Sustainability for the Future

BY LINDA REDMON, MAYOR

As a mom, I often think about the future my kids are inheriting and what problems my generation has created for them. With that focus, it makes it easier to think about the impacts of our actions with a longterm perspective. That perspective informs the City Council goal of “Fostering Environmental Resiliency and Sustainability” and directs City Hall to consider the long-term impacts in our policies and procedures.

At the City, we’ve been taking steps to electrify our fleet and provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure. We have a policy of using more ecologically sound maintenance practices for our parks and other green spaces. We have shifted toward more sustainable heating and cooling systems, such as heat pumps, in City facilities. We encourage water conservation in the City through education provided annually to our community. We also provide education about not overfertilizing near water sources to prevent algae blooms in our lake and waterways. We partnered with the Tulalip Tribes to restore salmon habitat in the Pilchuck River by removing the City’s old dam at the decommissioned water plant (see pgs. 10–11). We are also working toward policies that prevent loss of trees and promote maintenance of a verdant tree inventory in the City.

While there are actions we can take at the City to meet this goal, we can each personally look at how our actions at home are contributing to the issue of sustainability.

The EPA estimates that food waste contributes 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, 30–40% of the US food supply goes to waste. Of that waste, 43% comes from us at home, 18% from restaurants, and 16% from grocery stores. When that wasted food goes into landfills, the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane are produced. If food waste is instead diverted to compost, it prevents the production of those gases. Last year, the state legislature passed a law that aimed to prevent these emissions by providing for more organic waste to go into compost production, and for that compost to be utilized in city projects. Additionally, the law removed liability issues for restaurants and other food producers who want to donate edible products. Those concerns have long prevented some of our local quick service restaurants from donating food to our local distributors, such as the Snohomish Community Food Bank. An astonishing statistic is that if Americans avoided discarding 15% of the food that is wasted each year, it would feed 25 million people. To do our part we can all be thoughtful about what and how much we buy, how we plan to store and use it, and how we dispose of it. For some helpful tips for your own food waste reduction journey, I recommend the website SaveTheFood.com.

Linda Redmon, Mayor redmon@snohomishwa.gov 360-282-3154