Sustainable Tucson Forms Core Team

Sustainable Tucson

Next General Meeting

February 15, Thursday

4-6 pm

Ward Six Office

3202 East 1st Street
Phone: (520) 791-4601

Tucson Trail Notes
During January Sustainable Tucson moved forward using a natural systems model, ACORN, to form a Core Team of volunteers who agreed to work together weekly and to assume responsbility for guiding the forming coalition to transform our bioregion into one that thrives economically and equitably withing the natural resources of the upland desert and the subregions of the Sonoran Desert.

On January 9, Leslie Liberti (Director of the City of Tucson Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development) and Beth Gorman (Program Coordinator at the Department of Environmental Quality for Pima County) gave short presentations updating the coalition of current and future projects that will impact how sustainble Tucson and the surrounding communities become. Both women suggested ways that the coalition can help them gain the cooperation of their respective governing council and board to achieve their objectives. Members of the coalition raised concerns about cooperation between government and the private citizen and what the city and county have planned for meeting the Peak Oil crisis.

Following the general meeting, the Core Team met at Stone Curves on January 16th. Fifteen leaders in green building, permaculture, faith-based environmental coalitions, water conservation, sustainable economies, education, neighborhood development and other disciplines met for two hours. It was agreed that the team will meet on Wednesday evenings to map out the direction of the coalition's work based on feedback and participation of the whole coalition. The next meeting is Wednesday, January 24 from 7-9 pm. If you are interested in being part of the Core Team, please contact Susan Williams through this blog using the comment feature at the end of this article, or by contacting Sustainable Tucson at the link below.

Sustainable Tucson is a melding of an exisiting coalition by the same name which began in early 2006 under the umbrella of Nest, Inc. - a community development non-profit in Tucson that sponsors citizen initiatives for improving community life. Bob Cook, President of Nest, and Linianne Sarno of Sustainable Tucson began the work of establising relationships with numerous individuals and groups working for water conservation, new building codes and other issues related to sustainability. For the past eight months Sustainable Tucson has worked to establish a web site and formalize operations. www.sustainabletucson.org.

In October of 2006, the Arizona Association for Environmental Education held a meeting in Tucson calling for a diverse coalition to galvanize all the separate efforts toward sustainability (University of Arizona, City of Tucson, Pima County, environmental and education institutions, faith-communities, neighborhoods and business communities). The meeting was one of three sponsored by AAEE in Arizona as follow-up to the April 2006 Arizona Crossroads Summit on sustainability held at the Heard Museum and supported with a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

The AAEE-led coalition has now melded with Sustainable Tucson to create a coalition that currently represents over two hundred organizations and individuals. We are officially called Sustainable Tucson.

Other Accomplishments:

• In December AAEE and Sustainble Tucson wrote a letter of support to the Arizona Water Institute for an application by UA Campus Sustainbility Office to fund an intern position that would link UA sustainability efforts with those of Sustainble Tucson. We learned last week that the position was funded. Over the next week students at UA will be interviewed. Hopefully the intern will begin working with us in early February.
  


• The Web Team headed up by Bob Cook and Communications Team led by Tom Greco have both met twice over the last two weeks. The web site is currently being populated with articles, events and more information for the public and for anyone interested in joining our efforts.
  


• Suzanne Dhruv, Director of the Ironwood Tree Experience, offered to lead a Youth and Education Team that will bring resources to involve teens in all aspects of the coalition's work. This group will meet February 6, 4:30pm at Prescott College in Tucson, at 2233 East Speedway (northside Speedway between Tucson Blvd. and Campbell Avenue).
  


• A Letter of Inquiry to the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona from Nest, Inc. was sumitted for the Spring Grant round to help fund operations for Sustainble Tucson.

• AAEE has planned a conference on Education for Sustainablity for the weekend of September 28, 2007. More on location and workshops is upcoming here on this blog and on the AAEE web site: www.arizonaee.org

**Check this blog for other sustainability projects in Arizona.

Susan