Imagine looking over Asheville’s city center to see a sea of green rooftops and a widely used public transit system consisting of energy efficient buses and bike lanes. Envision every Asheville neighborhood with their own Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and cooperatively owned education and healthcare centers to provide affordable services to community members. Imagine if children learned about rainwater catchments by participating in demonstration projects at their schools. Envision a city where all of the organizations and agencies working on sustainability-related issues met regularly, aligned their agendas and worked collaboratively to support a vibrant, regenerative city that thrives through an interdependent relationship with the natural world.

These are only a smattering of the potential projects that Asheville citizens identified at the Ashevillage Town Meeting held on June 20 at Jubilee as a part of the first annual Ashevillage Building Convergence (ABC). Hosted by the Ashevillage Institute, Jubilee Earth team and Asheville’s Sustainability Advisory Committee for Energy and the Environment (SACEE), the Ashevillage Town Meeting brought together over 150 citizens to generate projects aligned with Asheville’s vision of sustainability. The town meeting was a follow-up to a visioning session hosted by environmental activist Starhawk and ABC initiator Janell Kapoor in September 2006, where over 400 citizens gathered to share their hopes and aspirations for Asheville. In fact, there’ve been a number of visioning sessions in the city in the last two and a half years: seven of them, according to Jim Barton of Smith Mills Creek Institute. The Ashevillage Town Meeting set out to build upon these existing visions and mobilize citizens to move into action through dialogue and action planning.

The day began with words of wisdom and inspiration from Councilwoman Robin Cape, architect Mark Lakeman of City Repair in Portland, Oregon, and Starhawk. Environmentalist Julia Butterfly Hill’s plenary talk, entitled “It Takes All of Us,” urged people to break down the barriers that create an “us versus them” dynamic. She spoke of the difference between talking and communing, and reminded the group that we’re all a part of the interconnected whole; by getting in touch with the part of our self that recognizes and honors this connection, we can open up to our unique gifts and passions that can truly help our community meet its needs.

This kind of soul-inspired action that emerges from a deep sense of self and purpose was the underlying theme of the Ashevillage Town Meeting. While activism that is based in “shoulds,” guilt or obligations can leave us feeling ungrounded, exhausted and resentful, soul-inspired activism energizes and connects us to ourselves and each other, bringing us closer to making hopes and dreams for a sustainable city a reality. In preparation for the afternoon action planning sessions, participants were encouraged to connect deeply with themselves, asking, “What aspect of sustainability is my heart really drawn to today?” and “How does my soul wish to contribute to the creation of a vibrant, alive, regenerative Asheville?” These community conversations were facilitated by local citizens and covered a variety of sustainability topics, including food, shelter, energy, ecology and land, air and water, economics, transportation, health and well-being, communication, governance and policy, art and culture, and sustainability 101.

By the end of the day, participants identified and fleshed out over 15 sustainability action projects. Projects ranged from the organization of a citizen transit group (see Yahoo! group Asheville Transit) to a water catchment demonstration project at Asheville Middle School. The health and well-being group suggested the development of a curriculum on “Harvesting Knowledge: From Soul to Soil,” and the energy group opted to approach Progress Energy about holding a “smallest footprint” energy consumption contest between neighborhoods, businesses and schools. The arts and culture group created a public parade/spectacle in attempts to get “350 parts per million” in the public’s conscience, which they performed on Wall Street and then again at Pritchard Park later that day. The sense of cohesion was palpable as groups from all walks of life gathered along Wall Street and inside Jubilee for almost four hours. Alexei Wood, the arts and culture community conversation group facilitator, noted, “What started as a group of strangers melded into a solid force that transcended embarrassment and had instant camaraderie to form a tight community. It was empowering.”

In addition to larger scale projects, participants also committed to taking one action toward sustainability in their personal lives. One woman committed to planting medicinal plants, while a number of people said they were going to spend more time in nature, learn more about alternative energy, and find ways to integrate the day’s conversations into their work.

By the end of the day, it was clear that not only was the creation of a regenerative culture in Asheville well underway, but also that the possibilities for change through joy, love, compassion and community cohesion abounded. With the support and involvement of citizens and organizations alike, the seeds planted at the Town Meeting have the potential to grow into beautiful reflections of the people who tend them. For these seeds to grow, however, it certainly will “take all of us.” As Mark Lakeman stated earlier that day, “Place-making at its best is a reflection of our participation.”

If you weren’t able to attend the Ashevillage Town Meeting, there are still plenty of ways to get involved! A full list of projects/lead contact people and presentations can be found on the Ashevillage website at www.ashevillage.wordpress.com. To quote the Portland-based architect again, “Think action to vision as well as vision to action. You don’t have to wait for a plan to begin. When you go home today, do something.”

For more information, contact Ashevillage Institute at abc@ashevillage.org or via phone at 828-279-1955.

Ashevillage?

The Ashevillage Town Meeting was the second of three main events within the Ashevillage Building Convergence, a three-day, city-wide collaboration and celebration of sustainability for the city, the land and the people of Asheville held at the beginning of the summer. On Action Saturday, citizens rolled up their shirt sleeves to participate in 14 hands-on sustainability projects around the city, including installing a green roof and rainwater catchment system at Isaac Dickson Elementary, building a cob tool shed at Vance Elementary, removing invasive plants and trash from the French Broad River, constructing a living willow structure at the YWCA, and working with youth to weatherize homes and churches on Burton Street.

Kristin Peppel’s work helps to connect people with each other and the places that nourish them. She co-created and facilitated the Ashevillage Town Meeting and is currently affiliated with the Ashevillage Institute. Kristin is a private consultant in conservation planning and community involvement and is studying ecopsychology at Naropa University.

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