Participants at the KSP Nature & Community Writing Workshop, part of the
2nd Annual Keweenaw Sustainability Project Retreat at the Marsin Nature Retreat Center.

"Thinking About a Sustainable Society" -- Daily Mining Gazette, 9/15/08.

Community Sustainability Projects:

April 2008: The Education/Outreach Committee of the Keweenaw Co-op has started a "Local Food Project," to explore ways by which we can ensure our food security over the long term future. Contact Diane Miller for information: dimiller@mtu.edu.

May 2008: A spin-off the Keweenaw Co-op's "Local Food Project" is a project proposed and led by Matt Manders variously called "The Edible Forest Garden" or the "Perennial Public Garden" project. The group has teamed with the local schools "Great Explorations" summer program to begin doing gardening on the elementary school lawn and other public spaces. The long range goal is to convert public parks, school lawns, and other sites into perennial edible gardens to provide the community with an additional source of food, and also to symbolize the need for the community to generate a greater proportion of food for its own food needs. To contact Matt, email him at brockwayhermit@hotmail.com

Cloth Shopping Bag Campaign: Fall 2007

Susan Burack spearheaded a community campaign to encourage both stores and shoppers to utilize cloth shopping bags for purchases rather than the use of paper or plastic bags. All the main grocery outlets were cooperative and began offering cloth bags for sale. The stores included the Keweenaw Co-op, Jim's, Pat's, Festival Foods, Econofoods, and Walmart.

The publicity included the following information: Consider CLOTH.

• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide, over one million per minute.
• Plastic bags usually end up in a landfill, and often everywhere. They can take up to 1,000 years to break down in landfills, emitting greenhouse gases.
• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrad--breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits that contaminate soil and waterways.
• In U.S., 380,000,000 (that's million) plastic bags are thrown away every year.
• Each family uses 300-700 plastic bags per year = 3 to 7 gallons of crude oil.
• An estimated 14 million trees annually make 10 billion paper bags.
• Each reusable shopping bag eliminates hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.
• Keep reusable bags in the car and bring them into the store.

IT'S A GOOD IDEA! IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

World Cafe

Sunday, September 16, 2007

We held our first World Cafe today at the Keweenaw Land Trust's Marsin Nature Retreat Center. Community members engaged in collaborative conversations on topics such as climate change, community resource sharing, and collectively reducing our carbon footprint.

Some examples for future actions include supporting a local bio-diesel pilot project, using cloth bags for grocery shopping, carpooling, and ongoing community education efforts.

Renewable Energy: Reducing Home Energy Costs, Part 2

Monday, April 9, 2007

Renewable Energy will be the topic of the Town Hall Forum to be held Tuesday, Aprl 17th, at 7:00 p.m. at Lakeview Manor in Hancock.

Presentations by Terry Kinzel, Mike Benda, and Dave Bach will cover solar and wind power technologies as well as retrofitting older homes.

During the second-hour, break-out groups, other community members with homes currently powered with alternative and sustainable energy sources will also be available for consultation.

The forum is sponsored by the Keweenaw Sustainability Project. For information, contact Michael Moore, 370-0206, mmoore@mtu.edu

Keweenaw Sustainability Project goes forth--Vern Simula's Daily Mining Gazette March 6th letter to the editor

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

To the editor:

Our thanks go out to the presenters, Terry McNinch, Jerry Mitchell, Melissa Davis and Dave Bach who shared their expertise on renewable energy technologies and energy conservation; to Mike Schira of MSU Extension who so ably and amicably moderated the program; and to Gail Hollon of Lakeview Manor for providing the facilities so conducive to audience-presenter interaction.

In addition, we wish to convey our appreciation to the standing-room-only 60 or more individuals who attended on that cold wintry night--from as far away as L'Anse to Ontonagon--who asked informing questions, and many who shared their personal experiences on renewable energy technologies and energy conservation.

The evening demonstrated that there are many people from many walks of life in our Copper Country community who are truly concerned about our energy future--and who are seeking to become better informed on the challenges ahead for making our communities more energy independent and thus more sustainable in the face of emerging global forces, namely the eventual diminished availability of cheap fossil fuels and the yet unknowable economic impacts of global warming.