Should Northfield become an Eco-Municipality?
July 6th, 2006 by Peter SchmelzerI’m a little late on this one, but according to the Strib, Duluth has become an “Eco-Municipality”. Maybe Northfield should, too.
What does it mean?
Basically, we as a community commit to ecological principles, which, by the way, support human life better, promote biodiversity, and enhance the bottom line.
Sweden’s been doing it for more than twenty-five years. North America is catching on. Pittsburgh, Duluth, Washburn WI, Ashland WI and several others are part of the North American Eco-Municipalities Network.
It’s all based on The Natural Step, a Swedish framework developed to generate consensus on ecological issues and build upward from there. I’ve attended several seminars about the Natural Step; it’s a strong tool to bring people together and to clearly state the issues.
In a nutshell, there are four principles to be followed:
I think Northfield should give it a look. Since both the colleges have gone “green” and we have a strong movement around Just Foods and ReNew Northfield, let’s take the step as a community and go Eco.