A PANEL DISCUSSION
Calling all local businesses!
The Downtown Merchants Association and SLCgreen invite you to
a panel discussion with local businesses and property owners as
they discuss how to become more energy efficient and promote
green practices.
Heavy appetizers and drinks will be served courtesy of Cucina Toscana.
When: AUGUST 31, 2017 | 5PM – 6:30
Where: Cucina Toscana: 282 S 300 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Panelists: Continue reading
Several weeks ago, Salt Lake City’s Sustainability Department Director, Vicki Bennett, traveled to Sydney, Australia to meet with the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA). The purpose of her trip (which was fully funded by a scholarship) was to share best practices in carbon reduction strategies with 20 other cities from around the world.
Each city sent a sustainability representative to discuss one collective goal: limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and how cities are taking on that challenge. Salt Lake City was selected to attend because of our commitment to lowering emissions city-wide via Climate Positive SLC, our membership with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, and the involvement of Mayor Biskupski with Mayors For 100% Clean Energy.
“It was an honor to be included in this group,” Vicki said, noting that the attending cities all have some of the most progressive carbon reduction strategies in the world.
Read on for an abbreviated version of Vicki’s trip report . . .
by Terra Pace
In Salt Lake City, we’re proud to offer curbside compost collection for residents. That means those brown bins can take more than just leaves and twigs– they can take your fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, and coffee grounds.
However, food waste is still a big problem. In the U.S. nearly 40% of the nation’s food supply is thrown out, and according to the EPA, 20% of what goes to municipal landfills is food waste.
While compost operations can handle raw fruit and vegetable scraps, a missing piece of the food waste puzzle– particularly for large operations– is what to do with prepared products. This includes cooked foods, packaged foods, meat, cheese, and leftovers from someone’s dinner plate.
Enter Wasatch Resource Recovery.
Slated for operation in fall of 2018, the company will open an “anaerobic digester” that will be able to turn organic waste– including fats, oils, and grease– into sustainable resources –– biogas and bio-based fertilizer. This project, which will help to greatly reduce the amount of food going to our landfill, will also generate energy.
By Brooke Taylor
Salt Lake City works in partnership with The Green Urban Lunch Box, a local nonprofit organization aimed to “empower people to engage in local food production by using the resources available in their community” to operate FruitShare. Volunteers help pick fruit from residents’ registered trees, then distribute the harvest 3 ways:
1/3 goes to homeowners, 1/3 goes to volunteers, 1/3 goes to hunger relief (Utah Food Bank, local food pantries, shelters, health clinics, and anti-hunger organizations)
By Frances Dingivan
Did you know that the average American wastes about one pound of food per day? Or that backyard gardeners throw away about 10 billion pounds of food per year in the United States? Even half of that produce could feed 14 million people. Meanwhile, more and more people are going hungry. 1 in 5 Utah children experiences food insecurity. Additionally, refugee and immigrant populations in Utah are growing, with more people finding themselves in need of food. Luckily, we have the solution in our own backyards.
There will be (mostly) normal** curbside waste collection on Monday, Pioneer Day, for the majority of the city. The normal curbside schedule will also be in effect the remainder of the week.
**However, if you live in the vicinity of the Pioneer Day Parade route, your collection may be delayed.
SLC’s Waste & Recycling Division has contacted a small number of residents who will have a delayed collection as a result of the Pioneer Day activities. If you did not receive a notice, your curbside collection will remain the same.
Areas in yellow, below, will not have curbside service on Monday. It will be delayed and collected on Tuesday, July 25th.
Yellow area: pickup delayed to July 25.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation as we strive to provide the safest and highest quality service to our residents.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at 801-535-6999.
Photos by Kyle Strayer
Today, Mayor Jackie Biskupski honored select Salt Lake City businesses, building owners, and managers with the 2017 Mayor’s Skyline Challenge Awards – an annual public recognition of organizations that have taken robust action in enhancing the energy performance of their buildings and contributing to the City’s air quality and general sustainability.
The award winners of the third annual event are: The Boston Building; Goldman Sachs Group; VCBO Architecture; XMission; Zions Bank; and Dominion Energy.
“The Skyline Challenge Awards is a high point in the year for the City and our Department of Sustainability, as it allows us to reflect on the energy efficiency work so many of our businesses are focused on,” said Mayor Biskupski. “We can look back at the previous year, as well, and point the progress that was made—new buildings that were benchmarked, money that was saved, and Energy Star scores that improved.”
Launched in May 2014, the Skyline Challenge encourages organizations across Salt Lake City and Utah to proactively improve the energy performance of their buildings and enhance their environmental and economic impact.
Mayor Biskupski recognizes leadership in energy efficiency at the 2017 Skyline Challenge awards.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 30 percent of the average commercial building’s energy consumption is wasted through inefficient building operation.
By participating in the Skyline Challenge, local organizations are invited to attend educational workshops, and to receive guidance on best practices and resources for evaluating their building’s energy use. Skyline Challenge participants set energy savings goals and undertake energy efficiency projects, which they may then nominate for recognition at the annual Skyline Challenge Awards luncheon.
Without further adieu, here are the winners of the 2017 Mayor’s Skyline Challenge . . . Continue reading
by Brooke Taylor
As our readers know, one of SLCgreen’s core goals is to help you adopt tips and practices to make your life more sustainable. Whether that’s reducing your contribution to air pollution, learning how to eat more local food, or understanding what to recycle, all of us have a role to play in making Salt Lake City a more sustainable place to live.
That goes for our own operations as well. One of the major areas of focus for SLCgreen (as the City’s Sustainability Department is known) is helping SLC Corporation adopt best practices when it comes to those same sustainability measures we ask of our community.
That’s why we’re delighted to share with you some elements of our new internal Sustainability Policy, signed in January 2017 by Mayor Biskupski.
This policy affects Salt Lake City’s approximately 3,000 government employees, the community as a whole, our vendors, and the supply chains emanating from those vendors. By vowing to practice the best sustainable methods in all operations from prohibiting Styrofoam cups in break rooms, to carefully tracking our buildings’ energy usage, SLC is setting a community standard—a green standard.
We’d like to note that many of the guidelines in the Sustainability Policy were already in effect through various executive orders and policies, but this is the first time the best practices have been consolidated and turned into a comprehensive document.
If you’d like to read the whole policy, you can find it here.
Otherwise, read on for highlights . . . Continue reading
by Terra Pace
The program which began in partnership with The Green Urban Lunchbox, Utahns Against Hunger, and Utah Community Action Program’s Real Food Rising has returned to provide fresh, affordable produce to the Glendale and Poplar Grove communities.
If you love local produce and supporting the local food system, make sure pay a visit to the Urban Greens Mobile Market and tell your friends!
Beginning July 10th the mobile market will be open at these locations and times:
The Urban Greens Market was started in 2016 to help increase the availability of local and sustainable produce in low access areas of Salt Lake City. Community members in these areas struggle to find fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole foods as a result of a lack of or insufficient grocery stores and fresh food markets in their neighborhoods.
Last year, the five different sites within walking distance of low access neighborhoods hosted the Urban Greens Market and provided fresh produce to over 900 customers. Over 6,832 pounds of produce was sold and 69% of customers reported eating more fruits and vegetables after shopping at the market. Continue reading
by Lauren Victor
In Utah, we are lucky enough to have access to water while living in the middle of a desert. With the climate changing and the Salt Lake City Valley population growing each year, the demand for water from our local Wasatch Mountains is increasing greatly. With the heat setting in quickly this summer, and with record highs predicted, one thing you can do to ease the pressure on the watershed is to conserve water through your landscape.
Conserving water does not mean your lifestyle needs to completely change, just take a look at the tips and links below to find out ways you can save water without losing the aesthetic of your garden!
