Go Green Expo

For Thunder Bay to become greener, communities need to work together, said the chair of the Go Green Expo.

EarthWise and the City of Thunder Bay announced the first green exhibition scheduled for Sept. 10 to 12. More than 40 booth signed up to show participants how to live and work more environmentally friendly. General admission is free but an additional cost is required for the workshops and seeing guest speaker Gill Deacon.

Ruth Cook, chair of the Go Green Expo Planning Committee, said communities find their own ways to respect the environment.

"I really think (the city) is ready (to go green)," Cook said. "Everywhere I go I see the momentum building. Many major institutions are becoming more sustainable and are reducing their greenhouse gases. There is a lot more waste reduction and I think the community at large, small business and individuals are ready."

Cook said she hopes the expo helps people find ways to adopt green initiatives that affordable and simple.

Cook, her husband and a friend attended a conference in Grand Marais, Minn. last June. What she saw at the expo excited her, she said. Cook and her friend started to plan how to bring the conference to Thunder Bay in August.

"It was the community coming together to find ways to become sustainable that impressed me," Cook said. "It was a truly a community effort pulling this together. They were building bio-energy plants; people who were converting their home heating systems and people building these rain gardens."

Cook said one day she would like to see well-insulated homes, clothes on clotheslines, vegetable plots, chemical free lawns, people using public transit and kids walking to school.

The event is expected to cost about $5,000 to cover the cost of the renting the fairgrounds as well as compensating the guest speakers. Coun. Rebecca Johnson said she didn’t know how much the city plans to contribute to the expo.

However, Johnson said there is no question that communities in Thunder Bay are finding ways to become greener.

"The City of Thunder Bay is very interested in the clean, green and beautiful," Johnson said. "It all ties in and when we look at other communities, Thunder Bay is ahead of them. It is encouraging because we want to be there."

Some older homes in Thunder Bay that have poor insulation require a lot of heat to keep the house warm. Johnson said there is always going to be fixed costs for heating and utilities and no home is going to be off the grid.

Johnson said the green initiatives are coming to fruition and lowering costs for utilities is a long-term goal.

"I feel this is the way of the future," she said. "We as a community have to start looking at what is happening around the world."