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Meeting Recaps + Information>
Monthly Meeting - October 2008 - LAST FOR 2008!
October 30, 2008
MEMORANDUM
To: Sustainable West Milford Participants
From: Dave & Wendy Watson-Hallowell
Re: Meeting Recap from 10/27/08
Date: 10/29/08
Our last meeting of the year took place on Monday and featured a presentation on Global Warming and what we can do about it by Stefan Crema, founder of CALL, Cooling America thru Local Leadership.
Our next meeting will be on Monday, January 26, 2009 7pm at Hillcrest Community Center
First and foremost, we would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest participants, Donald Dickert, Jean Marie Burthards, Suzie from Suzies Tomato Pizza, and Tatuiana Guerrero. All talked about being supportive of what SWM is trying to accomplish and wanting to get more involved. We welcome you all!
Project Updates:
Autumn Lights Festival
Dave reported SWM had a terrific outing this year at ALF. Several volunteers were on hand throughout the day to welcome community members and share information about sustainability and sustainable practices. A very special thanks to Evie, Jade, Ann, Elvis, Gary, Tim, Norma B. and the entire Green Team for all of their energy and efforts! Our friend from Missouri, Bridgette Kossor was also on hand for the day to share her knowledge of healthy eating. She made some delicious vegan treats that were enjoyed by all! She brought a LapTop Lunch Box to raffle off that was a real hit bringing many people over to our booth to talk.
Sustainable Product sales were brisk with over $400 sold! AND 25 new people signed up, 7 new people signed up for plots in the community garden, and 1 person to help with the Medicinal Garden!
The Green Team had a great display and provided environmental games and face painting for the kids coming by.
Transportation Survey
Elvis and others did a terrific job surveying community members at ALF on their current transportation practices. We are hoping to get a better idea of how WM residents currently use their cars and get their thoughts on our proposed “Travel Buddy “ program. If you haven’t taken the survey, please go to our SWM home page and weigh in – thanks!
The survey results from 44 respondents (so far) shows that a little over half of vehicle use is for shopping/errands, rec/leisure. It also shows that a little over half of respondents would be willing to or definitely willing to consider “Travel Buddy” ride sharing for all their transportation needs. (over 82% for commuting!). Over 75 of the respondents were from WM and what follows are some of the details:
How do you use your car?
Commuting: ½ of those surveyed use their 50% of the time to commute to work
Shopping/Errands: ½ of those surveyed use their car up to 30% of the time to shop and run errands
Rec/Leisure: more than ½ of the respondents use their car up to 20% of the time for recreation and Leisure activities
Where do you commute to?
16% commute to WM
The rest commute to a wide range of places from the Bronx to Saddlebrook, to Rockland
Main Barriers to using Alternative Transit:
Mass Transit – Not available or very inconvenient
Ridesharing/Carpooling – Conflicting Schedules
Walking cycling – too far and lack of safe routes
Travel Buddy program
Would you consider this arrangement for commuting?
18% - no, never
74% - Possibly
9% - Yes, definitely
Would you consider this arrangement for Shopping/Erands?
41% - no, never
46% - Possibly
14% - Yes, definitely
Would you consider this arrangement for Recreation/Leisure?
35% - no, never
46% - Possibly
19% - Yes, definitely
Community Garden:
Dave introduced Gary Oppenheimer as the new director of our Organic Gardening Program,– welcome Gary! Gary brings a wealth of experience and training to us and we look forward to a very productive and fun year to come! Gary shared his vision that the garden is an opportunity to learn and grow for everyone. His first action is to test our soil and he will be sending soil samples off for analysis this week. There will be a Garden Planning meeting for all interested in the program on November 12th, 7pm at Hillcrest Community Center. Please join us to help shape the program and the garden for next year! We will be holding a Garden Winterization Work Party on the weekend of Nov 22-23 and invite everyone to come on out and lend a hand with this labor of love! We’ll have something nice and warm to eat and drink – maybe even a fire to warm our hands!
Green Team
Norma B. filled us in on the Green Team and what they are up to. The group put in their 2nd work day on Belchers Creek and are going strong! Now over 50 kids are on the Green Team list and the group is on the verge of being considered “cool”. In addition to the cleanup effort (they have enrolled the project in a national contest), they continue to pursue recycling at the high school and will be making more Green Team recycling bins, and are planning something for Earth Day
Medicinal Garden Update:
Robin reported the garden is looking very good thanks to the efforts of many who turned out last weekend for the garden clean up day. A large group of volunteers gave many hours in another labor of love as they trimmed, weeded, cleaned, and sheet mulched the triangle. The sheet mulching was guided by Doug Herdt and covers a section of the Warwick Turnpike hillside.
Robin also reported that she is in the process of seeking grants to support the educational effort of behind the garden in hopes of expanding the already positive impact the garden is havng.
SWM Board Meeting:
Dave reported the Board met and the following new members were voted on to the SWM board. Amy Jolin, Founder of Eat Local and the Ringwood Farmers Market, and Karl and Norma Stehl, long time community residents and environmental heroes. We warmly welcome them with their fresh ideas and energy!
The board also voted to make some kind of payment to the directors of the Community Garden and Medicinal gardens – details not finalized, and to pursue professional assistance in the public relations and accounting for SWM. The board feels these expenses are good investments in the future of SWM.
The Board also agreed upon a new SWM organizational structure – one that better fits with our vision and programs.
2008-2009 Events
Dave then shared the 2008-2009 SWM Event Planning Calendar stressing that more help is needed with all these programs, not just the new ones. New events include:
Wine Tasting Fund Raiser
Weekly Farmers Market
Community–wide Sustainability Planning Session
Harvest Dinner
Stefan Cema’s presentation on Global Warming and what can be done about it.
The bad news: Greenhouse gases are increasing at a rate twice that of the 80’s. If we can’t plateau by 2015, it will be impossible to stop shifts in temperature large enough to trigger global disaster.
The good news : There is something we can do about it locally!
He pointed out that this is more of an economic problem than an environmental one.
Our country’s infrastructure is based on inefficient housing, transportation, and power generation and use. The economics of changing these practices is the real challenge.
Goals have been set – 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, 20% by 2020.
These are large changes but can be accomplished through individual actions – a change in mentality and personal interventions. . He points out that Californians produce 50% as much of the carbon footprint of residents in other states – this is evidence that things – people can change and make a very large difference.
To do so, Local intervention is needed. and many programs have been designed to enable this:
One of the more well known ones is the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities
Key Steps:
Mayors make a commitment
Conduct Baseline energy surveys
Establish targets
Develop a plan
Implement and verify results
Reduction in Emission = Dollars Saved
McKinsey & Co. did research and found that a 40% reduction of emissions in the US could be accomplished at zero costs. 20% of Global at zero cost
Better communication of this information will lead to more implementation.
NJ Clean Energy Program offers a variety of programs both residential and commercial, that provide incentives to conserve more energy and create more renewable energy. Go to www.njcleanenergy.com for more information on these.
Stefan started a new program called “Cooling America through Local Leadership” to help more communities get past the signing of the pledge and into action. For more information go to, http://joincall.org/index.html
The intention is bring business and government together to raise the $$ for the needed changes The Green Evolution Fund is designed in that way – provide low cost loans to residential and commercial users of power wishing to take action to reduce their emissions.
Another approach to this issue he shared was called Community Choice Aggregation – something San Francisco is leading the way on. A bond issue that raises needed capital for low cost loans to conserve more energy and create more renewable energy.
Stefan related that the number one reason these programs aren’t happening is the fear of local leadership to make a move like this. Only with the support of the community, they will move ahead
ICLEA is an organization dedicated to making these kinds of things happen and can be very helpful. For more information go to www.iclea.org
Stefan then kindly answered questions from the audience.
Please let us know if we missed or misrepresented anything in this recap. If you have any questions or suggestions, please give us a call at 973-853-2139/23.
See you again in January for our first monthly meeting of 2009 – Have a great Holiday Season!!
Dave & Wendy
Watson-Hallowell
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