Hopping on the sustainable bandwagon with the mentorship of Sustainable Ballard, the Green Lake neighborhood kicked off their newly organized Sustainable Green Lake group with an official inaugural gathering earlier this week.

Led by Sustainable Green Lake’s core team, Katy Broker-Bullick, Megan Horst, Christian Rusby, Leif Esplund and Pennie O’Grady, the meeting welcomed not only Green Lake residents but anyone who lives, works and plays around Green Lake.

“I’m thinking of the Green Lake neighborhood as something that people have invested in even if they don’t live there,” said O’Grady. “ I want people to still feel like they can come to the meetings just because they feel they have a commitment or connection or a sense of groundedness in Green Lake.”

The group hosted a film night in December of “Money Fix,” a movie on the truth about money, its role in many social and environmental problems of today and what individuals can do about it. It's part of an effort to get the word out about the new group.

Following the film night they were also involved in Green Drinks in January, when local sustainable groups and people came to speak, chat and make connections with each other.

Sustainable Green Lake plans to meet every third Tuesday of the month at Bethany Community Church on 80th and Green Lake Drive North.

With the guidance of Sustainable Ballard's Vic Opperman, who asked members and interested individuals who attended the meeting about what their concerns, goals and expectations for the group were, a majority were interested in urban agriculture, composting locally, climate change and growing food locally.

Sustainable Green Lake’s mission is to build a more connected sustainable community within the Green Lake area. Being both an action-oriented as well as a visionary group, they seek to embrace current challenges and opportunities in their own community, while joining their efforts with the broader movement to cultivate a thriving humanity and planet, said group members.

In the future, O’Grady said the group hopes to create a community P-patch, plant swap and currently has plans to add a curb bulb at the intersection near PCC Natural Markets on Aurora.

“We’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from Sustainable Ballard and I’m also inspired by how readily the city has responded to their (Sustainable Ballard) efforts over time,” O’Grady said. “They have gained the respect of local government as a populist movement that succeeds in being inclusive of the whole community. And their current use of sociocracy is great, what’s not to want to emulate.”