Twelve years ago, two Lafayette residents founded Sustainable Lafayette with the goal of educating community members to adopt environmentally friendly changes in their daily lives. Steve Richard and Bart Carr believed that a grassroots network of sustainable practices would enhance the quality of life in Lafayette and create a local groundswell to help fight climate change. Online, in the local newspaper, and via our monthly newsletter, individuals shared their personal sustainability efforts while Sustainable Lafayette focused on educational outreach by sponsoring Lafayette’s Earth Day festival, documentary film nights, speaker panels, and other green gatherings.
In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic raged and issues of racial injustice erupted, we were forced to pause our community outreach efforts, and we instead turned inward. Our Board of Directors looked back on what we had accomplished since 2008 and felt incredibly proud. And we also looked ahead and envisioned the role we could take in the future.
The Board considered whether our original mission statement, which described us as “a grassroots non-profit that is working to transform Lafayette into a highly sustainable community that enhances the quality of life for current and future residents” was clear, accurate, and inspiring. We decided to undertake a mission statement refresh.
We wanted to take Steve and Bart’s vision to the next level by being more active and helping Lafayette residents work with communities around the Bay Area to fight climate change. We can support local efforts like MCE Deep Green and regional initiatives to stop fossil fuel expansion around the Bay Area. We decided to use our privilege for good and spotlight how we as individuals can tackle environmental injustice locally and throughout the Bay Area. It seemed like a new mission statement to reflect all that was in order.
We’re nerds … so we analyzed what makes a mission statement great. We brainstormed, wrote and rewrote. We reached out to members of the community and to Sustainable Lafayette Board alumni and asked for their input. We reviewed our goals for the coming year to see what big projects we want to take on and to make sure they would be reflected under a new mission statement. We wanted our revised mission statement to be inclusive and comprehensive and short enough to remember easily and make an impression. We’re happy to announce it here:
We hope you like it! And we look forward to sponsoring more local initiatives that fit this refreshed mission. If you have ideas for new projects that fit, you’re also welcome to come share them with us at a future meeting and take the lead to help us make change in our community and beyond. Contact us today at info@sustainablelafayette.org