Imagine Eugene taking a great green leap forward. It could happen at this year’s Green Neighbors Fair.
A great green leap forward might involve new businesses with progressive social and environmental practices. It might involve faith communities, families, students, neighbors and employees all taking new initiatives for going darker green.
Such a leap could include kids learning healthy food choices, homeowners turning suburban properties into sources of food and energy, and young people being paid to do planet-friendly work while learning new skills.
All these and more are on the books in Eugene — along with its reputation for bikes, natural foods and green culture. But far more needs to be done to mitigate deepening trends relating to climate change, the economy and the environment. How can we come together, create an engaging vision and steepen the action curve for going green in the southern Willamette Valley?
Eugene has an unprecedented opportunity for steepening the curve. Here’s the story.
Research to support a climate communication strategy has been conducted over the past two years by the city of Eugene’s Sustainability Office. There is no immediate plan to move this strategy forward, but a great deal of groundwork for a public outreach campaign — which offers exciting new potential for steepening the curve — has already been accomplished.
As part of this process, a remarkable survey was made public last summer that clearly shows a significant majority of people in Eugene connect the dots between climate change, human-caused damage to the environment and our own resource-intensive lifestyles. A majority recognize an urgent need to go green and would like to know more about choices for doing so.
A community outreach campaign offers immense potential. It would have many partners and networks, public and private. For example, programs such as Neighborhood Watch, neighborhood mapping organizations and emergency preparedness groups could add promoting front-yard gardens and the outreach campaign to their programs. Planting edible landscaping on public property — schools, parks and streets — could be part of a campaign. Eugene’s neighborhood associations could help promote and coordinate greening the neighborhoods.
Block planning is a powerful but unused tool in Eugene’s land-use tool kit. It could become a core action for the campaign. In block planning, residents and property owners of a city block agree to make changes over a certain period. With a block plan, code compliance can become far more flexible and green than single property changes in terms of setbacks, parking, traffic, stormwater, landscaping and commercial use.
Block planning would create jobs for tradespeople and architects, credit unions, permaculture planners and hardware stores. Young people could be mentored in block planning skills. Landscapes could produce food. Streets could be safer for everyone. Block planning can create more green space by trading streets, driveways and garages for greener uses. Smart density means protecting nearby farmland and enhancing public transportation options.
Many familiar programs, initiatives and organizations can be models adapted for new use. Think about a green “united way” to fund ideas such as green credit unions where people could invest locally to fund planet-friendly infrastructure projects or a green “people corps” for teaching young and not-so-young people practical skills to benefit themselves and the community.
These are only a few examples of what an outreach campaign might include. Many local issues and global trends can be mitigated simultaneously — issues and trends relating to the environment, the economy, youth, jobs, safety, security, climate change, resources and global relations. A greener culture is a healthier culture.
To move this initiative forward, people need to know about it. A community event can help acquaint the public with this great opportunity, where the entire strategy and process can be explained in terms of its history, current status and what an outreach campaign might include.
Such an event would bring together an impressive array of Eugene’s green assets — public and private, business, faith, educational, nonprofits and ad hoc — that could become partners and companions for an outreach campaign. Finally, this community event could help identify what actions citizens can be take to help move this whole initiative forward.
That’s exactly what is planned for the Green Neighbors Fair, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive St. in Eugene. More information is available at eugenesustainability.org.
A great green leap forward will take an unprecedented level of participation. We have many allies and assets to work with. A large chunk of the groundwork is already complete. There are enormous benefits to be gained at home, and in the neighborhood, the community and the world. It’s simply a matter of the ideas we imagine and the choices we make to turn them into action.
Jan Spencer of Eugene, a neighborhood and permaculture activist, is helping organize the Green Neighbors Fair.
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