Editorial 12.4, April 2010, by Deirdre Helfferich

Common Sense at the North Star Borough

Esterite Andy Lester observed to me the other day that even if climate change were a hoax (as claimed by various right-wing pundits, the scientifically illiterate, and others), every action taken to mitigate its effects is actually good for us anyway. Continuing as we have, with a spendthrift, no-limits mindset, has resulted in a lot of waste, illness, and added expense in every facet of our day-to-day lives. It’s our economy, our health, our society, and our environment that benefit from moving to industries, policies, and lifestyles that result in clean air and water, minimal waste, fresh local food and goods, local and renewable energy production, peaceful diplomacy to settle disputes, and so forth. Really, it’s just plain common sense, never mind the climate change.

That’s one reason why I was delighted to learn of a resolution introduced to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly by Mike Musick, presiding officer, and placed on the consent agenda for April 8, 2010. The resolution, No. 2010-17, is simply a commitment “to implement a program of effective Resource Conservation Management and education.” In other words, “to reduce the waste of energy and other resources” in the borough and the school district. This is an eminently sensible policy, and I applaud its passage. It makes official what the borough has been developing for a few months now: a policy plan for borough and school district employees on reducing energy use and waste in local government operations. The draft is taken from the City of Homer’s guidebook, Money, Energy and Sustainability, (PDF) and covers the following: office and computer equipment and appliances; lighting; heating and cooling; vehicle use; recycling and waste reduction; water use; and procurement.

There’s a lot of complaint about “waste in government,” but usually this seems aimed at entire programs, projects, or departments, rather than at how government conserves its resources in its day-to-day business. When “conservatives” decry the values of conservation and environmentalism in government, they are displaying obliviousness to the practical, cost-saving measures that these values can engender. The new policy is a case in point.

The draft handbook starts out with a note to borough employees:

This handbook has been prepared to address a number of concerns:

• the escalating costs of energy, from electricity, to fuel oil, to gasoline, which are impacting municipal programs and services.

• the need to trim costs of local government operations in order to reduce the burden on taxpayers, who are also feeling financially squeezed.

• recognition of the impacts of fossil fuel combustion and depletion on the environment, public health, and national security.

Around the country and around the world, governments, businesses, schools, and households are looking for ways to reduce energy consumption and, in the process, save money. Many are also learning about global climate change, ocean acidification, world oil depletion, etc. and are thinking about the impact our choices today will have on future generations.

Each section of the handbook covers the policy, the responsibilities of employees in general (with various suggestions and information on energy saving and waste reduction practices within that area), the responsibilities of the pertinent department manager or director, and the responsibilities of the employees specific to that department. The booklet is full of all kinds of useful tips, examples, and information. The guidelines under procurement are among the more interesting. For example, here are a few under the policy section:

• Include environmental considerations as part of the normal purchasing process.

• Emphasize pollution prevention early in the purchasing process.

• Replace disposables with reusables or recyclables.

• Take into account lifecycle costs and benefits.

• Evaluate, as appropriate, the environmental performance of vendors in providing products and services.

These guidelines, when implemented, could make a huge positive difference not only to the short-term costs of doing borough business, but also to the long-term health and economic viability of the entire area. The borough has tremendous purchasing power, and the choices it makes have economic clout.

At the national level, policy changes regarding climate change and sustainability are coming along at an excruciatingly slow snail’s pace, even going backwards in some respects. However, at the community level, cities and counties (and boroughs) are charging ahead. In Alaska, there are sustainability efforts at the borough level in numerous communities (as I noted back in my November 2009 editorial): now the Fairbanks North Star Borough is joining them.

As Bill McKibben pointed out on Democracy Now during an interview on April 15:

[T]he planet that we live on now is different, and in fundamental ways, from the one that we were born onto. The atmosphere holds about five percent more water vapor than it did forty years ago. … The ocean is 30 percent more acidic, as it absorbs all that carbon from the atmosphere. NASA said yesterday [April 14] … that 2010 is going to be the warmest year that we’ve ever seen.

We really can’t wait until Congress or the White House or even the Alaska Legislature moves on the catastrophe coming our way. And when sensible sustainability policy like the one now in place at the borough will save us money, too, right now, I say we should all be glad that Fairbanks is embracing such a reasonable approach to management. Hear, hear!

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