Local leaders put their Green Racine pledge in writing

By Brent Killackey

Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:42 PM CDT

Journal Times

RACINE - Racine County has gone green.

Community leaders launched a environmentally friendly cleaning campaign called Green Racine during a press conference Thursday at Memorial Hall.

Representatives from more than 20 local institutions - including city and county government, public and private schools, businesses, churches and non-profits - signed a pledge to reduce the impact of facilities on the environment and people's health by switching to green-cleaning products and processes.

Such a community-wide green initiative has never been done anywhere else in the country, according to Jeff Neubauer, president of the cleaning and paper product business Kranz Inc. Thursday's press conference was part of green building/green cleaning symposium sponsored by JohnsonDiversey Inc. and Kranz Inc.

The Green Racine program will track annually how many trees were saved, reductions in waste sent to landfills and in greenhouse gas put into the atmosphere as a result of the green initiative, Neubauer said.

"We're on the road to sustainability," Neubauer said.

Racine Mayor Gary Becker, who signed the pledge, said that besides the green-cleaning initiative, the city's environmental efforts include installing the first solar-power system at the City Hall Annex, using grant resources to clean lead from homes, continuing work to clean the beaches and starting to clean the river.

"Our goal there is to see children playing in the river and swimming there someday," Becker said.

Racine County will pilot green-cleaning at the Dennis Kornwolf Racine County Service Center, said County Executive Bill McReynolds. He said it was an appropriate place for the county to start because Kornwolf, a former county executive, was committed to the environment. Green practices also would be used at the jail addition, McReynolds said.

McReynolds, who signed the pledge, said this initiative was a "common-sense thing to do" that carries no additional cost.

With Lake Michigan in the background on an outside patio at Memorial Hall, JohnsonDiversey Chairman S. Curtis Johnson spoke of the importance of environmental stewardship.

"We're reminded of our responsibility to this planet and to the people that will inhabit it long after we're gone," Johnson said.

During World War II, that generation rose to a challenge to their way of life and earned the title of greatest generation, he said.

"Our kids will only call us 'the greatest generation' if we rise to the challenge and become the greenest generation."

The Johnson family of companies - under the leadership of his father Sam Johnson - has made great efforts toward environmental sustainability, Curtis Johnson said.

As part of Tuesday's press conference, a group of students from Walden School received saplings as a symbol of the day's environmental efforts. Walden is working to receive certification from the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Public Instruction as a green school.

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