Hank Schonzeit lives in Reston. His primary focus is transportation and advocating for responsive traffic remediation. Yet, as a director on the Reston Citizens Association Board and President of the MidTown Reston Condominium, he is known for voicing the concerns of individuals who want to protect the vision of Bob Simon and the lifestyle of Reston.

Schonzeit, like many other Reston citizens, attended the Wednesday, Sept. 5 program, "Assessing the Environmental Quality of a Place Called Reston."

Reston Historic Trust & Museum hosted the event at the Lake Anne Reston Community Center. In his presentation, Doug Britt, the project leader of the first Reston Annual State of the Environment Report (RASER) produced by the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) as a tool for benchmarking the quality of the environment in Reston summarized the findings. Afterward, he highlighted new topics addressed in the 2018 update with progress on some of the recommendations that were put forward in the original 2017 report.

Out of the sixty 2017 RASER Recommendations, Britt identified that one year later, "Half are already being implemented to some extent and twenty-five might be accomplished with existing RA resources or through volunteer support." Britt emphasized that forty-five of the recommendations do not require any Board action and nine are policy related. "Only six require funding or contract," he remarked.

Britt said that the RASER 2018 working group is proposing new additions to the report. These will deal with wastewater treatment, solid waste, noise pollution, energy use, landscaping and urban agriculture, Biophilic Cities Network and a recommendation report card.

Britt pointed out that one of the recommendations proposed by the Environmental Advisory Committee in conjunction with the specific actions to advance environmental management was for Reston Association to apply to become a Biophilic City. RA applied and received official acceptance on March 22, 2018. Biophilic Cities are “cities of abundant nature in close proximity to large numbers of urbanites,” according to the website of the same name.

A Q&A followed Britt's presentation. To view the full report, click here: Reston Annual State of the Environment Report