Focus groups to weigh in on Hilton Head Island environmental issues

Starting Tuesday, Hilton Head Island leaders from the public and private sectors will meet for a series of focus groups to discuss ways to preserve and sustain the environment.

The 14 meetings, hosted by the Greater Island Council Sustainability Advisory Committee and local nonprofit organization Experience Green, will be spread across three days and multiple venues around the island.

“Hilton Head Island is known for its natural beauty,” sustainability committee chairman Peter Kristian said last week. “This is a place where people come to be close to nature.”

But, Kristian said, “We consume — as residents and visitors — a lot of products and services. We want to make sure we can sustain the natural beauty we have for future generations.”

The main task of the meetings is to discuss and evaluate an island sustainability assessment developed by a Tennessee-based consulting firm over the past several years.

The assessment studied “how we compare to the rest of the county and similar towns” in terms of issues such as water and energy usage, pollution, and waste disposal, Kristian said.

“We want (the focus group meetings) to be a very interactive process,” he said. “We will sit down, view the results (of the sustainability assessment) and determine what are the most important issues to tackle.”

Each focus group will include about 15 to 20 pre-invited participants from a wide range of organizations.

The meetings will not include public comment sessions.

But Kristian said, “After we have a little more direction, we will roll some of the ideas (generated by the focus groups) out to the community and ask for their feedback.”

For more information about the meetings, the assessment, and Experience Green’s environmental sustainability efforts, contact organization director Ray Wenig at rpwenig@gmail.com or 843-342-9642.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Focus groups to weigh in on Hilton Head Island environmental issues."