swift shift in attitude towards air conditioning myself after my first summer on the east coast. That said, I also find this development worrisome.

You might remember the state-wide power outage in Texas back in February. It was caused by surging demand for mechanical heating to cope with the unusual cold spell. In a similar way, thousands of residents in the Seattle area experienced outages due to the increased electricity demand for cooling during the heat wave. The outages in Seattle were nowhere near as large as those in Texas, possibly because most homes in the Seattle area are not equipped with mechanical cooling units to turn on and overwhelm the supply of electricity. Afterall, Seattle is the least air-conditioned city in the country. According to 2019 figures, only 44.3% of homes had air conditioning compared to the national average of 89%. Things have been quickly changing, however. In 2013, less than one-third (31%) of homes in Seattle had air conditioning; that’s an increase of over 13% in just six years (Figure 1). I expect the increase in air conditioning to continue, and, with that, the demand for electricity and the risk of larger-scale outages during the times when people need cooling the most.

Even if the additional power supply is made available, I remain worried because of how the additional energy might be produced. Will there be enough renewable energy sources to meet the increased demand for air conditioning? One of the major sources for Washington State’s renewable energy production, hydroelectric power, has been in decline, and it has been challenging enough to try to close that gap with other renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

Figure 2: Change in average global temperature relative to 1850-1900, showing observed and simulated temperatures

The past five years have been the hottest on record since 1850, according to the new IPCC report on climate change which came out in August, 2021. The IPCC, or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is a United Nations body charged with providing objective science-based information related to climate change. The report noted there was a 1.96°F (1.09°C) increase in the earth’s surface temperature observed over the last decade and presented concrete evidence that human factors have warmed the climate (Figure 2).

I mention the human influence on the climate not to point fingers but to highlight the fact there are clearly things we as a society can do to mitigate problems we had a hand in creating. In the case of dealing with more frequent heat waves in Seattle, for example, doing our part could entail ensuring air conditioning units are as energy efficient as possible and that the additional energy needed is generated using renewable sources.

by Hyon K. Rah – Chair, Environment & Sustainable Development Committee

July 2021

An important part of my job working as a sustainability and resilience strategist is to stay up to date on the latest scientific findings and studies. Sadly, this built up my tolerance for highly disturbing information, and it takes something extraordinarily bad to startle me. A few weeks ago, I found myself profoundly disturbed by a study on the chemicals included in cosmetic products. The study found over 50% of 200+ North American cosmetic products tested contained toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); most of the tested products did not disclose PFAS in their ingredients lists. To be clear, the study does not mention how much PFAS exposure would result from using these products, and, currently, there is no scientifically-based conclusion on what constitutes a harmful level of PFAS exposure for humans. That said, I feel compelled to share with you what I learned and why I am so concerned.

Figure 1: How PFAS can enter the body through the cosmetic items that contain them (Source: Environmental Science & Technology Letters)

PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally. This means once PFAS enter our bodies, they continue to accumulate. Research has linked PFAS to a slew of negative health issues, including increased cancer risks, liver impairment, decreased fertility, and weakened immune response. According to the study, the cosmetic items with the highest levels include waterproof mascara (82%), liquid lipstick (62%), and foundation (63%)—all products that could easily penetrate into our bodies both directly and indirectly (Figure 1). I had known and deeply concerned about PFAS in water systems for some time, but I clearly did not grasp just how universal their presence is. A 2005-2013 environmental study of over 69,000 people in the Ohio River Valley found that people who were exposed to higher-than-normal levels of PFOA (a type of PFAS) had increased risk of high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer, and pregnancy-induced hypertension. The findings helped over 3,000 affected community members reach a $670 million settlement with DuPont Chemical Company, which was accused of contaminating the local drinking water with PFOA. Knowing that, it made me feel sick to know I was actively introducing toxic chemicals of any amount into my body without realizing it every time I put on makeup.

PFAS is widely used in fire- and water-repellent products (e.g., Gore-Tex, ScotchGuard, spill-proof carpets), nonstick pans (e.g., Teflon), fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, and firefighting foams used at military bases and commercial airports (Figure 2). As there is no regulation or treatment guidelines mandated for facilities that use or produce products containing PFAS, the chemicals have freely made their way into the groundwater, surface waterbodies, and even the rain. The most common way PFAS enters the human body is through drinking water, yet neither the utilities nor the drinking water agencies are required to monitor PFAS levels in the waterbodies they manage.

Figure 2: Common items containing PFAS (Source: Earth Justice)

In January 2020, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported finding PFAS in the drinking water of most major U.S. cities, including 34 that were not previously reported to the EPA. Among the previously unreported was Quad City, Iowa, where 109.8 ppt of PFAS was detected—1.5 times the EPA’s recommended limit of 70 ppt. Of the sampled cities, the highest level was detected in Brunswick County, North Carolina, at 185.9 ppt. All in all, 2,337 contaminated public and private water systems were detected in 49 states (Figure 3), serving over 200 million Americans.

Figure 3: Map illustrating the prevalence of forever chemicals in our water system across the country (Source: EWG)

In order to prevent mass paranoia, we need to understand the threshold at which PFAS exposure becomes harmful. After all, 97% of Americans, including newborn babies, already have PFAS in their blood. Unfortunately, scientists do not currently know the answer.

In the meantime, I suggest we become familiar with the products that contain PFAS and be mindful about avoiding them. For my part, I started by tossing my waterproof mascara into the trash and researched PFAS-free makeup options (of which there are many). Below are some resources for your immediate use:

• EWG’s guide to avoiding PFAS
• PFAS-free products guide
• L.A. Times’ recommendation on treating PFAS-contaminated water

In the long run, this is a grave issue that will continue to threaten our health and wellbeing unless the root causes are addressed. This would require all of us demanding regulatory action, at a minimum, to limit PFAS level in our drinking water supply and consumer products and cleaning up contaminated sites, including military bases and manufacturing facilities.

Sources:

• Environmental Science & Technology Letters. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00240
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/health-effects/index.html
• C8 Science Panel. http://www.c8sciencepanel.org/
• Grist. https://grist.org/science/its-raining-forever-chemicals-in-the-great-lakes/
• Environmental Working Group. https://www.ewg.org/research/national-pfas-testing/
• Environmental Working Group. https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_contamination/
• Center for Disease Control. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm