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Going Green Locally By NICOLE PRIOLO

Environmental programs and initiatives are being put into practice on a global and national level, but it’s rare for the effects of these “green” movements to be felt locally. However, with the implementation of “Green College Station” this could soon change.

According to Wayne Larson, Director of Public Communications for the City of College Station, the purpose of the Green College Station Programs is to create a sustained quality of life for local residents.

“These programs are a great way to engage citizens into helping themselves determine the type of community they wish to live in and raise their families in,” Larson said. “Like many other communities across Texas, we are competing for citizens and businesses to choose us. By having these programs in place, and marketing their existence and their successes, we can position ourselves as one of the premier destinations for business relocation and expansion and for young families and retirees.”

The Green College Station movement is a way to bring all of the city’s environmental efforts together under one program. According to Jennifer Nations, College Station’s Water Resource Coordinator, the city surveyed all of their current programs and found that although they were doing a lot already in terms of environmental conservation, there were some gaps in their efforts.

“What we want to do with Green College Station is fill in those gaps. We lack kind of a coherent message with the way that the environmental programs are now. Everybody’s kind of off doing their own thing, and there’s some duplication of effort,” Nations said. “We’re looking at ways to make all of the environmental programs work together to meet the goals of energy savings, water conservation, air quality, that kind of thing.”

Nations said city staff began discussions late last summer on building “green” city facilities. These discussions led to ideas on how to make all of the city operations more environmentally efficient and cost effective.

Around the same time, the Brazos Environmental Action Network (BEAN) approached College Station about becoming a “Cool City.” College Station has earned this designation, which is recognized by the U.S. Council of Mayors for cities that have made a commitment to environmental protection. Also aiding in the effort were some professors from Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture who shared their research on “green” building and sustainability programs.

“The timing for College Station to move forward with a program such as Green College Station really could not have been better,” said Nations. The reaction from the public has been positive so far. “This fall we hope to have a Citizen’s Congress or similar public forum to get feedback from the community on how to make our community ‘greener,’” Nations added. In the meantime, she suggests residents can get involved by carrying their own cloth grocery bags to the grocery store, consolidating errands to reduce their amount of driving, replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents, and cutting back on water use. “The focus of Green College Station is more on making positive changes rather than punitive measures. Leading by example is a better way to engage and motivate people to change their habits than ‘guilting’ them into it.”