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Milwaukee’s 9th Annual Rock the Green celebration was among the countless scheduled Earth Day events scuttled to help collectively mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. So RTG’s founder and executive director Lindsay Stevens and others are rolling with the punches. Rock the Green’s Earth Year, presented by Harley-Davidson, will honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day for a full year with rebooted sustainability efforts.
Originally scheduled for April 18 at the Harley-Davidson Museum, RTG’s Earth Day festivities, which would have featured live music and on-site eco-education, will be rescheduled later this year. RTG also will host a series of eco-conscious and environmental and educational happenings. Rock the Green, a nonprofit organization, focuses on “creating a sustainable ecosystem in concert with each other.”
Pondering the Future of Sustainability
A nationally broadcast podcast on “The Future of Sustainability” aired before Earth Day and remains accessible in iTunes and other podcast channels. It was co-produced by RTG’s Stevens and Michael Perman, producer and host of the podcast “Craving the Future.” It featured two guests from Milwaukee: Rachel Schneider, director of sustainability and business planning at Harley-Davidson Motor Company; and Kim Marotta, global senior director of sustainability and enterprise risk management at Molson Coors Beverage Company, formerly Miller Coors.
Now living in Seattle, futurist Perman recalled his activism as “an idealist kid” in Whitefish Bay during what he called his “Wonder Years,” referencing that television show. On the first Earth Day, he tried to “mobilize a few hundred people in Richards Elementary to think differently” about the environment, including the many birds that were dying as a result of rampant spraying of the pesticide DDT. As the Shepherd Express has reported, Wisconsin citizens indeed “put DDT on trial,” which led to its eventual banning nationwide. “I learned how events can spark action, and how important a role anyone can play as a catalyst for ecological balance.”
Both Schneider and Marotta spoke about embracing the broad-based ESG (environmental, social and governance) approach to sustainability. Schneider said: “The long-term future of sustainability is that it actually stops being a separate thing. It becomes part and parcel of our product and consumer strategies, our short- and long-term risk management and mitigation, our processes, and it’s truly embedded in all aspects of how our businesses are run.” She asked, “Are you looking at how your business is run and how it will operate in the future, across all of the risk factors that could impact it positively and negatively?” She said that “Innovation will be key” to sustainably addressing cultural and other shifts.
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Marotta said, “Sustainability isn’t static. If you’re doing the same things as you were five years ago you probably haven’t evolved as a business. [Sustainability] goals and targets need to keep increasing and evolving. We need to keep challenging each other.”
Perman asked whether upheavals of this current moment portend “the chaos we might experience from climate change.” Marotta said, “This COVID moment is absolutely a dry run for [issues about] how do we respond as a global community,…how do we respond across all lines and political ideology, how do we come together and--being aware of the intersections between health and climate change--how do we manage those risks?” She added, “This is an unfortunate dry run, but hopefully it is waking people up to the fact that we need to take care of this earth and we need to take care of it together.”
Marotta said that, more than ever, “we need to think globally and act locally…We need to recognize that what happens in China impacts us in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What happens in Florida impacts us in New York…We need to be all in,” whether as individual citizens or as leaders of governments, non-governmental organizations, corporations or communities. “We need to all come together, look at what we’re facing and really get our arms around it and prepare.”
Perman summed up: “We are merging into societal shifts that will change the way we think about the intersection of people and planet. The future of sustainability is likely to be more holistic than ever.”
DIY River Cleanups
One of RTG’s Earth Day partners, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, has been coordinating spring cleanup around Milwaukee’s three rivers for years. Organizers say it has become the largest volunteer effort in Wisconsin, engaging some 4,000 volunteers to annually remove 100,000 pounds of trash so that it does not get washed into storm drains that feed into those rivers.
This year, the effort has been shifted to do-it-yourself cleanups, called #MeMyselfandDebris. Volunteers pledge to go out for three hours, to collect debris as they see it, following safety guidelines. Stevens said her family recently collected and weighed more than 50 pounds of trash within a quarter mile of their home. She and her children took a big red Radio Flyer wagon, grabbers and compostable bags and “sorted it all out for recycling. It’s a fun way to get involved, to give back to the environment,” said Stevens.
“Doorstep Cleanups”
As part of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, The City of Milwaukee announced a new campaign encouraging residents to take action to help protect and restore the planet—while observing physical distancing guidelines. Many community partners typically initiate neighborhood cleanups to address the debris that has accumulated during winter months. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 health emergency has delayed or suspended most spring such cleanup. With public interest in clean-ups remaining strong, the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) and the Department of Public Works (DPW), in cooperation with Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful (KGMB), launched a citywide campaign called “Doorstep Cleanups.”
Residents can pitch in to help collect debris around their homes by focusing on the front, back and side areas of the property. “Picking up nearby litter can easily be done while maintaining proper social distancing and staying in compliance with State and City orders to be Safer At Home,” a press release said.
More information about how to safely pick up litter and debris can be found at Milwaukee.gov/doorstepcleanup or kgmb.org. The City’s webpage also contains a social media toolkit for anyone to share the “Doorstep Cleanup” message. Residents can also “Rep your doorstep and your neighborhood” by posting pictures of cleanups to social media with #DoorstepCleanUp. “Feel free to mention where you live and tag DPW, DNS, or KGMB or any of our partners,”which include Eco-City, Milwaukee County Parks, MKE Parks, Milwaukee Recycles and Milwaukee Riverkeeper.
