2005
Members submitted energy saving tips to the local newspaper and one member, Dick Rothschild, started a monthly column entitled “Thinking Green.”

2006
Members arranged showings of the films “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Who Killed the Electric Car” at the public library. Both were well attended.

Members also attended the MCAN conference on global warming at MIT.

2007
Members took part in the “Windmill to Windmill Bicycle Ride” in Hull as part of “step it up 2007.”
Members offered assistance to the town’s Alternative Energy Committee who were looking into possible sites for wind turbines in Duxbury.

Members took part in the Earth day celebration at First Parish Church.

We successfully helped over 200 families reduce their junk mail by taking part in the “Stop Junk Mail” program offered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

Members manned a table at town meeting handing out energy saving material.

We participated in the annual Fourth of July Parade with hybrid cars and bicycles and handed out energy saving literature.


2008
We helped convince Selectmen and citizens by speaking at several meetings of the value of a “Save As You Throw” program.This program was enacted and currently saves Duxbury approximately $20,000 per month or $240,000 a year.In addition the program has reduced the annual sticker fee for use of the recycling station.

We took part in the annual Fourth of July parade which used the theme of “Our American Heroes”.   We selected as our hero Rachael Carson.Her book, Silent Spring, was inspired by the number of birds killed in Duxbury due to DDT use in the 1960’s.

Thanks to Duxbury citizens, we raised $22,000 for the New England Wind Fund Solar Challenge. As a result, the Town  received a solar array and accompanying educational software. These were installed at the Chandler School in June 2009.   This software will be integrated system-wide in science and math curricula while also educating students in PC technology. 


We organized a “sell out” presentation called “Sea Change” by world renowned environmentalist, Roger Payne and his wife Lisa Harrow.   The event also included an environmental fair.

Some members participated in a “Project 350” action on the 350th day of 2008 by ringing church bells 350 times.This world- wide movement staged events like this to raise awareness of the need to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to 350 ppm (particles per million).Rates much higher than this would make our planet unsustainable.

In late 2008, Massachusetts began a three-year trial of a public bus service (GATRA) to run from Independence mall through Duxbury to Marshfield.  A team of our members actively encouraged ridership through posting bus information around town and handing out schedules at the train station and “Foodies”. 

Another team worked with the town’s Agricultural Commission to find land and water for community vegetable gardens in Duxbury.

Sustainable Duxbury made available for members the use of a power-cost monitor and kill-A-Watt-meter. This kit assisted members in reducing their home energy consumption. Members also had access through Sustainable South Shore to a thermal imaging camera that will help homeowners reduce wasted energy/heat in their homes.   

In celebration of Earth day 2009 a team of members wanted to bring attention to the number of plastic bags we use and have in our society today. They gathered information on plastic bags and collected all the bags that were put into the recycling area at the recycling station over a five day period. Their plan was to tie the bags together and display them at some visible place in town. As soon as the collecting started it was obvious that tying them together was out of the question. Members collected an estimated 24,150 bags of all sorts and tying them together would have resulted in a chain of bags over five miles long. The bags were gathered at the beach and the recycling station for a photo and information on reusable bags was handed out at both locations. The event was a huge success in pointing out how many bags the average Duxbury home uses in a week.

During the summer crews from NEXAMP and local electrician Orie Fontaine began installing the 2.4 KW solar panel array at the Chandler school. The panels are located in the court yard where they may easily viewed. The panels were activated in August. A "Ribbon Cutting" ceremony is planned for September 2009.

Sustainable Duxbury took part in the annual 4th of July parade for the third time. This year the theme for the parade was "Celebrating our American Heritage" and our float displayed a Duxbury home complete with solar panels, a windmill, and a garden. The float was preceded by a banner that said "Creating a Greener Heritage for the future. along with the usual candy thrown to spectators we gave away roughly 200 reusable shopping bags donated by local markets: Foodies, Stop and Shop, and Hannifords.  The float team was headed up by Emily Averna, our youngest member who was a sophomore at American University in St Louis in the fall. It won a fourth place ribbon.

Fall 2009

The solar panels at Chandler school were officially presented to the town at a ceremony in September attended by Members of Sustainable Duxbury, town and school officials. Ten High School and Middle School teachers attended a day long in-service training program run by the soft ware provider, Heliotronics. This software was integrated into the science and Math curricula in grades 5-12.

On October 24 we were able to get several other churches, Pilgrim Church and St. Johns Church, to join us in ringing the church bells 350 times at 3:50 pm as part of a global day of awareness. This day was observed world wide and was crucial in getting the number 350 entered into the proceedings at the United Nations conference on Global warming held in December. Scientists world wide now believe that to preserve life on this planet as we know it we need to bring the concentration of CO2 back down to 35ppm. It is presently at 378ppm and climbing.

On November 1 Sustainable Duxbury hosted National Geographic photographer, Brian Skerry, who gave a talk before hundreds of people at First Parish Church. Brian is a world class underwater photographer and his talk was entitled "Crucial Waters: Reporting On The World's  Oceans." The talk was followed by a book signing session and environmental fair in the church hall. Many thanks to Judi & Terry Vose for bringing Brian to Duxbury.

October marked the fourth birthday of Sustainable Duxbury and we celebrated the event with a party at the home of Jim and Donna Savicki.

In April Sustainable Duxbury, as part of its anti-plastic campaign, presented members of the School Committee and Board of Selectmen with green reusable stainless steel water bottles that say "Dux Water" on the side. We asked that they use these water bottles at all future televised meetings so that viewers would not see them using commercial plastic water bottles that are so bad for our environment. They were very receptive to the idea but the selectmen needed to be reminded by an editorial in the Duxbury Reporter in September, entitled "What happened to the bottles?"

On June 26, we were part of a national event called "Hands Across The Sand" when over 200 people gathered on Duxbury beach to hold hands and draw a virtual line in the sand against off-shore drilling. This event was one of hundreds staged simultaneously across the country coordinated by 350.org.

In September we worked on the Island Creek Oyster Festival. A team consisting of Jim Savicki, Mike Wilson, Judi & Terry Vose worked with The Island Creek Oyster Co. for two years helping to green up their annual festival. This "Green Team" has with the help of Island Creek turned the festival into a model for other such events. At this year's festival, which was attended by over 3,000 people, all cups, plates and flatware were compostable. No prepackaged food was sold and all food eaten was cooked at the festival. No bottled water was available at the festival but people could get water "Straight from Duxbury" at several hydration stations. A team of over 50 volunteers helped with composting and single stream operations. For the second year all oyster shells (approx 40,000) were sent to the Jackson Estuary project in NH to help reclaim oyster beds in that state.
 
In October we participated in the "10/10/10 Green World Wide Work Day" by donating and helping to plant four trees at the newly reopened Tarklin Community Center. This day is meant to say to politicians, "we are getting to work to save the environment—how about you?". Again, in conjunction with 350.org.