The Oconee Audubon Society will be hosting Andrew Saunders, sustainability officer from Athens-Clarke County Sustainability Office for its montly meeting in October. The meeting will be held at 7 pm on Thursday, October 4th at Sandy Creek Nature Center, 205 Old Commerce Road.
Among other activities, the sustainability office has led the charge on solar development, energy sustainability and the protection of greenspaces in Athens. To be successful, these efforts involve collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including private landowners, local non-profits and government agencies. Andrew Saunders will describe what it takes to implement these initiatives and the importance of the office of sustainability to Athens-Clarke County residents.
Prior to his role as sustainability officer, Andrew Saunders worked at Forest Resource Solutions creating forest management plans and developing sustainable forest harvesting policies for the City of Jefferson. At the same time, he worked as both an Environmental and Community Forest coordinator in Athens-Clarke County. In these positions, Andrew worked on a number of sustainability initiatives including the development of a local sustainability plan for a community with a population of 120,000 and obtained over $45,000 in federal grants to improve natural resource programs.