Eugene as a Sustainable Community
Lisa Arkin, Oregon Toxics Alliance
A few days before the end of 2004, I awoke to the patter of voices from a local radio station. I listened to a public-service spot where the announcer urged listeners to rush out and buy new SUVs before December 31 so they could take advantage of the administration's tremendous tax credits and other economic incentives.The message defied common sense. Remember last summer's astronomical gas prices? Those low-mileage SUVs would only add to more dependence on an increasingly erratic international oil supply. And what about Eugene's own challenges surrounding land use, pollution, and transportation? More SUVs would pump yet more pollutants and climate-changing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Fourteen of the past 20 years have had lower than average rainfall, a situation that prompted EWEB's recent rate increase. And, 2004 will go down in the books as Eugene's second driest year on record.
Now, imagine an entirely different morning broadcast, a public-service message that really paid the community a service: "The City of Eugene has committed to purchasing 100% wind and geothermal power by the year 2010. Eugene residents can take advantage of tax credits and no-interest loans for investing in home and business energy conservation."
Eugene can join dozens of other communities, acting with conviction at the local level to create forward-looking civic policies that respond to a changing world. Simply put, we are obligated to act not only on our own behalf, but also to meet the needs of generations to follow.
To its credit, Eugene already has a variety of policies, goals, and resolutions relating to sustainability. The recently released brochure titled "The City of Eugene and Sustainability" refers to habitat, energy, water, economy and more.
The brochure's assessment that we have a long way to go toward sustainability is a realistic appraisal of the current circumstances. The city now needs to develop a comprehensive sustainability mandate and identify a timeline for its implementation.
An extremely valuable consensus-building tool is the principle of fore-caring. That is "fore" with an 'e', as in forethought, beforehand, and foresight. Fore-caring includes identifying those things we all value and acting together to protect and maintain them. Fore-caring would embed shared community goals and values into all city policies and practices.
What does fore-caring look like in our own community?
An excellent example is the Lane County Food Coalition's project at Sheldon High School that brings local organic produce to our school children. The Coalition also is forming a permanent council that will advocate for local farmers and food processors.
Working at a grassroots level, the United Methodist Church is leading an interfaith movement to support local farmers called "That's My Farmer!" In the words of Pastor John Pitney, this program "puts a neighborly face on our food." The congregation is recruiting 500 families to join Community Supported Agriculture, a program where people buy weekly food boxes directly from local farmers.
The congregation also sponsors youth to learn organic farming, and raises additional funds to subsidize fresh vegetable boxes for low-income families, thereby modeling fore-caring and economic justice.
Another example of fore-caring is the preservation in the Whiteaker neighborhood of two local grocery stores, the Red Apple and the Red Barn Natural Grocery. The Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation, NEDCO, prevented the closure of these two businesses because they are convenient and neighborhood-sized, and they help define the character of the neighborhood.Of the many facets of sustainability, none casts a longer shadow than energy. This map depicts the gas-fired power plants proposed for future operation in the Northwest.
Energy production fuels, so to speak, many problems - from the loss of salmon habitat to climate change, from the gobbling up of Northwest farmland by merchant power plants to rising electrical bills. Our city must prioritize energy conservation and require the highest standards of energy efficiency in building design.
Local efforts, like this solar-panel array on the old library building, can help end our dependency on non-renewable energy sources and cut back on the pollution that comes from fossil-fuel power plants.
The city of Eugene has a unique chance to practice fore-caring by teaming up with River Road and Santa Clara residents to preserve their neighborhood's character as each one makes the "transition" from semi-rural to urban. Using fore-caring as the principle to guide development in the River Road and Santa Clara areas can prevent the kind of poor planning seen on West 11th - in particular, Target, and Wal-Mart. Without land-use standards in place, fragmented and redundant commercial development will continue unchecked.
We applaud Mayor Piercy's plan to set up a Sustainability Advisory Commission and recommend that the Commission first turn its attention to developing a Eugene Sustainable-Community Code.
The Code should be comprehensive, covering several basic areas: community health, neighborhoods, labor, energy use, the environment - as well as, but not limited to, our economy. It should implement environmental benchmarks that go beyond the minimum state and federal regulatory requirements.
Moving toward a sustainable code means leadership from the city but also participation from "green" businesses, traditional businesses, neighborhoods, non-profits, and the interfaith-religious community.
We can learn from several nearby cities that are living by their sustainable-community codes and are reaping the economic and social benefits. Portland recently applied the concept of fore-caring to its municipal weed-management system. Just last month, the city announced the establishment of several pesticide-free parks along with a pilot program using chemical-alternatives such as vinegar.
Both Portland and Seattle have approved sustainable-paper policies requiring that all paper products be chlorine-free and made from post-consumer, recycled content by 2006. The city of Eugene could purchase tree-free paper for stationery from our local company, Living Tree Paper.
Seattle passed a resolution that extends fore-caring to all city purchasing. This translates into a policy that seeks to avoid, whenever possible, the purchase of products with flame-retardants and other persistent bio-accumulative toxics.Here in Eugene, voters passed the Toxics-Right-to Know Law, a national model for advancing sustainability goals. Its objective - to inventory the toxic chemicals released into our community - is the first step to recognizing and taking responsibility for reducing harmful chemical emissions. The city could encourage the next step, which is applying green technologies to manufacturing processes.
In fact, the University of Oregon is a pivotal center for scientific advancements in green chemistry. And local industries could be partnering with it to serve as proving grounds for solutions to industrial emissions.
It is time for our business community to practice fore-caring and acknowledge that our land and our air are common spaces, shared by plants, animals, and humans alike.
Eugene needs and deserves a popular, thoughtful, and comprehensive sustainability plan. It should explain the stakes, a sensible strategy, and the benefits. Eugene can be among the nation's vanguard as we turn our challenges into opportunities for good.