Newsletter Header
May 2012    
In This Issue
Introducing BASE
Weed Warriors
Beach Naturalists
Bike Your Watershed
Matinees That Matter
West Sound Time Bank
Zero Waste
RePower
Student Conservation Corps
COBI Solar
SB's Blog

Sustainable Bainbridge is springing into the season with a new and exciting collaborative lecture series which will bring innovative business people to share their expertise with our community. Read on for more information about BASE! You'll also find great information from Zero Waste and the West Sound Time Bank. If you're ready for some outdoor action, check out the opportunities to explore your beaches, bike your watershed or help the Weed Warriors challenge invasive plants at the Day Road Park and Ride.

 

As always, if you have a sustainability issue that inspires or interests you, please let us know! Sharing our ideas strengthens relationships, weaves a community together and becomes the heart of sustainability. You can contact us by email or by phone at 206/842-4439. We look forward to hearing from you!






Retail for the 21st Century 

with Adam Siegel

Friday, May 11th, 5:30pm-7:00pm

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Auditorium

  

We're delighted to announce the beginning of a new lecture series called BASE: Building A Sustainable Economy. The first lecture will feature Adam Siegel, the VP of Sustainability and Retail Operations at RILA (Retail Industry Leader's Association), which recently published an industry wide sustainability report. The report discusses retail's environmental, social, and community impacts.

 

Data were collected from the most recent sustainability reports of 30 RILA retail member companies, which are representative of the industry's diversity, from food to general merchandise to specialty stores, and from large to small format.  

 

Siegel will focus on the trends and practices local Bainbridge businesses can draw from this study. An engineer with an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, Siegel has consulted for numerous companies including Staples, IBM, and Seventh Generation, as well as for leaders in the transportation and energy sectors. He has experience with the Environmental Defense Fund's Corporate Partnerships Program, where he worked with the private equity firm KKR and their portfolio companies. 

 

At MIT, Siegel can be credited with founding and leading Sustainability@MIT, a campus-wide student, faculty, and alumni group with over 900 members. Siegel also co-led the organization of the first annual "MIT Sustainability Summit," with 30 speakers and 300 attendees. 

 

Sustainable Bainbridge is excited to partner with the Chamber of Commerce, Bainbridge Graduate Institute, and the Bainbridge Public Library to bring you this inspiring and informational series. Admission for this lecture is $10, and you can reserve your tickets HERE.  Don't miss it!   

 

Weed Warriors

 

Day Road Park & Ride 

Saturday, May 5 from 1 to 3pm

 

Come join us as we tackle Scotch Broom and other invasive plants at the Day Road Park-and-Ride.

Email [email protected] and sign up to receive notices of upcoming weed pulls.

Low-tide Beach Exploration

Sunday, May 6, 10:30 am - 12:30 pm; Fort Ward Park 

 

The beach at Fort Ward differs from some of our other beaches in the amount of clay substrate in the nearshore area. Among other things, that means we find piddock clams in their permanent holes on this beach. If there are a lot of algae at the time of our visit, the beach can be quite slippery, so a hiking stick can provide additional stability. The low tide during this exploration will be -3.0.   

Parking for this beach exploration is at the lower part of Fort Ward Park, near the boat launch area. We will be on the beach just east of the launch area. Dress warmly, as it can feel colder when near the water, particularly if there is any wind. The best footwear is tall rubber boots that enable you to wade around in the water.   

No sign-up is necessary to attend a beach exploration with us - just show up at the site and look for beach naturalists in their neon green vests on the beach.

 

Upcoming Explorations:

Tuesday, June 5 11:00 am-1:00 pm, Point White Pier beach (-3.10)

Wednesday, June 20 11:00 am-1:00 pm, Fay Bainbridge Park (-1.8)

Sunday, July 1 8:30 am-10:30 am, BI ferry dock beach (-2.6)

 

More information about beach explorations can be found HERE.

Bike Your Watershed

 

Saturday, May 12, 10:00 am 

Waterfront Park, off Bjune Drive

 

Enjoy a bike excursion while learning a bit about watershed features and our relationship to them. There are no major hills! You can look at a map of the route HERE

MTM Image

Matinees That Matter 

 

The documentary "Play Again" will be shown Sunday, May 20th, 5pm at the Historic Lynwood Theatre. All seats $9. There will be opportunity for post-film conversation. 

Find the film synopsis HERE.

West Sound Time Bank

Suquamish 

Informational Session 

and Potluck 

Thursday, May 10, 6:00 - 7:30pm 
(Potluck starts at 6:30pm)

 

Location: Suquamish UCC Church, 18732 Division Ave NE, Suquamish

 

If you're new to time banking, come at 6:00pm for a brief information session; the potluck begins at 6:30. It's a great way to get to know new and current members of the Time Bank, learn about services offered, and enjoy lively conversation! Please bring a potluck dish, your own plate and tableware. Earn a time credit for attending your first WSTB potluck! 

 
Informational Session - Bainbridge Island

Thursday, May 31, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

 

Location:  Marge Williams Center Conference Room, 221 Winslow Way West, Bainbridge Island.

 

Learn about time banking and how our local time bank works. A time bank transforms our ability to share the skills and talents of everyone in our community, providing a resource to enrich all of our lives. An on-line time banking system coordinates the services you give and receive, allowing you to spend your hour credits for any service offered. Everything each of us offers is valued equally: an hour for an hour. 

 

For  more information, visit our website or contact us at [email protected] or 206-842-4800. 

Zero Waste  
Zero Waste logo

 

The plastic bag ordinance, modeled after Seattle's, has PASSED! It takes effect November 1, 2012. Go here for details. Also, let us know if you would like to be a part of the reusable bag task force to plan education outreach to businesses and customers.   

Our 2012 goals involve schools and city hall waste reduction, business zero waste acknowledgement, event operation streamlining, signage improvement, reusable bag promotion, and plastic reduction. More details are on our website. If you are interested in one of these task groups, please contact us.  

On Earth Day at the T&C Community Fair, we gave away approximately 40 reusable bags and filled a van and truck with Styrofoam from Bainbridge residents, to be taken to Renton to the V&G Styro Recycle facility. Bay Hay and Feed holds the next collection in July. Better yet, encourage the companies that protect your goods in Styrofoam to switch to easily recyclable or compostable packaging materials. 

The Farmers' Market board decided for the 2012 season to go green, and Zero Waste is helping in the transition. All vendors have (or almost have) transitioned away from serving ware that ends up in a landfill. Now the cups, plates, bowls, clamshells, utensils, straws and napkins are (or are soon to be) compostable and will be turned into rich compost by Emu Topsoil.

For more information contact Diane Landry. 

Lessons Learned from a Thousand Houses

RePower Bainbridge Icon 

"I got my home back!" These days, such a statement might indicate someone who was able to refinance a mortgage that was "under water," say. But it can also be a happy response after the elimination of actual standing water in a home's lower crawlspace, or other unhealthy and wasteful home conditions that had sucked energy from the house and reduced its operating efficiency or "performance."

 

Michael Crosston, one of a handful of Energy Advisors for the local RePower program, has conducted over 500 Home Energy Reviews (HERs) in the year since RePower has been active on Bainbridge Island. He's alerted residents to all sorts of ways their houses are losing energy and money.

 

Read the rest of the story HERE.

SCoCo

Student Conservation Corps

 

The best way to save our Island's beautiful natural spaces from the onslaught of invasive weeds is to counterattack repeatedly, with optimism and lots of energy. This is the mission of the Student Conservation Corps, popularly known as SCoCo

 

No time or back muscles to come out and help at a workparty? Consider joining Sustainable Bainbridge as we add 4 corps members to the 20 High School students supported by the Bainbridge Park District. For 2.5 weeks this summer SCoCo members work to remove ivy from local parks and open space. 

 

If you would like to donate toward 200 additional hours of invasive control, please visit SB HERE.

Look for the drop down button for the Student Conservation Corps.

City Hall Community Solar Project

 

In December 2011, Community Energy Solutions (CES) received the green light from the City of Bainbridge Island City Council to develop a 75 kW Community Solar Project on the south side roof of the City Hall building.  This project will not only add more local clean energy capacity to Bainbridge Island, it will also provide a revenue stream to the City at no cost. The City Hall Community Solar Project is financed by local citizens. 

 

For more information, contact Joe Deets at 206-855-4893

Learn more about the project.

On the Sustainable Bainbridge Blog!

Jon Quitslund writes: 
Notes on My Reading - Connect the Dots

 

I don't have time right now to prepare a typical 'think piece,' so as a placeholder I'm putting out a few quotations that have captured my attention, together with comments and a description of the piece I will post before the end of May. The quotations come from Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry, two writers I have admired for many years. I'll close by calling attention to the round-the-world activities planned for May 5.


If you are interested in working with great people and helping us coordinate some volunteer activity, we'd love to hear from you.  Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

Sincerely,

Sustainable Bainbridge Board