Saratoga News
News
Local vice mayors think globally, act locally with green leaf effort
By Shannon Burkey
Since the environment and climate change are weighing heavily on everyone's mind, the cities of Saratoga and Monte Sereno and the town of Los Gatos are taking an active role in the greening of their communities.
The vice mayors of the three municipalities have formed the West Valley Green Leaf Committee and hope to enlist residents to participate in working on environmental policies in the joint communities.
"We thought rather than all of us individually trying to see what our cities can do, wouldn't it be fun to get citizens from our cities together to see what they can come up with," Saratoga Vice Mayor Ann Waltonsmith said.
Waltonsmith, Los Gatos Vice Mayor Barbara Spector and Monte Sereno Vice Mayor Erin Garner came up with the idea for the joint community task force this past spring after meeting at an event where the three began discussing their concerns on the issues of climate change and environmental policies and how they could address the issues locally.
"These are issues that we were all worried about," Waltonsmith said. "Our three cities don't have the money to really address these issues, so we thought it would be nice to have an umbrella citizen group to do it. These people can be part of the solution."
The vice mayors hope environmentally conscious residents from all three communities will join the committee, whose mission is educating the rest of the community on green business, building and living practices, environmental sustainability and ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Waltonsmith said many residents are interested in having a more environmentally conscious lifestyle but don't know how to go about it.
"We want to do things to get people thinking and get them going in making changes in their lives," she said. "There are small things as well as big things they can be doing."
The committee hopes to host an environmental sustainability speaker series, publish quarterly green leaflets, host monthly meetings and enlist local youth, nonprofit groups and churches and schools in green practices. The vice mayors are also proposing a little friendly competition among the communities.
"We thought we could make it fun by having competitions to get people to recycle more. Whichever city gets the biggest bump in recycling would win," Waltonsmith said. "We're trying to think outside the box. How can we potentiate it while making it fun and doing the right thing?"
Saratoga resident Ajay Narain was one of the first people to express an interest in being on the new committee. As someone who heavily recycles, owns two hybrid vehicles and is currently rebuilding his home to be more environmentally sound, he feels helping to spread the green message is the right thing to do.
"I feel responsible for the environment," he said. "Saratoga is an incredibly affluent community, and I feel affluent communities have a moral responsibility to be stewards for the environment."
Narain said he first began to realize how few green policies Saratoga has when he began the process of rebuilding his home following green building guidelines. He even e-mailed city council members asking why the city didn't have more environmental programs.
"There are lots of things the city can do that don't require a tri-city committee or a lot of money," Narain said.
One example is to have recycle bins placed on Big Basin Way next to the trashcans.
"That's something that doesn't cost that much money, so why aren't we doing it?" he asked. "Being environmental doesn't have to be big and flashy; it just has to be effective."
And though he's not sure how effective the new committee will be, he said it is a good start.
"It's the first step in the environmental direction, so I welcome it and am very optimistic," he said. "I hope this group can bring interest and effective change to the communities."
Waltonsmith said she also holds out hope the committee can make some positive changes in the community and she urges everyone to become involved.
"It's our future, it's our kids' future--we have to do it," she said.
The first meeting of the West Valley Green Leaf Committee will take place on Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. at North Campus, 19848 Prospect Road, Saratoga. The meeting is open to the public, and residents of all three communities who are interested in joining the committee are encouraged to attend.
