USTAINABILITY6- INSTITUTIONAL S

6.0- INTRODUCTION

Increasingly, organizations everywhere from big corporations to local governments are aware of the externalized environmental footprint of their operations and supply chains. This awareness is often reflected in well-budgeted corporate sustainability programs; brand-profiles that highlight green initiatives; and high-profile commitments to meeting targeted, time-specific reductions in metrics of sustainability, such as carbon emissions or waste production. Often, these efforts are responsive to stakeholder demand and may be voiced by consumers or voters.

The first iteration of this Conservation Plan, as implemented from 2012 through 2020, was primarily focused on protecting or enhancing native biodiversity through professional conservation management of land, wildlife, and people, while supporting outdoor recreation and education. None of the original 2011 Conservation Plan chapters, nor any other Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) official plans and studies, have explicitly addressed the need to manage and reduce the broader, regional to global, environmental implications of the whole range of human activities within Jekyll Island State Park.

Today, the JIA aims to be a local, regional, and national leader in financially self-sustaining conservation and public service. In preparing for new challenges in the arena of sustainability, Jekyll Island can draw from the experiences and strategies of major corporations, local governments, and college campuses that have set goals, overcome obstacles to progress, and made substantial and widely applauded gains. Over the past decade, commercial infrastructure on Jekyll Island has been revitalized, and in the process, the JIA has reimagined its own brand and institutional identity. Concurrently, the JIA has moved decisively to position itself as a proactive steward of Jekyll Island’s past, present, and future. This has been reflected in the financial commitment to the Authority’s stewardship functions, including historic resources preservation, conservation, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, all of which contribute to educating the public about the resources they strive to protect. This rebirth has been a driver of greater consciousness of Jekyll’s impacts, both positive and negative, on surrounding communities.

In general use, applications of the word “sustainability” can be highly variable. Financial sustainability, for example, is vital to Jekyll Island. The phrase “institutional sustainability” is used in this report as an adaptation of the more commonly used “corporate sustainability”, befitting of the JIA as a business-oriented government entity and conveying an aspiration to eliminate externalized costs to the environment and society. Externalized costs are byproducts of doing business that are not paid for with dollars but rather, impose a cost borne by the community at large in terms of environmental or social impacts. Ultimately, while the JIA must operate on a balanced budget that sustains operational expenses and emergency reserves with revenue generated from the Island, the Authority exists to serve the public interest and strives for continuous improvement in doing so. The aspiration to eliminate externalized costs is consistent with the JIA Mission and Vision and will lead the JIA to set challenging goals that enhance both operational efficiency and the quality of the Jekyll Island experience.

For the purposes of this plan, “institutional sustainability” entails the following areas of focus, which have conservation implications affecting Glynn County, the State of Georgia, the Southeast region of the United States, and beyond, for which lasting solutions will require decades of sustained, adaptive focus and collaboration.

Energy responsibility

• Reduce carbon emissions • Enhance energy efficiency • Expand renewable energy

Material waste reduction

• Reduce waste to landfill • Optimize recycling and reuse • Promote waste consciousness

Water conservation

• Reduce aquifer withdrawal • Enhance water-use efficiency • Capture, retain, and use rainwater and greywater

Successfully advancing each of these areas of focus will call for dedicated funding, staff time, and strategic planning well beyond the scope of this chapter. This chapter is intended to provide a springboard and initial framework from which to proceed.

6.1- ENERGY RESPONSIBILITY

In Chapter 5 of this Plan, Park-wide Management Objective-A is “Adapt to anticipated impacts of climate change and sea-level rise while minimizing carbon emissions associated with Jekyll Island State Park.” The institutional sustainability focus on energy responsibility is tightly linked to this objective. Without a focus and sustained progress on energy responsibility, carbon emissions arising from human activity associated with Jekyll Island will continue to contribute to externalized impacts that compromise the primary focus of the Conservation Plan – preserving the natural heritage of Jekyll Island for the people of Georgia. Conversely, by transitioning to renewable energy and continuing to invest in energy efficiency, financial advantages can be realized through direct payments and savings due to reductions in energy use, as well as through incentives.

Significant work has already occurred that contributes to energy responsibility. During the revitalization of the commercial infrastructure of the Island, new facilities were built with energy and water efficient appliances. These efforts are best exemplified by the LEED-Silver certified Convention Center that opened in 2012, built on the site of the old Jekyll Island Convention Center, the remains of which were incorporated into the crushed concrete base for the new building. The full-service Westin hotel that supports the Convention Center also achieved LEED Silver certification, and the Jekyll Ocean Club hotel has achieved the base-level certification through the Georgia Peach Program.

In 2019, a one-megawatt solar farm was built on the Island, repurposing part of a decommissioned, capped landfill. The renewable energy produced by this facility is connected to the Georgia Power grid, meeting an electricity demand conservatively equivalent to more than 100 Jekyll Island homes. The solar farm is owned by a private company that leases the land from the JIA, creating a new revenue stream from disused, developed lands that would otherwise not be financially productive. Over the 30-year lifetime of this lease, the Authority will receive more than $732,000 in lease payments.

Since 2017, in partnership with Tesla, a total of 38 electric car charging stations have been installed on the Island, 24 of which are available for general public use. This availability of charging stations is unmatched by other beach destinations in the region, enhancing the attraction of Jekyll Island with the growing market segment of e-car users, and contributing to reduced emissions.

To advance energy responsibility, the Authority will accomplish the following, culminating with setting targets for reducing emissions and achieving carbon neutrality.

• Establish an institutional structure to guide development and creation of a Comprehensive Carbon-neutrality Plan (CCP) and outline a framework for identifying carbon sources and sinks attributed to the operation of Jekyll Island State Park.

• Complete a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, accounting for attributable sources as well as sinks, and designate a baseline level from which to measure reductions.

• Finalize the CCP with a goal of achieving carbon neutrality and designating milestone years for specific reductions below baseline.

6.2- MATERIAL WASTE REDUCTION

Like climate change, plastic pollution is a global problem that undermines conservation goals. Whether through direct litter, incidental loss, or leakage from the waste stream, plastic accumulates in waterways and is transferred to the ocean, breaking down over time into microplastics – particles smaller than 5mm. In the coastal and marine environment, plastic pollution is commonly referred to as marine debris. Marine debris harms wildlife, including high profile species such as sea turtles, marine mammals, and birds, through entanglement in discarded consumer waste or derelict fishing gear, and through ingestion of items from plastic bags to microplastics. Jekyll Island has long prided itself on its clean beaches and park spaces, making it a natural endeavor for the Jekyll community to contribute more to solving plastic pollution and marine debris problems than to creating them. Substantial efforts already undertaken in this focus area include the Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s (GSTC) Marine Debris Initiative which has utilized a smartphone app developed at the University of Georgia to collect data about marine debris on and around Jekyll Island. These results indicate that cigarette butts are the most commonly littered item on Jekyll Island. JIA has also invested in a complete overhaul of the service-ware and to-go containers offered at McCormick’s restaurant, operated at the golf clubhouse, to reduce the waste footprint of this facility. Special events likewise present substantial opportunity for improvement to reduce waste, and specific events have been critically evaluated on their performance in this area.

At least two other waste streams that are prevalent on Jekyll Island also present compelling opportunities to advance the material waste reduction focus area. These are food waste and construction and demolition (C&D) debris. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, 20% of the volume of municipal landfill waste comes from food. However, the logistical challenges of getting surplus food to people who need it are substantial. Industrial-scale composting also has potential to reduce food waste on Jekyll Island and support landscaping operations, but not without the heavy lift and associated sacrifices associated with substantial capital investment and ongoing expenses.

In the United States, C&D debris tonnage is more than twice the amount generated by municipal solid waste (USEPA). With the increasing use of plastic materials in construction of interior finishes, small, hard-to capture plastic debris can escape and become plastic pollution. In 2015, the JIA adopted an ordinance to control styrofoam pollution arising from the use of exterior insulation and finishing systems in construction and renovation. Viable recycling and reuse opportunities are available for some materials, from carpeting to concrete. Efforts during the recent period of economic revitalization on the Island to process concrete, asphalt, and dirt from demolition sites has been both financially productive and supportive of green building certifications. Materials that in the past would be taken to a landfill as waste have been recovered or recycled. Examples include: over the course of back-to-back hurricanes, turning 78,000 cubic yards of vegetative debris into wood chips; processing three acres of concrete construction debris into $204,000 worth of base stone for use on building pads, roads, and trails; and screening and sorting fine material from construction debris to recover 600 cubic yards of soil.

Community buy-in is essential to any waste reduction effort. The Jekyll Island community generally demonstrates an interest in and openness to waste reduction efforts. Recently, the community group Jekyll Goes Green emerged with promising potential to spearhead promotion of broader acceptance, engagement, and innovation within the business community.

In the hotel industry, corporate commitments to phase out single-use plastics from companies like Marriot and Hilton are shifting expectations for hotels under their flags. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 disrupted the societal momentum away from single- use plastic, and the aftermath remains to be determined.

To advance material waste reduction, the Authority will accomplish the following, culminating with setting targets for reducing waste:

• Complete an initial baseline assessment of material waste sources and management on Jekyll Island

• Create a JIA cross-departmental working group to develop priority goals informed by the initial baseline assessment, evaluate ongoing data needs, identify areas of greatest opportunity for waste reduction and corresponding benefits, and make recommendations for strategic investments to build JIA capacity for waste reduction and management

• Develop a plan of action for material waste reduction, with a goal of establishing milestone years for specified waste reduction below baseline

6.3- WATER CONSERVATION

Water conservation is currently the most advanced of the three focus areas, with well-established baselines and a regulatory framework in place through State-permitted aquifer withdrawals and rigorous monitoring for the public water supply. The 2018 Jekyll Island Carrying Capacity and Infrastructure Assessment concluded that the Island’s public water system, originating from five Floridan aquifer wells, is operating at about 57% of its permitted withdrawal capacity. The data indicate a sharp drop in water use, beginning in 2006 and sustained through 2017. This shift to substantially lower use corresponds with multiple factors, and it’s unclear which is most influential. First, around this time, in response to guidance from the State during an extreme drought period, the JIA began allowing leaseholders to install irrigation wells to tap water from the Miocene, or Brunswick, Aquifer for commercial properties, and from the surficial aquifer for residential properties. Prior to this, all lease-holder irrigation was from the treated public water supply. This transition of irrigation demand away from the public water supply to free-access irrigation wells was driven by a statewide political interest in reducing withdrawals statewide from the sensitive, and heavily used, Floridan aquifer. Additionally, in the 2006 to 2009 timeframe, many of the older hotels on Jekyll Island closed. During the subsequent economic revitalization of the Island, hotels, convention, and shopping facilities were rebuilt or underwent major renovations with updated appliances and fixtures meeting modern water efficiency standards. While it’s unclear whether there was a dominant factor, between the transition to shallower wells for irrigation and widespread upgrades to water efficient appliances, the demand on the Island’s public water supply was substantially and lastingly reduced, as was revenue associated with that demand.

Two reasons are commonly recognized in support of conserving Floridan aquifer water. One arises at a State level due to the implications of largescale withdrawals for agriculture in Southwest Georgia and the interplay between these withdrawals, freshwater discharge, and flow levels in the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint (ACF) watershed in Southwest Georgia and portions of Florida and Alabama. The other is related to saltwater upwelling/intrusion into the Floridan due to industrial withdrawals, largely for paper mills, in coastal Georgia. Both issues are physically, ecologically, and politically complex. The JIA contributes to a collaborative study and advisory group focused in this issue in the Brunswick area.

Another conservation issue for the Floridan is not commonly recognized, especially in Coastal Georgia. The Floridan extends under large portions of Central and North Florida as well as South Georgia. In South Georgia’s coastal area, the Floridan is deep underground below layers of confining rock, but in large portions of Central and North Florida, the aquifer is exposed at the surface and sustains globally unique and ecologically rich freshwater springs that are astounding natural wonders. Many of these springs are in decline due to a complex array of stresses. One of the most significant of these is reduced spring flow, which is contributed-to by Floridan withdrawals in Coastal Georgia, including those on Jekyll Island.

Opportunities to advance the water conservation focus area should concentrate on further reducing Floridan withdrawals over time by decommissioning the use of any Floridan aquifer wells that are not integral to the permitted public water supply, such as Floridan wells for golf course irrigation. Investing in the infrastructure to support reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation will be essential to realizing this goal. Even so, care must be taken to avoid compromising the sustainability of shallower aquifers by diverting demand off of the Floridan aquifer. The shallower Miocene/Brunswick and surficial aquifers, their resilience to use, and connectivity between these and the Floridan, is insufficiently understood in coastal Georgia. The condition of the surficial aquifer has the most direct implications for the ecology of Jekyll Island. Investments in further study are called for to evaluate the degree to which the surficial is affected by the condition of deeper aquifers and its resilience to use during periods of draught.

Modern approaches to landscape design that replace turf grass and exotic plants with drought-resistant native plants can substantially reduce irrigation demand, and in some instances can reduce bottom line maintenance costs. However, naturally landscaped areas in public spaces and on leased lands should be maintained at a level of care that sustains and balances ecological and aesthetic value.

To advance water conservation, the Authority will accomplish the following:

• Complete a comprehensive groundwater withdrawal inventory defining the amount of aquifer water use attributable to JIA, residential and commercial entities, from what source aquifers, and for what purposes. • Based on the results of the Inventory, establish monitoring goals and evaluate need for limitations on aquifer withdrawals that are not metered and billed with the public water supply, for each category of user. Promote awareness of existing outdoor water use regulations and revise code of ordinances to allow for well-maintained native plant landscaping. • Document reduction in irrigation water use due to golf acreage reduction anticipated in associated with implementation of a Golf Course Master Plan. • Pursue funding to design and construct new infrastructure that will allow for re-use of treated wastewater for golf course irrigation, reducing need for irrigation from deep aquifer wells.