Well, the California Sustainability Alliance can help.

The University of California system won one of the CSA

The organization, which brings together key stakeholders to overcome barriers to sustainability in areas like climate action, smart growth , renewable energy, water-use efficiency, and waste and transportation management, is accepting nominations for its second Sustainability Showcase Awards. The Awards recognize successful sustainable policies, programs, practices and technologies implemented by leading organizations in five categories:
• Commercial Building Organizations
• Multi-Family Housing Organizations
• Local Governments
• Water Agencies and
• Sellers of Other Products or Services.

Winners in each category will be honored at the California Sustainability Alliance Showcase Awards Luncheon to be held in February 2010 and will be featured in showcases on the Alliance’s website. Of the five winning organizations, the organization that best exemplifies a comprehensive adoption of sustainability policies and practices in all aspects of its business and operations will be announced as the Grand Prize winner at the awards luncheon and featured in a video documentary highlighting its successes.

Nominations will be accepted until Midnight, October 30, 2009. Winners will be announced on December 1, 2009. The entry form is online at http://sustainca.org/showcase/showcase2009.

The Alliance held its first Sustainability Showcase awards ceremony at a luncheon held on February 10, 2009. Secretary Rosario Marin, former Treasurer of the United States and then Secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency in California, delivered the keynote address and presented awards to the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, Thomas Properties Group and the University of California.

The Inland Empire Utilities Agency was recognized for innovation in integrated resource management, exemplified through a diverse portfolio of best-in-class projects and initiatives that range from green buildings, energy efficient water and wastewater systems and operations, and renewable energy, to fully integrated management of the region’s water, energy and biosolids resources.

Thomas Properties Group, which partnered with the State and Consumer Services Agency to make the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters building one of the greenest in the country, was recognized for its leadership in greening California’s real estate and in integrating sustainable design and operations into all aspects of its products, services and investments.

The University of California was recognized for excellence in environmental leadership and the best example of a customer-initiated partnership through which students, employees and campus administrators are successfully collaborating to address climate change, clean energy, green buildings, sustainable transportation, environmental purchasing and waste reduction on all of the University’s 10 campuses.

According to the Department of Agriculture website, US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack declared August 23 – 29 National Community Gardening Week. “Community gardens provide numerous benefits including opportunities for local food production, resource conservation, and neighborhood beautification,” said Vilsack. “But they also promote family and community interaction and enhance opportunities to eat healthy, nutritious foods. Each of these benefits is something we can and should strive for.”

Your city can benefit from the ‘The People’s Garden,’ a USDA demonstration plot designed to teach how to develop and maintain healthy landscapes that demonstrates and educates environmentally responsible practices. USDA plans to reduce stormwater runoff with rain gardens and green roofs, reducing its impervious surfaces and enhancing the USDA’s Farmers Market.

The People’s Garden demonstrates how to provide healthy food, air and water for people and communities as well as food and shelter for wildlife. These practices improve soil health and water quality. Information about The People’s Garden initiative is available at www.usda.gov/peoplesgarden or follow ‘The People’s Garden’ at www.twitter.com/peoplesgarden

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.

The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Local Governments for Sustainability has released a free resource to help communities with 25,000 people or fewer launch and maintain climate, energy and sustainability initiatives. ICLEI’s Small Communities Toolkit provides detailed resources, case studies, and insight to help small communities succeed despite limitations of staff and funding.

The toolkit helps smaller communities understand how to take advantage of their significant opportunities. For example, in a small, close-knit community, a local government can more easily influence community members to make individual changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. With this toolkit in hand, small communities can learn how to reach their sustainability goals.

The toolkit is organized into the following sections:

• Getting Started
• Education and Outreach
• Community Engagement
• Developing Partnerships
• Ordinances and Policies
• Financial Resources
• Planning Resources
• Additional Resources
• Case Studies

Sustainability is one of the top issues identified in a recent National League of Cities survey, and the topic will be woven into upcoming conferences accordingly.

Building on the 2009 NLC Green Cities Conference and Exposition, which attracted more than 750 participants, organization leaders are pledging to make sustainability a critical component of the upcoming Congress of Cities, to be held Nov. 10-14 in San Antonio, Texas, and the 2010 Congressional City Conference in Washington, D.C., next March.

Questions about the NLC’s green cities ideas, programs and projects can be directed to Ken Rosenfeld, the program director at Center for Research and Innovation. Ken can be reached at rosenfeld@nlc.org and 202-626-3194.

The seven represent diverse geographic and economic landscapes, with one thing in common:

all are big-city mayors. They are Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Houston Mayor Bill White and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

In MNN’s defense, it is probably much easier to get information about the green efforts of large cities than it is to find equally compelling stories about small towns. Additionally, with their often unwieldy bureaucracies, it can be more difficult to implement effective green strategies in larger cities. Here’s the original story.

Big cities also dominated MNN’s list of the Top 10 Green U.S. Cities: 1) Portland, Ore.; 2) San Francisco; 3) Boston; 4) Oakland, Calif.; 5) Eugene, Ore.; 6) Cambridge, Mass.; 7) Berkeley, Calif.; Seattle; 9) Chicago; and 10) Austin, Texas. Clearly, California, Massachusetts and the Pacific Northwest are leading the way in the greening of the American landscape. See the story for details.

MNN is a website founded by Rolling Stones keyboardist and environmental activitist Chuck Leavell to be a “one-stop resource and an everyman’s eco-guide to environmental news, featuring breaking stories, original programs, articles, blogs, and video reports from around the country in a voice the average person can understand.”

Franklin's electric car is drawing attention

Getting a parking ticket in Franklin, Tenn., just got a whole lot cuter. As part of the city’s “Go Green” effort, the Franklin Police Department purchased an electric car to enforce parking in the historic downtown area and nearby parking garages.

The City’s Municipal Services Action Plan on Alternative Fuel and Energy focuses on adding a variety of alternative fuel vehicles to the city’s fleet for purposes of both fuel efficiency and emissions reduction. Franklin’s Sustainability Task Force that includes initiatives for the entire community has chosen to replace 5 percent of the vehicles registered in the City of Franklin with vehicles that use alternative energy sources by 2012.

“It’s our goal to be one of the top 25 sustainable cities in the country,” Alderman Ken Moore said. “The City’s Sustainability Task Force, made up of citizens and city staff, has been working hard all year to create an action plan and begin this process.  This car symbolizes one of the first of many steps in achieving our goal and leading by example to the rest of our community.”

“I’m proud to say our City staff is working to live green and work green,” said Franklin City Administrator Eric Stuckey. “In our budget for fiscal year 2009-2010, every department laid out sustainability goals and we are well on our way to being a leading city in sustainability in the Southeast. We’ll soon have a full time position focused on sustainability for both our city departments and Franklin as a whole.”

Parking enforcement officer Russell Morris says his new car definitely gets attention.  “People point and look whenever I drive by; sometimes tourists stop taking a photo of the sites and take a picture of my car. It’s been a really good reaction, and it rides well too!”

For more information, contact Franklin Communications Director Milissa Reierson at milissa.reierson@franklintn.gov.

The solar unit replaces the city’s current lighting system on 30 foot utility poles commonly used on residential and busy streets. Solar power is stored in batteries, and at dusk the the unit powers up white or yellow LEDs for 8 to 12 hours of lighting.

CEO Shane Chapin has some cost projections: “In a town with 50,000 lights the current monthly expense is about $215,400 based on running the lights for 10 hours per day. Switching to ISS generates average savings of about $158,400. Cost savings depend on the available sunlight and we can assess the expected savings for each community.”

Eco Alternative Solutions expects to be able to ship “upwards of 500,000 units per month” from US manufacturers in different regions of the country by mid-2010. The company is also prepared to help cities comply with the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for funding assistance, and has financing options that keep payments at or below current energy expenses.

Cities wishing to participate in the trial program can contact Chapin at 217-381-8901.

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