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San Miguel Sustentable- Sustainable San Miguel Creating a Green Economy for San Miguel de Allende By Ben-Zion Ptashnik Retired State Senator, Vermont Draft Oct 22 As we watch the world-wide financial crisis, and gaze into the abyss of a deep world-wide recession, we must ask ourselves “what does the future hold for San Miguel as a community”, and “how can we keep this beautiful town economically sustainable and viable?” The good news is that from November 9th to 15th 2008, Sustainable San Miguel will hold its first International Conference and Expo called San Miguel Sustentable- The Global Challenge. At this conference, to be held at the Instituto Allende, speakers from around the world and Mexico will address issues such as global warming, water conservation, sustainable development, recycling and renewable energy. Workshops will be held at the Real de Minas Hotel which focus on training architects and builders, as well as private individuals, how to incorporate solar technologies into home designs, and how to use various other green technologies and building materials. A group of trainers is coming from a model ecological town in Brazil to give five days of workshops. Simultaneously there will be exhibits and displays in the Central Plaza , right in front of the Paroquia, of adobe homes, wind generators, rain-water harvesting equipment, solar panels, and various other ecological products and technologies. The organizers of this week-long event expect the San Miguel Sustentable Conference /Expo to evolve into a permanent ongoing program that brings green economic development, sustainability, and ecological studies to San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel Sustentable is a diverse group of private citizens, businesspeople, environmentalists and public officials, who have been meeting over the past eight months to chart a course towards economic and ecological sustainability for San Miguel. Our focus has been water conservation, recycling, and alternative/ renewable energy resources such as solar power and wind. And our goal is also to attract and/or create opportunities for ecological entrepreneurship and jobs creation in the rapidly growing field of green technology. The work of this group could not have come at a better time. Our goal and dream is to start the process of turning San Miguel into a model sustainable, ecological city where resources such as waterways and green zones are protected and enhanced, and where solar power and rain-harvesting are embraced at the individual and public level. We envision our town as a Latin American center for conferencing and educational programs in sustainable economics, ecology, and resource management. We dream of a downtown and Paroquia lit up at night by photovoltaic solar panels and energy-saving light bulbs. We envision new developments having mandatory rain-water harvesting. And we dream of turning San Miguel into a destination point for Mexicans to come buy products that support a clean environment; recycled products, water saving devices, low-flush toilets, wind generators, etc; It is no secret that our local economy has been fueled by, and has heavily relied on tourism and the second-home industry. Tens of thousands of workers- both native San Miguelanos and recent arrivals- have come to depend on the jobs created in these industries. Now many of these jobs are threatened, and many businesses will surely suffer. So we must plan for how our town will thrive in the face of the world-changing economic downturn that will surely reduce tourism and homebuilding in San Miguel. We must be proactive and create alternative economic opportunities for our workers, and we must seek new ways to attract tourism, so that the town’s restaurants, hotels and other tourism-dependent enterprises remain viable. Green economic development and entrepreneurship is one possible solution- which has been successfully employed in other parts of the globe- and as described in the vision above. By promoting and attracting green entrepreneurship, while simultaneously working towards ecological sustainability for the town, we could “walk the talk” of a “Sustainable and Green San Miguel”. We could strategically focus on the city’s water supply and energy resources, while planning for economic diversity and enhancement of tourism with ecology, creativity and sustainability foremost in our minds. We could focus our city’s future growth on businesses that sell products made from recycled materials, or products that use solar and wind energy, and products that filter, conserve or harvest water. In essence we are promoting a different way to attract businesses and “shoppers” to San Miguel. And we can create a teaching/learning environment in San Miguel that could attract thousands of people to San Miguel to participate in environmental conferences and workshops, and training in jobs related to green industry. Just as we attract tourist dollars with poetry or writer’s conferences, we can fill our hotels with conferees and students who come to San Miguel to meet about how to combat global warming, or who come for a training program that teaches them how to design and install solar systems and wind generators. What better place than San Miguel is there anywhere in Mexico to accomplish such a green utopian economic dream? The San Miguel citizen group, who developed the San Miguel Sustentable concept truly believes that San Miguel has an incredibly diverse and sophisticated population. We know this town has the critical mass of human resources; forward-thinking individuals, savvy educators, retired entrepreneurs, architects, artists, writers and intellectuals, who can embrace the dream of a Sustainable San Miguel, and move it forward with a vital energy, a concentration that could not easily be duplicated anywhere else in Mexico. Carpe Diem.
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