To promote sustainability our Club has just created a Sustainability Committee. While we have not yet evaluated or integrated our principles in all our Club projects, we have put an emphasis on projects that promote a healthy environment. Here some of our projects:
Our current hands on project is the adoption of Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, California which we clean three times per year. W
e also do creek clean ups and collect tons of plastics and other trash that would otherwise go to the ocean and worsen the situation in the North Pacific Gyre. The ChicoBags Project--Selling reusable Rotary ChicoBags cuts down on single-use plastic waste. Over consumption of plastic happens at an overwhelming and staggering rate and is the cause of some of the worst environmental problems that our planet faces today. These bags not only help reduce plastic in the ocean, but promote our club, promote local businesses who sponsored the project, and raises money for charity when they are sold. Our Committee would like to expand our Chico Bags project to help the North Pacific Gyre situation. A large current north of the Hawaiian Islands has collected a garbage patch at least twice the size of Texas made up of mostly plastics. The UN estimates that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile of ocean worldwide, and in the densest parts of these gyres (at least one gyre per ocean), plastic pieces outnumber plankton at least 40 to 1! We also planted trees at Scotts Valley High School with the help of our high school and middle school Interactors which will beautify the campus for years to come, while positively influencing air quality. We have a yearly E-Waste recycling event to allow the community to properly dispose of harmful electronic and heavy metal waste, while supporting charities. At District events, we host a table which displays our projects and the message of the local non-profit Save Our Shores. This educational effort surprises everyone who walks by because awareness of these issues is not widely distributed. We have also spurred the interests of our Interact club, which has participated in our beach cleanups and receives educational presentations about environmental issues. The next step is to share this page with all the members of Rotary, and prioritize future projects, i.e. making our next fund raising event green. "If you want to change the world, if you want to make a difference in peoples lives, look to Rotary" - Rob Slawinski. Look into our Sustainability Committe to make a change in the world!
