There’s nothing traditional about this environmental advocacy group

Who Is Syracuse is an annual series by The Daily Orange that highlights those who have made notable contributions to the community.

As Donnie Monk walked her dog on South Beech and Westcott streets, she was astonished to see a family of four picking up trash.

“They were doing what we want people to do,” she said.

Monk is the head of community organizing for Thots Against Climate Change, a multimedia environmental organization started by SUNY-ESF graduate Puji San in 2012. The organization’s mission is to impact the environment and beautify communities in non-traditional ways, and it has games, vlogs, physical projects and community cleanups to teach people about sustainability. Now, Thots Against Climate Change is building a recycling app for youth called Greenhand.

Seeing people taking their community seriously and preventing environmental degradation was a moment of realization for Monk and Ecothot, a nickname for the organization.

“We see people physically changing the world, and that’s our No. 1 goal,” Monk said.

In ninth grade, San’s mom enrolled him in the Science and Technology Entry Program at Stony Brook University, where he was introduced to environmentalism. In the program, San realized how environmentalism impacts people, including his own family in Haiti, who experienced the 2010 earthquake.

Part of the program required San to come up with different projects related to environmental work. When brainstorming project ideas, he began experimenting with designs on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and placing them on upcycled clothing.

“I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life,” San said.

San transferred to ESF in 2016 and brought Ecothot to the Syracuse community, where the organization developed to focus more on environmental concerns in addition to clothing. He recognized how many students would come to the Syracuse area and leave without thinking about their long-term impacts on its environment, but he struggled to figure out exactly how to make an impact outside from just being online.

In the summer of 2018, he met Monk, an environmental studies major at ESF focused on policy planning and law. Ecothot allows Monk to have the creative control to make a difference, unlike other internships she previously had, she said.

“I found Ecothot and I was like ‘Wow, this is like basically what I wanted to say my whole life,’” Monk said.

The two of them began spreading the word of the organization through stickers, Snapchat filters and group chats. They got people interested in a very grassroots way, San said.

The word “thot” has been viewed as inappropriate, but Monk said the word is misunderstood. The organization’s name includes the word because Monk thinks it connects well to its audience of people who “aren’t so traditional.”

There isn’t one solution to the climate crisis, Monk and San said. Instead, they use Ecothot as a platform to advocate for a wide variety of strategies that resonate with different people.

“There are climate activists who write like 10-page essays, but Ecothot strives to impact in non-traditional ways,” Monk said.

In April 2018, San was working for the community service office at ESF when he wrote “Greenhanded (Recycle Rap)”, a rap to teach people about carbon emissions. When he graduated from the college, he began coding a computer game called Greenhanded Minigame, where players need to correctly sort garbage to stay alive.

Photo by Elizabeth Billman; Yiwei He | Design Editor

Merchandise is another key component of Ecothot, and it’s what helped grow the organization. Upcycling clothing helps the organization have a positive environmental impact without contributing to fast fashion, Monk said. Ecothot sells items such as beanies, hoodies and dog tag necklaces.

San spends around three to four days at home upcycling one piece of clothing he gets from places such as the Salvation Army and Thrifty Shopper. He adds either embroidery or vinyl to clothing, but people will also send him customized orders to the organization’s website. So far, San has made over 100 articles of clothing.

Beyond the clothes, Ecothot also has a candle line that Monk created as a part of her graduation thesis. She’s collected over 300 beer bottles over the past year, which she upcycles into candle holders. She fills them with all-organic candle wax and sells 3 of them for $15. Her first batch of candles sold out in one day.

“When people come over, we tell them to put their bottles to the side,” she said. “We live in a group home, so we see the opportunity to gain from things like upcycling. We take every opportunity and don’t want to throw anything away.”

SU grad student Puji San started Ecothot in 2012 to impact the environment and beautify communities in non-traditional ways, including through games and apps that promote recycling. Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer

On April 17, people met in Thornden Park for Ecothot’s first public community cleanup. People trickled in throughout the day, and groups split off to clean the park extending from South Beech Street, around Madison Avenue and all the way down to East Genesee Street.

The event was only supposed to last an hour, but people ended up staying for three hours, Monk said. People from New York City even traveled to Syracuse to help, and together they collected over 14 bags of trash.

“People were so enthusiastic at the cleanup, and it was so empowering,” Monk said.

Zakary George knows San through mutual friends, and he drove to the event from Pompey, New York. He walked up and down picking up trash with the group, which “felt like family,” he said.

Having grown up in the Syracuse area, George is inspired to see the community Ecothot fosters around environmentalism. Though pollution is visible, it’s not something people are really cognizant of, especially in a college town, he said.

“It was a cool experience because it’s not usually my bread and butter,” George said. “But I learned a lot just working with them and was happy that I jumped on board.”

Photo by Elizabeth Billman; Yiwei He | Design Editor

Ecothot is currently fundraising to afford supplies needed to accommodate the efficiency of its cleanups as well as the safety of its volunteers, said Matt Lerro, a coordinator of the event. The organization plans to pick back up in June with monthly or bi-weekly cleanups and possibly expand them to other locations, he said.

For Monk and San, allowing people who are primarily affected by climate change — communities of color and LGBTQ communities — to be “non-filtered” in the climate conversation is at the center of Ecothot’s mission. They want everyone to have an opportunity to have a voice, so over the next two years, they will focus on beautifying the Maple Street area.

The initiative is part of Syracuse’s Adopt-a-Block program, which the organization joined in March to connect deeper with its vision for Syracuse.

“A bottle doesn’t just have to sit there and trash doesn’t just have to sit there. You can go and pick it up,” San said. “And, you can join a group of people who are like-minded and want to do more, and Ecothot is that group.”