Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism program
CHARLOTTE — Sustainability in Charlotte takes shape with familiar faces and small, everyday choices. John Howe, coordinator of Sustainable Charlotte’s steering committee, works to promote low-carbon lifestyles and community education. In an interview with the Community News Service, Howe reflected on his path to sustainability work, the importance of local action in a small town and how public service, art and environmental stewardship come together to make a change.
Q. How did you first get involved with the organization?
A. I’ve known many of the members for a long time. I’ve known about how they’ve consciously made lifestyle changes to reduce their own carbon footprint, and I began to make changes in my own life.
Some of these changes include the installation of solar panels, heat pumps, improving the insulation of my house and using electric cars. Solar panels are an easy way for people to make changes.
Charlotte has people that are highly informed. They’re aware of the risk to the planet, and to us locally, from climate change. I think we’re doing pretty well, but we can do much better.
Q. What is your role as the coordinator of the steering committee? What does your position involve?
A. My role is to help coordinate our monthly meetings. Our steering committee is very democratic. I’m not setting the agenda, the committee does, and that’s how we decide what projects we’re going to move forward with.
Q. Why do you think that this local, community-based sustainability work is especially important in a small town like Charlotte?
A. When we are out in public doing a project, people see that we’re their neighbors and that we’re concerned about it. This helps people who also identify with this but haven’t really known how to start. It builds more support for people making those changes in their own life.
If you have solar panels, it also helps make heat pumps even more affordable. Over the long term, the payoff is over years, and that’s very much the ethos of Sustainable Charlotte. We’re supporting people to make these long term investments for sustainability, because it’s not a quick fix, and people need some resources to get there.
Q. How has your time serving as an EMT on the Charlotte Rescue helped shape your relationship with the community?
A. At that time in my life, I hadn’t done any kind of public service, and I really admired both my parents. My father served in the U.S. Army in World War II, and my mother was also very involved with her community. Due to this, I really felt like I needed to step up, too.
It’s a continuation of a sense of civic duty to serve. It’s one thing to be in a community and just be on the receiving end of things, and it’s another thing to participate in volunteer service as a strong component to Charlotte. I could see it in my fellow citizens who were in fire and rescue. I can see it on the boards.
Q. How does your love for spending time outdoors influence your own environmental values?
A. I’m outside every day. I’m walking no matter what, and usually I’m picking up cans on the side of the road.
I paint landscapes. When I’m out, I’m often just looking at how the world works — how the light falls on things at different times of day, how the atmosphere changes, the warmth of sunlight at sunset and sunrise. That’s just the feel of it. I think everyone experiences it, and so many people in Charlotte are deeply attached to the landscape for that reason.
Q. What advice would you give to community members on how they can take similar steps to lessen their impact?
A. One of the best resources is to contact Efficiency Vermont and get an assessment of your house. They can come to your house and help you prioritize which kinds of changes will have the biggest impact. Attic and basement insulation makes a huge difference as well. This would be a reasonable place to start.
Q. How does this sacred experience with the environment fit in for you with your work?
A. One can’t live in this world and not know that it’s all threatened right now — that the carbon in the atmosphere could be leading us towards a tipping point.
On one level, I’m charmed by the environment. At another level, perhaps more intellectual, I realize it’s all being threatened by us and that we all have a responsibility. We can’t rely entirely on the government to make these changes, and I’ve been inspired by working with my colleagues on Sustainable Charlotte.