SPEAKER: Tammy Perkins, Exec. Asst to the City Manager

IMPORTANT WEBSITES FOR FURTHER INFO: WWW.PHOENIX.GOV/GREENPHOENIX AND WWW.PHOENIX.GOV/SUSTAINABILITY

The Mayor wants Phoenix to be a national and international leader in sustainability. Needed to read about sustainability programs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Portland and Seattle, because that is what we hear about. We compare that to the City of Phoenix and what it is doing today and in some cases for 25 and 30 years in our service delivery activities. I was shocked to find out that we do a lot of those activities. We haven't done a good job talking about and taking credit for what we do.

We have been a pioneer in water, energy & natural resource conservation. We have been focused on innovation and best possible service for lowest possible cost. Our engineers helped develop rubberized asphalt in 1968. Our water conservation program was initiated in 1986, the energy conservation program began in the 1970's, the Environmental Quality Commission was established in 1987, and, we have been purchasing mountain preserve land since 1929. When you think about the heritage, particularly of the environmental side of sustainability issues, we have a pretty strong track record. Every City Manager, middle managers and executives, since 1999, has had environmental indicators as mandatory as part of their annual performance review. So we had a lot of things in the works for quite awhile. We have over 80 programs that support the principals of sustainability. Check out the Sustainability website above.

Some of the specifics that help us receive national and international recognition in our Service Delivery efforts. There are two ways that local government plays a leadership role. One is how we do our business in our daily service delivery, how we respect our residents, how we make policy decisions, how we are going to deliver services. The other is how we behave in what we ask the rest of the community to do. In the genre of delivering services, our focus has been on excellence, on economy and that is very consistent with the principals of sustainability. Where I really think we need to grow is in our awareness, in our willingness and ability to have regulations or to give incentives to get other organizations across the community to implement sustainability practices. If you notice that Portland and Seattle are well recognized it is because of their regulatory activities. I had a chance to meet with the Director of the San Francisco Sustainability Program-smaller community in terms of size and population-in Phoenix, we have one person coordinating policy and in San Francisco, they have 70 people in their Sustainability Department for over 10 years and a lot of what they do is more regulatory in nature. What is that second role of government as a leader, a regulatory, as an incentor in terms of the rest of the community is really about. That is really what the business people and the residents of the city want us to do. Some of the things the command council and your city staff have done in the last couple of years have included a climate action goal. Now our Mayor and City Council do not want to make goals that we can't reach. So our goals in many cases, compared to other cities, but they are things we know that are attainable. Climate Action goal was adopted last year and it is for the course of city operations and would reduce green house emissions from city operations by 5% below 2005 levels by 2015. That is 96 tons of carbon dioxide. We have already restored over 300 acres of contaminated land into developable property. Primarily in our redevelopment areas - 35th Ave and McDowell, 24th St. and Broadway, Sunnyslope in the central Dunlap area. Phoenix Parks and preserve Initiative endorsed by 83% of voters in 2008. Phoenix Recycles began in 1999; over 127,000 tons of newspaper, mixed paper, aluminum, scrap metal, glass, plastics and cardboard recycled annually. Bag Central Station partnership with grocers and retailers to collect plastic bags. The market for these bags is very limited and they also gum up the machinery. We have over 3,000 city vehicles operated with alternative fuels, except for police cars, fire trucks and most of our heavy duty trucks. New city buildings built to LEED standards since 2006. Glenrosa Service Center is LEED certified Gold and Convention Center West is certified Silver. Several Fire Stations and Libraries also certified. Our renewable energy goal was adopted in 2008. Our goal is a 15% reduction in energy use by 2025; major investment in solar - 100 kW PV systems installed at Convention Center and Pecos Park and Ride. Several smaller systems are also in place. We are founding member of Sustainable Cities Network and in partnership with ASU. When asked "How are you, the fifth largest city doing?" we are compared to Miami, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The built in and natural environment is so different here that it can not be totally compared to other cities. In June if you search for Sustainability Cities Network and click onto the icon for Best practices, you can see what the valley cities are doing. What is going on: We are piloting LNG and CNG garbage trucks, looking at biofuel opportunities, looking at growing algae, but that is down the road. Looking at taking our digester gas and landfill gas and turning it into energy. We are looking into commercial and multi-family property recycling. We in the city haven't given you credit, so to speak, in your land use planning to be able to do that. We have our planning department working through some of those changes. For example: take out a couple of parking spaces if need be to facilitate space for commercial recycling. In the new apartment buildings going up we have allocated space for recycling. Recycling incentive pilot plan is where when you increase your recycling you get coupons, access to other retail deals. It has been tried on the east coast and the increase in recycling has been tremendous. Doing a major solar program at our State 85 landfill. Our general plan update process will get started late summer or early fall and we will focus on Sustainability as a focus.

A couple of opportunities are out there such as the stimulus money. Phoenix has already received over 110 million dollars basically in the formula based grants. The real money is in the discretionary grants. Grant applications are due throughout the summer and fall. FY 2010 appropriations - almost $200 million requested by Congressmen Pastor and Mitchell for local projects (light rail, transit, public safety, Sky Harbor improvements, Tres Rios and Rio Salado.

Green Phoenix Program: In February the Mayor went to the new administration and pitched a 17 point plan. To see it go to www.phoenix.gov/greenphoenix In April the City Council adopted in concept the Mayor's plan and asked us to focus on 6 different areas. Most involve renewable energy, solar, water conservation, and recycling, green neighborhoods. We are working on a demonstration project in development for the June City Council discussion and it will probably be centered around the light rail.

QUESTIONS:

1. What can we as Business Managers, owners do to help? By going to www.phoenix.gov/greehphoenix you can enter you companies name in terms of wanting to be a partner in this effort. What that will do will basically get you regular emails on updates of activities that are going on, it also asks you what you are doing at your company. They want to make a collection of what people are already doing to become more
sustainable. Really think about energy use, fuel use, and what you can do in your business that will really make a difference. Think about how you feel on a public policy perspective about some of those regulatory incentive programs.
2. Are all resorts and restaurants in a recycling program and if not how can we get involved? Unless the city is picking up the garbage and we only pick up residential garbage, we can't regulate. Private businesses and waste management companies would have to make some changes.
3. Is there a "like person" like your self in Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale etc. and if so, are they at pretty much the same level we are or ahead or behind us? Tucson is really the state leader. They have had an office of Sustainability for four years. They have 15 people and that is what they do. I think that in every other city there is some one in their Public Works Dept. or their Building Dept. involved with Sustainability. I think that every city that I have been involved with is trying to get their arms around this and how they can do a better job.
4. Is Phoenix the only city that is regulated around here? There isn't a uniformed program for commercial but Westcor for example does as much separating as possible. Other cities across the country have been more pro regulation. We have to start making decisions as to where we want to be 50 years from now.
5. Other cities have accepted regulations so how about here? It is hard to know how people would accept regulations.