For those of you who haven’t really looked at the logo of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, it is composed of the map of the United States and features Interstates 35 and 90 as the Crossroads of the Midwest. The colors of blue and green are the dominant colors much the same as the Albert Lea logo.

Over the last month, the colors blue and green have dominated chamber discussions. As most of you are aware, the launch of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project will take place on May 14 at Albert Lea High School.

This community health project has the ambitious goal of adding 10,000 years of life expectancy to our community. Everyone who lives or works in Albert Lea is encouraged to participate.

On various levels, the chamber has been actively involved in planning for the project. Our reasons are simple. The improved health and well-being of the community will directly impact the quality of our members’ workforce.

Obesity has been linked to a 36 percent increase in health care spending, costing more than health care related to smoking or drinking. If, through small incremental changes in our workers’ lives we can significantly reduce the health care costs of our members, we must make the effort to do so. The AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project gives us the unique opportunity to use experts from around the country to accomplish this goal. We have been working with the Project’s advance team to develop an “employer pledge” that will aid our employers in meeting the challenges of change.

Another important aspect to this project is the attention that will be drawn to our community. This is the first Vitality Project and will serve as the model for other communities across the country. National media will be focused on Albert Lea and the surrounding community, its residents, and its business community.

Again, this will be at no cost to the community but will benefit us all. Much of the early information on the Project has been dominated by discussions of increasing the walkability and bikeability of our community. While important, that represents only a portion of the Project. Be sure to attend the launch on May 14 and take the pledge.

Green has also been a major area of focus for the chamber in the last 30 days. We have now established a green committee at the chamber.

It comprises representatives of local government, energy providers, business owners and private citizens. While its mission statement has yet to be formalized, the committee is in agreement that we are in a unique position to impact the carbon footprint of our community.

The committee sees the chamber as a resource for the business community. While they realize that many of our large businesses have made significant impact to their bottom line through energy conservation, they believe that many others can be offered assistance that will allow them to do the same.

This past week, the committee began exploring ways to improve the recycling habits of our businesses and the community in general. Members of the committee have taken on the challenge of devising ways to make recycling and reusing a way of life in Albert Lea.

Many unique and exciting ideas have been discussed and the committee will continue to explore these and bring them forward to the community when they are formalized. The committee anticipates links to cost saving rebates will appear on the chamber’s Web site in the very near future. They believe that this will represent another step in the greening of Albert Lea and Freeborn County.

The Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce is committed to its mission statement: “Promote and develop a healthy and positive business climate and improve the quality of life in the Albert Lea-Freeborn County area.”

Randy Kehr is the director of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County of Commerce.