ooo
Our Mission and Vision
ooo
“We believe that the path to sustainability can only be achieved by involving the full community in visioning and actions that preserve or enhance our quality of life while reducing our consumption of energy and other resources.”
ooo
Sustainable Tucson is a non-profit, grass-roots organization that builds regional resilience and sustainability through awareness raising, community engagement and public/private partnerships. Our members focus their action, advocacy and research through working groups addressing the unprecedented challenges of our time, economic meltdown, population pressures, climate change, and resource depletion.
ooo
Mission
The Mission of Sustainable Tucson is to create a community-wide network of people and organizations facilitating and accelerating Tucson’s transition to sustainability through education and collaborative action.
ooo
Vision
Our vision is for a community that survives long into the future, having re-established civil society, achieved ecological balance, economic fairness, and social justice. People acknowledge and live in accordance with their interconnectedness with the web-of-life.
- Food is safe, healthy and regionally produced.
- People can safely walk, ride bikes, take public transportation.
- Relationships are more important than stuff.
- Neighbors know and support each other.
- People feel empowered to use their energies and talents to make their community more resilient.
- Education, healthcare, and meaningful work is available to every person.
- Resources are equitably enjoyed through out the entire population.
- Energy is sustainably created and used.
- The community actively participates in all decisions related to the region.
- Public policies are based on a sustainable vision for the region.
- Everyone engages in peaceful conflict resolution.
- Difficult issues can be addressed openly.
- Decisions are made based on objective research.
- Life-affirming cultural and spiritual practices are honored.
- All people are respected, treated equitably, and protected from exploitation.
- A regional plan is in place that assures water sustainability for future generations and the environment through rain water harvesting and conservation.
ooo
Operating Organizational Structure
(This information is evolving with our growth)Our all-Volunteer effort is currently managing organizational development from these committees (whose members unite monthly as the “core team” to coordinate committee work):
- Structure & Organization
- Financial
- General Meetings & Events
- Communications & Web
To send a message to any of these core committees, contact the “Core Team” through our “Contact Us” form.
Core Team Members Include:
Ronald Proctor (Co-Chair)
Bio: Ron Proctor has been part of Sustainable Tucson since 2007. He is an architect and builder specializing in sustainable residential design, holding MArch and BArch degrees from the University of Arizona. Prior to receiving his degrees, Ron spent 12 years as a principal in Southface Building and Design Inc., creating custom solar homes in midcoast Maine. Ron also co-chairs Lend A Hand Senior Outreach Inc., a local 501c3, serving eight Ward 3 neighborhoods by helping local seniors stay in their own homes with local volunteer assistance. He is an avid backpacker who has logged more than 1000 miles in the Grand Canyon.
Bob Cook
Bio: Bob has wide-ranging community-related planning experience working in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. He is President of NEST, Inc, a non-profit community development organization operating in Tucson since 1989. As a strategic planner for Pima Community College during the 1990s, Bob coordinated strategic and master planning during the institution’s rapid growth phase. As a sustainability advocate, he served on the City of Tucson’s Cost of Growth Task Force; actively participated in the regional natural building movement; contributed to the early development of Civano — Tucson’s Solar Village — as past-chair of the Tucson-Pima Metropolitan Energy Commission; promoted multi-modal transportation and transit-oriented development as Treasurer of the 2003 Citizens Transportation Initiative ballot measure; and was committee chair of the local Sierra Club’s 2009 Climate Change Plan. Bob co-founded Sustainable Tucson in 2006 and currently serves on the Pima County Planning & Zoning Commission and the Tucson-Pima Regional Water and Wastewater Study Committee. Bob co- authored two books in 1975 on 1) environmental design and planning and 2) large-scale renewable energy development; graduated with distinction in economics from the University of Arizona; and received an M.S. in Systems Planning under a Dean’s Fellowship from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He was granted two U.S Patents on building structures and has been an active resident of Tucson since 1960.
Tres English
Bio: Tucson resident since 1961 Active in a wide variety of community issues, including transportation, water, landuse, neighborhoods, and energy. Recently completed a study for Pima County on the conditions of our aging housing stock. Currently director of the Teaching & Helping program, which teaches high school-aged and other volunteers how to fix old houses by pairing volunteers with experienced professionals to repair homes of low-income families.
Oscar Gandy
Bio: Oscar is an emeritus professor of communication. His research and writing has been focused on the information environment with an emphasis on the role of communications systems and institutions in the reproduction of inequality. He was a founding member of the Union for Democratic Communication, and a member and later board chair of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. He has recently published a book about decision support systems, discrimination, and cumulative disadvantage.
Bio: Sarajean Harwood came to Tucson in January of 1973 to go to graduate school and received a Masters of Library Science degree in July of1974. The desert became her permanent home and she has worked as a Librarian in the Pima County Public Library (originally Tucson Public Library) since graduating from Library School . An early member of Sustainable Tucson she has worked with and followed the progress of the organization for several years. On Friday evenings she is to be found volunteering at the Northwest Tucson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center where she has worked for many years. Deep commitment to the desert and the plants and animals therein brings her to ST and she believes that educating and informing people about the current threats to life as we know it are critical to making changes.
Tom Mendola
Bio: Tom is father to 4 boys and a tucson resident since 1972 engaged in the process of community, he has an educational background in biology, philosophy, and environmental psychology, and is currently engaged as a board member of the Tucson Peace Center, is president of Arizona Yoga Association, sits on the Ethics Committee for Tucson Medical Center, and is an advisor to Terra Sante Village Community and Harmony & Health Foundation. His current passion is in the realm of cultural change as a reflection of the evolution of human consciousness, and he firmly believes that humanity is poised on the edge of Peace, Sustainability, and compassionate joyful living….AKA …The Great Shift…he invites your direct correspondence.
Networking: Organizations, Citizen Iniatives, and Projects
Membership
[definition coming soon]
Consultants and Other Volunteer Contributors
Many members of the community at large also contribute time and expertise to helping Sustainable Tucson, either as consultants, advisors, or otherwise donating their skills. We thank you all.
