The following Letter to the Editor was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday, June 14 and can be accessed online at: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/ED992865B9D04BCF8625773F007F2700?OpenDocument.

FOCUS St. Louis^® applauds editorial Saving big oil (June 10), asserting that governments should lead sustainability efforts, but Congress is not following through. It is time to create change in our own back yards instead of waiting for Congress to make sweeping changes (which probably won't happen soon).

Sustainability programs created by local governments and utilities create an immediate impact in our communities and can form the foundation for a larger national movement as they change minds and earn supporters.

Environmental sustainability seems too expensive and complicated for a state, county, city or township to integrate into its policies, but nothing could be farther from the truth. A citizen-led task force, assembled by FOCUS St. Louis, has pulled together the tools and knowledge governments can utilize to take the very first steps toward sustainability or expand an already established program even on a small or non-existent budget. The Environmental Sustainability Roadmap and Toolkit are designed to help our local governments lay the groundwork today to create a better, cleaner future for our children and grandchildren tomorrow. The report and toolkit are free and available to everyone at www.focus-stl.org/sustainability. FOCUS has mailed the report to 220 local governments and presented it to more than two dozen agencies and organizations. We encourage all citizens to review the report and pass it along to your local representatives.

John L. Wagner — St. Louis Community Policy Director, FOCUS St. Louis