Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

In 2011, when my children and I moved to Costa Rica, we quickly discovered the health issue of unpaved roads. Massive amounts of dust are being generated in highly trafficked areas, affecting houses, schools, restaurants, and groceries. I saw that the government was not making the community a priority, and as a filmmaker I wanted to help, so my children and I began to document our experiences and efforts working with the community and local government to lobby for change. In ten years, we filmed and interviewed community members, medical experts, road lab engineers, and lobbied government officials for environmental legislation, in our efforts to create momentum towards a carbon-neutral and sustainable solution. The Green Pavement Company was established through this process. The film trailer can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/IUBToHgDsY0

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses), Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Like many "forgotten" communities in the global south, the people of the Southern Nicoya Peninsula have been neglected by their governments for many generations. My children and I started outreach programs with the local people to collect waste from schools and hotels. We held monthly collections to weigh in plastic waste that families had collected, taught workshops to educate children and families, and organized beach clean-ups to protect the oceans from becoming more polluted. These citizens are unsung heroes who pick through landfill waste to gather and sort materials to generate income. While many are sorting through landfill waste to return plastic bottles, Green Pavement will provide depots for folks to receive earnings in return for plastic waste. The Costa Rican people are intelligent, skilled and underpaid. Green Pavement helps bring awareness to communities that have been neglected for many generations. We are already empowering women, children, families, and youth to champion together to take action in their communities. The project helps underprivileged community members earn income, shift behaviour patterns and gain leadership positions in environmental stewardship.

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Mission Statement:

When we think of sustainable transportation, we immediately think of carpooling, car sharing, green vehicles. What is overlooked is the transportation surface and the global warming and greenhouse emissions the asphalt surfaces produce. 

The Green Pavement Company came into existence to create a solution reduce greenhouse gases and protect against trapped heat in the transportation sector. Asphalt traps heat and releases it slowly contributing to global warming. For example, construction of a 1 lane- mile of highway and maintaining it for 50 years releases roughly 3,500 tons of CO2. By creating a new formula that reduces the amount of heat trapped and released, as well as reducing greenhouse emissions, while closing the loop on waste materials landing in our waterways and soils provides a triple win resolution.