Welcome to the "prototype" site for the Sustainable Hanover Initiative. To share your ideas about this Web Site, either its content or design (we know it needs a lot of work!!), please visit our Sustainable Hanover Initiative blog. Currently, this site has two purposes: 1. Information central about the Sustainable Hanover Committee & Plan Steering Committee (see About Us) 2. Prototype for a 'One-Stop-Shop' site for coordinating the various 'silo' activities that already exist in our community and for guiding individuals who want to learn more and begin to take action. Request: As we evolve our identity, we want to develop a unique logo for Sustainable Hanover, NH. This project will evolve over time, but if you have any ideas, please e-mail them to us (lynswettmiller@sustainablehanovernh.org). Background: The Town of Hanover has officially adopted The Natural Step framework for ensuring a sustainable future for Hanover and its neighbors. The Natural Step framework involves creating an action plan for the community based on four guiding principles - These principles are based on the idea that to become a sustainable society we must: 1. eliminate our contribution to the progressive buildup of substances extracted from the Earth's crust (for example, heavy metals and fossil fuels) 2. eliminate our contribution to the progressive buildup of chemicals and compounds produced by society (for example, dioxins, PCBs, and DDT ) 3. eliminate our contribution to the progressive physical degradation and destruction of nature and natural processes (for example, over harvesting forests and paving over critical wildlife habitat); and 4. eliminate our contribution to conditions that undermine people’s capacity to meet their basic human needs (for example, unsafe working conditions and not enough pay to live on). To begin this process, Town Manager, Julia Griffin, attended a week-long workshop in June 2008; During the summer of 2008, members of the Hanover Select Board read a book about The Natural Step; a A Steering Committee begin work in Fall 2008; A Community Sustainability Workshop provided over 100 members of the community to establish Priority Action Items for seven (7) working groups (see side panel); During the spring and summer of 2009, those working groups will follow a protocol for action. This protocol is called the ABCD method for planning and creating an effective vision for action - The four steps are: A: Awareness - learning a common language of sustainability B: Baseline Analysis - scoping out where we are today in terms of the particular topic (working group topics) C: Creating the Vision - where do we want the community/region to be, with regard to this topic, in 20 years, 10 years, 5 years? D: Doing the Action Plan - "Back-casting" from the vision to today - what steps do we need to take to get to where we want to be? We hope to have an Action Plan to present at Town Meeting 2010. Between now and then, we need many people representing as many perspectives as possible - Please join our conversation! Indeed, our mission is an urgent one - While our community may not face the dramatic challenges faced by poorer nations and communities in drought-ridden regions of the world, our community is part of a larger global network and will not be immune from social, environmental and economic challenges during the coming years, decades and century. To learn more about the most recent climate change reports, read this online March 12 CNN article: World faces 'irreversible' climate change, researchers warn As an antedote, check out this fun musical & video explanation of what's really going on: Climate Crisis 'Jam.' |