Crestone Visitors Guide 2003 > crestonevisit.com

As Crestone has continued to grow, community members are asking hard questions about how they can attain greater sustainability and self reliance in a variety of arenas. Concerns about water and land conservation, preservation of the natural beauty and the small village-like atmosphere of our community, local food production, and a more sustainable local economy are all issues we face. Even defining sustainability isn’t easy. Ask anyone what it means and you’ll get a slightly different version every time.
Jeffrey Hollender, founder of Seventh Generation Products, wrote one of the better definitions of sustainability I have found. “At its core, sustainability is the theoretical ability to exist in perpetuity. A sustainable endeavor operates for the long haul. Its activities do not result in the eventual demise of the individual systems upon which the whole system depends for survival. A sustainable enterprise becomes one in which vigilant respect is paid to its environmental and human resources, and all activities are structured in such a way as to enrich these elements.”
Given the above definition, what are we doing in Crestone that is moving us toward greater sustainability? In the fall of 2002, the Council for Sustainability and Self Reliance was formed with its mission to develop and implement a community-wide working model that embraces and actualizes the ideas, means and methods for a sustainable, re-generative and self-sufficient community that has respect for all life. One of the primary purposes of the council is to help educate and guide the community toward greater sustainability.
As a result of its efforts the Sustainable Food Guild was created to coordinate local growers and CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture), increase local food production and interface on a consistent basis with a local farmer’s market. Currently, the farmer’s market will be held on Saturdays in the Shambala open space in downtown Crestone, beginning in May and continuing over the summer. Additionally, the council published a sustainability survey that was sent to all Crestone boxholders. Preliminary results demonstrate that the majority of respondents want to see more concrete steps taken to create a more sustainable future for the community. The comprehensive survey results will be published in May 2003.
There are plans in the works for a potential Eco-Industrial/ Agricultural Park. An Eco-Park is a new economic way of functioning and doing business. It is a self-sustaining, commercial community where there is zero waste, minimal impact on the environment and an atmosphere of businesses working cooperatively to serve the community. This is a model where the waste of one business is the resource for another, where negative environmental impacts are transformed into useful things. The end result is zero emissions.
An Eco-Park is about new possibilities that fit with our community’s values of preserving our eco-systems, our small, village way of life, selective growth, and encouragement of ecological sustainability. An eco-park is a doorway into new possibilities and ways of thinking that could create a sustainable economy for a lifetime, while creating jobs and goods that serve the community.
Although we may be in the infancy of our sustainability efforts, the last year has shown that we are making clear strides in that direction at every level. New community members as well as old are committed to seeing that we shift in the direction of sustainability. As individuals, we find ways in which we can do our part, whether that is driving a solar car, turning off lights, car pooling to Alamosa, sharing a garden with a neighbor, supporting local businesses and agriculture, building “greener” houses, conserving water, or educating ourselves about how we can have even greater self reliance. Sustainability is really about heart, and that’s something we Crestonians have an abundance of.
Want to know more about sustainability here in Crestone? Call 256-4548.