Over a period of roundtable "world cafe" discussions, participants at the Storm the Palace table wrote the following summary ideas on a flip chart or post-it to the idea wall - each idea is being posted to the "Community Forums: Environment" on REALNEO focused on this category... read on:

Environment

• Triple bottom line
• Sustainable design education: misconceptions
• Sustainable: Doesn’t = more expensive
• Link into university programs: practical application
• Need to reach current/active businesses, engineers, designers
• Environmental preconceptions
• Quality of life versus image
• Fantastic stuff going on ; people out of the loop
• Quality of Life vs. Image
• Fantastic stuff going on, people out of the loop-make aware!
• Regional Sustainability vs International
• Great Lakes vs Globalization
• Water and Politics
• True Market Costs Impact - Economics, Sustainability
• The price of water
• Govt Subsidy
• Downtown Ramifications of our actions
• We’re reactionary to Eco-Energy issues
• How can we get ahead of the curve?
• Challenge the status quo
• Leaders need to get best practices from the outside region
• Why do Transplants stay.. how does this impact new ideas
• Fishing/ Access/ Health is in tops of G.L. Region
• Wealth of Soil..
• Improve family farm economics
• MI/ traverse city preserving unique land for local farms – preserving unique land for local farms.. preserving with easements from HUD
• Institute policy to pay for long term cost like run-off
• How can our region work together on these issues
• Culture of entrepreneurship and innovation
• Transformation happens when people take action
• Can we make our lake and soil a competitive asset
• Environment and Attitude of Health
• Top Projects:
• Land conservancy mergers
• Natl Park Land and Farm preservation
• Wind Energy: production and manufacturing