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i i i BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SUCCESS Commitment mericans invest in their children 's education because God gave man dominion over the of their commitment to help them succeed in the fu - 4 ' land. I believe it is our responsibility IF ture . For exactly the same reason , we must invest in cli - IF IF rrr G� , . to cherish and preserve His gift . . . our IF mate protection . Our children 's long - term well being I. children are depending on us. It gives * x IF IF I me great pride to be involved with the requires our commitment today. As a community, Sonoma County _IF I _ . . ., has embraced climate protection as our responsibility to the next effort to reduce greenhouse gases and generation . conserve energy, while at the some time IF IF I IF making a sound business decision— Sweet spot finding cost saving measures to keep our utility bills in check. Fulfillment of our commitment entails action . The key to effective —Lynn Morehouse, Town of Windsor Council member action is intelligent design . A whole-systems approach that produces significant multiple benefits promises the most positive, significant erations . As described above, intelligent design can produce the impact . The bold ideas described on the next page are examples of change desired—particularly when combined with the strategic ap - whole-systems intelligent design, in which multiple, synergistic ben - plication of the power of money. The fundamental formula is to efits are produced simultaneously—saving money, improving comm charge polluters, and apply the collected funds to reward desirable munity well being, and protecting the environment . behavior. Many compelling examples are given in ICLEI 's book, " Changing the Price Signal : How local governments can use eco- Without taking a whole systems view, we will likely produce unin - nomic instruments to cut traffic and pollution . " tended, negative consequences . Three examples follow. By switch - ing from chlorine to ultra -violet light to treat wastewater at Santa Virtuous cycle Rosa 's Laguna facility, chemical use was reduced but energy use in - Another essential part of intelligent design is funding continuous creased dramatically. If the Marin Municipal Water District uses en - improvement—in this case mastering .ways to reduce GHG pollu- ergy- intensive desalination to augment their water supply as they tion and save money. Once again , intelligent design can create a III virtuous cycle—the opposite of a vicious cycle—where improvement IF feeds on itself and produces more improvement . This can be clo ne Local governments by specifying that a percentage of any money saved through re - F IF 1 the future when we all ducing energy and associated costs goes into a fund to help prospect fightF . global stoTing ' for more energy savings . The City of Ann Arbor does just this, with exemplary results . --0O2 Haiku by Susan Or ®i� e C n Foll the arbo I For years people have searched for ways to measure sustainability. are now considering , they will reduce the draw on the Russian River Following the carbon and reducing GHG emissions guide us toward but will significantly increase their system -wide GHG emissions un - a sustainable future . The more we integrate climate protection into less they develop offsets or employ renewable energy. If we only fo - local government general plans, budgets, redevelopment criteria , cus on reducing GHG emissions, we may resort to nuclear power codes, management systems, and contracting , the swifter we will whose waste remains toxic for at least 250, 000 years . We mustn' t be at bringing forth a positive future for our children . IF settle for flawed solutions . Qur standard must be the " sweet spot"— intelligent whole systems design . Inspiring others As a member of Cities for Climate Protection, Sonoma County and j Price signals its cities are part of an international effort to think and act locally Municipalities rightly lead by example : However, the amount of and globally, just as we were inspired to become a part of this ef- GHG emissions they can reduce, by exerting influence community fort, we can inspire other sectors of our community—schools, wide through policy making is much, much greater than the amount churches, businesses, residents—and can inspire other municipali- of emissions they can reduce by focusing only on their internal op - ties to join , too . What we can 't do alone, we can do together. i 14 ,j