AIR DATE APRIL 28, 2022

Title: Sustainability

Meet organizations and government departments creating sustainable solutions for a greener generation.

Guests and Locations

Orange County Administrator’s Office, Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer – Jeff Benavides

Orange County Planning, Environmental and Development Services Department, Sustainability Programs Manager – Lori Forsman

Regenerative Designs / Orlando Permaculture, Founder / Co-Director – Caitlin Fogarty

Living Sustainably in Orange County and Beyond

Becoming a sustainable country is a journey. Through new technology and collaboration, we can reach our shared goals of a healthier community, clean energy, robust transportation, cleaner air, less waste, and more innovation to achieve sustainability.

Join me as I take notes from Jeff Benavides and Lori Forsman, who have their hands full of sustainability efforts in Orange County. I also spoke with Caitlin Fogarty, founder of Regenerative Designs, to shed light on how you can practice sustainability in your own home, no matter where you are.

What Is Sustainability?

In essence, sustainability means making an effort to leave the world how we found it—minimizing our impact and creating a more regenerative way of living. Even something as simple as growing your own food is a sustainable practice you can adopt into your lifestyle.

“Sustainability as a word, it’s become somewhat complicated for people to define. And I like to say that it’s everything but nothing at the same time, ’cause we all have to work together to achieve what we call these 17 sustainable development goals that are globally accepted and adopted. From zero hunger to zero poverty, to sustainable cities,” explains Jeff.

Caitlin chimes in, “This whole movement [sustainability] is really to combat that to say we really have so much power, we can make a big difference locally with these local solutions, that we come together as a community, and we create.”

You can find 2030 Orange County Government Sustainable Operations & Resilience Action Plan and a specific overview of each sustainable development goal online.

Resources to Help You Live Sustainably in Orange County

“Some of our most successful programs are in our water conservation divisions, as well as our water utilities divisions, where we have very aggressive award-winning programs, especially our neighborhoods program, where we go out and actually do audits and inspections on how residents can save water at home through their irrigation, Florida friendly landscaping, as well as replacing showers and toilets, et cetera, and showing them and educating them about, you know, there’s money available to replace some of these things in their homes,” Jeff says.

Lori continues, “We have a program through community action right now, serving low-income seniors, doing HVAC air conditioning replacements, and making a lot of weatherization improvements, including hybrid water heaters.”

You can also participate in Orange County’s tree planting program and their solar co-op program. The tree program allows you to adopt a tree, and the solar co-op will enable you to receive financial kickbacks from sharing solar power with your community.

If gardening is your thing, then Regenerative Designs can help you do it in a sustainable manner. Caitlin explains, “We try to teach people how to build mutually beneficial relationships between the natural world and the human-built environment. And so that can look like us helping people design and install food forests, or native landscaping, or just different types of edible gardens.”

The Little Things Add Up

“We all have a part to play. If the county is only 2% of the region, and every single person is like another percentage of the 98%, we all have to do our part to have a bigger impact on the improvement of our world,” says Lori.

Lori and Jeff share ideas about how you can make your lifestyle more sustainable:

• Buy LED light bulbs
• Utilize rideshare
• Increase your recycling
• Grow your own garden
• Donate, don’t throw away
• Use ENERGY STAR appliances
• Use solar panels on your house
• Start a community garden
• Use bar shampoo and conditioner
• When the time comes, opt for an electric vehicle
• Minimize packaging or bags at the grocery store

Take advantage of the resources and free programs available in Orange County. A little positive change on an individual level goes a long way in uplifting the environmental health of our entire world.