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What exactly does the
buzzword mean locally?Defining
sustainability
H&N photo by Jill
Aho Art Martin, president of
Klamath Sustainable Communities,
said one thing everyone can do
to build a more sustainable
community is consume locally
grown food by having a garden or
buying from a co-op or farmers
market.
It’s possibly the buzzword of the decade and
the more it gets used for a variety of
things, the less of a definition it seems to
have.
Art Martin, president of Klamath Sustainable
Communities since March, draws a figure to
illustrate what sustainability means. Shaped
like an arrow pointing to the goal of
sustainability, a downward slope represents
diminishing and limited resources while the
upward slope represents rising human
populations and resources demand.
“Sustainability is about the relationship
between the resources that are available and
the resources people are trying to use,”
Martin says. “We are using resources faster
than the Earth can replenish them. We’re
headed to this crisis of supply and demand.”
Martin believes the community should look
for ways to care for itself by producing
food and energy locally. Sustainability is
related to economic stability, Martin says,
and the two can work together.
Tom Chester, director of Oregon Institute of
Technology’s Oregon Renewable Energy Center,
says sustainability means more than just
conservation and renewable energy.
“I think of it as community. Living within
our means in the community, and
understanding where our food comes from and
where our raw materials that we use come
from and where our waste goes,” he says. “As
part of a community, we are of a place, and
being of that place, then we can be
responsible to it and to its members.
“If we can do that, then the global thing
takes care of itself,” Chester says.
Energy
The potential to become a leader in
renewable energy production is here, says
Klamath Falls City Manager Jeff Ball.
“It would be nice for this community to
position itself as the rural sustainable
community, as opposed to the urban
sustainable reputation that Portland has.
We’re actually almost there and have been
for years because of the geothermal leg up
that we’ve got,” Ball says. He points to the
30-year-old downtown geothermal heating
system as an example.
Abundant sun makes Klamath County a place of
interest for solar farm developers, and with
Bonneville Power Administration transmission
lines running right through the southern
part of Klamath County, the area is
attractive for building new power generation
facilities that operate on biomass.
Pacific Power spokesman Toby Freeman says
the city’s challenge to community members to
increase participation in Pacific Power’s
Blue Sky program is an example of how the
power company and the city are working
together to create a sustainable community.
People who sign up for Blue Sky devote a
portion of their monthly payments to
purchasing wind, biomass and solar energy.
“There’s a broad public interest in
renewable energy,” Freeman says. “And that’s
something we’re really involved in.”
The goal is to increase participation by 50
percent, and the latest numbers show 128 new
customers have signed up for Blue Sky since
the challenge began, a 20 percent increase,
Freeman says.
Eric Andrews, owner of the solar
installation and design business EcoSolar,
says the first step to creating a
sustainable community is focusing on energy
conservation then on alternatives to
carbon-based energy production.
“I look at it from a simple perspective; the
Earth has a finite amount of resources
available and we have a growing population,”
he says. “It’s just a matter of statistics
that’s forcing us into having to deal with
sustainability.”
Water
The state of Oregon recognized that water
was a precious resource in 1909 and
considers all water, above and below ground,
in streams, lakes and rivers, to be publicly
owned.
Klamath County is no stranger to water use
and allocation conflict. Finding a balance
between supply and demand is the best way to
define what sustainability means for water
in the Klamath Basin, says Klamath
Irrigation District Manager David Solem.
“We know the supply goes up and down here in
Eastern Oregon. You may have to reduce
demand or look at alternatives to surface
water,” he says. “You have to become more
innovative as time goes on because of
competing uses.”
Glen Spain, northwest regional director for
the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations, says maintaining a sustainable
water supply benefits not just farmers in
the upper Basin, but fishermen all along the
Klamath River.
“We all depend on that river and we have an
obligation to use only what we need and
leave the rest of others,” he says. “When I
sit down with my salmon for dinner, I like
to have local potatoes. That’s what we eat.”
Spain says the Klamath Basin Restoration
Agreement, a document designed to settle
water allocation issues among many
constituents, is a step toward building a
sustainable community for everyone. The
agreement calls for the removal of four
Pacific Power-owned dams on the Klamath
Fiver. It may seem like a conflict, removing
the dams — which create clean, renewable
power often associated with sustainability —
in order to increase flows for salmon living
in the Klamath River.
Spain says many who are against dam removal
may not realize the dams are inefficient.
“The dams are very small dams and they’re
very obsolete,” he says. With average
production of 88 megawatts over the past 50
years, the Klamath River dams on average
produce one-tenth what a modern power plant
generates and could be replaced with 15 wind
turbines.
“There’s an optimum way of using
everything,” Spain says. “We can’t overuse
the river. We do so at the tremendous risk
of winding up with less than we have today.”
Marketing
Klamath County Economic Development
Association Executive Director Trey Senn
agrees that the word sustainability can be
applied across a broad spectrum and means
something different to everyone. He also
does not deny that there is a push to parlay
the word in whatever way it may suit the
user.
“It’s all in its infancy,” he says. “(Some)
are trying to define it for their own
purposes and their own uses, as they
should.”
In his efforts to make Klamath County
attractive under the “Sustainable Klamath”
umbrella, Senn says marketing Klamath as a
great place to build solar generation
facilities has gotten the attention of at
least three developers.
“What we want to do is not only get your
solar installation and power generation
here, but we want to get the people to build
the solar panels here for job creation,” he
says.
It’s those and other living-wage jobs that
will build a sustainable economy and a
sustainable community, says Betty Riley,
executive director of the South Central
Oregon Economic Development District.
“We look not just from the point of view of
having jobs, but quality jobs,” she says. “I
think a sustainable community is one that
has all the aspects that make it a desirable
place to move to and do business because of
our values.”
SCOEDD is working with the existing
manufacturing base to market their green
building materials, Riley says, and helps
fund new business ventures through its
revolving loan fund. Riley says people
should support local businesses that exhibit
the shared values of a sustainable community
and get involved in organizations that bring
valuable resources here.
“Another thing they can do is look for
opportunities for entrepreneurship by taking
new ideas and implementing them locally,”
she says.
Agriculture
Karl Scronce, vice president of the National
Wheat Growers Association and a Basin
farmer, says that during a conference he
attended in Washington, D.C., the topic of
sustainable agriculture dealt with
projections that in fewer than 50 years,
there will be 9 billion people on the planet
to feed. That differs from how he views
sustainability for his farm.
“My definition as an individual farmer is,
‘How can I operate my farm in a manner that
the value of the land and quality of the
land will stay there and be able to make a
living doing it?’” he says. “An example
would be controlling noxious weeds, and just
managing your little corner of the world and
keeping it a place that’s livable.”
In doing that, Scronce says sustainable
agriculture is defined by long-term
thinking. Short-term profits can be made at
the expense of continued productivity,
underscoring the idea that Basin farmers are
the stewards of the land.
“If you abuse your land, say you grow crops
on it and it becomes where it won’t grow
crops anymore, what sense does that make?”
he says. The land will lose its value if it
becomes unproductive, either to future
generations or to someone looking to
purchase fertile ground.
Agriculture, an integral part of the local
economy and way of life, can perhaps be
considered the pinnacle of what defines
sustainable.
“Agriculture is the ultimate sustainable
product,” Senn of KCEDA says. “Grow,
harvest, repeat.”
Building community
A sustainable community isn’t necessarily
one in which all the buildings are
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) certified, says Tim Thompson,
a LEED accredited professional with
WHPacific.
“I’m not kind of a green snob that says, ‘If
you’re not going all the way, you’re not
doing any good,’ ” Thompson says.
Incorporating the principles of LEED
building, such as considering economy,
source materials and green space when
designing buildings will continue to promote
a sustainable community, he says.
“We’re having an impact just by living and
yet, we’re not really giving due
consideration to the long-term impacts. In
the past we have used materials that will
stay around for longer than their useful
life,” he says. “They clutter up our
landfills and can be toxic to the
environment.”
Two builders groups, the local Green
Building Council and the Klamath Basin
Homebuilders Association’s building green
group, are learning about what is both
sustainable and cost-effective and sharing
that knowledge with one another and the
community as a whole, Thompson says.
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