Please come to the City Council meeting on December 1st. My friend, Mona, needs your help.

Mona wants to save money. She wants to reduce the costs of her home energy and auto fuel. Mona knows that taking steps toward efficiency, such as adding insulation and replacing inefficient lighting and windows, can help. She knows she can reduce her bills with renewable energy and conservation, too.

Mona could make educated guesses about the inefficiencies of her home, auto, and lifestyle, and she could do research on solutions, too, but she prefers a strategic and pragmatic approach. Mona needs expert help and she knows it.

Enter Susan and Sven. Susan and Sven (nicknamed “E.T.”) are well-respected experts in sustainability and renewable energy, respectively. They collaborated on a plan for Mona, each offering proposals for part of the work.

Susan’s proposal for sustainability includes a fee of $15,000, but the cost savings of her proposed steps are expected to be equal to or greater than her fee – in effect, no cost.

E.T.’s proposal includes helping Mona apply for a grant he thinks she could likely receive. The grant is for analyzing every detail of Mona’s energy and fuel use and making implementation plans based on the findings. E.T. won’t charge anything for helping with the grant, and will be paid for his work out of the grant monies, if they come through. So, no cash leaves Mona’s pocketbook for this proposal.

To be eligible for the grant, Mona must pledge to reach further energy goals by 2025. But, since these goals are in Mona’s best interests to achieve, and she wants to achieve them, too, it seems a “no-brainer” for her to accept both proposals. And if Mona is awarded the grant, she would be eligible for a second, future grant that pays for implementing the recommended strategies – another good reason to apply.

How would you advise Mona? What do you think she should do?

It’s very important what you think, because the story I’ve told is an allegory. Mona is Monona; Susan is Sustain Dane; and Sven is a partnership of Seventh Generation Energy Systems, MSA Professional Services, and GDS Associates, also known as the “E-Team.”

At the request of Monona’s Sustainability Committee, Sustain Dane and the “E-Team” created complementary proposals that provide the opportunity for Monona to take bold steps to help avert an economic crisis in utilities and fuel costs for city buildings and vehicles. They are designed to help our city move toward sustainability and energy independence in positive, step-by-step ways.

The proposals include training city staff and leaders in The Natural Step (TNS) framework for sustainability; baseline assessments of the city’s sustainable and un-sustainable practices; baseline assessments of energy use, energy-efficiency, and renewable energy resources; strategic assessments of potential sustainability efforts; guidance in project implementation; community education and visioning; and monitoring and evaluation of progress and successes. 

What results can Monona’s citizens expect? Our city will take a big step toward energy independence. We will see a reduction in energy use and cost for our city facilities and vehicles. Depending on the recommendations, we may have more geo-thermal, wind, or solar energy in our future, trading in nineteenth-century technologies that deplete and pollute for twenty-first-century technologies that use free fuels forever. Burning fewer fossil fuels will give us cleaner air and better health, and we’ll be less dependent on other, sometimes hostile, countries for resources. We can expect our TNS-trained city staff to lead the way to making other sustainable changes for the city and be engaged in finding further savings in all the fine details of city operations.

With no city Department or Director of Sustainability to oversee sustainability measures, these proposals provide experts to take on this role using the systems perspective that is required – from baseline analysis to implementation of sustainability efforts. The proposals will cost the city little or nothing, and perhaps will even generate a profit.

Please read the City Council agenda and the proposals online at www.monona.wi.us. I invite you to attend on December 1st to hear and speak about these proposals, with the firm belief that if you read the documents, you will see how important it is for you to raise your voice in support.

How would I advise Monona? I strongly encourage her citizens and leaders to support the Sustain Dane and “E-Team” proposals, not only for the value to “Mona’s” pocketbook, but for the livability of our earth.