Category Archives: Climate Change

Turning Up the Heat – Adapting to Hotter Temps across SLC

As the summer heat continues, it’s important to understand how to deal with extreme temperatures and why they are becoming more frequent every year. We have seen Salt Lake County’s average summer temperature increase by 3.9° F since 1985, while the U.S. average has increased by 1.5°F. 

What is the Urban Heat Island Effect? 

Have you ever noticed how the city feels much hotter than surrounding areas? That feeling is thanks to the urban heat island effect. The heat island effect is a phenomenon that leads to higher temperatures in urban areas compared to rural areas. This temperature difference is due to the greater presence of heat-absorbing surfaces, like large buildings and pavement, and not as much vegetation and green space in a city. The high density of buildings within cities also makes it harder for temperatures to decrease at nighttime. 

How is Heat Distributed in SLC?

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Indoor Air Quality: Protecting Your Indoor Air During Wildfire Season

Wildfire season is here — and even if the flames are far away, the smoke can travel hundreds of miles and leak indoors. Smoke contains fine particles that can harm your lungs, worsen asthma, and make the air inside unhealthy to breathe — even when you can’t see it.

With your portable air purifier and a few simple steps, you can keep your home’s air cleaner and safer all season long.

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Happy Earth Month from SLCgreen! 🌏

Salt Lake City is committed to protecting the public health and safety of its residents, including ensuring access to clean air, clean water and a livable environment. 🌏 This Earth Month, take some time to learn about how we’re working toward our Climate Positive 2040 Plan and tips you can start with today to make positive change in your life, community, and for a healthier planet.

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Our 2024 Year-in-Review Highlights

Every year, we release a Year-in-Review featuring our high-level accomplishments as well as priorities for the year ahead. This is an important time and opportunity for us to take stock, learn from the experiences we had the previous year, and to continue to improve our programs, services, and operations.

While we engage with Salt Lakers mostly through recycling questions and efforts, we do so much more! Here are some highlights from 2024 and keep a lookout for more details in our 2024 Year-in-Review booklet coming soon. (Check out our full 2023 Year-in-Review booklet here!) Let’s take a moment to look back at what we’ve accomplished in just this year.

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Getting A Fresh Perspective on Farmers’ Markets 

By SLCgreen Intern Kate Kuwahara

Photo credit: Downtown SLC Farmers Market

The holiday season is upon us! This can be a time to gather with loved ones and enjoy some great food, often bringing recipes we only enjoy once or twice a year. Holidays can also be a great place to start when rethinking long-held traditions, habits, and how our actions can impact our community. Food waste is a major issue in the U.S. even outside of the holiday season. About 40% of all food produced in the U.S. never gets eaten, and this amount increases by an additional 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s!  

However you celebrate, we encourage sustainable habits around gathering for the holidays, from food waste to decorations. And what better place to start than buying local food! Salt Lake City’s Winter Farmers’ Market returns on Saturdays beginning November 9th and will operate weekly from 10AM to 2PM through April 19th (closed November 30th and March 15th). SLCgreen’s summer intern Kate Kuwahara visited the Downtown Summer Farmers’ Market for the first time and shares her new perspective on farmer’s markets and learning more about our food systems. 

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Press Release: Salt Lake City updates Sustainable Infrastructure Policy as new projects kick off

Aerial photo of Pioneer Park in Downtown Salt Lake City.

Oct. 7, 2024

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Salt Lake City is celebrating Utah’s first-ever SITES- and Envision-certified projects following its recently updated Comprehensive Sustainability Policy. Glendale Regional Park, where work began last month, is on track to become the first SITES-certified project in the state and one of the largest park investments the City has ever undertaken. Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities’ new water reclamation facility, which began construction in 2020, is the first Envision project registered in the state.

Enacted last December in alignment with Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s sustainability goals, the updated Sustainable Infrastructure policy added Envision and SITES to its approved certification pathways. The Envision framework is designed to help implement more sustainable, resilient, and equitable projects, while SITES supports nature-based landscapes that enhance biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and conserve resources. These two additional systems allow for a more diverse range of City projects to utilize sustainability frameworks.

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Press Release: Salt Lake City announces partnership to bolster environmental resiliency in historically excluded communities

Sept. 19, 2024

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Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced an innovative partnership with Solar Stewards to fund solar, air quality, and community resilience projects in historically underserved areas of Salt Lake City. 

Salt Lake City is exchanging renewable energy certificates (known as RECs) produced on its solar array at the Sorenson Multicultural Center through a unique Social REC® model with Solar Stewards for financial contributions. Okta is the first identified buyer of Salt Lake City’s Social REC® via the Solar Stewards’ Marketplace.

“Salt Lake City is not only investing in solar energy to power our municipal operations and reduce pollution,” said Mayor Mendenhall, “we have also formed a unique partnership that will help us invest money from that solar back into the community.”

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Press Release: Innovation Grants Awarded to Four Projects that Will Transform Waste to Reduce Wildfire Risk, Lock Away Climate Pollution

Earlier this year, Salt Lake City Sustainability staff once again joined their counterparts of the 4 Corners Carbon Coalition (4CCC) to identify innovative carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects to receive grant funding so that they can be replicated and scaled for greater impact in our region. In July, 4CCC announced four awardees that would be receiving $335,000 of funding for their liability biomass projects (read details in the press release below).

You might be wondering what CDR and liability biomass are. As 4CCC puts it, “carbon dioxide removal (CDR) describes diverse processes, on land and at sea, that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and durably lock it away in geological, biological and synthetic formations for decades, centuries, or even millennia.”

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Pollinator Spotlight: Hummingbirds

By SLCgreen Intern Kate Kuwahara

Image source: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird © Andy Morffew (https://www.flickr.com/photos/andymorffew/23540580394) CC by 2.0

Let’s celebrate National Pollinator Week with a special guest: the hummingbird!

Hummingbirds are amazing creatures with many extraordinary abilities and are one of many essential pollinators. Other pollinators include birds, bats, moths, flies, butterflies, beetles, wasps, and of course, the most well-known pollinator: the bee, of which there are over 20,000 species worldwide.

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Priority Climate Action Plan

When it comes to addressing the climate crisis, the best time to act is now. That’s why it’s so exciting that SLCgreen and partners across Salt Lake County and Tooele County just finished creating a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) for the region through what we’ve called the Greater Salt Lake Area Clean Energy & Air Roadmap (SL-CLEAR).  

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