Some ten years ago, spurred into action by students at Ashland High School, among others, Mayor John Stromberg and the Ashland City Council established a citizen committee assigned to develop a climate plan for the city. Ultimately titled the ‘Ashland Climate and Energy Action Plan’ (CEAP), this was passed unanimously by the city council in 2017. The goals of the plan were to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions and prepare the city to be more resilient to climate change impacts. As the Ashland Climate Collaborative notes on their website: “Eight years in, the CEAP is still a great foundation for reaching our climate goals.”
As the CEAP itself states: “This Climate and Energy Action Plan is only the beginning of an ongoing process.” Regrettably, over the intervening years, as families relocate in and out of the area, residential awareness of the CEAP seems to have dwindled to the point that many residents are completely unaware of its existence.
In order to address this lack of awareness, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now Executive Director Danial Scotton, assisted by members of the SOCAN Ashland Climate Action Team, have established a series of open public workshops during which aspects of the CEAP are being discussed in relation to CEAP goals, the current status of action, and what needs to be done.
The third workshop in the series will address the subject of Food Waste and Compost. Globally, some 6 – 8% of greenhouse gas emissions result from food waste while, in the U.S. alone, astonishingly, 27% (63 million tons) of all food goes to waste. It has been estimated that wasted U.S. food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars’-worth of emissions. Strategy 3 in the Consumption and Materials Management category of the CEAP is: ’Reduce food waste.’