University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
PAE-24: Sustainability Policy Advocacy

The university has been working with the UW System to develop more budgetary flexibility and capital project processes as it relates to energy issues. Campus administration worked with former State of Wisconsin Governor Doyle to re-define the state's "off-the-grid" initiative, which ultimately led to energy conservation funding available for all state buildings. The UWSP Center for Land Use sponsored a Sustainable Communities Public Policy Forum to form a roundtable to get a clearer and statewide sense of what is helping and what is hindering sustainability efforts at the community level and to gather ideas and suggestions on how to enhance such efforts. The five areas of community engagement for sustainability that were used to frame the roundtable discussions are: • modeling sustainability through physical design • cultivating community connections • localizing economic production • mobilizing community funds • mobilizing society using community members’ energy and resources for broader sustainability efforts UWSP staff and professors contributed significantly as committee and subcommittee members of the Stevens Point Eco-municipality, which developed an eco-municipality plan. http://stevenspoint.com/index.aspx?NID=512 Professor Anna Haines is on the City of Stevens Point Plan Commission, which is working on rewriting zoning ordinance. Her goal is to incorporate sustainability concepts into the plan. Lynn Markham, UWSP Land Use Specialist is involved in sustainability policy at the city, county and state levels.