Pragmatic City Officials Setting High Standards

Environment Quality Management's autumn edition of "Tips & Trends" reported that city officials world wide are taking measures to cut costs by increasing energy efficiencies. In the U.S., from Chicago's green roofs to San Francisco's push for hybrid taxi fleets ,"things are popping in cities, where executives must attend to providing basic services – and have far less time than members of Congress for ideological excursions that enthrall pundits but don't make the trains run on time."

The article reported on the "C40"cities, a network of the world's megacities taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"C40's participating cities together have taken more than 4,700 actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly one-fifth of those actions involve transportation, an area in which mayors have powerful leverage because of their municipalities' control over streets, transit systems, and taxi fleets."

"This may prove to be a key development in the fight against climate change, since the urban share of these emissions might total as much as 80 percent worldwide if we take into account cities' consumption of food, energy, and goods, all of which require fossil fuel combustion to produce."

Some notable examples of positive change:

Los Angeles' creation of a bus rapid transit system with dedicated busways with limited stops and sensors that give them green light priority.

San Francisco is testing digital meters that raise and lower parking prices to match demand.

Naugatuck, Connecticut upgraded public buildings with the help of a $12.3 million retrofit paid for with savings guaranteed by a savings performance contract with Siemens.

It was not mentioned in the article, but Seattle has a Benchmarking program for commercial property owners. By measuring how much energy is used and where, property owners are able to determine which energy efficiencies would provide the largest return.

Chicago has set construction standards for public buildings and made green roofs a condition for builders receiving city financial aid. Since the first green roof was installed in 2001 on Chicago City Hall, an additional 500 green roofs are either planted or under construction. The upfront cost to a green roof ranges from $10 to $24 per square foot, so they are not cheap. The benefits of green roofs include cooling down urban heat islands, reducing energy consumption and stormwater run-off, extending the life of building roofs, enhancing sound insulation, adding wildlife habitat, and enhancing views.

Austin, Texas provides incentives to homeowners to replace turf with drought-tolerant landscape, install rainwater catchment systems, and buy water-efficient clothes washers. They have distributed showerheads and hose timers for free and offer rebates for lawn irrigation upgrades.

Many cities, including Shoreline and Seattle, use a "Pay as you throw" system for waste management. The larger the garbage container you use, the more the cost. Diverting material from the landfill through composting and recycling reduces the rates paid by businesses and homeowners.

It was found that recycling programs that use single-stream recycling (sorting is done by the waste management companies instead of the consumers) seem to be the most successful. In Cincinnati, residents can earn points for recycling that are redeemable at local retail stores and businesses. In the year following the program's introduction, recycling increased by almost 75%. 

The Environment Quality Management Journal is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and is not available online except with a subscription. Readers interested in a hard copy of the "Tips and Trends" article may request one by contacting the author, Jim DiPeso at jdipeso@conservamerica.org