This summer is all about green solutions.
The Iowa City chapter of the national youth campaign Summer of Solutions will hold a conference on Saturday to discuss ways to make the community more environmentally friendly.
Local businesses owners, as well as policy, education, religious, and service groups are expected to attend.
“We’re hoping to foster dialogue about creating a more sustainable environment, while making sure that government and nongovernment groups work together,” said Lena Connor, an organizer for the upcoming conference, the first ever to be held in Iowa City.
This is the first summer of the program, and members have spent their time doing research about what the community needs to make it a more sustainable place to live, Connor said. The group then uses that information to inform the public so concrete plans for the following summer can be put into action.
One organizer of the Iowa City team, 19-year-old Margaret Kearney, said the planning and research phase of the program is the beginning of a long-term process.
This part is “extremely reliant” on what the public thinks, said Kearney, who is responsible for conducting a listening project that uses online and in-person surveys to gauge how important the issue of sustainability is to local residents.
The survey asks citizens how important sustainability is to them, how much they think the city is doing to help make Iowa City environmentally friendly, and what the city should do to help.
Connor also said a special emphasis must be placed on marketing the campaign. The surveys will serve as the core method of spreading word about their efforts.
The group is also hosting a children’s art project toward the end of the summer where kids can draw and paint pictures that express their opinions about sustainability. These works of art will then be displayed in a gallery and throughout the city, Connor said.
Saturday’s conference is the final platform to promote the group’s mission.
“The main goal of whole program is that in a couple of years, you will have an organization that is self-sustaining and can operate beyond student leadership,” Connor said.
The campaign was created by the nonprofit group Grand Aspirations, which a group of students from Macalester College formed in 2008 in St. Paul, Minn. The Summer of Solutions program has since spread to 17 other cities, including places as far as Santa Fe, N.M. and Asheville, N.C.
“I’ll be interested in hearing feedback from people [at the conference],” said University of Iowa Director of Sustainability Liz Christiansen, noting that the greenest energy is the energy people don’t use.
Matthew Kazinka, an Iowa City native, is one of the original creators of the project, and he has been working to make it a success. Though he spends most of his time in the Twin Cities to attend school, he is especially pleased the program has finally reached his home state.
“I feel warm and fuzzy,” he said. “I think Iowa City is the perfect place for this type of program. I’m really committed to this work, and it’s really fun to see it happen.”