The mission statement of Sustainable Duxbury is:

  To encourage Duxbury to become more Sustainable by informing ourselves and the community about practical energy saving measures, adopting them ourselves, facilitating their use by others and supporting town, state and federal energy independence initiatives.

  Our group was formed in the fall of 2006 as a result of meetings with Judeth Van Hamm of Sustainable Hull as part of an effort to coordinate the many grassroots initiatives on the South Shore that sprang up as a result of the movie, An Inconvenient Truth.   This coordination led to the formation of Sustainable South Shore, the parent organization of Sustainable Duxbury.   Sustainable South Shore and Sustainable Duxbury are both members of the Massachusetts Conservation Action Network.

  Sustainable Duxbury now has over 50 members on its (electronic) mailing list and if you want to be included, just drop a note to Jim Savicki at jsavicki@comcast.net.   Meetings are usually the first Monday of the month at 7:30 in the Duxbury Senior Center.   Over the past year and a half the members have been involved in many activities in an attempt to fulfill our mission statement.   Many members find that simply attending a monthly meeting provides much more information on the latest products, initiatives and rebate programs that individuals can take advantage of to reduce the carbon foot prints and save money on energy.

  Some of our accomplishments during the past fifteen months:

Fall 2006

• Began working with the town’s newly formed Alternative Energy Committee to find ways that Duxbury can reduce energy costs by adopting energy saving technologies, e.g., wind, solar and tidal turbines, to municipal buildings;
• The town has currently applied for a testing program to test six sites to determine the feasibility of locating wind turbines;
• Attended three showings of the movie, An Inconvenient Truth in Duxbury to take part in panel discussions after the movie;
• One of our members started a monthly column in the local paper called Thinking Green.
• Another of our members provided the local paper with eight short articles on tips that people can use to reduce their energy costs and become GREENER.

  Winter 2006-07

• Started working with the public schools by having the principals of the various schools include in their newsletters reminders to parents of the Massachusetts anti-idling laws;
• Began researching bio-diesel programs carried out at other schools in MA as to their application in Duxbury;
• Members took part in the Interfaith Walk for climate Rescue rally in Boston and the “Step It Up 2007” Windmill to Windmill Bicycle ride in Hull; and
• Members attended the Earth Day celebration at First Parish Church in Duxbury and provided free energy saving information to other attendees. 

Spring 2007

• Showed the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? at Duxbury Free Library complete with a presentation of an electric car owned by one of our members                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  
• Members attended the “Awaken the Dreamer” symposium and provided participants with free energy saving information. 

Summer 2007

• Began our “Stop Junk Mail” program at the town Transfer Station. As of September the program has distributed close to 200 Stop Junk Mail packets to townspeople who want to reduce the amount of junk mail they receive.The program will be expanded to other locations in Duxbury later in the fall.
• The committee has been in contact with Victor Leon and his staff who are opening the new supermarket “ Foodies” at Halls Corner. Mr. Leon was very amiable to many suggestions regarding the operation of the new store including purchasing locally grown produce, sale and use of reusable shopping bags, selling a line of CFL bulbs, and installing a bicycle rack outside the store. We will continue this work throughout the fall.

  Fall 2007

• The stop junk mail program was continued and has moved to First Parish and other churches in town. The members of Sustainable Duxbury have now helped over 225 families reduce their junk mail. We will also be setting up our table at Foodies the new grocery store at Halls Corner.
• Members of Sustainable Duxbury were very active in several public hearings held by the selectmen on a proposed Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) system at the newly renamed recycling center. Our efforts at these hearings and a letter writing campaign where crucial in the decision of the selectmen to adopt the new PAYT program.  At the suggestion of Sustainable Duxbury, the program is now called Save-As-You-Throw.                                                     The course "The Low Carbon Diet" was offered through the community evening school and will be offered at First Parish Church starting in April 2008. 
• One of our members, through his efforts with the town's bicycle path committee, applied for and recieved a grant to pay for the purchase and   installation of bicycle racks in many locations throughout the town.

• Sustainable Duxbury has enrolled the town in the New England Wind Fund Community Solar Challenge. We are in the process of signing up 150 households and businesses by April 30. When this is done the town will win a free 2 KW photovoltaic array valued at $25,000 to be installed on a town building, probably a school. To take part in this great program go to www.newenglandwind.org/duxbury.

• As of April 30, 2008 the town has won the free 2KW solar installation offered by The Communitty Solar Challenge and the program was extended by Mass Energy untill June 30, 2008. We ended up with 210 pledges.  GREAT JOB DUXBURY!! Work with Mass energy and the town to choose a site and install the panels  will begin in August. We hope to have the panels up and generating electricty as soon as possible.                                                                                   
  

Summer 2008

• Members and supporters of Sustainable Duxbury marched in the town's July 4 parade (the second oldest July 4 parade in the country).  The theme of the parade was "hats off to our American heroes." Our hero was Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring, published in 1962, launched the contemporary environmental movement. Silent Spring was inspired by the DDT deaths of birds in Duxbury as reported to Ms. Carson by friends who lived in Duxbury and observed the devastion of the bird population caused by the application of the insecticide.                     
  
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• We are also planning a special performance event entitled Sea Change to be held at First Parish Church on Sunday September 14 at 2:00. See the links page for more information on Sea Change.
  

We welcome any and all ideas and your help in carrying out our initiatives to help bring about a truly SUSTAINABLE DUXBURY.

Jim Savicki and Judi Vose
Co-Chairs, Sustainable Duxbury