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‘Living Green’ will explore sustainability in everyday life

The importance of living within your means isn’t just good advice in the realm of finance. It’s also a valuable perspective to consider when discussing environmental sustainability, particularly on a large community, or even global scale.

Beginning Monday, The Mining Journal is unveiling a new initiative called Living Green that will take readers on a journey into some of the local sustainability efforts happening right here in our backyards. Each week, budding journalist Cecilia Brown will take a look at these efforts, providing readers with the opportunity to see the many ways Yoopers are striving to take care of our community and our planet.

This project is a resurrection of one we did several years ago under the same name, but the time is just as ripe to bring Living Green back to the forefront.

The significance of sustainability can be seen in how we keep the lights on in our largest cities, to the types of foods we put in our bodies. From mass farming operations to mass solar farms, all of these things have an impact on our planet, and as the human race continually expands, properly managing how sustainable we are has never been more crucial.

Energy has been a widely discussed industry here in the Upper Peninsula, and kicking off the Living Green initiative on Monday will be a story about a local business’s rooftop solar project. As some leaders and officials overlook the value in renewable energies and attempt instead to focus on reviving the economically driven fossil fuels industry, our natural resources continue to be in jeopardy. While a shift to natural gas has been noted at the local level for fueling our power plants, regional electric prices remain relatively high. Yet how can you conserve the energy used at your home or business so that you help not only your bottom line or your household pocketbook, but save the utility companies from consuming yet another precious commodity found in the earth? On the other hand, what are the roadblocks and concerns to developing more renewable energy infrastructure and facilities? What is holding us back from a new era in energy development?

A different Living Green topic to approach: What is the value in recycling, and what happens to our material once it’s picked up by the waste hauler? It came as a shock to many in Marquette when it was disclosed recently that the glass material residents thought was being recycled, was actually going into the landfill. The decision, it seems, was a financial one: The cost to transport the glass to a facility that would process and market the material was more than what we’d get back. But what other options might there be for reusing some of that material, or what is the Marquette County Landfill looking into that could help remedy the situation, thereby saving space for the non-recyclable trash at our dump? In that same vein, how can we minimize our carbon footprint as a community, and what is already being done?

The questions and topics this once-a-week initiative will explore are many, but Living Green is about more than watching what you throw in the trash. It’s about the people behind the sustainability effort, and the passion and commitment they have for making the human race more environmentally responsible and accountable to future generations.

It’s the faces and stories behind the movements we hope to share with you in the coming months, and we hope you learn something new about how we can all live a little greener.

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