Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and City Energy Analyst Lynne Eichner-Kelly spoke at the University Wednesday evening about making Eugene more environmentally sustainable.
The city of Eugene has a plan, they said, to lower carbon emissions, reduce sprawl, create a more pedestrian-friendly city and further the use of mass transit in daily commuting.
Now is a good time to focus on sustainability, Piercy said, because “we have the worst president we’ve ever had right now,” and people are ready for change.
Specific goals for the city include “zero waste and zero carbon emissions by the year 2020,” Piercy said.
“We have to use more muscle,” she said. “We can’t underestimate small communities.”
Piercy said she considers herself one of the most fortunate mayors in the country because of how receptive the Eugene community has been toward her goals.
“There are scary things happening, but there are things we can do,” Piercy said.
Piercy said that community members must feel that they are empowered to make a change, even if it is relatively small, like taking the bus to school or work or changing lightbulbs from incandescent to fluorescent.
In terms of making the city more pedestrian-friendly to decrease the amount of commuter traffic, the mayor plans to make Franklin Boulevard more appealing for walkers and bicyclists with more stores and trees, Piercy said. Part of the transportation plan includes promoting alternative transportation options and building new bike trails.
She said the 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials, which are to be held at Hayward Field, will be “more sustainable” in their operations and are trying to set an example for how to run other Olympic events.
The climate change issue gained needed attention, she said, when the limits on finite resources started to affect companies, and incentives for energy efficiency rose.
Part of the plan involves promoting sound environmental practices for private companies, she said.
She said it’s important to encourage companies to move toward sustainable practices, even if, like chemical giant DuPont Corp, they have a history of harming the environment.
“I want to encourage the good,” she said.
Lawmakers and community members need to stay focused, Piercy said, because there are people whose lives are already being directly affected by climate change. Alaska is already dealing with mass melting, she said.
Piercy emphasized the need for urgency on the matter because the climate is changing now.
“Environmental protection is never finished,” Piercy said. Eugene lawmakers, city planners and community members can agree that repairing the damage done to the environment is a work in progress that requires everybody’s help.
Piercy said the country can “have success if you can run fast enough, hard enough, and long enough and enough energy stamina and people to keep the ball rolling,” she said.
For 12 years Eichner-Kelly has been collecting data on Eugene buildings and has worked drafting a logistical plan documenting future goals for long-term, sustainable building practices.
“It is not just about saving energy, but also the economics of it.” Eichner-Kelly said.
“When we are considering an energy-reducing and cost-saving plan for a building, we also need to consider the effects it will have on the people in that room,” Eichner-Kelly said. “That is the triple bottom line of sustainability.”
University junior Nathan Brennan, an environmental studies major, said the best way to promote consciousness about climate change is in community discussion. He said the way people are looking at the environment is changing.
“People used to think that weather was global warming,” Brennan said.
Now that people realize that climate change is attributed to humans, Brennan said, companies and governments can start discussing sustainable business plans and alternative energy ideas.
Mayor calls for a focus on sustainability for Eugene
Daily Emerald
February 22, 2007
0
More to Discover