Category Archives: 2018

Organic Alternatives to Chemical Pesticides

by Sydney Boogaard, spring intern

Why use alternatives to pesticides?

If you have the privilege of having a lawn or garden, you aim to keep it lush, green, and pest free. In order to obtain this, many resort to the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. While these products may be effective, they are also harmful, not only to the ecosystem, but our own human health. Most fertilizers and pesticides are manufactured with chemicals that can hurt human health; as research has shown even regulated pesticides cause damage, and all the effects have not yet been studied.

Fortunately, there are cost-effective natural alternatives to pesticides and fertilizers that will help you attain that healthy pest free yard, all while being pesticide free. Join our #PesticideFreeSLC campaign and pledge to keep our yards healthy and our bodies safe! Continue reading →

How is Salt Lake City Getting to 100%?

SLCgreen‘s Division Director Debbie Lyons and Program Manager Tyler Poulson are presenting a webinar to a national audience on April 19th detailing Salt Lake City’s ambitious climate goals. Wondering how we’re getting to net-100% clean electricity? Sign up to listen live or to access the recording!

As part of that, we’re also excited to be featured in the Sustainable City Network magazine. We’ve included an excerpt here.

Sign up for our April 19 webinar “Moving the Needle Innovative Climate Solutions in Salt Lake City” at: http://bit.ly/2qoCSi3

By Randy Rodgers
Publisher & Executive Editor, Sustainable City Network

Things are heating up in Salt Lake City, Utah. And not in a good way.

The city is located in a region of the U.S. that climate scientists say is warming at more than twice the national average. It would be bad enough if the only victim of that problem was the area’s $1.3 billion ski resort industry, but local leaders know the stakes are higher than that, as water reserves decline and air quality reaches dangerous levels.

As daunting as these threats appear, Salt Lake City’s municipal government has partnered with its local electric utility to make an historic commitment that could become a model for all communities facing the dire effects of climate change in the years to come. The city and Rocky Mountain Power have signed an agreement and drafted a plan to acquire all the community’s electricity from renewable sources by 2032, reducing emissions, saving water and improving air quality in the process.

Salt Lake City gets most of its water from snowmelt in the surrounding mountains, and the city’s water reserves are significantly below historical norms. Higher temperatures are also accelerating the production of ground-level ozone, an invisible, odorless gas that can cause permanent damage to the lungs. Last year the city’s air exceeded the federal ozone standard on more than 20 days.

City officials are bracing for more of the same.

“The climate models show us that we’ll probably get about the same amount of overall precipitation, but it’s going to be coming as rain rather than snow,” said Vicki Bennett, the city’s sustainability department director. That means more of the water runs off in the spring, making less of it available later in the year. She said rising temperatures tend to increase water demand, which only exacerbates the problem.

Last year the Salt Lake County Health Department released a Climate Adaptation Plan for Public Health, which warned of many other health concerns related to the rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns caused by climate change.

Lights Out for Bird Migration

Take the Lights Out SLC pledge to protect birds.

by Sydney Boogaard, spring intern

The Problem

Throughout the Earth’s history, plants and animal species have relied on the sun and moon’s orbital cycles to govern such behaviors as reproduction, sleep, nourishment, protection, and migration. But scientific evidence is indicating that human’s use of artificial light at night is negatively affecting many creatures and the world’s ecosystems.

Artificial light can have devastating effects on nocturnal animals, sea creatures, wetland habitats, and numerous bird species.

Birds, in particular, use moonlight and starlight to help navigate their flight path during migration and hunting. Nearly two-thirds of migratory birds use the cover of night to travel. Artificial light impedes their ability to stay on course. It causes them to wander off their route and become disoriented. They lose their sense of direction and wind up in the midst of city landscapes. This puts them at risk for colliding with reflective and illuminated windows, buildings, and towers.

Every year millions of birds are killed via collisions caused by artificial light. Migrating birds also rely on signals from the environment to cue their departure. Artificial light can cause them to migrate too soon or too late, resulting in the loss of ideal conditions for nesting and feeding.

All of these reasons are why the “Lights Out” campaign got started.

Continue reading →

Clear the Air Challenge 2018 Recap

We’re excited to let you know the winners of the SLC Corp 2018 Clear the Air Challenge. You may recall that this year we organized an internal bracket between SLC Corp departments to complement the statewide competition. The internal winner of the most brackets would ultimately win the “Mayor’s Cup” for their efforts.

Continue reading →

Organic Ways to Care for Your Lawn & Soil

by Sydney Boogaard, SLCgreen intern

Maintaining a traditional green and lush lawn in Utah’s arid climate can be a real challenge. Utah’s extreme weather can place a significant amount of stress on our plants, grasses, and vegetables. But with a little proactive care, we can keep our yards healthy, happy, and pesticide free.

The key to this is to remember that our soils, lawns, and gardens are dynamic living systems that depend on a healthy ecosystem to thrive.

The suggestions below are sustainable and natural practices that can help maintain that healthy ecosystem– and thereby a strong flourishing yard.

Don’t forget to join our #PesticideFreeSLC campaign and pledge to keep our yards healthy and our bodies safe

Continue reading →

Urban Food Connections of Utah Brings Local Fare to our City and our Plates

Welcome to SLCgreen Connections, an occasional series highlighting SLCgreen’s fantastic local partners—the people and organizations with whom we work closely to make Salt Lake City a greener, more vibrant, and sustainable city!

by Ardyn Ford, SLCgreen intern and Sophia Nicholas

Salt Lake’s historic Rio Grande Depot houses the Winter Market, an event that brings the city to life every Saturday from November to April. If you haven’t been yet, make a beeline there this week! The market is open through April 21.

Once there, you’ll find tables lined with colorful, fresh produce filling the large hall, while locals bustle around, creating a vivacious energy that stands out against the backdrop of gray days. Continue reading →

Use Native Plants, Strengthen Your Landscape

by Sydney Boogaard, spring intern

Why choose native?

Many of us will soon be planting new perennials, lawn, vegetables, or fruit trees. Like most, we want our yards to look lush, healthy, and happy. This too often means the use of fertilizers and pesticides. But if you choose the right plants and grasses your need for those harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizers will dwindle.

Choosing native plants can make a difference. Because they evolved in this environment, they’re not only tougher, they help maintain healthy soil composition; increase your yard’s biodiversity; prevent water runoff; attract native species and pollinators; and resist drought, freeze, disease, and pests.

By using native plants and site-adapted grasses we can reduce our use of unsafe pesticides and fertilizers, becoming pesticide free! Join our #PesticideFreeSLC campaign and pledge to keep our yards healthy and our bodies safe.

Today we’ll talk specifically about grasses, alternative lawn covers, and native plants.

Continue reading →

SLC Open Streets is Back! Sign up to Volunteer or Host a Booth

Photos of residents enjoying SLC Open Streets 2015

by Ardyn Ford, SLCgreen intern

Imagine riding your bike down a wide city street under clear, blue skies. There are no cars in sight. You meander across lanes of traffic, surrounded by fellow bikers, skaters, and joggers. Food trucks and beer gardens line the streets. Echoes of laughter are carried by the warm breeze. Sound too good to be true? It isn’t!

On May 5^th, Salt Lake City is bringing back a favorite community event called Open Streets. From 10 AM to 4 PM a section of downtown will be closed to all non-essential vehicular traffic. This means that streets will be open for anything from walking to rollerblading. People are encouraged to bring family and friends for a day of movement and fun community activities including yoga classes, art exhibits, and live music.

The route was designed for easy access to public transit and GREENbike stations in an effort to give people the opportunity to experience alternative, sustainable transportation in a safe environment. Continue reading →

Pledge to be Pesticide Free this Spring!

By Sydney Boogaard, spring intern

Spring is around the corner and that means it’s time for many of us to get serious about yard and garden work.

Whether you’re making a new landscape plan, planting fruit trees, beautifying with ornamentals, growing veggies, or maintaining a lawn, we invite you to join our #PesticideFreeSLC campaign and pledge to keep the chemicals out of your yard!

You may recall that last November we announced this campaign, which is part of our work with the Healthy Babies Bright Future alliance. Our goal with this partnership is to empower community members to reduce exposures to certain chemicals– beginning with pesticides– that have been found risky and dangerous to babies in the first 1,000 days of life.

This spring, we’re posting regular tips and tricks on when and how to prep your lawn and garden without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Follow along, ask questions, and join us in creating a #PesticideFreeSLC!

Continue reading →

Check out our Roadmap for Electrified Transportation!

Pop-out doors, instant acceleration, electric bikes, autonomous electric ride-share programs. . . the future is exciting when it comes to electrified transportation.

And, in many cases, the future is here. So local governments better get ready!

That’s why we’re excited to introduce you to a new report SLCgreen recently co-produced with Utah Clean Energy.

The Electrified Transportation Roadmap describes 25 steps that local governments can take to accelerate the electric transportation revolution.

The Roadmap outlines how local governments can implement a variety of electric powered modes of transit including electric vehicles (EVs), e-bikes, electric transit, and electrified ridesharing.

Salt Lake City has integrated a number of these best practices into our internal operations, and we’re now working toward more community-scale projects as part of our Climate Positive SLC plan.

As the capital city’s sustainability department, we also believe it’s important to share what we’ve learned with other local governments.

That’s the idea behind the Roadmap—as well as a workshop we organized March 14 with representatives from 16 local governments across the Wasatch Front to talk about best practices and to view EV options from a variety of local dealers. Continue reading →