Johnson Creek village adopts sustainable community policy

By Michelle Scheuermann for the Daily Times
Wednesday, September 6, 2006 12:59 PM CDT

JOHNSON CREEK - Start with a book (“The Natural Step for Communities” by Sarah James and Torbjorn Lahti), mix in a tour of an eco-friendly country (Sweden), add a dash of environmentally concerned citizens around Jefferson County and the result is what the small community of Johnson Creek has recently embarked upon: becoming an eco-municipality.

The Johnson Creek Village Board recently adopted Resolution 37-06 Sustainable Community Policy. It states the village will strive to implement the four system conditions of The Natural Step (TNS) in its operations and “has a pledge of support through mentorship and consulting from The National Association of Swedish Eco-Municipalities.” Johnson Creek is the fifth municipality in the nation to adopt such a resolution, and of the remaining four, three municipalities are in Wisconsin: Madison, Washburn and Ashland.

The village is not letting the resolution gather dust. Tuesday night its Green Committee offered a public presentation of Swedish Eco-Municipalities toured earlier this summer.

Village Administrator Paul Moderacki and Jefferson County Supervisor Greg David presented a snapshot of a tour they and 25 other municipal officials and interested parties took in Sweden June 1-16.

The tour demonstrated how Swedish citizens and officials define sustainability and how Americans can apply the same practices here, Moderacki told the audience.

ADVERTISEMENT

He pointed out that 26 percent of the municipalities in Sweden are now eco-municipalities. He explained these are voluntary networks for local authorities and residents to encourage development for a more sustainable society as well as learn from each other. He said Sweden has established a national goal to be free of its oil addiction by 2020.

David and Moderacki passionately explained their travels starting with a small business campus in Umeå that is aptly called the “Green Zone.” In this particular area, a McDonald's, a Ford dealership and a gas station/car wash all co-exist with nature quite well. For example, the heat from McDonald's fryers is used to heat the gas station and car dealership, and could be used to heat up to 20 area homes. All the roofs in the complex are “green roofs,” meaning they have sedums planted on the top of a four-inch layer of soil that absorbs about an inch of water each rainfall, David explained. This in turn helps cool the buildings in summer and keep heat in during winter months. The businesses also have living air purifiers and underground air cooling vents, all in the name of sustainability and coinciding with Mother Earth.

David and Moderacki showed examples of residents “living green” and how they say it is “possible, cheap and fun!” David says we, in today's world, have to ask ourselves tough questions like, “what's going to happen to the next generation?” “What is the quality of life I want?” “What is my dream of the best way of living?” He gave another example of sustainability efforts in Stockholm where 50 percent of the working population commutes via walking or biking. He said during heavy snows, the city would plow the trailways and bikeways before the car roads.

They showed examples of Swedish cities capturing gases from recycling plants, landfills and wastewater treatment plants and turning it into new energy in the form of biogas for cars, buses, homes and even energizing entire villages. David explained that Umeå built a combination incineration/central heating plant that sends steam five miles in underground pipe to heat 85 percent of its buildings.

“The Natural Step system encourages people to work for positive change through holistic systemic action,” he said. “We, as leaders in this room, need to think about the future and lead our society.” He displayed the words, reduce, reuse, recycle, renewables and rethinking on the screen. “What is your quality of life that you need?” David asked the audience. “Do you really need four TVs and one house here and two other vacation homes in other parts of the world?”

David also explained the four conditions of sustainability, three of which he referred to as “real science” because they are based on the Laws of Thermodynamics. “You can't argue with these as they are facts,” he stated. The first three conditions state: 1) you can't take things out of the earth's crust and expend them into our atmosphere, the example he gave was burning fossil fuels, which releases carbon monoxide that has been directly linked to global warming, 2) we should not, you can't use take out product, make it more noxious and then release it in the atmosphere or dispose of it in groundwater, such as what happened with the Love Canal near Buffalo, and 3) you can't destroy nature's ability to repair itself. David provided examples of depleting our aquifers and deforestation. The fourth condition is based upon ethics, David continued. It is the basic function that we all have a responsibility to meet people's needs worldwide.

So what are the solutions? David asked the audience. He showed pictures of solar-powered lawn mowers that will turn whenever they hit a tree or concrete. Another solution he offered was to join a study circle for the book, “The Natural Step for Communities.” Moderacki said study circles are organizing now to start late September to meet one time a week for 10 weeks.

David and Moderacki said they hope to form five to six study circles this fall across the county in Watertown, Johnson Creek, Palmyra, Jefferson, Fort Atkinson, Lake Mills and Waterloo areas. These study groups will read the book and discuss it book-review style with prompted questions for in-depth discussions, said David. “By the end, you will have a really good understanding of sustainability and what it means to you,” he noted. He also said that the most common comment he hears during these groups is, “it's so good to hear other people feel the same way I do.” Moderacki said he joined a study circle earlier this year and it was one of the reasons why he went to Sweden to learn more.

“I guarantee you'll find this one of the most rewarding experiences in your life,” said David.

Audience members asked whether the Sweden tour touched on practices for rural communities and farms. David said they did spend a whole day touring an eco-friendly farm, but that they are still working on that part of the presentation.

Another question was, “How do concerned citizens get government officials to sign on to this program?” In response, village President Fred Albertz said the village board “took some time conversing” on whether to pass the resolution to make Johnson Creek an eco-municipality. He said there were concerns whether implementing such practices would increase prices, and the budget. In the end he said the board decided, “We are willing to do this because the savings in the long run will more than repay any additional costs upfront Š we want to be a leader (in this area), not followers,” said Albertz.

Moderacki is gathering names of people interested in joining a study circle in Johnson Creek. Those interested in participating need to let him know their availability so he can determine the time and day that works best for the majority. He can be contacted by calling the village hall at (920) 699-2296 or by e-mail jcadmin@charter.net