The holiday season is upon us. Yes, that wonderful time of year largely reserved for togetherness and thanksgiving, when we look back on the past year with the ones we love and tell them how much we appreciate their presence in our lives.
While that’s certainly true (in spirit, at least), we’d be naïve not to point out the obvious: the holiday season is also a time filled with oodles of cookies and piles of presents, when all the will power we’ve exhibited throughout the course of the year typically gets thrown by the wayside in favor of excess and shameless indulgence.
What better time to begin a meaningful community dialogue on the importance of sustainability.
The first meeting to decide the fate of the newly proposed Peconic Institute, which would be housed on the Southampton campus of Stony Brook University, was held last week. And we’re pleased to see that it garnered a generous turnout of community members and local legislators, all passionate about the opportunity to create a not-for-profit institute geared toward fostering sustainable habits here on the East End.
According to Assemblyman Fred Thiele — who has worked to push the idea for a sustainability center on the campus along with Senator Ken LaValle — the proposed institute would foster research, education, leadership development and policy development.
We can’t think of a better, or more appropriate use for the unoccupied buildings on that campus. We’re living in a time when basic necessities are packaged and sold (i.e. plastic water bottles) and multitudes of single-passenger vehicles litter our roadways (polluting our air, not to mention our waterways). These wasteful practices — essentially feeding our collective desire for ease and efficiency — are superfluous and unnecessary.
Look, we’re not saying ease and efficiency are bad — we have iPhones, too — but we need to learn to be considerate of the consequences of our daily actions. (Do you know where that plastic water bottle goes after you toss it in the trash?) And we’re happy to know that the Peconic Institute aims to push that initiative.
At this point, it’s imperative that all parties work together to create a strong outline for the future of the institute. Perhaps this goes without saying, but we’d very much like for it, too, to be sustainable.
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