Tyler, Texas emerges as a city that is leading the East Texas area in environmentalism.
In order to help the Tyler community live more sustainably, the City of Tyler along with Keep Tyler Beautiful and the Texas Conservation Alliance hosts an annual Living Green: A Sustainability Symposium each year. The first symposium was held in 2009.
On Saturday, September 11, 2010, the 2nd Annual Living Green: A Sustainability Symposium was held at the Harvey Convention Center. The Mayor of Tyler Barbara Bass provided opening remarks and also announced that Tyler is now a designated member of Tree City USA. In 2007, the City of Tyler adopted the Tyler 21 Plan which included the goal of becoming a Tree City USA member. As a member of The Arbor Foundation’s Tree City USA program, Tyler joins other cities such as Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and New Braunfels, and is recognized as being a greener community.
In honor of the new Tree City USA designation, free trees were given to each visitor of the symposium. The Wright Tree Farm of Edom, Texas donated beautiful varieties of trees such as Bur Oak, Live Oak, Shumard Red Oak and Elm.
Throughout the day, many speakers presented on topics such as recycling, clean living with natural gas, composting, building with green methods, sustainable landscaping and how to lower your energy bill.
There were also many exhibitors present to offer information, demonstrations, products and services to help people live more sustainably. Some of the many exhibits included information on organic gardening, composting and compost bins, earth friendly candles and body care products, green diapers, and energy saving building methods such as solar water heating panels, energy efficient windows and insulation. Artemis in the City, LLC was an exhibitor at the event to highlight eating sustainably and the affect food choices have on health and the environment.
If you missed the symposium this year, please don’t wait until next year to learn to recycle, conserve energy, reduce the use of environmentally harmful chemicals and pesticides, start a compost or choose sustainable products. Each day, the choices that you make affect all aspects of the health of our planet.
It is very exciting to see that the green movement is growing in East Texas. The City of Tyler is setting an example that hopefully more area cities will want to follow.
