The Sustainability Committee of the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council (ERNC) is a body of eight elected volunteer members. According to Denys Hemen, chair of the committee, the group acts as an advisory body to the ERNC board to address local sustainability issues. Hemen said he has served in the committee’s leadership position for seven months and has sought to expand accessibility and interest in sustainability as a community issue.
According to Evan Lieber (senior), who serves on the ERNC’s Outreach Committee, Hemen brings knowledgeable leadership and a commitment to public service to the sustainability committee.
“I think that Denys [Hemen] is a great person to be leading it,” Lieber said. “He takes his role very seriously and wants to encourage Eagle Rock to be a sustainable community.”
According to Hemen, the sustainability committee drafts community impact statements on local issues with input from both the committee and community members. Then, Hemen said the ERNC board approves these statements and forwards them to Council District 14 (CD14) to ensure that community perspectives are represented in the district. Hemen said the volunteer nature of the committee emphasizes public service and a genuine commitment to sustainability.
“We’re all there because we care about our neighborhood,” Hemen said. “It’s an endorsement of the community,” Hemen said.
Hemen said the committee passed a community impact statement to support LA Climate Week and involve Eagle Rock in city-wide programming April 8–15. LA Climate Week is an opportunity for grassroots organizations and local governance across LA to convene, according to Hemen.
“You’ve got these small groups of three people to [groups with] over 200 people,” Hemen said. “LA Climate Week is a chance to focus and showcase their work at different locations all over LA.”
In addition to drafting community impact statements, Hemen said the sustainability committee hosts field deputies from CD14 at committee meetings, who report to either an assembly member or the district representative.
“If someone has an issue, there’s a field deputy right there so that [any] person can go outside and talk to them immediately,” Hemen said.
The sustainability committee is tasked with implementing two public events per year, and they’re currently planning a free repair cafe in collaboration with CD-14, which will take place May 3, according to Hemen. Hemen said the event will offer direct public service to community members by providing an opportunity to bring broken household items to volunteer repairers.
“It’s more of a direct action to keep [items] out of the landfill — bring them here and we’ll have a volunteer who may be able to fix it,” Hemen said. “That’s one less thing that wasn’t shipped or packaged, and one less thing in the landfill.”
Lieber said the repair cafe event was initially designed by Tekle Skiles-Januta, who serves as Youth Director at ERNC, and strives to show what community sustainability looks like.
“If you have something that’s torn, you can learn how to sew it up,” Lieber said. “People really care about this, and it’s clear that [the sustainability committee’s] efforts are showing through.”
According to Lieber, student groups at Occidental have partnered with the sustainability committee for events in the past — Sunrise Oxy and Touchdown Thrift tabled at the committee’s annual native plants giveaway in November.
“Oxy is a huge part of the neighborhood, but it’s not the only part,” Lieber said. “I think sustainability is a great way to explore community, and I think that the neighborhood council has been doing a great job, but there’s always more to do.
According to Aiden Thatcher (sophomore), Student Body Officer of Occidental’s Sustainability Fund, the ERNC Sustainability Committee will be tabling at Occidental’s Earth Month Quad Fair April 14. Thatcher said sustainability issues aren’t limited to campus, and the ERNC provides support to address issues on a neighborhood scale.
“There are many ways people can contribute and be good stewards within their community,” Thatcher said. “Sustainability offers a lot of opportunities to come together as a community because it is rooted in everyday action and community spaces.”
According to Hemen, the sustainability committee hopes to increase community input at their monthly meetings, which occur at Eagle Rock City Hall on the second Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m.
“Our priorities are whatever Eagle Rock’s priorities are,” said Hemen. “We break down the barriers between a person and the district.”
Contact Julian Villa at jvilla@oxy.edu
