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Haddam Bulletin
Volume XLVIII, Number 6 - June, 2007


Will Haddam Go Green?
by John Friedlander

Advice on how to "Go Green!" is everywhere. There's green power, green building, green infrastructure, green design, green development, and, of course, green tea. But once you've installed compact fluorescent light bulbs, started reusing cloth grocery bags, bought a hybrid car, and signed up for Smart Power, what's next? How do we leverage our small but meaningful personal choices to conserve energy and save the planet into larger, community-wide decisions that will have a greater impact? How can Haddam help? What will it cost? And why should we bother?

Not an Option
To answer the last question first, we should bother because thinking green is no longer optional for any person, business or town with an interest in living an affordable life, remaining competitive, or continuing to be a healthy, attractive and affordable place to live.

Everybody knows that the prices of electricity and gas are going through the roof. Turning off lights and doubling up errands on car trips is becoming second nature for most of us. Taking small personal actions like this is important, and valuable.

But if we think more deeply about how to take larger steps as a community, we can not only reduce energy costs but also accomplish much, much more by contributing to solutions to climate change, as well as ensuring that Haddam will continue to be a beautiful place to live for generations to come.

Coordinated Efforts
Faced with a global challenge and a lack of federal action, states, cities and businesses across the nation are taking action to monitor environmental impacts, reduce dependence on foreign sources of oil, lower housing costs, economize on stressed municipal budgets and take advantage of market opportunities presented by rapidly rising energy costs and the massive changes already beginning to occur as a result of climate change.
What's in it for Haddam?
Why should Haddam take a long look at these examples? The simplest answer may be that, given the rapidly rising costs of energy, taking no action will be the most expensive option.

However, simply guiding households and town operations toward greater energy efficiency may be only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the roots of being green go far deeper than simply cutting down on energy use.

Closely related to being green is the concept of sustainability, much like the practice of living off the interest on an investment, not the principal. A process that doesn't continually need infusions of cash, fuel or other finite resources to keep functioning is said to be sustainable.

Sustainable communities, according to Maureen Hart, President of Sustainable Measures, a Connecticut consulting business, are those where "the economic, social and environmental systems that make up the community are providing a healthy, productive, meaningful life for all community residents, present and future."

Where Do We Fit?
Does Haddam meet this standard? It depends on where you look.


A Plan for Haddam's Future
It seems clear that Haddam's future is threatened by a variety of forces, some within our control, others less so. It will be virtually impossible for Haddam to influence the price of heating oil or gasoline, and difficult to influence the price of electricity.

However, it will be much easier to help Haddam and its residents make wise energy use decisions, and help ensure that Haddam continues to deliver a good quality of life to those living here now and in the future. Implementing a wide variety of green practices, and thinking carefully about what we want Haddam's future to look like for all of its residents will be much easier than paying the price of failing to address these increasingly important issues.

Haddam's long overdue Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) can be a key tool to help define our goals as a town, and how we intend to achieve those goals. But because most of the people sharing the task of creating the Plan are volunteers, there is little accountability for its completion.

In addition, because the POCD is not enforceable and presently has no required annual review of its progress toward implementation, it can easily be ignored as the dynamics of committee turnover and short-term priorities influence individual planning decisions.

Tony Bondi has expressed interest in hiring a fulltime Town Planner, which would, in theory, put a "steady hand" on the helm of Haddam's future, and might give a Plan of Conservation and Development more weight than it would otherwise have.

However, a Plan or a Planner can only be effective if Haddam and its residents come together and agree on a vision for a greener, more sustainable future, support efforts to make the changes necessary to achieve that vision, and review its progress annually.

Rapidly increasing energy costs are only one of the harbingers of a time when we will no longer take our relationship with the environment for granted, both as individuals and as a community. Going green is not just a fad, it's our future. Taking steps to be a more sustainable community isn't just stylish, it's smart economic strategy.

Many lifelong residents want Haddam to stay just the way it is, or even to go back to the way it was twenty years ago. Sadly, this is not a realistic dream. It is understandable to want to preserve a way of life, but the pressures of today's world mean that change is inevitable. As one philosopher puts it of the choices we face, "we can be the steamroller, or we can be the road."

Steamroller or road. Which will Haddam choose?

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