Time To Move Sustainability To Top Of Solebury Agenda: Supervisor

SOLEBURY, Pa. — A Solebury Township supervisor is asking the board to consider creating a new committee focused solely on sustainability and climate action.

“It’s time for Solebury to raise the subject of sustainability and climate action to the top of our township’s agenda giving it the status and relevancy that it demands,” said Supervisor John Francis. “It is therefore proposed that a new township standing committee be created to be called the sustainability and climate action committee.”

The mission of the new committee would be to promulgate awareness of sustainability issues within the township through projects, community outreach and education; promote and lobby for action within the community to mitigate the effects of climate change; assist with sustainability-related activities within the township; devise, imagine, and support ideas and activities which help to alleviate and reduce the effects of climate change; and to act as watchdog to the township regarding sustainability actions and activities.

The committee would be structured as a bona fide standing committee of Solebury Township, said Francis, and would be a recommending body to the board of supervisors.

The initial formation of the five member SACAC would incorporate the Sustainability Steering Group, and the Ready For 100 initiative currently held by the EAC, according to Francis.

The committee would be charged with will devising strategies, creating ideas and projects, and promoting endeavors which committee members propose.

The committee could also assign activities and projects, with deliverables and suggested timetables to individuals or other township committees as it sees fit in order to further its mission. The committee will likewise accept project ideas and concepts from all other committees.

Activities may include, but are not limited to: educational outreach, community engagement, fund raising, letter writing, government lobbying, technical analyses, proposal soliciting, presentations, public discussion facilitation, and all other activities which are deemed by the committee to support its mission.

“A new committee is an undertaking that we should take seriously,” said Francis. “Maybe we have too many. Some of the existing committees you may argue do some of this work already or perhaps they could take on this work without an additional commitment. Do we have the bandwidth to accommodate it? How will it be staffed from both the community and volunteers.

“These questions are very legitimate and need to be debated. Nothing is set in stone yet so I’m hoping we can agree to a course of action that achieves the goals,” said Francis.

“I’m raising it this evening to give it some public airtime, to give the board an opportunity to think about it and consider it. I’m not asking for a vote tonight, but it is something that I consider to be particularly important,” said Francis.

“Climate change is with us to stay and we’re doing what we can within the township to mitigate its affects,” he said. “This is something we simply cannot ignore.”

The committee, said Francis, would fit in well with the township’s numerous other energy and climate change initiatives and goals.

The township is nearing completion on an Energy Transition Plan, which will act as a roadmap establishing initiatives and actions going forward to meet the goals set out in the township’s Ready For 100 plan passed last year.

The township’s 2014 comprehensive plan also highlights sustainability as a central theme for multiple topics including water resources, land preservation and development, deer management, trails, tree planting, wildlife habitat, infrastructure, energy, etc., that the township is required to address and includes Solebury’s energy conservation needs.

“Both of these documents direct the township to decrease fossil fuel consumption by increasing our use of alternative energy like solar, geothermal, etc. these subjects and directives are currently being managed by a committee structure which reports recommendations from time to time to the board of supervisors when changes are needed or funds are needed,” said Francis.

Committees, including the planning commission, the land preservation committee, the EAC and the park and recreation committee all play an important part in ensuring that these goals and directives are kept to the forefront and are addressed and enhanced, said Francis.

In 2021 the township also established a sustainability steering group, which would be folded into the new committee. The group is made up of committee members who coordinate the township’s sustainable initiatives and look at ways that the township can can be increasingly “sustainable” in the coming years.

One of the first results of this effort is a matrix that lists areas of sustainability and the committees and departments within the township that are – or need to be – directly involved in these areas.

Sustainability is a broad subject and our township needs to create an outreach program to engage the community to get their input.

Climate change is clearly recognized as a fact of global life and requires mitigation through elimination of fossil fuels over time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a subject at the forefront of national and world agenda. “Action to mitigate climate change is not something we can delay. Every little bit we can offer in support of that goal in reducing greenhouse gases will be important and will help reduce the rising temperature of the planet,” said Francis.

“It is possible for us to act directly in relation to modifying our energy use for our municipal buildings and the peripheral facilities we have directly under our control, but they in themselves only affect one and a half percent of our emissions in the township," said Francis. "The far larger portion is the community with usage by residents, businesses and traffic. This is one reason community outreach will be so important. We need a vehicle for mobilizing that outreach.”