Sustainable Sheboygan
Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force
The Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force (SSTF) was created by the Mayor of Sheboygan and the Sheboygan Common Council in August of 2008 to study and make recommendations regarding strategies to be adopted by the City for creating and maintaining a sustainable Sheboygan, focusing on such topics as recycling, green purchasing, energy conservation, waste management and sustainability measures, and raising community awareness on environmental stewardship, that will result in cost savings and reduced consumption of resources throughout the City.
The Mayor has appointed 18 people, representing a diverse cross section of our community, to sit on the SSTF. The four guidelines utilized by the Task Force members are based on THE NATURAL STEP by Sarah James and Torbjorn Lahti, and are as follows:
Reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and extracted underground metals and minerals;
Reduce dependence on chemicals and other manufactured substances that can accumulate in Nature;
Reduce dependence on activities that harm life-sustaining ecosystems; and
Meet the hierarchy of present and future human needs fairly and efficiently.
Based on these four guiding principles, the SSTF has created four “interest groups” to focus on: Energy, Water Quality, Transportation and Planning, and Education and Promotion. Sustainability does involve a much wider spectrum than these four issues, but this focus will better allow the Task Force to formulate action items and measure results, both short- and long- term.
The SSTF meets every other month on the second Thursday at 12:00 noon in the 3rd floor conference room at City Hall (Sheboygan). Please consider joining us to help make Sheboygan a better place to live, work and play!
Recycling Directory
Click here to view the Sheboygan County Recycling Directory.
Upcoming Events
Environmental Choices group meets at First Congregational Church, classroom 2, 310 Bluff Ave. from 6:30 – 8:00 pm every 2nd Monday of the month. Call Janet Ross at 452-2130 with questions.
“Thinking Green Thursdays”
The Sustainable Living Group (SLG), in coordination with the Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force (SSTF), is putting together a monthly lecture series called, “Thinking Green Thursdays.” The purpose of this lectures series is to help educate the local community about sustainability, renewable energy, efficiency and conservation. This lecture series is going to be held at Mojo’s 2nd level lounge at 1235 Pennsylvania Ave, Sheboygan WI, on the 3rd Thursday of each month from October through May.
Green Initiatives in Sheboygan
Here are some simple facts that show how much progress Sheboygan has made in its efforts to save energy, conserve our natural resources, and become more sustainable!
The curbside recycling program has diverted over 40,000 tons of materials from our landfills since 1996
The drop-off site has collected approximately 3,000 tons of scrap metal for recycling since 2000
Since 2000, the drop-off site and fall leaf collection program together have collected over 50,000 tons of yard waste, diverting it from landfills and composting this material for reuse in gardens and landscaped areas
The drop-off site collects an average of 13,000 gallons of used motor oil annually, which is recycled for reuse
The drop-off site collects, on average, 10 tons of used car batteries to be recycled each year
The Department of Public Works collects 625 tons of street sweeping debris annually, preventing this material from being washed into our streams and lakes
our waste water treatment processes generate sludge, which is reused as fertilizer on farm fields throughout the County, preventing this material from being landfilled
New, high efficient boilers were recently installed at City Hall and the Municipal Service Building, reducing our energy consumption
Heat generated from our waste water treatment processes historically has been reused to save energy consumption. Recently, the process of reusing this heat has become extremely efficient with the use of modern technologies, resulting in further gains in savings
Significant upgrades have been implemented to the electrical motors and pumps at our waste water treatment plant, reducing overall energy consumption at the plant
The Department of Public Works has converted the majority of our traditional incandescent traffic signals to LED traffic signals, reducing our overall energy consumption in half
Information provided by David Biebel, Deputy Public Works Director and Sustainable Task Force Member