Sustainable Practices Committee Hosts "Drawdown Portsmouth" Discussion on Oct 22

October 13, 2020

The Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Sustainable Practices presents a virtual community discussion on October 22 at 6:30 pm via Zoom to provide an update on the committee’s work in support of Portsmouth’s Eco-Municipality commitment. The committee also introduces a workshop on “How Portsmouth Can Apply Project Drawdown Tools to Help Achieve a Climate-Safe Planet.”

Advance registration is required to participate in the discussion. To register for the Zoom discussion, click here.

Project Drawdown is a global effort launched in 2017 by Paul Hawken to help reach “Drawdown”— the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change. Hawken’s book and website are intended to “give regular people a more nuanced understanding of what they can do for the climate” by adopting what he considers the top 100 solutions to climate change. The goal is to enlist communities and individuals in reaching “Drawdown” as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.

During the creation of the 2005 Master Plan for Portsmouth, the community expressed a strong desire “to become more sustainable and ecologically friendly in order to safeguard the future.” One step was adopting the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on Sustainable Practices recommendation that Portsmouth declare itself an Eco-Municipality. In 2007, the City Council voted unanimously to accept that recommendation and signed a resolution declaring Portsmouth's Eco-Municipality commitment and desire to become more sustainable. The resolution stated that Portsmouth would use the four sustainability principles from The Natural Step  to guide thoughtful, insightful decisions that benefit the community as a whole.

The public Zoom discussion led by the Portsmouth Sustainability Committee is intended to introduce the Project Drawdown tools and to consider how to incorporate them into the city’s 2007 Eco-Municipality Declaration and commitment to the four core principles of being an Eco-municipality:

  • Reduce dependence upon fossil fuels and extracted underground metals and minerals;
  • Reduce dependence on chemicals and other manufactured substances that can accumulate in nature;
  • Reduce dependence on activities that harm life-sustaining eco-systems; and
  • Meet the hierarchy of present and future human needs fairly and efficiently.

 

According to Committee chair Bert Cohen, the meeting will:

  1. Provide context for using the Project Drawdown tool
  2. Explore what Project Drawdown offers
  3. Suggest climate solutions that can be adopted by individuals and the wider community
  4. Choose area(s) where the City and residents can be most effective

 

For more information on the Eco-Municipality, visit: http://www.CityofPortsmouth.com/Sustainability

 

 

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