From the Kitsap Sun (May 6, 2010)

The fate of a much-debated Eagle Harbor acre is in Bainbridge Island’s court. Washington State Ferries, which owns the parcel beside its maintenance yard, will help transform it if islanders can decide what they want.

Islanders told ferries director David Moseley last summer they needed to have a “community conversation” about the property, which has been eyed as a public boat yard. That conversation has yet to take place.

“There are people with Washington State Ferries that prefer that (public use) not occur,” Moseley said Tuesday night at Bainbridge Island Commons. “I’ve made the commitment that if you can demonstrate a use for the facility, I’ll honor that commitment.”

Moseley is on his biannual swing through ferry communities. He’ll be at the Bremerton Conference Center on Monday, Kingston Community Center on Tuesday and Harper Church on Wednesday, all starting at 6:30 p.m.

The director discussed a variety of ferry issues Tuesday, but the public boat yard captured the most attention. The 0.9-acre parcel is part of a larger plot of property the state bought to expand its Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility.

The state Department of Transportation signed an agreement with the city in 1995 that called for the state to lease a 0.9-acre parcel for “private water-dependent industrial or commercial operations” such as a boat yard. This year, Washington State Ferries received $2.1 million in the supplemental budget to finally resolve the issue.

Kevin Dwyer, Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce director, said the chamber might want to lead the conversation from an economic perspective. The tourist potential for boaters is huge, he said, and the $2.1 million might be better spent on something else.

“We’ve got a great body of water,” he said. “We’re close to Seattle. There are so many opportunities. We’re leaving money on the table because we haven’t done the work that needs to be done to upgrade our waterfront and make it a welcoming place.”

The site is small for a boat yard, where vessels are pulled out of the water for maintenance and repairs, and it would need infrastructure and somebody to run it.

“Our reasoning is if we’re going to have access to this money, let’s take it and upgrade what we have,” Dwyer said. “If operators want to do this haul-out facility, maybe that will emerge (later).”

Wini Jones, who has been active with waterfront issues for years, said people need to interact with the parcel and get their imaginations going. But it’s fenced.

“In order to have a community conversation about that piece of property, we need to have the public be able to walk on the piece of ground, become emotionally invested in it,” she said.

The property is part of a Superfund site, Moseley said, and WSF can’t be responsible for people wandering around there.

Jones thanked Moseley on Tuesday for his support.

“I was very, very pleased with David’s very cooperative openness, his willingness to work with the city and solve this issue,” she said. “And he’s been given the money to do it, which is wonderful.”

Eagle Harbor workers are parking on the property, so it can’t be that dangerous, said Debbie Lester of the Bainbridge Island City Council.

The City Council’s WSF committee was going to lead the community conversation, but it didn’t happen, Lester said. The committee disappeared. It has re-formed, with a plan to pull together a panel of community experts to help figure out what to do with the parcel.

“There’s a lot of exciting potential,” Lester said. “I’m looking forward to having the conversation.”

The fate of a much-debated Eagle Harbor acre is in Bainbridge Island’s court. Washington State Ferries, which owns the parcel beside its maintenance yard, will help transform it if islanders can decide what they want.

Islanders told ferries director David Moseley last summer they needed to have a “community conversation” about the property, which has been eyed as a public boat yard. That conversation has yet to take place.

“There are people with Washington State Ferries that prefer that (public use) not occur,” Moseley said Tuesday night at Bainbridge Island Commons. “I’ve made the commitment that if you can demonstrate a use for the facility, I’ll honor that commitment.”

Moseley is on his biannual swing through ferry communities. He’ll be at the Bremerton Conference Center on Monday, Kingston Community Center on Tuesday and Harper Church on Wednesday, all starting at 6:30 p.m.

The director discussed a variety of ferry issues Tuesday, but the public boat yard captured the most attention. The 0.9-acre parcel is part of a larger plot of property the state bought to expand its Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility.

The state Department of Transportation signed an agreement with the city in 1995 that called for the state to lease a 0.9-acre parcel for “private water-dependent industrial or commercial operations” such as a boat yard. This year, Washington State Ferries received $2.1 million in the supplemental budget to finally resolve the issue.

Kevin Dwyer, Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce director, said the chamber might want to lead the conversation from an economic perspective. The tourist potential for boaters is huge, he said, and the $2.1 million might be better spent on something else.

“We’ve got a great body of water,” he said. “We’re close to Seattle. There are so many opportunities. We’re leaving money on the table because we haven’t done the work that needs to be done to upgrade our waterfront and make it a welcoming place.”

The site is small for a boat yard, where vessels are pulled out of the water for maintenance and repairs, and it would need infrastructure and somebody to run it.

“Our reasoning is if we’re going to have access to this money, let’s take it and upgrade what we have,” Dwyer said. “If operators want to do this haul-out facility, maybe that will emerge (later).”

Wini Jones, who has been active with waterfront issues for years, said people need to interact with the parcel and get their imaginations going. But it’s fenced.

“In order to have a community conversation about that piece of property, we need to have the public be able to walk on the piece of ground, become emotionally invested in it,” she said.

The property is part of a Superfund site, Moseley said, and WSF can’t be responsible for people wandering around there.

Jones thanked Moseley on Tuesday for his support.

“I was very, very pleased with David’s very cooperative openness, his willingness to work with the city and solve this issue,” she said. “And he’s been given the money to do it, which is wonderful.”

Eagle Harbor workers are parking on the property, so it can’t be that dangerous, said Debbie Lester of the Bainbridge Island City Council.

The City Council’s WSF committee was going to lead the community conversation, but it didn’t happen, Lester said. The committee disappeared. It has re-formed, with a plan to pull together a panel of community experts to help figure out what to do with the parcel.

“There’s a lot of exciting potential,” Lester said. “I’m looking forward to having the conversation.”

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/may/05/wsf-tells-bainbridge-to-figure-out-what-to-do/#ixzz0njT1GjRY

From Kevin Dwyer, Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce Executive Director:

“We will be missing a great tourism opportunity if we do not use this money more prudently, by improving our public docks, adding some transient boat slips and moorage and giving boaters easier access to Downtown Winslow. … Boaters spend on average $210 a day in the community they visit. We should be taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Classic Cycle, 740 Winslow Way East, Bainbridge Island, WA. 98110,  (206)842-2565. www.classiccycleus.com

Owners Jeff Groman and Els Heyne are employing sustainable business approaches that not only are good for the environment but good for business:

Environmental

1. Saving used bike chains and sending them to a company in Oregon that makes products out of them and we sell those products in the store;
2. Saving used tubes and sending them to a company in Seattle that makes products out of them  and we sell those product in the store;
3. We save all used metal parts and recycle them in metal recycling;
4. Each station has a garbage and recycle bin to separate stuff from the start;
5. We buy as much as possible locally, such as office and shop supplies, plus buy 100% recycled paper, toilet paper and towels;
6. We only use “safe” products for cleaning bikes;
7. We earned a 5 star rating with EnviroStar;
8. We try to only buy items for resale that come with minimal packaging and tell the vendors why;
9. Continually ask companies about recycled products, products with less packaging and have them ship items with as little packaging as possible,  etc.;
10. We purchase 100% green energy form Puget Sound Energy. They did an audit at the store and made recommendations to reduce energy. From that, we created a plan to implement those suggestions over time. At the moment,  we have reduced our energy usage from 85.6K WH per day to 66.5 KWH per day (February, 2010);
11. We stopped sending out paper newsletters or announcements only do email;
12. We encourage car pooling or riding bikes as much as possible with our employees and had several contest and prizes for employees who rode their bikes the most. Now almost 80% ride their bike;
13. We re-use and re-make store fixtures and displays as much as possible so very little ends up in the landfill, we created a “new sales counter” entirely made of old displays;
14. We have mugs in the store for employees, and now all our employees have travel mugs when they buy coffee;
15. We do not give out bags at the store; only have recycled bags if a customer asks for one;
16. We help collect old used bikes for Africa.

Employees

1. Living wage for full time employees
2. Company pays 100% for health care
3. Company contributes to their IRA
4. 3 weeks vacation
5. 5 sick days
6. If they commute by bike they get $20 per month

Community

We serve on the board of  non-profits such as :

1. Co-Founded and on board of Sustainable Bainbridge
2. Co-Founded and on board of Sustainable Business Network
3. Squeaky Wheels
4. Chamber of Commerce
5. Zero Waste

Previous boards:

Community Housing Coalition (Affordable Housing)

Other Community Involvement

1. Co-wrote and helped set up the Community Land Trust
2. Have worked with Hyla to have students train and work in the bike shop for a school program.
3. Sponsored and helped youths get advanced in the bicycle racing world from road racing to cycle-cross and several earned the national champion title.
4. We have sponsored numerous events, non-profits and schools over the years.

The Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce has adopted the principals of The Natural Step as part of a larger effort to become a more sustainable organization and, in turn, work with other partners to make our community more sustainable environmentally, economically and socially.

The Natural Step was developed in Sweden in 1989 by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert. Robert used a consensus process involving the country’s top scientists to define principles of a sustainable society. The principles look at the earth as a complex system of which humans are an integral part.

Here are the  fundamental principles of the Natural Step process:

1. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contribution to the progressive buildup of materials (and their associated wastes) extracted from the Earth’s crust

Material that humans take out of the earth such as lead and mercury can’t be allowed to accumulate in the environment. The environment and health-related issues due to lead and mercury are probably the most well known problems the first condition addresses.

2. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contribution to the progressive build-up of synthetic materials produced by society

Material that are created by humans must not build up faster then the ecosystem can break them down. Examples of this range from materials which are harmful in relatively small doses such as DDT, PCBs and ozone-depleting chemicals, to materials which are less harmful but are being produced in very large quantities, such as CO2.

3. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contribution to the ongoing physical degradation of Nature.

Human activity cannot destroy the ability of the earth to provide the services we need. Examples include farming practices that cause erosion or land use practices that destroy the flood calming and water filtering abilities of wetlands.

4. Reduce and eventually eliminate our contribution to conditions that undermine people’s ability to meet their basic needs.

Resources need to be used equitably and efficiently. Equitable distribution means that poor people will not have to destroy their natural resources just to survive in the short term.

Robert, Daly, Hawken and Holmberg

Coyote Woodshop, Bainbridge Island, WA

The Natural Step process helps companies to understand the connections between their business and the earth’s ecological and social processes. The Natural Step in many ways is a continuation of other efforts by business to improve their processes and reduce their impact on the world.

These other efforts have included Total Quality Management, Total Quality Environmental Management, pollution prevention, reduced use of toxins, design for the environment, adopting ISO 9000 and 14000 management standards. The Natural Step moves beyond these to focus on how businesses will work in a sustainable society.

The Natural Step U.S. web site is:  http://www.ccnet.com/~emis/tns/

The Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce  held its second Sustainability Forum on April 26, 2010 at IslandWood. More than 60 people attended the half-day session.

The Forum followed the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors’ unprecedented move last November of passing a resolution binding the organization to following the tenets of the “Natural Step” process. We are the first chamber of commerce in the U.S. to have done so.

In December, the Chamber held an invitation-only Sustainability event aimed at explaining in more detail the Natural Step, along with citing examples of how other communities nationwide have made a push in this direction: to tread lightly on the environment while working within their communities to establish best practice nodes around reducing, reusing and recycling.

Sustainability Forum

Our April 2010 Sustainability Forum focused on how our business community, and the community-at-large, can incorporate the Natural Step into their everyday lives.

The April event was moderated by Bainbridge sustainability expert Jeff Leinaweaver, PhD, Global Zen LLC, and Holly Brunk of The Natural Step USA,  provided a primer on the Natural Step.

A number of fun exercises occurred during the day, and those in attendance participated in a World Café on how islanders can implement the approach locally.

Below you will find links to notes from the April forum that include ideas, challenges, and innovative approaches to transforming Bainbridge into sustainable community.

We encourage you to share your sustainability ideas with us on this blog. We want it to become a clearinghouse for your thoughts, and a place where island businesses and community members can  share tips and learn more about Sustainable Green Practices.

Notes From the World Cafe April 2010

BI-Challenges to Sustainability April 2010

Synopsis of Sustainability Challenges April 2010

As world leaders converge on Copenhagen for climate summit, Bainbridge Business leaders hold an all-day Sustainability Forum

Bainbridge Island, WA, December 7, 2009:  The Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce with support from several other island sponsors hosted an all-day conference at IslandWood yesterday where approximately 60 leaders of the Bainbridge Island business community gathered. In addition to presentations by leaders in the sustainability field, such as Kevin Wilhelm, author of Return on Sustainability, it was also used to highlight the local success stories of eco-friendly businesses such as Watson Furniture, Town & Country Markets, Bainbridge Graduate Institute and IslandWood. The by- invitation event was well received by attendees and the mood in the room was one of genuine collaboration.

Near the end of the day Jeff Waite, vice-president of the Chamber, introduced the attendees to the resolution that was unanimously adopted by the chamber’s Board of Directors at their most recent meeting. “The resolution was adopted to provide us, as the board, a method of decision making that keeps us in line with real science and the principles of sustainability,” Waite explained. Jane Silberstein, Associate Dean at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, who assisted the Chamber with organizing the event further exclaimed, “I believe the Bainbridge Island Chamber may be the first in the country to adopt such a resolution that contains the main elements of the Natural Step.”

The Natural Step, founded by leading scientists in Sweden has become a model for communities desiring to aspire to develop an ecologically, economically and socially healthy community for the long term.

We just want to continue to emphasize to members and any potential members that we are an independent organization. Given some recent national news accounts and some inquiries we have had, we feel that it is necessary for us to again reiterate that the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce is not affiliated in any way with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

We do not receive any funding or support from the national body, nor do we take positions on any of their political platforms, such as Global Warming or Health Care Reform.

We decided many years ago that the values, policies and political actions of the U.S. Chamber are not always in tune with the characteristics and values we cherish on Bainbridge Island: a sense of community, collaboration, entrepreneurial spirit, independent thinking, and self determination.

We’re Independent and Proud of it!

Welcome to the Chamber’s new blog. We’ll be posting articles about local business, local issues, and island life. Stay tuned!