Cool things are happening in the area of sustainability when it comes to water. First off, we have the Sustainability Summit group that has been continuously working on great ideas and initiatives since the summit ended. Here is an update from their group:
Sustainable Water 2019
Let’s reconnect with our lake! This is the main focus of the group. whether through more enviro-friendly recreation, kicked bottled water to the curb, or supporting green building and stormwater management in the region, this group has a PASSION for making our watershed sustainable.
Born out of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit in August of 2009, the Sustainable Water group has ramped up awareness about the dangers of bottled water and the importance of protecting our watersheds.
passionate members include representatives from Green City Blue Lake, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Earthday Coalition leaders, local business leaders, and entrepreneurs.
The group celebrated World Water Day March 22nd with a parade and band in the rain down Euclid Avenue, handed out 1000 steel water bottes with local tap water at Earthfest with ” Drink Local. Drink Tap.” sponsored by the Division of Water Pollution Control.
We plan to have tables at events throughout the summer and will be building a boat for the Lake Erie Boat Float Sept 11th.
6-21-10—The Sustainable Water 2019 group has an exciting announcement: It will be adopted as a project of the Institute of Applied Phenomenology in Science and Technology, a think tank of practitioners and academicians with interests in organizational development associated with “everydayness”.Erin Huber, the 2019 group co-lead, works at the Institute. The group’s Drink Local. Drink Tap. Campaign – highlighting the vast clean water resource of Lake Erie – will be the focus of a behavioral change study. The group meets every other Friday morning at the Westside market Cafe from 7:30-9am.
Next meeting is 6/25 at 7:30
and 7/9 from 9:15-10:45 (note the time change)
Pleaes email Erin Huber at integrity692000@yahoo.com for more information or to RSVP for a meeting. All are welcome.
In the spirit of connecting to the lake, and in the spirit of raising awareness of recycling and waste issues, comes the announcement of the dates for the next annual Lake Erie Boat Float. This event was organized as a way to raise awareness of the use of plastics and to help increase recycling. The Great Lakes are an important natural resource that we rely on for social and economic reasons. We need to care for it, and other major water bodies around the globe. I wrote about the plastics floating around the oceans, and Lake Erie could be a potential hot spot for this kind of pollution. Registration is free and all you have to do is make your boat out of recyclable plastics. The site even has tips and videos on how to make a plastic bottle boat. Even if you don’t make a boat, be sure to come out for the fun! Here is the info:
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Boat Launch @ 9 a.m.
Lower Edgewater State Park Beach
Cleveland, Ohio
Hello,
I’m contacting you so we can link up or work together, not only to address the bottled water issues — from plastic and privatization of water in the Great Lakes Basin, but the larger question surrounding the export exception to the diversion ban in the Great Lakes Compact .
Flow for Water.org was formed in 2008 after showing the film FLOW and meeting with the film’s director, Irena Salena. As attorney for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, I had the privilege pf representing the organization and its members in the 10-year battle against Nestle’s bottled water export operation in Michigan and the Basin. When we realized our Court victory had been compromised by legislative decisions and the water export exception in the Compact, we launched Flow for Water Coalition, a coalition representing a growing number of organizations around the Basin and elsewhere- including Food and Water Watch and the Council of Canadians.
Flow for Water seeks to close the water export loophole in the Compact, and prevent the alienation or subordination of the public’s water by corporations who want to gain private control and gain in the rising tide of the global water crisis. In order to do this, a bill has been introduced in U.S. Congress to close the loophole, and a bill has been introduced in Michigan, that can be introduced in all Great Lakes states and the provinces, to assure water is public, held in public trust, and that all private and public uses of water in the Basin are protected and insulated by express prohibition on the sale of water out of the Basin as a commodity.
Please contact me 231 946 0044 or at my email above, or our Coordinating Director, Brian Beauchamp brian@mlui.org.
Thank you.
Jim Olson
Chair, Flow for Water.org
Thanks Jim! I will gladly forward your comments on to the sustainable water group from the summit. They meet weekly, so I am sure that will hear back from them soon.
Hi Jim, Please send your email address along and we can find time to chat this week or next. I look forward to working together!
Best,
Erin Huber
Sustainable Water 2019 Co-Chair
Business Development, The Institute for Applied Phenomenolgy in Science and Technology
My email is: erinh@affinityconsultants.com