Go Green campaign enters second year

Alternative energy, chemicals around the home are new focus

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January 29, 2009 | 11:58 AM
Building on last fall's day-long information fair on the environment, the Port Jefferson Village Go Green campaign, a three-year project established last spring by the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook University with support from the village, will bring to the Port Jefferson Free Library a pair of educational sessions beginning in March, John Lutterbie, the associate director of the institute, announced earlier this month. At the first session, scheduled for Sunday, March 22, Gordian Raacke, founder and executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, will discuss alternative energy. In May, the focus will be on chemicals inside and outside of the home, according to Lutterbie.

Responsibility

The spirit of service referred to by Barack Obama in his inaugural address, and which the new president called "the promise and the price of citizenship," could be observed recently at a get-together of committee members at the Miller Place home of John and Sara Lutterbie; she is also a director at the institute.

The social gathering was held to "welcome in a greener new year," organizers said, and to further unite the officials and citizens involved in Go Green.

"Port Jefferson is the perfect place to begin our Go Green project," explained Naomi Solo, a prominent member of Go Green. "We're a finite community of approximately 8,000 people, we're incorporated, we have our own government. Essentially we're complete within ourselves and the timing is right — everyone wants to be green now."

Since its inception last summer, the Go Green committee has held regular meetings at Village Hall (the next is Thursday, Feb. 12 at 3:30 pm), where elected officials, representatives from the public library, school district, nonprofit groups, high school students and interested residents come together to discuss ways of conserving energy and what roles government and private citizens should play.

"It's also about changing home life, changing the way you live," Solo said. The committee is extending its reach to schools, encouraging staff and students alike to start recycling programs. "Recycling queen" Rosie Wiesner, Brookhaven's community relations director for the Department of Waste Management, called lack of enforcement the biggest problem hindering recycling efforts. Wiesner, who also leads the Brookhaven chapter of Keep America Beautiful, said, "Education is key because children get it and then bring it home."

Wiesner believes most people do not realize that recycling will not only improve the environment, it will also reduce costs. "We utilize much energy in fuel, emissions, trucking, when we really can sidestep much of it altogether with recycling. If you recycle an aluminum can, aluminum becomes aluminum again almost right away. That saves so much energy." She mentioned many things everyone can do, such as reusing clothing, books, toys and even Chinese takeout containers. Shifting from the practical to the philosophical, Wiesner said, "We can't throw anything away — there is no such place as away."

Stephanie Costanzo, a retired teacher and resident of Port Jefferson, runs library workshops teaching young and old how to recycle clothing. Costanzo showed high school students how to use tuxedos tossed by commercial outlets and even old fabric swatches from design stores, to create cool clothes. "We did a fashion show at the last Go Green meeting, and it was so fun. Kids from the high school went on thrift shop excursions, recycling men's dress shirts or T-shirts. For only a few dollars, you can create a one-of-a-kind dress," she said.

According to Costanzo, one of the greatest achievements to come out of Go Green so far has been the creation of an environmental club at Port Jefferson High School. "The kids pushed for it," she said, and now those students are "taking leadership roles with the district behind them." The high school environmental club members are addressing issues from what to do about newspaper and lunch waste to educating their peers on how to pack a green lunch, she said.

In the meantime, Go Green organizers hope to foster an even greater collaboration with all stakeholders in the village in 2009. Solo summed it up: "We want everyone to say, 'Look what Port Jefferson did!'"

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