SCI Table of Contents
- Cover
- i. Acknowledgements
- ii. Forward
- iii. Table of Contents
- 1. History and Project Design
- 1.1 The Setting
- 1.2 The People
- 1.3 A Grass Roots Movement
- 1.4 The Vision
- 1.5 The Sustainable Chequamegon Center
- 1.6 Operating Guidelines
- 2 Goals and Objectives
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Business
- 2.3 Government
- 2.4 Education
- 2.5 Energy/Waste
- 2.6 Agriculture and Food Security
- 2.7 Housing
- 2.8 Transportation
- 2.9 Population and Consumption
- 2.10 Natural Resources
Appendix
| 1.3 The Sustainable Chequamegon Initiative - A Grass Roots Movement |
 |
 |
 |
|
A new spirit took root among hundreds of Chequamegon area residents in the spring of 2005 following an international conference in Ashland sponsored by the Alliance for Sustainability, entitled; "Sustainable Sweden: the Eco-municipality Movement." The conference was the outcome of many slideshow presentations to local governments and other organizations by an Ashland city councilor who had visited Sweden the preceding summer. She visited several of Sweden´s seventy "eco-municipalities" that are known throughout the world for having moved toward a sustainable society over the past twenty years. These municipalities all have adopted The Natural Step (TNS) (see Appendix A), a scientific framework based on sustainable principles to bring about systematic changes in business, government, education, energy production, waste disposal, transportation, and agriculture. After hearing these presentations, thirteen local entities, including three city councils, two tribal councils, and four educational institutions, donated at least $1,000 each to co-sponsor the "Sustainable Sweden" conference that was held in February 2005 at the AmericInn in Ashland.
This conference was a turning point for the Chequamegon Bay region. Over 200 participants listened to Torbjorn Lahti, father of the eco-municipality movement in Sweden, and Sarah James, co-author of The Natural Step for Communities, present their experiences and stories of many communities in Sweden that have embraced and moved toward sustainability. Attendance included elected officials, mayors, city and tribal employees, educators, business owners, builders, planners, and interested citizens. One feature of the conference was to have participants brain-storm, discuss, and prioritize potential local community action projects that would be based on sustainable development principles. In the end, over four dozen projects were identified. Several organizational meetings following the conference moved many of these initiatives forward. In June 2005, a delegation of Swedish municipality leaders came to present their success stories to 450 area residents in the Big Top Chautauqua tent. They received a standing ovation for their ideas and for the work local citizens had begun. In July 2005, the Washburn City Council received national recognition for passing an eco-municipality resolution. In early fall, the City Council of Ashland followed suit. Together, Washburn and Ashland became the first two communities in the United States to pass eco-municipality resolutions (Appendix B). In October 2005, ninety people joined a first round of Study Circles. These nine discussion groups, of eight to twelve citizens each, met one night a week for two months in homes, businesses, and libraries throughout the Chequamegon Bay region to discuss the book The Natural Step for Communities by Torbjorn Lahti and Sarah James and how the sustainable development ideas described in the book might be incorporated in these communities. In January 2006, a public celebration of outcomes from these Study Circles led to a second round of Study Circles and the formation of three organizational committees, including the Planning and Organization Committee which spent two months developing this strategic plan for 2011. Other significant events that took place during the past year included:
|