The average New Canaan household cares far more than many might normally believe about conservation, town officials say.
In a survey whose results recently were compiled by the Conservation Commission, 65 percent of respondents said they’d pay more for renewable resource energy, while those who would pay more for wind and solar outnumber those who wouldn’t by a 2-to-1 ratio.
New Canaan Conservation Commission Chairman (and former Center Schooler) Cam Hutchins. Credit: Michael Dinan
“This was not a small group of tree-huggers,” Conservation Commission Chair Cam Hutchins said during an interview after the group’s meeting Thursday night at Lapham Community Center. “This was a cross-section of New Canaanites—all ages, all walks of life. The fact that 35 percent of them didn’t know we had a recycling center says that these are not people who are ‘into’ recycling.”
Findings from the survey—summarized in the commission’s newsletter—include:
- 87 percent want more access to locally grown food;
- 63 percent want to learn more about home energy assessments;
- 96 would like their garbage company to take all recyclable materials;
- and 61 percent would like to see the use of plastic bags prohibited.
The last item—the prospect of a ban on plastic bags in retail shops, such as Westport has in place—is something some in town have been seeking for years, though it isn’t clear whether something as strong as an official ban would be supported by New Canaan’s business community.
Commissioner Miki Porta, co-founder of Pesticide-Free New Canaan, said research is underway to collect data about how much it costs to move away from plastic and to gauge how effective something like an outright ban would be.
For Hutchins, New Canaan is further along in terms of conservation-minded thinking in its individual households than on a town level.
“The fact that there are a lot of houses in New Canaan, not even big houses, that are putting solar panels on, says that there are people here who are willing to try these things out,” Hutchins said. “And the town is kind of behind the curve at this point.”
The commission’s full newsletter can be found here.
Who did they survey and when? I’m not sure I trust their sample size. In a town of <20,000, odds should be good for me to come across the survey as a resident, but I had no idea such a survey was conducted.
I'm kind of surprised New Canaan doesn't have much of a principled Libertarian streak that would frown upon outright bans in general — all good intentions aside.
The survey ran May to September 2013 through the town website and about 5 percent of the town’s 7,500 households responded.
The survey was accessible through the town website and was actively promoted all over town – through local youth sports leagues, at local organizations and clubs, at the annual Mayfair, at the Farmer’s Market, in local papers and websites, and constantly on NCTV Channel 79. The vast majority of households that responded own their homes (we asked), and to be fair, a lot of people’s interest in sustainability also focused on economic sustainability — their interest, for example, in getting a home energy audit was to find real ways they could save energy AND (ahem!) save money.