Wisconsin Sustainability

Wisconsin Sustainability

Sustainability is the ability to maintain a certain status or process in existing systems. The most frequent use of the term “sustainability” is connected to biological or human systems in the context of ecology. The ability of an ecosystem to function and maintain productivity for a prolonged period is also sustainability.

Living a sustainable lifestyle is one way to help. In this series pages we will go into what sustainability has to with ecology, recycling, water, and more. We will also reveal what some companies (like Petsmart and Disney) are doing to make a difference by operating their businesses in a sustainable way.

Wisconsin Sustainability / 6 Ways Wisconsin Has Made a Difference

With the ever increasing population, the consumption of energy has increased manifolds in the past few decades. This has resulted in the threat to survival of living beings on this planet. Thus, it is utmost important to make use of available resources judiciously. In nutshell, sustainability is the key.

The sustainability movement in Wisconsin has gained lot of momentum in recent times with following steps that have been taken to ensure sustainability in Wisconsin:

Formation of eco-municipalities. These are municipalities that strive for development of long term communities that are ecologically, economically and socially healthy. Natural Step Approach being the guiding principle behind the functioning of these municipalities.
Emphasis on eco-friendly products that has resulted in industrial companies focusing on green technologies, while also producing cheap and energy-efficient equipment.
Wisconsin’s Initiative for Sustainable Cleanups (WISC) accentuates on green technologies to clean up contaminated sites. Currently, there are six selected state lead sites and remedial measures taken are in accordance with environment protection.
Designing and construction is done in such a manner that energy-efficient homes and high-performing buildings are established. Kohl’s corporation being a leading example. Wisconsin saw record number of renewable energy systems installed in 2008 with the help of Focus on Energy organization. Encouraging the use of hybrid vehicles is another step in this direction.
Timely conferences by committees like Sustainability Advisory Commission and Environmental Management Systems (EMS) significantly address sustainability concerns. Prominent researches are being continually done to find healthy and sustainable alternatives.
Wisconsin’s Forest sustainability framework lays out a blueprint for gathering data to assess the sustainability of forests in Wisconsin. Although the Framework itself does not include any data, it does create a common language and unbiased set of metrics to discuss sustainability.