Helping keep the future clean!
A Reverend, a Business Consultant, a Janitor, two Sustainable Farmers, and a group of high school students walk into a room…
Sorry, this isn’t a cheesy joke with a punch line, but even better than that, these are a few of the members that gather every two weeks at Green Aberdeen meetings. While all who gather have different motivations that bring them to the meetings, all share a common goal and passion: to improve the great city of Aberdeen that we all call “home.” Though this grass-roots organization’s meetings are small and still in infancy, planning is already underway to tackle some of Aberdeen’s big environmental issues.
It all started a little over a year and a half ago with a man and a book; Reverend Enno Limvere had just finished reading This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Kline. He realized that the Climate Crisis wasn’t going to be resolved by large government entities or even by the United Nations, but by smaller groups taking initiative and locally making changes. After discovering that an environmental group did not exist in the Aberdeen area – even through there was great interest in starting and attending one – Reverend Limvere took a big step forward and started Green Aberdeen.
Green Aberdeen is a volunteer group whose mission is: “committed to serving the Aberdeen area by promoting and implementing practices consistent with sustainable living such as: conservation of resources, waste reduction, recycling and increased reliance on renewable energy.” The group has established short term (within a year), intermediate term (1-5 years), and long term (5-15 years) goals, while also addressing additional concerns that are presented to the group.
A priority of Green Aberdeen is to emphasize that all are people are welcome to attend meetings. “This is a community issue and so we want to be accessible to the community to hear their concerns and feedback,” said Reverend Limvere. The group meets every other Monday night at 7:00 PM in the ARCC Conference Room 103. Green Aberdeen’s next meeting is on March 7. The group also has a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/GreenAberdeen, a website, www.greenaberdeen.org, and can be followed on Twitter at: @GreenAberdeen.
Green Aberdeen will provide monthly challenges to businesses, families, and individuals to personally: reduce energy consumption, increase recycling efforts, plant gardens, reduce waste, and host local clean-up days. The group is also: working toward establishing a 501(c)(3) status, promoting local eating and buying of food, and re-establishing a recycling program at Central High School. Green Aberdeen, along with other local businesses, is currently planning an event to coordinate with Earth Day (April 22nd). Be sure to to stay tuned via Green Aberdeen’s: website, Facebook, e-mail, or Twitter for more details! With so many positive plans on the horizon, we are very excited to see where the group grows from here.
One needs to look no further than around the room at those who gather for Green Aberdeen meetings to be reminded of the old adage “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” // – Rachael Gilberson
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