Roane Chamber Launches Countywide ‘Green’ Team on Earth Day
Thursday April 22, 2010
Kingston - The Roane County Chamber hosted a group of business and community leaders for a ‘Green Roundtable' today in honor of Earth Day - and by the end of the meeting a county-wide ‘Green Team' task force was launched.
The roundtable was an effort spearheaded by the Chamber's Economic and Development Committee in order to "bring representatives from all parts of the county together to compare notes, to see what is already going on in the community in green initiatives, and hear from some other cities who have already implemented sustainability programs," said Chamber President Leslie Henderson.
The idea for Roane County to become a sustainable community came from a recommendation made recently in a consultant's study that laid out a long-term economic strategy for the county. The Boyette study also suggested programming that would help reverse the negative image from the TVA ash spill and rebranding Roane County as a sustainable community was one of those recommendations.
The first step toward that goal was today's Earth Day Green Roundtable and it was attended by representatives from all the cities, the county, concerned citizens and local business leaders.
Today's program included:
- Crossville Mayor J.H. Graham and Louise Gronflo from the Crossville sustainability committee told the roundtable attendees about the many initiatives that their city had undertaken to decrease energy consumption and costs.
- From Johnson City - one of the first cities in the state to ‘Go Green' -- April Moore and Eva Hunter told the group that their city was the first in the state to do citywide curbside recycling. Hunter also explained their ‘e-waste' program, in which they collect and then clean up recycled computers to give to needy students.
- Roane County Recycling Coordinator, Ralph Stewart, told the attendees about Roane County's solar-powered trash compactors located at some of the convenience centers in Roane County. Roane County is one of the first to have solar powered trash compactors as part of a pilot program.
- Ken Miget, manager of the local WalMart, discussed the numerous sustainable initiatives they have initiated at the Rockwood store, which included personal contracts from each employee to implement ‘green' activities in their personal lives, which could be as simple as just changing out light bulbs for more energy efficiency in their homes.
By the end of the meeting, a majority of those attending had signed up to participate in a Roane County Sustainable Committee or ‘Roane Green Team'.
"I am so excited about the prospect of this group implementing county-wide ‘green' initiatives," said Jennifer Palmer, co-chair of the Chamber Economic and Community Development Committee.
"I believe we need to take a snapshot of what we are doing currently and bring our leaders to the table and display our findings so we can pioneer a new path forward," said ECD Committee Co-chair, Jamie Nelson. "And from what I heard today, we are already doing a lot - we just didn't know it.
Nelson added, "We will continue this momentum by coordinating meetings as we move forward with the leaders of Roane County."
Anyone who would like to volunteer to help with the efforts of the Roane Green Team, please call Wanda Pinkerton at The Roane Alliance at 865-376-2093 or email her at wanda@roanealliance.org.
The Roane Chamber is one of the partners of The Roane Alliance, which is Roane County's economic development organization and also includes the Roane County Industrial Development Board and the Roane County Visitors Bureau.
The Roane Alliance's web site is: www.roanealliance.org
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