Fairfield Sustainability Coordinator engages the community

To be sustainable is to meet the needs of today without preventing future generations from meeting them. Pursuing sustainability in a city’s operation means concurrently addressing and improving environmental, social, and economic health.

Can you envision a vibrant, sustainable, and resilient community? Many communities around Iowa are already moving towards providing their citizens the opportunities to consume locally produced, healthy, fresh food; to live and work in a clean and energy-efficient economy; to take advantage of new and established modes of transportation technologies that advance quality of life; to enjoy easy access to the bounty of nature found in and around their towns; to watch with full hearts the influx of young people bringing innovative ideas and fresh new energy; to work together to support one another and create opportunities for everyone to enjoy a better future.

Fairfield has a history of taking the lead in sustainability and has been the proud host of our own Faith Reeves for the past two years in the role of Sustainability Coordinator. The position has been funded for three years by 54 private community members, MIU, and the City of Fairfield. In this role, Faith pursues funding to support sustainability recommendations. This includes:

– Continually searching for funding opportunities that align with community betterment, housing stock rehabilitation, food system fortification, and optimized waste stream projects.

– Collaborated with The Collective Iowa to write a Solid Waste Alternative Program grant for a food waste compost pilot project, submitted July 1, 2024, and a granter later awarded.

– Leading a team on the application process for an EPA $20 million Environmental Justice Community Change Grant, submitted November 21, 2024. Involved extensive community outreach, partnership building with Sieda and Area 15, and collaboration with city officials and target community members to address housing and environmental justice needs on Fairfield’s west side. The application is still under review.

– Leading a team on the application process for the EPA’s Thriving Communities Grant Maker application, submitted on January 30, 2025. Funding will enhance the city’s capacity to implement energy efficiency projects for local homes if awarded. The application is still under review.

– Currently working on the Iowa Thriving Communities Designation in collaboration with Mayor Connie Boyer, Councilperson Paul Gandy, and Grow Fairfield.

– Leveraged funding from the national Sierra Club to support education, outreach, and community surveys for the EJCCG grant application process.

Additionally, Faith engages the community through events and outreach, forges strategic partnerships to leverage resources, collaborates in establishing the Fairfield Community Garden, and is actively working to collect data to support priority community initiatives.

Fairfield has a history of strong and pioneering community engagement, from the creation of MIU to the development of a trail system, the Cambridge Center to the Sondheim, and most relevantly, the twenty-member Planning Commission that developed the community sustainability plan that became known as the GoGreen plan. We have a community already engaged in a wide range of volunteer efforts that are primed and ready to participate.

As it has been in the past, our community is continuously interested in taking a leadership role to move us toward a more resilient future. Faith provides leadership, facilitation, and coordination for the 25-member volunteer Resilience Action Committee (RAC) in developing actionable, community-centered sustainability recommendations.

Approximately 30 of Fairfield’s Comprehensive Plan initiatives are addressed in the new Resilience Plan (approximately as action plans are still being developed). It addresses six thematic areas: Private Land Stewardship, Building and Energy, FoodWays, Enterprise Solutions and Community Connections, Waste Management, and Land Use and is creating a model for Fairfield’s brilliant, sustainable, resilient future.

Faith can be contacted at: resilientff@gmail.com

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