Since the Green Movement began to kick into high gear about three years ago, we are becoming aware of the importance of protecting the earth’s fragile ecosystem. Mayor Tim Davlin has pointed with pride to Springfield being rated fourth in the country among medium cities in the National Resources Defense Council’s Smarter Cities project. Cited in this designation is the 2006 agreement between the Sierra Club and the city for the construction of the new Dallman 4 power plant, heralded as the cleanest in the country. Other reasons given were the city’s refrigerator and TV recycling and downtown recycling containers programs.

Posted everywhere — hallways, offices, break rooms — at the Bunn Corporation’s Springfield manufacturing facility on Stevenson Drive is a placard with a stylized logo of a green plan