As mentioned in other blogs, midtowngrid.com is assisting ECOS in transforming Earth Day.

Our visionaries see the likelihood of leveraging Sacramento’s Earth Day into Earth Month in 2008 and Earth Year by 2010.

What does this look like? We would host some high profile events during the month of April, including the first Green Second Saturday, inviting artists and galleries to interpret the idea into their showings for the month. We will attempt to ease the road for local retailers and restaurants to green themselves or at least experiment throughout April. Can we match or even lower the cost of doing business by acting sustainably?

More concretely, we will communicate with every bicycle shop in the region to offer low to no-cost tune-ups for anyone willing to sign up to log miles during May’s Bike Commuter Month. We will also collaborate with fitness studios to offer discounts to the same group to help people get ready to ride to work as often as possible during May. In this way, it won’t be about what you can’t do, it will become about what you can do. Earth Day, usually the 3rd Sunday in April at Sacramento State, will become a launching pad to propel a sustainable community action that we can measure together in May.

For next holiday season, we hope to work with retailers to offer LED and solar LED holiday lighting by September of 2008 so that people know that the option is out there, help build demand which may eventually lower the cost, and increase access by enlisting several convenient locations at which to pick up this lighting. Again, this idea will be about helping the community take a reasonable action so that it can enjoy the holidays and feel good about being creative while mitigating the impact of our holiday cheer. It’s about what we can do.

The idea for a Green 2nd Saturday is to stimulate a conversation through art, allowing people to interpret the ideal freely. To one artist, it could mean working in recycled materials, to another low to no VOC paints from Green Sacramento, and yet to another covering sustainable issues through choice of subject matter. By starting, however big or small in 2008, we can enlist more artists, galleries, and publicity by April, 2009, and organically, yet dramatically impact 2010, the first Year of the Earth in Sacramento.

What will 2010 involve? For the most part, who knows, other than building on the aforementioned pieces. It’s up to all of us to add to the possibilities. The key is to easy for as many people as possible to get into the act without feeling guilty or preached to, but excited by what action they could take. To that effort, we hope to have a suggested Sustainable Action of the Month and to print that Year of the Earth Calendar on recycled paper with eco-friendly inks or not to print it but simply to host it on ECOS’ web site and midtowngrid.com’s.

Truthfully, all of this effort is self-interested. The Grid Guru wants to live more sustainably, but also gets caught up in the day-to-day of life on the go. Trying to bite off more than one can chew inevitably leads to inaction, so it’s looking for reasonable, small changes that can become habits and regionally build into behavioral trends.

Who knows what epiphanies we may un-conceal? Any ideas? How about Convert Your Light Bulbs Month for homes and offices? Other takers? Long term, we may save money and lives.

Is anyone out there interested in helping us to evolve the Sustainable Resources section of midtowngrid.com? We can use the organizing help.

See you on The Grid!

The Grid Guru