Sunday, September 16, 2007

Green Health care & Communities

Ithaca College held a day long meeting yesterday to present sustainable green practices for communities and green health care facilities. Cayuga Hospital is building a Gold LEED certified hospital extension that will set new standard for health care. It was so good to see Tompkins County and their local environmental group "sustainable Tompkins" hold such educational event to share the knowledge.

It was refreshing to see the life style choices related to buying locally grown organic food and promoting walkable communities to enhance health benefits. Eating foods grown with natural fertilizers and consumed fresh within local markets reduces the energy required for long transportation. It sounds like going back to old way of living and away from mass production and big corporations selling us all the goods. What is good for us is a question worth pondering about. Are we going too far with convenience and away from conservation of natural resources?

Green and sustainable communities are much better places to live. Revival of Portland Oregon is a great example to follow for others. In Upstate New York, the Tompkins County example and efforts in the Towns of Irondequoit & Brighton are good signs that local citizens are willing to support such planning and help their leaders to achieve the goal of quality high performance communities. It is the smarter thing to do for sustaining our communities.