Above: Sophia and Chris perform a waste audit at the National Cherry Festival as part of our annual review of their festival waste management practices.
As the old saying goes, you are what you measure. That’s why we help partners monitor carbon drawdown solutions like clean energy, solid waste diversion, and regenerative land management. Become a part of the solution with a gift to SEEDS today!
What We’re Working On
Organic Waste Diversion Feasibility Study:
Did you know that, taken as a whole system, agriculture is the number one contributor to greenhouse gas emissions globally?
Here’s a solution: let’s take the food wastes from this extractive system and transform them into a feedstock for regenerative food systems. Regenerative agricultural systems simultaneously improve soil health, retain water, support biodiversity, and frequently improve food justice! Locally, we can avoid thousands of metric tons of greenhouse gasses annually simply by getting our food scraps into a compost pile. That’s a solution we can all participate in – and support the regenerative revolution every time we do!
Over the last 18 months, we’ve been developing a realistic set of plans to divert at least 25% of our region’s food waste. Next year we’re going to ask for help of all kinds to make it happen!
Facilitating Municipal Carbon Goals:
We’ve been facilitating the City of Traverse City’s Green Team for the last four years putting SEEDS in a central supporting role. The City hit its 2020 target of powering its municipal operations with 100% clean electricity and TC isn’t stopping there!
This year we’ve also been working with the City of Big Rapids on practical strategies their Planning Department can adopt to improve the energy efficiency of their rental-housing. That would positively impact 2/3rds of the housing stock in this college town!
Solar Power in Historic Barns Park:
Major roadway reconstruction this year required moving the location of the solar array as well as the solar-powered path lights that SEEDS had installed several years ago. The panels are reinstalled and once again providing clean electricity to the farmland irrigation systems and to the Cathedral Barn. The path lights are not tied to the electric grid and were installed using ground screws making them a snap to pull up and move, proving that oftentimes the greener solution is the less expensive solution too.
Above: Students visiting from the after school program at Brethren Middle School learn about solar power under the solar panels at Historic Barns Park.
