The goal of this project is to develop a sustainability action plan for the Village of DeForest. The current population of DeForest is around 11,000 people but it has been growing in recent years. With a larger population, the village has more needs for real estate, energy, water, and waste management. It is extremely important to make the village more sustainable for the residents, and for future generations. There are many areas that sustainability can improve including but not limited to environmental protection, economic benefits, social equity, and resource efficiency. We decided to primarily focus on three areas where sustainability can be improved: energy, water, and waste.
Our sponsor wants to generate a plan that is realistic for the village of DeForest with specific actions in each of the three areas we are focusing on. To begin our research we were given the previous sustainability plans for DeForest as well as previous projects for other cities in Wisconsin. For our project specifically, we are restrained by the geography of DeForest as well as a lower budget. In our final deliverable we wanted to provide solutions that are task oriented, and reasonable for this application. We recognized that it can be difficult to implement costly solutions, or time-intensive solutions. Our final deliverable for our project sponsor includes a sustainability action plan, a brochure discussing information surrounding energy efficiency, and a design for magnets that can be distributed to the community with information regarding waste efficiency.
Contact: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu