Work, work, and work at the EcoCenter!

Our great friends, Rebuilding Together were back! Remember two years ago when Rebuilding Together brought out hundreds of volunteers from Salesforce's Dreamforce conference to bring the EcoCenter to near completion? This time, they partnered with Walmart and St. Ignatius Church freshen up the EcoCenter's aesthetic, inside and out! Together they: 

• Planted approximately 6000 seed pods in prepared landscape areas
• Planted seed pots (at Bay Natives facility across the street)
• Cleaned and re-painted interior walls & door/floor trim in classroom, rest rooms, mechanical room and interior walls of sun room
• Developed design solutions to re-mount repurpose wood flooring on exterior parapet wall and re-install wood slats

For more pictures, check out Rebuilding Together's blog post and Flikr!

PS Shoutout to Salesforce and Accenture for making it out to the EcoCenter for corporate work days earlier in the month!

Bay Natives Nursery spreads its knowledge and seedlings!

Our neighbor, Bay Natives Nursery, have been hosting awesome workshops like edible native plants and pruning and propagation by cuttings at the EcoCenter. Since their grand opening last November, not only can you purchase San Francisco native plants online from Bay Natives but you can come down to their location at 10 Cargo Way, directly across the street from the park entrance, to check out plants up close and personal.

Next Wednesday, they'll be back at the EcoCenter for another workshop! Check them out on Facebook for more details. 

Stay tuned for future collaborations between Bay Natives and the EcoCenter!

Urban Permaculture Institute lends a hand at the EcoCenter

On the first Saturday of the month, the Urban Permaculture Institute led by Kevin Bayuk did a work exchange with the EcoCenter: in exchange for the use of space, Bayuk and students of UPI put some sweat equity into the native landscape surrounding the EcoCenter. This is the third year in a row that UPI has come out to the green building; we love folks who continue to deepen their relationship with this piece of land over time.

Source: Picture Actors

A "hot time" at the EcoCenter

Infrared thermography was used to help CCSF students understand how the EcoCenter responds to daily termperature changes and the efficacy of the passive solar design features, such as the concrete flooring and Trombe wall design. The Trombe wall is a series of windows that allow heat to enter the building and be absorbed and reradiated. This mid-day image shows how the tank room’s window frames are hotter than the high-performance glass.

CCSF sustainbility course finds a home at the EcoCenter

The City College of SF spring semester began earlier this month - and one of its courses will be taught at the EcoCenter! In the Applied Research in Sustainability course in the Department of Engineering and Technology, students come to the EcoCenter to help with operations and maintenance of the facility and to develop educational programming. With 14 students enrolled in the course, environmental studies instructor Peggy Lopipero-Langmo provides student with practical work experience as well as exploration in academic research methods and inquiry. By the end of the semester, students hope to have completed group or individual projects that include research on an EcoCenter sustainable design feature and hands-on experience assisting in its operations and maintenance. Welcome CCSF!

Downtown HS's culminating projects pass on the story of environmental justice to elementary school students!

Downtown High School's WALC (Wilderness, Arts, and Literacy Collaborative) had been partnering with LEJ's Heron's Head Park program all semester long, returning multiple times for hands-on service learning field trips. From the very beginning of the semester, the high school students - many of which didn't succeed in the traditional school system yet thrive in WALC's more relevant, interactive approaches to learning - knew that their final projects would include working with little kids. But were they ready?

At the beginning of the semester, the WALC students met their audience: elementary school students. They read to them children's books to see what they would be interested in. Throughout the semester, the WALC students layered their skills - drawing nature images, learning scientific concepts, digging deeper into environmental and cultural ethics - in order to create their own children's books and activities for the same elementary school students. The results? An amazing day of exploration for the little ones and the teens in which WALC students passed on their own stories of environmental justice. LEJ staff sat back and watched the transformation of all the students unfold at the EcoCenter and Heron's Head Park.

Check out pictures of the various stations that the WALC students set up. The elementary school students divided up into manageable groups and rotated through each station.

Here come the little ones!

One of the stations was habitat restoration in the transition zone next to the wetlands.

In another station, WALC students read the books that they wrote and
drew to elementary students on the EcoCenter's back patio.

At this station at the "Stumping Grounds" in the park, WALC students
used maps to explain Bayview Hunter's Point's history of environmental
pollution  and injustice... as well as its residents' resiliency to demand change.

More opportunities for reading indoors in the cozy EcoCenter.

Much appreciations and props to lead teacher, Catherine Salvin, and lead LEJ staff member, Raynelle Rino, for making the partnership happen!

CCSF uses the EcoCenter as a "living laboratory"

Earlier this month, City College of SF instructor Yeggie Dearborn came to the EcoCenter to collect water samples from the wastewater treatment system to demonstrate to students appropriate water sampling techniques and the significance of various water quality indicators. This hopefully will pave way for a deeper long-term relationship with CCSF in which students use the EcoCenter's unique systems as inspiration for monitoring or research projects. We love working with CCSF!

CCSF Instructor Yeggie Dearborn

CCSF students intently capturing water sampling testing techniques as they observe Yeggie.