Edit and produce the monthly email newsletter for the Sierra Club Great Falls Group. Get free training in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. We publish once a month, and editor time commitment is 10 hours a month, usually the week before publication. This is a great way for you to contribute to energy and environmental issues. You get support from other Executive Committee members who help write the stories. Then you enter the text and pictures in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It's a volunteer role. It's exciting to produce an informative and colorful newsletter for the Great Falls Group!
When moving to the Bren Mar community in Fairfax County on the Alexandria border in 2022 I was thrilled for the diverse and growing community I would become part of. It has everything you want in a neighborhood: a county park and community pool, Turkeycock run, walkability to a local brewery, and good neighbors with an office park and quiet established warehouse (Plaza 500) surrounded by condos and townhomes.
Walking home one day I saw a yellow sign posted outside Plaza 500 with a notice of a proposed zoning change. I started researching and found out that the new owner of the property wanted to expand industrial use. This sparked the interest of the community as all signs pointed to plans for a massive data center.
The community began to advocate for itself. We started SaveBrenMar.com, sent letters to elected officials, attended local land use committee meetings where we received a favorable recommendation and got the Planning Commission to oppose the rezoning. We came together, got the attention of the local news, and lived to fight another day. This effort wasn’t over and we continued to engage over the need for data center reforms to protect residents and the environment.
Fast forward to 2024, concerns over data centers are growing, Fairfax County approves a controversial massive data center in Chantilly, and the county committed to enacting data center reforms by July 2024. These developments prompted the developer of Plaza 500 to act quickly and submit a site plan application for a 466,000 sq. ft., 70 ft. tall, data center and electrical substation (to serve as the extension cord for Dominion Energy to power it) less than 260 feet from residents. This proposal is permitted “by-right” meaning that the data center would not need approval by the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors, despite the history of concern over the site.
My community isn’t giving up though! With Fairfax County actively considering new data center protections we believe if the county acts in time these would have to apply to Plaza 500 (and all future data centers in the county).
This provides an opportunity to make our voices heard!! On May 2, 6, and 7 the county will be holding virtual community meetings on the proposed changes. SaveBrenMar.com has resources and our recommendations for data center protections that we ask you to share during those meetings and email to ffx-data-centers@PublicInput.com.
Our Planning Commissioners and Board of Supervisors also need to hear from us! They will be voting on data center changes on June 5 (Planning Commission) and July 16 (Board of Supervisors) and need to know that we want the strongest possible protections!
Without the support of the Sierra Club’s expertise and guidance on data centers we wouldn’t be where we are today. Ready to keep fighting for all of Fairfax County. I hope you will join the Sierra Club of Virginia Chapter’s upcoming May 8 webinar on The Impacts of Unchecked Data Center Expansion, to learn more about the harmful impacts!
Rally Against Unchecked Data Center Expansion
WHEN: Sunday June 2, 12 – 1:00 PM
WHERE: 12098 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA. 10-minute walk from the Reston Town Center Metro stop. DETAILS: Unchecked Data Center Expansion is posing countless threats to Virginia's water access, air quality, energy affordability, and climate progress. Rally in person to call for a
Data Center in Ashburn
Photo credit: Piedmont Environmental Council
policy that protects Virginia's families from unchecked data center expansion
alongside fellow Virginians who believe that no data center is worth risking our economic security, environment, and future. Our state and local leaders need to see a swell of public concern. We deserve new, protective policies:
Delivering electricity to power data centers requires new, expensive transmission projects that will drive up monthly electric bills that Virginia’s families can’t afford.
Data centers must use massive amounts of water to stay cool – up to one million gallons a day – and they pull from local waterways and drinking sources.
Nearly all Data centers periodically turn on large diesel generators that release toxic chemicals like arsenic and benzene into the air and impact health, especially in children.
The massive amount of energy to run the data centers has given polluters like Dominion Energy an excuse to propose new fossil fuel plants that harm our climate and make our communities sick.
Attend Rally Against Unchecked Data Center Expansion to use your voice for a future that's put our health, economic security, and futures before the profits of the data center industry. REGISTER CONTACT: tim.cywinski@sierraclub.org SPONSOR: Sierra Club Virginia Chapter and Great Falls Group
Going Solar in Fairfax County Information from Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination
Two programs available to Fairfax County homeowners, Solarize Virginia and Capital Area Solar Switch, make it easier to install a quality rooftop solar system at a lower price. Both programs make switching to solar a snap by offering the following:
*Free assessment to find out whether your home is a good candidate for solar installation *Bulk discounts on solar systems, at least 10 per cent lower than the regional average *Access to a qualified solar installer, ongoing support, and no obligation to purchase
Using renewable energy like solar power can reduce your monthly energy bills, increase your home’s value, and benefit the environment. Local incentives and a federal solar tax credit of 30 per cent can further reduce installation costs making solar energy more accessible than ever before. Both programs are open this spring for a limited time—so sign up now.
Sierra Club Does Earth Day
We built a new event prop for Earth Week 2024: a family friendly photo frame of an electric school bus to highlight the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter’s campaign Electrifying Virginia’s Transportation. We have fun at the many public events where we exhibit.
Contact Susan Bonney if you want to join representing the local Sierra Club at a future Outing.
Great Falls Group members Susan Bonney, Michael, Evelina and
Rekha Nadkarni, Bobbie Brown, Elizabeth Lubelfeld and Ray Martin planned and executed Greenspring Earth Keepers Earth Day Celebration.
Sophia Hobson, Ivy Main and Rick Weil worked together on the photo frame that debuted to three public Earth Day events:
Vienna’s Green Expo
Sierra Club Potomac River Group’s booth at Langston Boulevard Earth Day Every Day
Greenspring Senior Community Earth Keepers Earth Day Celebration
At Vienna’s Green Expo, Virginia Sierra Club Co-Chair for Renewable Energy Susan Stillman talked about her experience designing, building and moving into her new solar-powered and highly energy-efficient home, which received its Phius ZERO design certification from the Passive House Institute U.S. (Phius).
Seventy exhibits at Langston Boulevard Earth Day Every Day shared environmental actions, kids’ activities, live music and an art market. The Sierra Club’s Potomac River Group showed five electric vehicles (EVs) with the owners available to answer questions.
The four organizers of the Greenspring Senior Community Earth Keepers Earth Day Celebration posed with the photo frame at the showcase and film festival of local environmental groups and documentaries screened all day.
Nine years ago the Great Falls Group adopted two miles of Jones Branch Drive in Tysons. Virginia’s Adopt-a-Highway program empowers people, organizations, and businesses to take charge of collecting litter along a section of a road. Virginia’s Adopt- a-Highway is one of the largest programs in the country, with volunteers cleaning more than 8,000 miles of state-maintained highway each year. Our group volunteers, led by Patricia Leslie, committed to clean a two-mile stretch
of VDOT-maintained roadway two times a year for three years. VDOT put up this sign recognizing our community members responsible for cleaning this part of the road after two litter pickups.
Since its inception in 1988, Adopt-a-Highway participants have removed more than 894,009 bags of litter from Virginia roadsides. In FY23, volunteers spent more than 33,919 hours removing more than 24,209 bags of litter.
With 4,000 local environmentalist members in our Sierra Club Great Falls Group, as a volunteer at a future event you are sure to make friends and work together with like-minded volunteers. Contact us to join us next time.
EQAC Environmental Excellence Awards
Now is the time to nominate a person, business or organization who deserves recognition for the work they do to protect our environment for a 2024 Environmental Excellence Award.
Each year, the Environmental Excellence Awards recognize the best examples of leadership and service to protect and enhance the natural world in Fairfax County. The awards celebrate accomplishments by individual county residents, organizations, businesses, and county employees who do one or more of the following:
Advance or support the county’s environmental goals and policies
Dedicate personal time and expertise beyond normal fiscal or civic responsibilities
Demonstrate leadership, acting as role models for other
The awards are administered by the Environmental Quality Advisory Council (EQAC) on behalf of the Board of Supervisors with support from the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination (OEEC). Nominees’ achievements should have occurred between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024, or over a period of years that include a portion of this time frame. To submit a nomination, complete the online form by June 9.
Volunteering is good for the environment!
We have new opportunities for volunteers in the Sierra Club Great Falls Group. See nine ideas here to find some that are a fit for you. Local volunteering for the environment helps you and your community by:
Cutting down on emissions by traveling close to home
Giving you a sense of belonging in your own community
Opening you socially to more people in your area
Supporting local projects and people
Teaching you more about your community and other ways to help.
The personal connections you can gain from volunteering locally canopen you up to a wide range of advantages.
Not only will you make new friends but you’ll also be able to develop relationships in the long-term for as long as you live in the area. You learn more about what’s going on in your area, like events, groups and clubs, and more.
For the GFG weekly environmental events email, join thelistserv here and select subscribe (or unsubscribe).
The MeetUp group for Sierra Club Potomac Region Outings (SCPRO) is a special activities section of the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter. The group organizes hikes and other events in Virginia, DC and Maryland. No Sierra Club membership is necessary to participate. SCPRO welcomes all people on a variety of outdoor adventures, nature walks, conservation outings, and exploration of our natural and regional history. Join SCPRO MeetUp here
Power for the People Virginia
A recent post from Ivy Main's blog on energy-related matters in Virginia.
