Andrea Avena Koenigsberger

President and Bloomington Community Bike Project Representative

“I envision a CSL that is more than an umbrella organization to sustainability-minded Projects led by members of our community. I envision a CSL that can lead amazing changes in our community.”

Andrea came to Bloomington in 2010 to join a doctoral program in Computational Neuroscience at IU. However, in 2013, she was connected to the CSL through Ryan Conway and discovered the Bloomington that lives outside of IU’s campus. Since then, she has lived two parallel lives: one life devoted to science, and another life devoted to her community.

Andrea became a board member for the CSL in 2014, followed by roles as the board treasurer and now board president since 2016. She has been involved in many aspects of the organization, including the Grow Organic Educator Series (2014), the Community Bike Project (treasurer, started Ladies Nights in 2015), the Glenn Carter Memorial Toolshare (2015), ShareBloomington (2015), and BloomingVision (2016). Through the Toolshare and ShareBloomington, Ryan and Andrea have promoted the sharing economy through several events, workshops, film screenings, and speaker series. They have also established collaborations with other local organizations, including the City’s Commission on Sustainability, the Bloomington Food Policy Council, the Council of Neighborhood Associations, BloomingLabs, and Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard. In addition, Andrea and Ryan created hOUR Bloomington, a time bank which used time as a currency rather than money. In 2016, Andrea worked with CSL founder Christine Glaser, Ryan Conway, and Eric Ost to provide feedback on the City’s Comprehensive Master Plan through BloomingVision, a former CSL project that they revived in order to call for better sustainability and higher environmental standards in Bloomington.

Recently, Andrea has focused heavily on re-organizing the CSL as a whole, reinforcing and creating new connections between projects and the board of directors.

Inspired and passionate people collaborate at the Center for Sustainable Living of Bloomington, Indiana to share how we can care for our Earth and live well, together. Our non-profit has more than 20 years of experience nurturing great ideas like yours, so find your place and do great work with us.

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The Center for Sustainable Living supports 13 different projects.
Find your passion and jump in!

BloomingVeg

Hosting potlucks and encouraging advocacy for sustainable eating with other vegetarians and vegans in your community.

About the Project

BloomingVeg is an all-ages social and advocacy group for vegetarians, vegans, and veggie-lovers alike. BloomingVeg was founded in 2012 to help at the local animal sanctuary, promote and publicize vegan dining options in Bloomington, demonstrate against animal cruelty at circuses, and engage in similar friendly efforts to help others live more compassionately.

Also, because eating is such a social aspect of our lives, we wanted to provide a venue for fun gatherings like potlucks, holiday cookie swaps, Meatless Monday dinners at local restaurants, and more among like-minded people! If you are a long-time vegan or vegetarian, just starting out, or maybe you just like eating vegan food, BloomingVeg has something for you! You’re welcome in our friendly group of compassionate eaters.

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Bring Your Bag Bloomington

Encouraging everyone we come across to use reusable shopping bags.

About the Project

We spend time talking one-on-one to people in grocery stores and at various community events, explaining the problems with plastic bags, and distributing free reusable bags. Person by person we are showing how small individual changes can lead to measurable, community-wide improvements! If you’d like to help make simple changes that have huge impacts, then join our efforts to teach and inform.

The original goal of Bring Your Bag Bloomington was to introduce a city ordinance to drastically reduce distribution of single-use plastic bags by implementing a ban and/or fee on bags. After working towards this goal for 18 months, the Indiana Legislature rushed through a bill in March 2016 which banned any local laws controlling plastic bags or any other disposable food containers. This was outrageous, but nevertheless we have continued to encourage everyone we come across to use reusable bags.

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Habitat Stewards

Establishing wildlife habitats, increasing biodiversity, and beautifying the land anywhere there is a bit of space.

About the Project

Through Habitat Stewards, we take the national Backyard Wildlife Habitat principles and share with others the joy and benefits of growing local native plants, establishing wildlife water and shelter needs, and more. We started by working to certify Bloomington as a Community Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. Today, we still encourage new wildlife habitat developments throughout Bloomington and share what we have learned about our local ecosystem. You can help create wildlife habitats in backyards around our community!

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Life-Sized Bloomington

Life-Sized Bloomington is a collection of educational + fun events and resources for folks of all ages who want to learn more about the built environment, people-friendly design, and civic engagement.

About the Project

During our first workshops, we used a large map to visualize our ‘third places’ (the community that isn’t at work or home). Some things to expect in the future: workshops, talks, and events around the topics of placemaking, urban planning, accessible spaces, using maps and data, learning how to contact your council rep and getting engaged in local government, Jane’s walk, and more!

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SIREN

Bringing solar to more places to expand the number of businesses and public buildings powered by the sun.

About the Project

The Solar Indiana Renewable Energy Network (SIREN) formed in 2008 to promote an alternative energy model to reduce dependence on coal. Since then, we have continued to help more and more homes, businesses, churches, governmental buildings, and schools become solar powered. By presenting free, public Going Solar programs, and organizing Solarize group-purchase programs in partnership with city teams around the state, we help overcome barriers to adoption of solar in the Midwest by demonstrating its performance, affordability, and availability. If you want to see our culture move away from fossil fuels as a foundation, embracing the possibility of carbon-neutral energy, then join our efforts right here in southern Indiana.

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Solar For All

Purchasing solar power together to expand access to those with limited funds, providing energy independence and economic savings for all.

About the Project

By quickly ramping up photovoltaic (PV) installations in Indiana, we are making solar power financially accessible to those with limited funds through our bulk purchasing and collective subsidizing plan. Together we are increasing energy efficiency, building community, and creating resilience.

The price of solar installations has dropped dramatically in recent years, yet people with fixed or limited income still cannot afford to buy in, and typically do not qualify for the federal renewable energy tax credit. These people are also the most vulnerable to inevitable electric rate increases and have the most to gain from reduced utilities expenses. All households, businesses, and other organizations are eligible to participate and benefit from the bulk purchase discounts we negotiate in a given area, and by buying with us subsidize installations of solar PV systems for people with fixed or limited incomes—providing some energy independence and economic savings for all. Not only do people of all economic positions benefit from our purchasing plan, but along the way volunteers gain skills in home weatherization, solar installation, and roof repair. If you want to learn these skills for possible new employment opportunities and help spread solar access, this is the project for you!

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Your donation will support The Center for Sustainable Living and our mission to help more people live sustainably. Organization-wide initiatives, seed funding for new Projects, and more are supported by donations.