Sustainable Islands

Rita Schenck of the largely rural island of Vashon, Washington, wants the Seattle’s suburb’s 10,000 residents to be completely energy-independent – producing their own renewable power – within a few years. Soon, her nonprofit Institute for Environmental Research and Education will ask residents to decide how they should combine solar, wind, composting and tide energy to wean themselves from fossil fuels. Someday soon, cars will run on island-produced power stored in the form of hydrogen. Sound far-fetched?

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen doesn’t think so. He pitched in $50,000 toward the completed first phase of the effort: cataloging all the ways the islanders use energy, and developing a practical tool (posted on the website) for communities everywhere to sue when taking their first step toward energy sustainability.

Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation provided a grant to help pay for projects. But Schenck is still looking for $12 million to build demonstration projects. In the meantime, her organization teaches kids about green power, bringing in lectures on grid-connected solar power.

Should she succeed, she hopes her island will become a model. “The only other example I can think of is an island off the coast of Denmark,” says Bentham Paulos, program officer of The Energy Foundation in San Francisco. That island, Samsoe, is taking similar steps, and wants to switch to 90 percent renewable energy within a decade, in part by cutting consumption and increasing energy efficiency. But just 4400 citizens live there, and the Danish government, not the citizens, decided to make it a demonstration island. On a larger scale, Iceland plans a hydrogen-based economy.

On Vashon, citizens are leading the charge for renewable energy on their 37 square mile island, of which 80 percent is forested, 10 percent is farmed. And Schenck aims for energy bills to cost residents the same as current monthly charges.

Schenck’s neighbors like the sustainability concept now that it’s moving forward: They are looking at how they could sustainably grow food, use water and deal with solid waste, among other issues, in a separate project called Sustainable Vashon.

Contact Rita Schenck: rita@iere.org 206-464-7430

www.iere.org

FROM E Magazine, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner