WTBI: The Greening Of Rochester
This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series of blog posts entitled “What’s The Big Idea”. These posts will feature “outside the box” thinking about the problems facing the greater Rochester area, as well as the solutions. Have a Big Idea you’d like to see profiled? Let us know, we’d be happy to give it some air time.
Last week, Time magazine featured an article about Chicago Mayor Daley’s vision to turn Chicago into “the most environmentally friendly city in the U.S.”.
If it works — and Daley is betting a hefty sum it will, with promises to buy millions in solar panels, for example — the green movement here is expected to yield the city perhaps billions in saved energy costs and new business.
So, what, in particular, is Chicago doing to help this along, and what lessons can Rochester learn from it?
How about:
- Rooftop gardens:
the city has planted or negotiated the construction of over 2 million square feet of rooftop gardens, more than all other U.S. cities combined.
- Efficiency mandates:
[Daley required] the heads of all city departments make their operations environmentally friendly. That includes paving alleys with special asphalt to better absorb water, buying a greener fleet of vehicles or forbidding city vehicles to idle more than five minutes.
- Mandate renewable energy use:
Chicago is now among the largest users of green energy in the country, with a goal of using renewable energy for roughly a quarter of city operations.
- Attracting renewable businesses:
it has already attracted two solar panel manufacturers to set up shop in the area.
- Requiring green municipal construction:
[Chicago] also boasts one of the world’s only municipal buildings given a platinum rating for its green design and operations by the organization Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. That honor is more than a little ironic, since the building, the Center for Green Technology, sits on a former illegal dump that was part of a sweeping federal investigation that sent several aldermen to jail for taking bribes.
How many solar panels, windmills, green construction, and geothermal HVAC systems would the 30-odd million spent on the Fast Ferry buy? How much energy would it save a month, instead of the fuel bill that contributed to the ferry’s $200K/month maintenance costs? How many skilled labor jobs would be created? And how much would the local environment benefit from the cleaner air and water?
It seems to me that this is a win on so many counts it’s a no-brainer. Alternative energy even polls well, across the board, whether you’re liberal or conservative, so it’s a safe political bet regardless of who’s in your district.
“This is way beyond tree hugging in Chicago,” said [environmental commissioner Sadhu] Johnston, 31, who before coming to Chicago helped dust some of the rust off of Cleveland’s image by serving as executive director of the non-profit Cleveland Green Building Coalition. “This is about quality of life. What we’re talking about is creating a city that exists in harmony with the world, a place that can be a model. Cities have long been hurtful to the environment. Raw materials came in and waste went out. We’ re trying to redefine that relationship, and cities can be models.”
Now that’s what I call leadership. The vision to go beyond old labels and see what’s possible to create a better future.
Mayor Duffy? You wisely stopped the bleeding from the Fast Ferry. How about going past first aid and focus on bodybuilding now?
Related posts:
Tracking Back…
A new progressive blog, Rochester Turning, had an interesting post concerning Chicago’s new effort to turn itself into a green city. It involves the city buying solar panels, mandating efficient vehicles, encouraging rooftop gardens, and planting tree…
There are many things individuals can do about our environment. But there doesn’t seem to be much info available specific to any Upstate locale. I live in Penfield and would love to install a windmill. There isn’t much available to provide pros, cons, and potentials of putting one in here. Any direction or ideas would be appreciated. I’m tired of paying RG&E for high-priced energy. We should all look to Fairport and figure out why they can do it and we can’t.