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ABOUT SPG

A FUTURE VISION FOR PACIFIC GROVE

So let's imagine Pacific Grove as having transitioned to a sustainable community, a place where residents eat locally and shop locally for their daily needs. Parks are surrounded with edible landscapes. An open-air market bustling with people buying fruits, veggies and local crafts offers a place to find fresh items grown close to home.

The city has an odorless compost drop-off for all the area restaurant food waste. Residents can claim composted soil to use in their own yards, each planted with fruit trees and edibles. Cisterns collect rainwater from roofs, reducing the runoff into the bay while offering water for the dry season. A local reservoir holds local runoff and offers water for gardens. Solar panels allow a zeroing out of the electricity bill even during our foggiest years.

Residents walk throughout town finding the goods they need and new stores open to showcase locally manufactured products. A local bike store houses a bike-lending library, and citizens ride scooters and bikes down our roads. A tool-lending library and a fix-it shop opens to allow residents to share tools and knowledge.

Pacific Grove becomes a city that demonstrates simplicity and the beauty of being sustainable and grows the one thing few towns can grow -- community. Sustainable Pacific Grove is dedicated to making such a vision a reality.

Sustainable Pacific Grove in 2010

SPG continues to work at finding more ways for Pacific Grove to transition, thus becoming more green and sustainable.

( to see what SPG did during 2009 during 2008 during 2007 during 2006 )
( back to About Us for this year. )

What we have done in 2010

1. SPG Action Groups were set up to start and or continue the work of transition, as applied to Pacific Grove. Active working groups are;

    WATER, WASTE, FOOD, ENERGY, & EDUCATION.

2. Pacific Grove GODays on April 10, 11 AM to 5 pm SPG was in the GODays parade with walkers, bikes, and other non-gas guzzlers,
And then SPG held an Environmental Fair at Jewell Park with several tables from interesting groups.

3. On May 4 Spg had talks by
    Bob Brown, CSUMB Director of Facilities and Chair of the CSUMB Campus Climate Commitment Committee, talked about the university's success in reducing consumption of energy, water, and other resources, saving money at the same time, and
    Jennifer Kirkendal, a CSUMB Student, exSenator, on the Environmental Committee, talked about unique and exciting sustainability projects planned, implemented, and run by the students.

4. On July 6 there was a panel of 4 speakers;
    Lee Colin, Green Vehicles™, local designer, manufacturer, and supplier of 100% electric vehicles.
    Mari Lynch, H.E.R. Helmet Thursdays, ecology-economy partnership between businesses, organizations, and cyclists.
    Ross Buckenham, California Bioenergy, converter of biomass (cow manure) into a clean energy source.
    Sean Houck, RBF Consulting, designer of modern roundabouts that reduce CO2 emissions.

For 2010, SPG offers these small measures for each of us to keep in mind:

Growing gardens, keeping chickens, composting, putting up clothes-lines.
Installing cisterns and tanks for rainwater.
Going to farmers' market, walking or using a bike to get around town.
Reduce, re-use, re-cycle.
Engage with your neighbors and your government (City Council,commissions, town meetings).
Form habits of practical sustainability and resilience.
Share what you discover. Continue exploring.

SPG 2010 Meetings

(January, no meeting)
February 2 Review of SPG in 09. Set up groups for transition work.
March 2 SPG action groups met.
April 6 Work on needs for Good Old Days
May 4 A report from CSUMB on sustainablity on campus.
June 1 SPG action groups met.
July 6 Panel of 4 people with 4 different sustainable projects

Updated July 12 , 2010.