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OSKAR - The industrial revolution created the age of consumerism, but over its 200 years of existence it has also created a culture of waste, which is what the members of the Keweenaw Sustainability Project are working to overcome.

During the second annual KSP Retreat at the Marsin Nature Retreat Center near Oskar, members of various organizations got together Sunday to talk about their individual projects and efforts and what can be done to create a community which understands the need to reduce waste and develop sustainable systems of production and energy efficiency.

Facilitating the discussion was Michael Moore, KSP working group member, who said most of the 20 or so people in attendance knew each other and knew much of what each was working on.

"In some ways, it's preachers speaking to preachers," he said.

However, Moore said those groups need to build alliances and use the "community intelligence" to help create the cultural paradigm shifts necessary to create a sustainable society.

Vern Simula, KSP member, said building those alliances of groups involved in various environmental and sustainability efforts are important for making changes on a broader societal level.

"How do we get our local business community and local government to even think about sustainability?" he asked.

Part of creating a sustainable society involves finding and using low-impact and efficient power systems, and Melissa Davis, coordinator of New Power Tour Inc. in Laurium, spoke about the efforts of her organization to do that.

Davis said New Power is working to establish local power generation systems, which use a combination of wind, solar, bio-fuels from plant waste, and bio-gas from animal waste.

As she's been giving her talks about low-impact energy production, Davis said most people understand how wind and solar power work, but many don't understand that plant waste and animal waste can also be used to produce electricity.

There is a problem with burning bio-mass, but Davis said that problem can actually be an opportunity.

"Every time you burn something, you get twice as much heat as electricity," she said.

"However, Davis said that waste heat can be used to heat buildings and it can even run air conditioning and refrigeration systems.

Besides using plant waste to produce electricity, Davis said 40 percent of what is put into landfills could be burned to produce electricity.

Davis said during her presentations, she's received positive feedback from the public, and many are interested in investing in possible future low-impact electricity power plants.

"People are interested in doing what they can, so that's encouraging," she said. "So far, we have 120 people signed up."

Developing a sustainable society requires changing how people think about design, not only for products but for buildings, also, and Rick Loduha, Finlandia University associate professor of art and product and interior design, said he's instructing a new sustainable systems design program at the university's Portage Campus, which has that as its goal.

At the Portage Campus, Loduha said there is the Sustainable Keweenaw Resource Center, which is intended to create various sustainable systems, and put information about the best science in common terms.

"Everybody can relate to that," he said.

SKRC is developing a network publication of organizations involved in environmental and sustainability issues, Loduha said. Often, those groups may conflict with each other over territoriality concerns, which they need to stop.

"There's ways we can connect those things," she said.

Loduha said it's the local efforts of groups and individuals who are concerned about sustainability that are going to cause a world-wide change.

"Sustainability globally will come from sustainability locally," he said.

Also giving presentations during the discussion period were Ellen Campbell of Nitrate Elimination Co., which manufactures a less-toxic process for testing for nitrates in the environment, and bicycle-transportation activist Ann West.

After the presentations, Moore said members of the KSP want to increase participation in the retreats by the general public, which it's hoped will encourage more people to become involved in sustainability efforts.

"We're the dot-connecting mechanism for all the great stuff that happens here," he said.

Although he doesn't fault school teachers, Moore said there needs to be more teaching about science.

"What's really needed is good community science," he said.

Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com