If you’ve ever visited Mexico City, you know that it isn’t exactly a model of sustainability. It faces serious environmental challenges, including water shortages, smog, waste disposal problems, and traffic congestion.
But Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is at least trying to steer the urban behemoth in a more sustainable direction. In 2007, Ebrard launched an ambitious 15-year eco-action policy called “Plan Verde” (Green Plan) to address many of the city’s woes. Taking lessons from Bogota, Columbia, Plan Verde is addressing city transit issues, in part, with bikes. The capital’s Bicycle Master Plan aims to increase bicycle trips to 5% of daily trips made in the city by 2012.
To start, the city purchased 2,500 bicycles to give free to residents who complete a bicycle safety course. The bikes are city-friendly with a low frame for men and women, a basket, fenders, a rack, a bell, and reflectors.
Of course with more bike traffic, you need more bike infrastructure.
It’s not diamonds. Nor is it gold. But it might be just as lucrative. European firms this time have their eyes on North African deserts as the location of a giant network of solar thermal plants to provide low-carbon energy for Europe.
Arizona’s latest advance as a leader in the use of solar technology came last night with the signing of a new bill by Governor Jan Brewer.
The Quality Jobs Through Renewable Industries bill, or Senate Bill 1403, passed in the Arizona House and Senate last month. With the goal of stimulating new investments in renewable energy projects, it creates new tax breaks and extends credits for solar energy firms in the state.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently made waves in sustainable city news with the new mandatory recycling and composting initiative and yesterday proclaimed San Francisco as the epicenter of electric vehicle technology in the latest installment of what might be called the ’sustainability wars’ between San Francisco and Portland.
Continuing in that vein, Mayor Newsom yesterday issued an Executive Directive outlining San Francisco’s first comprehensive regional food policy. The press release reads:
“The stark reality is that hunger, food insecurity, and poor nutrition are pressing health issues, even in a city as rich and vibrant as San Francisco,” said Mayor Newsom. “From the alleviation of hunger, to the need to support local and sustainable agricultural practices, these recommendations form a comprehensive and strategic approach to addressing pressing needs in all sectors of the food system.”
In making the announcement, Newsom was joined by California Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura, representatives of the United State Department of Agriculture, Bay Area farmers, and members of local food advocacy groups such as Roots of Change at West Oakland Woods Farm, one of the several community urban gardens run by City Slicker Farms.
What do you do if you find yourself in the middle of an urban healthy-food desert? Look for an oasis for sustenance. Oakland may be on the list of the top 10 Greenest Cities, but certain areas like West Oakland are nearly bereft of healthy, local food, which is an important element of sustainability. Fortunately, an oasis has just appeared in West Oakland in the form of a worker-owned grocery store with a focus on healthy, organic, local food and community.
Mandela Foods Cooperative finally opened its doors a few weeks ago and I was there to help celebrate. A project that has been many years in the making, Mandela made locals headlines this spring in anticipation of its opening because of its importance in the community.
If you are like me, you’re going to hit as many music festivals this summer as your wallet can handle.
We’ll be joined by hundreds of thousands of people heading out to enjoy great band performances. Of course, that also means hundreds of thousands of people eating packaged food and drinking bottled water (and other substances) and all the waste that entails. And let’s not forget the tons of fossil fuels burned just getting there.
Fortunately, many festival programmers and organizers have been working behind the scenes for years to try to mitigate some of the environmental impact of these annual throngs of music-lovers. They all adhere to the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ principles at the heart of greening their festivals, but that is just the beginning. Most are upping the ante on green initiatives.
Here I highlight just five of this summer’s festivals and their creative and inspiring eco-initiatives:
1. Bumbershoot, Seattle
Bumbershoot is a leader in green festivals. To begin with, organizers have creatively applied the re-use principle by turning their old signage into new Bumbershoot bags. A small local business called Alchemy Goods turns old rubber and vinyl into bags.
All this is after the festival signs have already been used multiple times. First they print most of their new signage locally on 100% recyclable material using 100% VOC and solvent-free inks. Then they re-use a large percentage of the previous year’s signs for the current year’s promotion.
