Category Archives: salt lake city

Paris, Sydney, Oslo . . . Salt Lake City: A Trip Report from the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance Conference

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 . . .

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SLC FruitShare: Saving Fruit That Would Otherwise Go Unpicked

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)

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From Seeds to Good Deeds: Backyard GardenShare Fights Local Hunger

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.

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(Mostly) Normal curbside waste collection on Monday, July 24th

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.

Moving forward with a Comprehensive Sustainability Policy for Salt Lake City Corp

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 →

Salt Lake City Employees Wrap Up a Year of Sustainability Actions through Empower SLC

by Maggie McCormick

The 12-month program promoting sustainability education and action for city employees, Empower SLC, has come to an end. After 12 themes and nearly 50 weekly topics, we hope the lessons learned will help SLC Corp employees adopt more sustainable practices into their everyday lives.

Empower SLC, which began in April 2016, was designed as a training platform by Sustain3 and implemented by the Sustainability Department for Salt Lake City’s nearly 3,000 employees. Our goal was to encourage sustainable practices amongst city staff. Each month, employees participated in monthly themes, such as waste reduction, energy conservation, water conservation, and clean air transportation, and completed weekly lessons and activities.

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Salt Lake City Partners with the International Rescue Committee on the City’s first Urban Farm

New Roots participants work the soil and harvest greens on one of the IRC’s other farms.

You may remember our post last February, Salt Lake City Seeking Sustainable Farmers as part of the City’s initiative to provide more opportunities for local farmers to produce sustainable agriculture. Our goal with the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Urban Farming was to work with an area farmer or organization to convert a formerly-vacant 1.5-acre City plot into a productive oasis. In doing so, our aim was to strengthen the community, environment, and well-being of both farmers and nearby residents alike.

We’re thrilled to let you know that the International Rescue Committee was chosen!

The non-profit’s New Roots SLC program, which works with experienced refugee farmers, will transform the currently unused space adjacent to the Sorenson Unity Center into an organic, sustainable, and diversified vegetable farm.

The non-profit currently provides land, technical assistance, and market access for over 30 refugee farmers at other locations around the valley.

We’re pretty excited about this partnership. Here’s a bit more about how New Roots works . . .

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Sustainability Highlights in the Mayor’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2018 Budget

Last night, Mayor Biskupski presented her proposed 2018 fiscal year budget to the City Council.**

In the proposed budget, the Mayor continues to press for cleaner air and other practical approaches to addressing climate change.

Last summer, the Mayor and City Council adopted a historic resolution to completely transition Salt Lake City’s community electricity needs to renewables by 2032 and to reduce carbon output by 80 percent by 2040.

The Mayor wants to keep the momentum going toward greater sustainability citywide.

First up: Initial steps will be taken in partnering with Rocky Mountain Power in establishing a large solar farm for cleaner City energy. This goal is part of a robust Clean Energy Cooperation Statement the City inked with RMP last year that requires cooperation in evaluating and implementing multiple projects to help the City achieve its clean energy targets. Continue reading →

SLC Mayor Biskupski Joins The Mayors For 100% Clean Energy Initiative

Today, Mayor Jackie Biskupski and a coalition of U.S. mayors joined with the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign in a new effort to engage and recruit mayors to endorse a goal of transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy in cities throughout the country.

The initiative, “Mayors for 100% Clean Energy,” is led by Mayor Biskupski; Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine; Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin; and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. The mayors function as co-chairs of the effort.

Salt Lake City announced its 100 percent goal last July when the Mayor and City Council passed a joint resolution establishing the goals of transitioning the community’s electricity supply to 100 percent clean energy by 2032, followed by an overall reduction of community greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2040. Continue reading →

Looking for a new car? Sign Up for ZOOm Go Electric through May 31

Are you waiting for the right time to buy a low-emission vehicle? Are you interested in helping clean the air and save money?

We’re excited to let you know that a new bulk purchase program for electric vehicles is BACK! (The last one, U Drive Electric, put 127 cleaner cars on the road in three months!)

ZOOm Go Electric is the newest discount program to launch. It runs from now through May 31, so get on it soon.

According to a 2013 analysis conducted by SWEEP and Utah Clean Energy “all electric” vehicles produce 99% lower emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 95% less sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions, 76% less nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions as compared to a new gasoline vehicle. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles reduces emissions significantly as well. Continue reading →