Community People Profiles is a series on the Salt Spring Exchange featuring local personalities on our dynamic Gulf Island. Our People Profiles are short interviews, with one answer questions to share with you a little about what each of the people we will feature are thinking about as they go about their lives living on Salt Spring Island.

This week's featured local people profile is: George Grams

Here's a bit about George:

We moved to Salt Spring from the north shore in 2005. I spent the first two years working exclusively on our farm then I became involved in a project that precipitated my interest in island politics. Whilst we've done a reasonable job on the island of preserving and protecting our natural environment, we've been neglectful of greening our built environment which was the thrust of my professional career and which I've experience of other communities using to dramatically reduce their ecological footprint. I can identify only one public building of any architectural distinction on Salt Spring, the new library, and whilst we have a number of residences that are low environmental footprint and adopt the best green architectural practices, that cultural necessity has not found its way in any measure into our infrastructure or our public buildings. Astonishingly, we still ship our liquid and solid waste off island to be dealt with by other communities. Were we willing and able to reduce our ecological footprint by reducing the energy we consume in buildings, by promoting renewable energy, by encouraging more recycling of building materials, by seeking to reduce the volume of our wastes and emissions, by improving how those wastes and emissions are processed, by water catchment and grey water recycling, etc. , we would assist the process of preservation and protection by reducing the amount of resources we need to harvest from the natural environment to sustain our lifestyle. The Findhorn eco-village is perhaps the best example, with an ecological footprint around 1/3 of that which is typical here. We each typically need the resources from around 8 hectares of land to support our lifestyle. Findhorn needs around 2.7 hectares. I want to see here the move to a lifestyle change and the focus on a low environmental impact built environment and infrastructure that helped Findhorn achieve the lowest ecologic footprint in the western world.

What brought you to Salt Spring Island?

My father spent his life fishing longliners in the north Atlantic out of Scotland's north east so from birth I was brought up with an appreciation of the ocean's importance and it's virtues. Apart from several years in my twenties when I lived in the middle east, that love has seen me live and work entirely in coastal communities. The rural lifestyle, beauty of Salt Spring and coastal BC, the quality and volume of good services, ready access to Vancouver and Vancouver Island are also import.

What one thing about Salt Spring would you tell someone who has never visited the island?

That life on Salt Spring is rich, full and rewarding. That the reasons for those qualities lie in the environment, in the people who inhabit that environment and in their values. That every day we feel blessed to share our farm with our wildlife neighbours and with our horses. That this is a place worthy of the Trust mandate of preserving and protecting. That by and large I've found the values of island residents to be well anchored and in tune with my own and that I feel I belong here.

If you had a magic Salt Spring wand, what island thing would you change?

As I've mentioned above, greening our built environment. Not much otherwise. Although I like the seasons, I'd probably reduce the the length of winter and summon a few more summer showers.

Which well known person, living or dead, do you think would be a good addition to the island?

A fellow Scot, John Muir, would surely be high on the list along with Rudolf Steiner and Nikola Tesla. Maybe George Carlin, for his blend of gritty humour.

Is there a special project, business or initiative you are working on that islanders should know about?

Our farm is a perpetual work in progress. So far we've built our barn containing stables, garages, a workshop and my office. We moved and remodelled the house, restored the original 1928 farmhouse and we've fenced and landscaped. We used wood from our farm that I felled and milled. Half our land remains second growth woodland that we've laid a trail through but otherwise leave untouched.

I also regard myself as a work in progress. My current study course is in arbitration.

Is there a really good interview question we should have asked you?

Are you running for re-election?

How would you have answered your question?

Maybe.