Over the past 20 years, the Chatham Environmental Forum (CEF) has addressed complex issues, such as air quality in the Savannah area and its potential impact on community cancer rates, and the long term protection of the Floridan aquifer as the area’s primary drinking water source. For each issue undertaken by the CEF, the final analysis has been a consensus product based on the best available science with recommended solutions that all sectors within the community could support.
JOiN Plan
Download the entire JOiN Plan [PDF]
In October 2007, The Board of Commissioners of Chatham County passed a resolution calling for Chatham County to become the “Greenest County in Georgia.” The resolution requested the Chatham Environmental Forum (the Forum) take on the challenge of developing a county-wide plan for achieving the stated goal.
The Forum and its members began the plan development process with a day-long retreat facilitated by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). During this retreat, Forum members, along with other interested County residents, identified, discussed, and prioritized the most pressing environmental issues facing the County. Coming out of this facilitation were the top priority areas to be included in the first edition of the plan to make Chatham the “Greenest County in Georgia” and seven topic committees were formed:
- Green Space / Land Use
- Energy
- Transportation
- Climate Change
- Creative Infrastructure
- Water Management
- Solid Waste
For more than six months, many of these committees met on a weekly basis developing short, mid and long term goals and objectives for each of the environmental priorities. The JoIN Plan, the result of this effort, was published in early February 2009 and adopted by Chatham County Commission on February 29, 2009.
The Forum considers the Plan to be a living document, to be continually updated and refined to achieve the County’s stated goal of becoming the “greenest county”in Georgia. In an effort to modernize the Plan each committee meets periodically to amend their respective topic as necessary. Any interested citizen of Chatham County can contribute to this process by contacting the Forum and engaging a committee.