Why is the environment one of Forward Wayne County’s focus areas? The short answer is because it’s important.
The long answer is that good environmental practices in a community makes it stand out. It is important to attracting and retaining residents.
It’s also a key factor in a company’s social responsibility and how consumers respond to that. Last but not least, we should all strive to want to take care of our living spaces.
Let me explain.
Environmentally-Friendly Communities
Environmentally-friendly communities are vibrant, thriving communities because they care about how their actions impact what’s around them.
What could that look like in Wayne County? Here are some ideas:
Home associations, apartment complexes, senior living facilities, and more could incentivize recycling.
Communities, towns, neighborhoods, or community groups could introduce quarterly cleanup days.
Cambridge City Main Street will host a cleanup day on June 19th, from 8am-2pm. Visit their Facebook page for more details.
Richmond has already installed bike paths. What if there was a county-wide established bike path?
Home builders could use sustainable building practices and materials with new housing developments. They could also design systems that conserve water and electricity.
We also like that parks departments around the county are taking donations to buy and plant trees.
One our web site, we highlight some county organizations that can give your more ideas.
Social Responsibility
As residents are looking at ways to lessen their environmental impact, they are also seeking out businesses that are doing the same or businesses that are purposefully partnering with environmental agencies to do this work.
We have many companies around the county that have a strong environmental conscience and they sponsor community events or have processes in place that mirror their social responsibility. Here are a few examples:
Wayne Bank recently sponsored a community shred day in April. Reid Health Pace Center will hold a county-wide shred day June 26th.
Seton Catholic schools recently sponsored an e-cycle day. We hope others will too! But for now, Best Buy will help you e-cycle your electronics, computers, printers, and tvs at no cost.
Business like Primex Plastics reduce, recycle, and reuse plastic materials.
The majority of Johns Manville’s ingredients is recycled glass; they have an initiative to reduce their waste to landfill allowance; and they have replaced 35% of their lighting with LED lights.
We know that many other are doing similar things. The point is, is that they are actively doing it. Not just thinking about it.
Ownership of Our Living Spaces
We touched on it briefly earlier, but eventually it comes down to how we, as residents, take ownership of our living spaces.
Do we recycle? Is this even a priority in your home? Do we volunteer on clean up days? Are we properly disposing of batteries, computers, and more?
Our social media this month focused on small things you can do to make a big impact in the long run. Forward Wayne County would like to put out a three-month challenge. Choose from one of these:
- Buy three reusable shopping bags and don’t use any plastic bags at the grocery.
- Recycle cardboard, plastic, glass, and aluminum.
- Be conscious of the amount of water and electricity you use.
And then tell us how it went. We think you will be surprised by the outcome. If we all do our part, it will make our county great, sustainable, and attractive.
