Friends,
Thanks to everyone who came out for our February general meeting and especially to Charlie Forbes for his insight into recycling and solid waste management in Fairfax County. As always with Charlie, we learned so much!
We’ve got another great general meeting coming up on March 5, so be sure to mark your calendar. Julie Sharkey, campaign manager for Our Last Straw, and Krissee D’Aguiar, chocolate executive officer at River-Sea Chocolates, will be on hand to talk to us about reducing waste in the local hospitality industry.
We look forward to learning from Julie and Krissee and to using what we learn to recruit more restaurants to join the Earth Friendly Fairfax movement.
2020 General Assembly
We are in the last two weeks of the 2020 Virginia General Assembly session! We’ve had some wins, and we’ve had some losses.
For wins, two of the suite of Green New Deal bills have passed both the House and Senate: HB 704 establishes the Virginia Environmental Justice Council, and HB 585 requires localities to incorporate transit-oriented development into their comprehensive plans. HJ 136 (the climate emergency declaration) and HB 573 (community solar pilot program) have passed the House and are awaiting consideration in the Senate.
Contact Sen. Mamie Locke, chair of the Senate Committee on Rules, to ask her to docket HJ 136 this week: [email protected] and (804) 698-7502
The Solar Freedom bills and a couple of single-use plastic bills are also still alive. We will have full updates on the legislative session at our meeting on March 5.
Fossil Free Fairfax
Last month Helene Shore and Dave Kuebrich presented our 3,000+ signed Fossil Free Fairfax petitions to the Board of Supervisors at their first public hearing of 2020. Woot woot!
We have received wonderful feedback from several supervisors in support of our renewable energy targets, and we look forward to pushing for bold climate solutions as we participate in the Community-Wide Energy and Climate Action Plan Task Force.
We are concerned, however, with youth representation in the CECAP process. If you know a high school or college student who would like to participate in a district focus group, contact your board supervisor—it is not too late to sign up! Find out more about the focus groups here.
Next 350 Fairfax Meeting March 5
As I mentioned above, we are excited to welcome Julie Sharkey with Our Last Straw and Krissee D’Aguiar from River-Sea Chocolates to our meeting next week—on March 5, 7:30 p.m., at the Blueberry Hill Common House. Julie and Krissee will be amazing resources for us as we move forward with our Earth Friendly Fairfax restaurant campaign.
In just a couple of months, our small group of volunteers has recruited 12 restaurants at Earth Friendly gold or silver status. Come find out how you can help us reduce waste from our local businesses through this campaign.
Find details and RSVP for the meeting here or on Facebook.
See you next week!
Julie
