Sustainable Vashon

About 30 people gathered to talk about the ideas generated at the September 14th conference. The sustainable actions identified at the conference were summarized on a 2-page handout. The handout was organized around the eight subjects discussed at the conference: energy, transportation, solid waste, water, local economy, land use, housing, and food and agriculture.

The list includes actions in 2 broad areas: personal actions/education, and sustainable projects that will involve community action. Several potential projects for sustainable action were identified from the list and from suggestions offered at the meeting:

Community composting
Green tags
“How Do I Live More Sustainably”- a conference for educating islanders
Cooperatively-owned land for sustainable farming
Energy demonstration projects
Bike paths
Eco-labels
Community bank
Sustainable manufacturing on island
Green housing alternatives
Biodiesel
Catalogue of island businesses
Humanure (human waste)

Participants chose 6 potential projects to discuss in small groups. At the end of the meeting, these groups described their intended project(s) and their next meeting date.

HUMANURE

Projects: Work with Community Council, King County, and the sewer district to allow alternatives to traditional septic systems and ways to insure system maintenance.

Next Meeting: not set, will be working steadily on project

HOW DO I LIVE MORE SUSTAINABLY – EDUCATION

Project: One-day conference, or other means to engage people to take individual action in multiple ways, different venues.

FARM COOP – LAND SHARING

Projects: Trading system – how to connect things that farmers need to the farmers who need them and establishing a community growing space/food bank farm

ENERGY

Projects: Green Tags – how to make it work for Vashon (meeting on October 24th with Puget Sound Energy about this), sustainable energy demos on island at public places like the library and schools, work with Vashon Household to make sure energy conservation and alternative energy systems are “built in” to their upcoming projects.

BIODIESEL

Projects: Increase number of vehicles using biodiesel on the island (adding 2 per month), draft proposal for use of biodiesel in school district busses, make biodiesel fuel available for island use at $2.50/gallon.Next Meeting: None planned, ongoing work, call Shaheeda (463-6246)

VASHON ECONOMY

Projects: Work with the Chamber, Kiwanis, other business organizations to develop program to achieve zero waste for businesses in Vashon (Bainbridge example), have businesses supporting each other on Vashon by ensuring that businesses are purchasing from other businesses rather than from off-island, develop a catalogue of all island businesses.

Questions and issues raised at the meeting:

We need a holder of the whole – the need to keep the central connectedness and wholeness of how all of our efforts relate to each other.
We need a way to keep track of people who attend our meetings and want to be informed and work on things (Damon and Rita are working on this).
We should look at a community credit union rather than a community bank because it may be easier to establish.
We’d like to pursue the idea of a Community Foundation – way to create incubators for jobs.
Look at the idea of getting more internships for teens in island businesses.