Morgan Finke
Published: April 15, 2009
DUBUQUE - Sustainability is an effort to raise awareness of environmental concerns that have grown rapidly in the last 20 years.
Although it has been more widely known recently, the idea is nothing new to Sustainable Community Coordinator Sheila Samuelson, who’s passion for keeping our environment a healthy place to live started early.
“I’ve had it since I was a little girl, I think I was just exposed to it at a really early age and it just made sense to me,” said Samuelson.
That passion was able to grow and has been kept alive by the community.
“My passion is helping communities be great places for people to live, places that are really designed for people,” explained Samuelson.
Business owners in Dubuque agree with Samuelson, and showed their support at the annual City Expo. Event Coordinator Randy Gehl explained how the event was organized.
“Every booth every display will be focused around sustainability which of course is a tremendously important initiative for the city and for the region really,” said Gehl.
Sustainability is an important initiative, but the question remains, are citizens of Dubuque stepping up to the challenge? City Council Member Kevin Lynch believes that although Dubuque is on the forefront of sustainability efforts in our country, there is room for improvement.
“I think there are certain segments of the community that could use a lot more citizen involvement,” said Lynch.
With the help of the community, Samuelson believes we can put into action our plan for sustainability, she goes on to explain what that plan is, “the city has adopted a three part model: that considers the environment, social impacts, and also economic impacts.”
With this goal in mind, Samuelson believes Dubuque can truly become a well balanced, healthy city to live in.
“When you’re not just focusing on one bottom line, but you’re looking at the interactions and how things all work together thats considering sustainability,” said Samuelson.
Morgan Finke can be reached at Morgan.Finke@loras.edu
