Moving toward sustainability

Trathen Heckman says when his Petaluma-based nonprofit environmental organization, Daily Acts, held its first "sustainability tour" 11 years ago, he did a Google search to find out other groups who were doing the same thing.

He came up with only one reference: His own tour.

When he Googles "sustainability tour" now, he comes up with 15 million hits.

It's a reminder to Heckman of just how far the world has come in a relatively short period of time when it comes not only to understanding the word "sustainability," but to incorporating its principles into everyday life.

It was in 1987 that the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development introduced the term "sustainability," defining it as meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Think of it as the global equivalent of living within your means, and not spending down assets you can't replace.

Whereas even a decade ago, however, few people outside of the environmental movement knew what the term meant, now many middle-of-the-road Americans are turning the philosophy of sustainability into what Heckman's group calls "Daily Acts."

They're dumping SUVs and buying smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. They're taking up bicycling. They're getting into vegetable gardening, composting kitchen scraps and recycling trash, replacing water-thirsty lawns with native plants, raising chickens in their urban backyards, toting their own canvas bags to the grocery store and farmers market and seeking energy efficiencies in their homes. Solar panels that appeared weirdly futuristic in 1999 are showing up on tract houses and public buildings at such a rate they no longer turn heads.

But it's not just aware citizens trying to do the right thing.

Cities and counties are on board. They have sustainability coordinators and offices devoting to seeking out more efficient and environmentally friendly ways of providing services and running government. Businesses are adopting green practices, not only for good public relations but because it's good for the bottom line. And universities are offering degree programs and certificates in everything from green business and human ecology to green fashion. Sonoma State University last fall began offering a certificate in "Sustainable Communities and Green Building."

In November, the city of Santa Rosa sponsored a conference, "Sonoma County's Strategies for Sustainability," to establish partnerships with other community, business and government organizations and turn environmental talk into policies, actions and practices. And on Friday

, April 26

, North Bay businesses will gather at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park for the Sustainable Enterprise Conference, aimed at promoting more sustainable practices in business.

"Eight years ago ... people were suspicious of sustainability as being anti-business. Now we've crossed the barrier. ... The question I now get instead of &‘What are you trying to do?' is &‘How does this work in my business?'" said Oren Wool, who oversees the Sustainable Enterprise Conference.

"There is a long and rich history of environmentalism in our county, but there wasn't as much focus on situations outright. The solutions were happening then, but they were fewer and far between," said Heckman, who in 2002 applied his degree skills in business and marketing to establish Daily Acts to foster more green-living practices within the immediate community, at the grass-roots level.

What's happening now, he said, is that private citizens, businesses, government agencies and academics are not just talking and wringing their hands. They're finding solutions.

"Cities are willing to work with other cities and nonprofits. This collaborative nature is enabling so much more to get done," said Heckman, whose group has partnered on many projects, like working with businesses, homeowners and government agencies to create graywater systems that reuse water from sinks and washing machines for irrigating their landscapes.

"We have a sustainability manager that is part of the city staff. She goes around and looks at light bulbs and energy consumption, and based on that they've switched work hours to four 10-hour days to save on electricity costs," said Dave Iribarne, a water conservation coordinator for the city of Petaluma.

Whenever possible, the city is replacing municipal vehicles with hybrids and electric cars. The city has worked with Daily Acts to transform the landscape around City Hall and other municipal buildings from turf to a food forest, complete with raised beds of veggies and rainwater catchment systems.