SCOPE: Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence - a 501c(3) non-profit organization


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Background ~ Reports ~ Implementation Committees
SUMMIT BACKGROUND
The Summit for Environmental Action was a day-long event held on February 29th, 2008 at Marie G. Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. The goal of the event was to come up with a handful of actions that our community could take to positively benefit our local environment. There were four possible topics for discussion: Water Issues, Energy Use, Living Locally and Florida-Friendly Landscaping. The event gave participants a chance to brainstorm ideas focused on positively affecting our local environment. Since the Summit, participants and community members have been working on implementing these ideas. Participants worked in pre-assigned small groups that had a diversity of age, gender, occupational sector and viewpoint. Each small group brainstormed ideas to improve our local environment in the morning and spent the afternoon narrowing down those ideas to a single idea that a group member presented in the closing plenary session. At the end of the day, a representative from each of the 16 small groups presented an idea for action and participants used instant voting technology to demonstrate their level of support for that idea. The five action plans that received the highest percentage of support are the “Top 5 Ideas” and became the focus of the implementation committees. Develop rainwater, stormwater, greywater and reuse as alternate water sources. Require low impact development techniques for new development and incentives to retrofit existing development. Fifty percent of Sarasota County buildings with solar hot water heaters in five years. Attract sustainable/green manufacturing to the local area. Redesign transit system in conjunction with targeted mixed-use redevelopment zones. "Great Transit connecting Great Communities."
REPORTS
The Summit for Environmental Action was held to inspire action. Below, find reports from the various Summit Implementation Committee's meetings. Click on Implementation Committees to read progress reports from each committee. July 1st, 2009 Summit Update Report January 12th, 2009 Summit Implementation Committees Meeting Report November 10th, 2008 Summit Implementation Committees Meeting Report September 9th, 2008 Summit Implementation Committees Meeting Report June 30th, 2008 Summit Implementation Committees Progress Report April 4th, 2008 Summit for Environmental Action Findings and Next Steps Report
Community planning partners for the Summit included: Aspire Green Branding and Social Marketing, Council of Neighborhood Association (CONA), Control Growth Now, Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County, Florida House Learning Center, Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Public Policy and Leadership, University of South Florida, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Mote Marine, Marine Policy Institute, New college of Florida, Ruden McClosky, Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, Sarasota Manatee Young Democrats, Sarasota Network for Climate Action, Science and Environment Council, SCOPE, Sustainable Sarasota, Sarasota County Government < Back to the SCOPE Home Page

SCOPE ~ 1226 North Tamiami Trail, Suite 202 ~ Sarasota, FL 34236 ~ (941) 365-8751~ Fax: (941) 365-8592

Photos courtesy of Kazuaki Nagata & PolaBran Summers