Green Bay Sustainability Commission Chair Has a Plan for “Steering the Boat” Toward a More Sustainable Future
Seth Hoffmeister’s journey toward environmental activism began in the woods of Wisconsin. He grew up in the outskirts of Eau Claire, where his family moved in the early 90s. Back then, Hoffmeister said, “There were still cornfields and dirt roads and prairie patches.” The woods, the prairie, the beauty of Wisconsin’s natural environment, were formative influences on a young Hoffmeister. He recalls many summers spent camping with his family, “up north.” When he was old enough, Hoffmeister got a job at a summer camp he used to attend as a camper and worked there for six years.
After spending a childhood in nature, Hoffmeister noticed the natural world around him changing. He recalls beloved outdoor spaces warped and undone by human development. “A lot of my favorite places where I would go romping in the woods turned into condos and Outback Steakhouses,” he said. “We used to take our yellow lab, Hazel, down to Otter Creek by the house until a Menards went up upstream,” said Hoffmeister, recalling a moment when a corporation’s dumping practices upset his relationship with the natural world in his backyard. As he witnessed trees razed for development and rivers polluted by industrial waste, Hoffmeister recognized his role as a steward for his state’s natural resources. When he went to college at UW–Stevens Point, he knew he wanted to do something to protect the environment.
One of Hoffmeister’s former summer camp coworkers was the first to open him up to considering climate activism as a career. He recalls that conversation well: “He said, ‘Seth, I got this new job and we’re going to elect environmental champions. We’re going to hold people accountable to make sure they’re protecting our drinking water, our air, addressing climate change, all of that.’ I said, ‘Tom, sounds like everything I wanna do some day.’”
Tom had found employment with the Wisconsin Conservation Voters, a group dedicated to “engaging voters to protect Wisconsin’s environment.” In a few years, Hoffmeister followed in his friend’s footsteps and started working with the organization. That work brought him to Green Bay, where he found a new home and a new base for pushing for action to combat climate change.
The Sustainability Commission
“Climate change is already happening. If we do everything right, we’re still going to have to deal with a certain amount of climate change”
Seth still works as the Deputy Director of the Wisconsin Conservation Voters, but for the last three years, he has also held an additional position, chair of the Green Bay sustainability commission. He credited the commission’s creation to the effectiveness of community organizing.
As an organizer with the Wisconsin Conservation Voters, Hoffmeister worked alongside partner organizations on state issues and climate at the federal level. In 2017, with Scott Walker as Wisconsin’s governor and former president Donald Trump moving to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords, Hoffmeister’s organization became frustrated at the roadblocks to pushing climate policy at the federal or state level. Instead, they directed their attention to local government.
Looking at cities like Madison and Eau Claire as blueprints for environmental action at the local level, Hoffmeister said, “they had sustainability commissions, committees, advisory boards. So, we asked the City [of Green Bay] to create one.”
The Wisconsin Conservation Voters quickly organized a campaign to push Green Bay’s mayor to create a sustainability commission. The campaign proved successful, and at the commission’s inaugural meeting, Hoffmeister was elected chair. Melissa Schmitz, Green Bay’s resiliency coordinator, says Hoffmeister has been a “strong advocate for climate action and renewable energy planning since the inception of the city’s sustainability committee.” He served a three-year term and was last year reconfirmed for a second term. “I’ve been on the commission for three years and I guess they’re letting me stay around for at least three more” said Hoffmeister.
The nine-member commission consists of mayoral appointees representing various areas of focus within the environmental community. “It’s great to have different experts from everywhere from UW–Green Bay, to other community leaders, to all sorts of cool folks” said Hoffmeister. The group’s stated mission is “the protection, stewardship, and improvement of the environment in the interest of the health, prosperity, and welfare of the Green Bay community for present and future generations.”
Hoffmeister describes the goals of the commission as two-fold — sustainability and climate resilience. The commission’s sustainability efforts focus on “decarbonizing our energy grid,” primarily by pursuing solar infrastructure at city and private properties. Climate resilience is a less frequently talked about, but equally important facet of addressing climate change. “Climate change is already happening. If we do everything right, we’re still going to have to deal with a certain amount of climate change,” said Hoffmeister, “In Green Bay that manifests as extreme flooding.”
Flooding in Green Bay, particularly in the East River area, poses a significant threat to the safety and economic welfare of city residents. Environmental issues are often intersectional with poverty, said Hoffmeister, and it’s no different in Green Bay, where the cheapest housing is located in the parts of the city that experience the most severe flooding. The sustainability commission hopes to address this threat with green infrastructure developments. Hoffmeister hopes resiliency efforts in Green Bay will make sure the effects of climate change are, “to put it eloquently, as ‘not sh — ty’ as possible.”
Recent Accomplishments
In the past three years, the Green Bay sustainability commission has accomplished a lot. With the help of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College students, the commission compiled data on city energy use and benchmarked areas for improvement. Using funds from the Lambeau Field stadium tax, the commission was able to update an outdated solar array at Green Bay’s Leicht Memorial Park. A fire station on East Mason Street has been equipped with solar panels and the commission has plans to do the same with another fire station on West Mason, Hoffmeister said.
In addressing climate resilience, the commission was successful in its push to secure a full-time resiliency coordinator to address the City’s flooding problem and aid in the development of green stormwater infrastructure. This position, currently held by Melissa Schmitz, is something Hoffmeister said is unique for a city of Green Bay’s size — “Having a person whose full-time job it is, it totally sets us apart from other cities.”
Schmitz herself commended Hoffmeister for his efforts to move Green Bay toward a greener future. In particular, she recognized him for the role he played in getting mayor Eric Genrich to adopt new benchmarks for sustainable energy. “He and other community members initiated a goal of 100% clean energy and carbon neutrality by 2050,” said Schmitz, adding that the energy goal applies to community use as well as municipal operations. Hoffmeister said he wants to see solar power not just used for city-owned properties. For him, getting solar panels “into the community” is a necessary step to reach Green Bay’s sustainable energy goals.
Hoffmeister credits Green Bay’s city council and mayor for their recognition of environmental issues in the City. He praised their receptiveness to the sustainability commission’s recommendations as integral to its success. “At the end of the day, we can help do the groundwork to develop policy or make recommendations on things that inevitably get passed by council,” said Hoffmeister.
Looking Toward the Future
“Make sure it’s not just a plan that sits on the shelf collecting dust, but it’s something that changes the trajectory of our city to actually, you know, being climate resilient into the future”
When asked what accomplishment he is most proud of during his time on the commission, Hoffmeister did not look to the past, but to the future. “The thing we’ve been gearing up towards is this climate action plan, so ask me that in a couple more years, and I’m going to say that plan,” he said.
After drafting a “renewable energy workplan,” Hoffmeister has devoted his time to researching and developing a robust, “community-wide climate action plan” with the commission, said Schmitz. Cities like Madison already have action plans in place to tackle environmental issues from multiple fronts. Hoffmeister hopes to do the same in Green Bay. For Hoffmeister, the plan is something he sees as imperative for the City to follow. Once an action plan is developed, he said he wants to, “make sure it’s not just a plan that sits on the shelf collecting dust, but it’s something that changes the trajectory of our city to actually, you know, being climate resilient into the future”
Hoffmeister describes the climate action plan as rooted in the involvement of the community. “We’re going to set our sights on bringing together all the folks in the community that need to make that happen and have skin in that game and we’re going to try to figure out a comprehensive climate action plan to get us there,” he said.
In the next ten years, Hoffmeister hopes Green Bay can make substantial changes to its electric grid and adopt green infrastructure initiatives. He wants to see changes to transportation, an uptick in electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations in the city. He also addressed the importance of local food production, as non-local transportation of food comes with a high carbon output. “We need to be a little bit closer to the energy and to the food,” said Hoffmeister, expressing a simple goal of “having the ability to get around and turn on our lights in a way that doesn’t do damage”
A Matter of Urgency
“We need to be there in ten years, which means we need to start steering the boat right now.”
While he remains hopeful about Green Bay’s future, Hoffmeister stressed the importance of addressing climate change swiftly and drastically. “Our city has made a goal of being 100% carbon neutral by 2050, which is a fine goal to have — not soon enough in my own opinion” he said.
“Everybody’s feeling the doom and gloom of climate change” said Hoffmeister, referencing the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2021 report. The report, released last August, sounded the alarm on the urgent threat of climate change. When asked what he wanted to see from Green Bay in the next ten years, Hoffmeister said frankly, “I think for humanity’s sake, if we don’t have… a very significant amount of our electricity, if not all of it, coming from renewable resources, we’re f — ed. We’re so f — ed.”
Hoffmeister noted the importance of acting now to put the City in a better place to address climate change down the road, saying, “we need to be there in ten years, which means we need to start steering the boat right now.”
Connecting Communities to Action
“If a city like Green Bay can do it, it’s not just some hippy sh — . It’s something that’s accessible to everybody.”
Hoffmeister seldom uses “I” when talking about his work for environmental action. Everything is “we” — we the Sustainability Commission, we the Wisconsin Conservation Voters, we the citizens of Green Bay, we the inhabitants of Earth. “It has to be a team effort” he said, reflecting his commitment to involving his whole community in making Green Bay a greener city, “that’s the beauty of it, that it really does take everybody.”
When asked what individuals who care about the environment can do, Hoffmeister placed importance on the value of local. “Local governments play a huge role in addressing climate change and mitigating its worst effects,” he said.
Hoffmeister said that it’s not just the City’s urban residents that have a role to play in advocating for climate change policy — a broad coalition of Brown County’s rural and city residents is necessary to secure change. “Green Bay, we’re a real city. We’ve got this rust belt vibe. It’s very working class. I think it sends a message to working class areas, to rural areas, that if a city like Green Bay can do it, it’s not just some hippy sh — . It’s something that’s accessible to everybody.”
In a final note, Hoffmeister laughed off the idea that efforts like everyone “ditching plastic straws” would be all it takes to protect the environment. Instead, he urged Green Bay residents to adopt a mentality of personal action alongside holding people in power accountable for addressing climate change. He said, “it’s not individual choices that are necessarily going to save us, but if … every single person realizes that we can all make the differences in our lives but also expect and demand that from our decision-makers, that’s a pretty good bit of the way there.”
