| Forewords to Sustainability Organization Directory - Spring 2003 |
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Bryant Moroder - Executive Director
It's been a very active year for Sustain Dane since our last edition of the Sustainability Organization Directory. Sustain Dane has attained nonprofit status and moved into our first office in downtown Madison. Over this past year, I've had the pleasure of getting to know many "Sustain Daners," each dedicated to sustainability and actively influencing others through setting an example, engaging in dialogue, becoming an advocate and/or organizing to promote change.
Many people have supported Sustain Dane in various capacities, enabling our organization to plant its roots, grow organically, and accomplish much. Collectively, these Sustain Daners, who are from many walks of life and areas of interest, are creating an informal yet powerful movement towards a more sustainable community.
Through the continued support and help from these dedicated community members, Sustain Dane was able to secure our first major grant from Madison Community Foundation. With this support, Sustain Dane will expand outreach for sustainability discussion courses over the next two years. The courses have become a major component of the organization, and I believe that the courses will assist Sustain Dane in achieving its mission.
Building on our tradition of taking a collaborative approach to the sustainability challenges of our community, we continue to seek opportunities to learn from others. In 2003 and early 2004, we were fortunate to host David Orr, Nina Leopold Bradley, Dick Roy, and Milenko Matanovic with the help of some of our new friends including, Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Downtown Madison Inc., Madison Children's Museum, Wisconsin Assembly for Local Arts, South Metropolitan Planning Council, Bolz Center for Arts Administration, Urban Open Space Foundation, Edgewood College, Village of Shorewood Hills, Business Action for Sustainable Enterprise, Overture Development Corp, City of Madison, Madison Environmental Group and many more along with our old friends.
This coming year promises to be even more fulfilling as Sustain Dane hopes to develop or support a number of exciting new initiatives including PRISM, NeighborNet, EnAct and Earth Charter.
With great appreciation, I want to send a special thanks to all the people who have been inspirations of hope, great mentors, and very hard workers - all those who have helped Sustain Dane achieve a very successful year for the organization and our community especially Per, Rebecca T, Kris K, Marc M, Courtney B, Julia R, David C, Charlotte M, Rachel I, Tom E, Joanna M, Niki M, Grant A, Michael H, Dick R and Brian J.
Sustain Dane Executive Director
Bryant Moroder |
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Kathleen Falk - Dane County Executive
Dane County's natural resources are wonderfully diverse. In a pleasant day of rambling, you could spend the morning in eastern Dane County amid savannas, prairies, marshes, and meandering streams. By noon, you could be on the magnificent chain of lakes around Madison, where encountering just about every warm water species of fish present in the Midwest. Moving west, you could hike the Ice Age Trail marking the edge of the last period of glaciation. Day's end would find you among western Dane County's steep hillsides covered with northern hardwoods with numerous springs and trout streams in the valleys. From one end of the county to another, you would encounter some of the best farms in the world, where their beauty reflects their productivity.
Our cultural and historical richness matches our natural wealth. Our cities, villages, and towns are lovely and convenient with many historical landmarks and thriving cultural activities.
Dane County's citizens have long valued these riches. More importantly, we recognize that we can preserve and improve these natural and human resources only if we work cooperatively. Over 150 organizations now exist in the Madison area to identify, protect, preserve, sustain, and improve the natural and cultural resources vital to every aspect of our lives.
The great news for you who might be concerned about traffic in your neighborhood or the opportunities to improve your favorite lake or park is that you are not alone. You have allies. But finding these allies and organizations can be frustrating.
Sustain Dane has taken a big step to ending such frustration and promoting citizen activism by publishing this directory to the organizations in the greater Madison area devoted to sustaining our environment and communities. My sincerest thanks to Sustain Dane for its fourth edition of this directory.
In this, the new edition of the directory, Sustain Dane makes another in its continuing of improvements to it. The new edition includes a glossary of sustainability terms, to foster better communications among the organizations and individuals working to create a more sustainable Dane County.
Finally, congratulations to Sustain Dane for the major grant it received from the Madison Community Foundation to offer intense, focused courses on key sustainability topics throughout our community.
Many Dane County citizens will find this directory a most useful tool as they work to save and improve much of what they cherish in their neighborhoods and communities. Thanks again, Sustain Dane!
Dane County Executive
Kathleen Falk |
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Dave Cieslewicz- Madison Mayor
Madison is fortunate in its natural and urban assets. We have wonderful lakes, bike paths, parks, theaters and a thriving downtown. We enjoy a high quality of life in our metro area. And being good stewards of these assets is perhaps our most crucial task.
So I'm pleased to note that we have so many different groups of active residents who are dedicating their time and energy to issues of sustainability: from energy and transportation to social justice and environmental protection. These issues often overlap, and this directory will serve the valuable purpose of bringing people together to share resources and talent in protecting our assets.
This has been an excellent year of collaboration between the city of Madison and Sustain Dane. We joined together to bring Green Building expert professor Dave Orr to Madison to talk about "Green Building: A blueprint for healthy communities." And I congratulate Sustain Dane on being awarded its first major grant from the Madison Community Foundation, which will be used on future outreach efforts and sustainability discussion courses. This makes it possible for our community to be talking about such topics as: Discovering a Sense of Place, Voluntary Simplicity and Globalization and Its Critics, among others. These kinds of conversations can facilitate change in values, attitudes, habits, and actions.
During my four-year term in office, I will be promoting sustainable living through a focus on alternate transportation options, renewable energy and conservation, quality land use and affordable housing. I look forward to working with Sustain Dane and many of the groups listed in this guide as I pursue these policies. Thanks to Sustain Dane for bringing together all of us who want to fight to keep our quality of life in Madison high!
Madison Mayor
Dave Cieslewicz |
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Gary Wolter - President and CEO of Madison Gas and Electric Company
Madison Gas and Electric is pleased to partner with Sustain Dane to produce the fourth edition of the Madison Area Sustainability Organizations Directory. As a community energy company, we recognize the importance of improving communication and collaboration among the many organizations and individuals working to create a more sustainable Dane County. Congratulations to Sustain Dane for bringing all of us together.
This past year, we partnered with Sustain Dane on a variety of activities including David Orr's presentation "Green Building, a Blueprint for Healthy Communities". With Sustain Dane's help, we made additional purchases for the Sustainable Resources Collection and printed pamphlets listing the over 300 sustainability books MGE donated to area libraries. We celebrated Earth Day together at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore.
Madison Gas and Electric is committed to our environment, our community and our customers. We will soon double the amount of wind energy produced for our customers. Another new MGE community solar electric project is now operating downtown. We will continue to invest in new and better ways to provide energy while making Madison and Dane County an even better place to live.
Gary Wolter
President and CEO
Madison Gas and Electric Company |
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