San Francisco currently recycles about 72 percent of its waste, the best percentage in the country. Composting food waste could up that figure to 90 percent, according to some estimates. Additionally, food scraps, plant waste and other organic materials decompose in landfills, creating methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than CO2. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an organization dedicated to environmentally friendly development, the global warming impact of methane emissions in the short term is 72 times greater than the impact of CO2. (See Methane to Energy post above)

In a June 2008 report, Stop Trashing the Climate, the Institute noted that reducing materials going to landfills and incinerators could be equivalent to shuttering 21 percent of the country’s 417 coal-fired energy plants.

“San Francisco has the best recycling and composting programs in the nation,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said. “We can build on our success.”

The city sends its food scraps and other compostable material each day to the Jepson-Prairie composting facility in Vacaville, Calif. Owned by Recology, the facility uses the scraps to create soil amendments that it sells to vineyards, retail soil bagging operations, landscapers and the erosion control industry,

The Jepson-Prairie composting facility turns San Francisco's food waste into soil amendments.

The women – volunteers and community groups – grow herbs like thyme, sage, oregano and basil, along with lettuce, tomatoes, peas, eggplant and pepper and a variety of flowers. The garden is supported by the Bronx Botanical Garden, Greenthumb NYC and For A Better Bronx (FABB).

According to a 2008 article on Scienceline, the South Bronx has the highest rates of asthma and diabetes in the city. The streets of the community are lined with fast-food joints, and residents often have no information about healthy eating and few options for purchasing fresh produce.

But groups like “Learn It, Grow It, Eat It” (LGE) are trying to change that. A collaboration of the Council on the Environment of New York City’s Environmental Education, Open Space Greening and Greenmarket programs, LGE is housed in four high schools and three community gardens in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx. The group is incorporating high school health education with its support of community gardens (there are more than 600 such gardens in the city). The organization also offers high school credit for garden maintenance.

The village has made becoming the country’s first zero carbon emissions community its goal, according to a piece by Sarah Mukherjee, environment correspondent for BBC News. It all started when Garry Charnock, a local resident, attended a literary festival where he heard the government’s former chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, talking about the need for action on climate change. “I came away wondering how I could make a difference,” he told the reporter. “And I realized that the little things, switching off lights, turning down your thermostat, that sort of thing, could make a big change overall if you did it at a community level.”
Charnock pulled Roy Alexander, another villager who is also professor of environmental sustainability at the University of Chester, on board, and the idea took off. Now, by doing the easy things like turning down the thermostat, the village has reduced its energy consumption by 23 percent. Charnock and Alexander even convinced the skeptical owner of the local pub to pitch in, telling him he could save as much as £250 by turning off his cooker in the mornings and keeping the beer outdoors rather than running the cooler in the winter.
Now the village is home to solar panels, wind turbines and other sources of alternative energy. And residents have successfully lobbied for a path linking the school, the railways and other communities to encourage walking. But the biggest plus to come out of the whole endeavor was the sense of community the project inspired. “I’ve lived in the village for 25 years, and I’ve met people I’ve never met before as a result of the project,” Lynn May, a local businesswoman, told the BBC.

by Ken Moore, MD
Alderman at Large
Franklin, Tennessee

The City of Franklin, Tennessee has long been recognized as a desirable place to live because of its respect for history, its vibrant economy, and its educational excellence.

Just this year it was recognized by the National Historic Trust as a “top twelve” destination in America; Southern Living Magazine also rated Franklin one of the top ten in the nation for best small town, and Business Week Online named our city the best in Tennessee to start a small business.

However, with the associated rapid growth, issues of a lag in infrastructure and congestion have become more of an issue.

In 2006 when former Mayor Tom Miller signed the Mayor’s Climate Project Agreement, it went almost unnoticed until companies relocating in the area began to bring in green practices from other areas of the country and the question was raised why Franklin was not on the “top twenty-five” green cities list. Current Mayor John Schroer responded to this question by appointing Alderman Ken Moore to lead the effort for the City.

In the fall of 2008, a group of almost 250 citizens attended a series of workshops facilitated by Johnson Controls, Inc. The workshops focused on Franklin’s sustainability needs and practices for the City. Over two thousand comments came from these sessions to guide Franklin’s vision and a task force was created to develop a sustainability plan for the City that matched its vision for the future.

The Sustainability Task Force was convened early in 2009 and nine committees were established to write Franklin’s Sustainability Plan. The committees are made up of interested citizens and residents, many of whom are experts in their field. Each committee has enthusiastically accepted the challenge to develop three actionable items in their category, determine a metric to measure progress, a plan of implementation and timeline. Their energy and ideas have been inspirational to all involved. These nine committees are: Energy; Alternative Fuels and Energy; Environmental Health; Solid Waste; Transportation; Water; Urban Design; Urban Nature; and Public Education.

The City’s Sustainability Plan is now in its first draft and is being vetted by participants and experts across the country. This plan is a tool for the community of Franklin and its citizens, not just for city programs and policies. The City already has demonstrated leadership by the use of “gray water,” LED traffic signals; office recycling efforts, a soon to be completed LEED certified Police Headquarters and establishing its own Alternative Fuel and Energy Action Plan.

Since the inception of this effort, we have recognized that the City would need to create a sustainability coordinator position but were hesitant to proceed given the current economic times. Then officials read the CitiesGoGreen article “What’s a Sustainability Coordinator?” in the October 2008 issue. The fact that the position is funded by savings to the City made it a much easier sell. The article was used as supporting evidence and created momentum for the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to approve the position recently.

This article and others in the CitiesGoGreen have helped us understand the process and keeps us from having to reinvent the wheel while still being able to craft a plan and strategy unique to our City.

The position has now been posted and we are looking forward to the new hire and continuing the momentum to become a top 25 sustainable community and an example for others to follow as we implement our plan. The plan is currently in draft form and can be viewed on the City’s web site at www.franklintn.gov.

Photo courtesy VisitFranklin.com

Long before fuel prices commanded the attention they do now, planners in Arlington County, Virginia, created a well-organized transit system which dramatically reduces vehicle miles traveled today. This tradition of innovation continues with effective programs, impressive results, national awards and a broad view toward even greater results. With abundant cheap power, the cost of energy has never been a major concern for the state of Virginia. The state government has not taken a strong role in energy conservation, and there has been little incentive for local governments to do so. Yet while much of the nation is just beginning to grapple with the effects of peak oil and other associated environmental challenges, Arlington County is emerging as a regional and national leader in sustainable energy-conservation policies. How did it happen that Arlington County acted with such intelligent foresight and innovation, especially with some of the lowest energy costs in the nation? And what can other local governments learn from the Arlington County experience? Read the full article in the September 2008 issue of CitiesGoGreen magazine