Ashland learns to be green

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

From a story by Chad Dally in The Daily Press, Ashland:

It's one thing to simply call your town an eco-municipality, or claim environmental sensitivity as a selling point for your business, but as some point out, the walk has to back up the talk.

The 13 participants in the Alliance for Sustainability's "Green Team" program, comprised of cities, tribes, schools and businesses, met on Thursday to discuss their efforts traveling down the recycled brick road. And the response was as varied as "bird-friendly coffee" and longer grass at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, to high-tech thermal imaging at Lac Courte Oreilles Community College for a determination on where buildings lose heat or cold.

"We're getting calls from all over the state and nation about what we're up to here," Bayfield Mayor Larry MacDonald said. "and we may not know everything, but we know more about what we're not doing than most other places."

There are, of course, the staples of energy efficiency and reduced consumption, including recycling at the Bad River Reservation's award-winning program or a shared recycling bin between the Chequamegon Food Co-op, Daily Bread and Black Cat Coffeeshop in Ashland.

The Co-op also encourages its patrons to bring their own bags and bottles to haul away groceries, which may contain local and/or organic produce that the Co-op emphasizes in its purchasing.

Washburn Iron Works added a little twist to its recycling, however, by applying it to the air. President Raelyn Pearson detailed how the company is recycling air from its foundry back through a dust-collecting filter to maintain heat during the winter, cutting its heating needs in half and saving $15,000 in the process.