When you think about Greening Greenfield, you have to think grass roots and organic.
The citizen volunteer group next week celebrates 10 years of working quietly in the background to build from the ground up a more sustainable, energy conscious 21st century community that lives up to the name Greenfield.
Having come into existence as the Greenfield Energy Committee, the group has since broadened its mission to sustainability matters of all kinds, such as the annual Green River Cleanup, composting and global warming. It’s appropriate that their birthday party, Monday at the Arts Block, will feature local fare from the county food processing center and music from a Co-op Jazz Band.
The group has taken the slogan “Think globally, act locally” to heart, trying to make everyone in town greener and thinking more about what a sustainable world could look like right here. Consequently, education and example have been key.
“We don’t do public education. It’s not a top-down thing,” said organizer Nancy Hazard. “As a community, we all need to get together and learn about stuff, learn about the problems, learn what other people are doing about the problems and think about the solutions, how it’s applicable to us …”
So the education is subtle and yet ubiquitous like the honeybee crosswalk on Court Square or the local food-themed mural near the Green Fields Market co-op on Main Street.
Greening Greenfield has been at the forefront of more overt projects, like the Solar Challenge that over several months managed to get scores of residents to install solar electric panels on their homes. It has encouraged energy efficient features in the new high school, and supported the town as it sought to provide residents with a green alternative source of electricity.
Said Becca King, another principal organizer of Greening Greenfield, “I think that one of the impacts that we’ve had … is that other organizations have picked up some of the initial forays into this discussion that we initiated.”
Evidence of that: The town itself now has a sustainability coordinator.
Thinking long term, King, Hazard and their associates have made forays into the public schools where changed attitudes will last a lifetime.
They have worked with young people to bring composting programs to the schools, expand their study of water cycles and clean local rivers, for example. The bonus? “As the kids learn, so do their families,” noted King.
Greening Greenfield leaders say they know they can do only so much but plan to keep at for the long haul.
We certainly hope so.