Island sustainability director lays out G3 achievements

Guam Green Growth, also known as G3, provided an update on its latest initiatives at its recent steering committee meeting.

It develops tangible solutions to sustainability challenges and contributes to a green economy for the island region.

Dr. Austin Shelton, the director of the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability gave an update on their food security projects.

"We have our extension associate David Crisosotomo leading these efforts from our team here at UOG SeaGrant," he said. "We’ve announced in the past that we were setting up this community aquaponics system, so we have a couple of them in place. Now, this is our system at Island Girl Power up in Dededo and there are some fish inside getting stabilized Crisostomo will be going back up there to Dededo shortly to add 200 fish to the tank and keep those growing and we have the community volunteers to have this up and running and it will serve as an education tank so that others in the community and the village can set up there own aquaponic systems for their back yards or for their small businesses."

Two more aquaponic systems just like this one will be installed at the Talafo’fo’ community center and in Mangilao with nonprofit faith-based group Harvest Grace International.

Meanwhile, Shelton also shared the very latest on their natural resources initiatives.

"We had the last tree planting event of the year was done in partnership with our Island Beautification Task Force, the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, USDA, Department of Agricultures Forestry division, so we did a grow in Malojloj and planted 1,500 trees to cap off the year and rainy season and work continue to go on the growing initiative to prep new trees," he said.

Furthermore, Shelton noted that one of G3’s projects in food implementation, the G3 community garden in Hagatna, remains active because of implementation partners Guahan Sustainable Culture and AmeriCorps Guahan Sustainable Culture. A ground-raising ceremony was held in August 2021.

"If you are there in the afternoons on any weekday you will see the AmeriCorp members attending to the garden and during the month they also have additional events on weekends and evenings such as the “Neni Garden” activities and they have great things during the holidays or during the specific month," he said.

Shelton added that just last week, in partnership with the Serve Guam Commission, VetCorps AmeriCorps, and the Talafo’fo’ Mayor’s Office another community garden was established within the southern village.

"We were able to have a ground-raising ceremony for our second community garden at the community center in Talafofo and so we had our partners come together during the MLK day of service so we’re really excited for the growth of this garden and all the things to come out of here, increased food security, the reduce dependents on imports and so this will continue to move forward in partnership with the Serve Guam Commission and our Guam Green Growth team," he said.

Shelton adds that over 2,000 G3 reusable bags were distributed to island residents within the 19 villages at 25 different stores to raise awareness of Public Law 35-130 which prohibits the use of single-use carryout bags. That law came into effect Jan. 1, 2022.