Sustainably conscious Juneau residents will soon have a new resource for information as the City and Borough of Juneau Commission on Sustainability finalizes its long-awaited website.
The commission met Wednesday evening at the downtown library meeting room.
The site will have a similar layout to other CBJ web pages, with photos true to the topic. Its creation was called for as part of the implementing actions of Juneau’s Climate Action Plan.
The commission has collected much of the information it will use for the site launch.
Tab names on the site hint at the information to be found within — sustainable Juneau, energy, recycling, food, water and local successes in sustainability.
“It really is showcasing all of the work that has been done; all of the resources here in one spot,” CBJ liaison Beth McKibben said.
At Wednesday’s meeting the commission heard information on ground source heat pumps, included on the website. Heat pumps can pull heat from the earth or water bodies to heat homes and public spaces.
The site will allow Juneau to announce its good works and successes — like the fact that Juneau has four Energy Star rated schools.
“That should get out,” McKibben said.
Commissioners must sign off on the content one more time before passing off the rough work to CBJ Webmaster Pat McGonagall to complete the site. The commission expects to launch the site at a local event early in 2013.
However, launch of the site doesn’t mean it will cease to grow. Commissioners plan to set up placeholders to add content as information on new projects and energy sources comes in.
The commission has scheduled its annual retreat for later in January to discuss the upcoming year’s work. In February the commission will meet to elect new leadership.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (5)
Add commentWhere is retreat?
Is the retreat open to the public?
Hopefully this commission will look at the Alaska Marine Highway System and the Juneau Access Road and detail the savings in greenhouse gasses that a road will provide our community.
Add a bike path to it and make it a very sustainable and green transportation corridor.
Prepper's website ?
Doesn't sustainability mean taking care of one's self and family without government assistance - same as self-dependency?
Now there's a concept that's going extinct.
gjsmith
I agree with you that self dependency is going extinct, which is pretty sad to put it lightly. However, sustainability doesn't simply mean self reliance. Self reliance is part of the sustainability equation, for sure. But sustainability also means longevity. Smart, long term vision. It's hard to establish a sustainable community if you're liquidating all your resources today without any regard for tomorrow. All that equates to is living high on the hog today and being a hungry, desperate soul tomorrow.
A better model would be one that lives in balance with all resources surrounding a community. Using resources at scales that make sense for the community's longevity rather than at global export commodity scales that are focused on quarterly dividends.
southeastfood
Well I certainly feel better after reading your post and yet I'm feeling unsatisfied - Like I ate something healthy, perhaps a rice cake, tastes good and has a nice crunchy sound to it - yet, no substance, mostly air.
Throw out a nice chewy example of local industry that lives high off the hog and is not looking forward to the future please. Give us an example - not a generality.
Also, I'm sure you will be happy to state on here that you are not "two faced" and that you do not invest in any corporations through equities, bonds, pensions, and etc. Neither do you drive on the roads, use the a phone line, cable, and etc that are mostly paid for by corporate profits. Ohhhhh.... wait a minute. You own a computer. Well, well - like I said, at least your comment makes people feel good.
cougar
Thanks for the response. To start, I'll provide one of plenty of examples that demonstrate liquidation of resources for short term profit without looking ahead into the future.
I have family in Butte, Montana. Home of the former Berkeley Pit Mine. In its heyday, the mine created more millionaires per capita in Butte than any other city in the U.S. The mine closed in the early 80's, taking its profits with its executives. What did they leave the town of Butte? A lot of formerly-employed miners looking for something to do, and the largest Super Fund site in the country (paid for by guess who? You, me, and every other Johnny taxpayer out there--not Anaconda Copper).
Or we could talk about logging on the Tongass. Publicly subsidized liquidation of old growth forest for the sake of one-time pulp products and exports to Asia. The original plan was to harvest logs on 60 - 80 year cycles, which just isn't realistic in this climate. Ask any logger in Southeast if Tongass second growth is merchantable now. I'll let you guess what their answer will be. So what would have happened if nobody stepped in and blew the whistle? The logging corporations would have continued at their rate of liquidation, and then we'd be left with what? A bunch of second growth that nobody wants to cut and also happens to be poor ungulate habitat. Great. A sustainable logging industry is essential to society, I'll give you that. But what we had in the Pacific Northwest, BC, and Alaska in the 20th century was anything but sustainable.
I admit that I am two-faced; I never said that I wasn't. It does make me very uncomfortable, though, and it makes me hungry for a better alternative than what we've got: an economic model that depends wholesale on exponential economic growth in a world of finite resources. Our current economic model will eventually face contraction; there simply isn't any way around it. When you have a finite set of resources and you liquidate them in the short term, that liquidation will eventually catch up to you. That's what finite means.
It is possible to have an investment strategy when you develop resources, i.e. we will use these logs, these minerals and metals, this energy to improve our community. Rather, we trade them on the global market for the sake of fat ex oficio pockets without any long term investment in our own region. This would make more sense: identify needs (renewable energy infrastructure, communications infrastructure, cold storage, etc.), identify the potential sources of the natural resources needed, develop the resource responsibly to satisfy the original need. Instead, we have an economic system that requires quarterly growth (exponential growth). To satisfy that requirement, we develop resources for the sake of quarterly corporate profits rather than for the sake of community improvement. This results in throw away consumerism, planned obsolescence, endless marketing, outsourced American jobs, unnecessary environmental degradation, big business burying small business, etc. Wonderful model we have, huh? Very patriotic.
For the record, I don't own a computer, nor a tv. I do use my girlfriend's computer, or the library's when I'm near there. I do not have any investments in any equities, stocks, or bonds because I don't believe in the unsustainability of the NYSE, NASDAQ, or other stock markets. My theory is, the best investment is in one's own competencies with his hands, his brain, and his family, and a piece of land with access to clean water.
I bet you and I have a lot in common, believe it or not.