Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

May 2011 Update on Findlay Ohio (Hancock County)

Michael Reed, from University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio, sent along an update on the efforts to develop a sustainability program and plan for that city and its county (Hancock County).  The Hancock County Sustainability Coalition has made some impressive strides.  A presentation Download Findlay ohio.ppfinal050611 at a recent coalition meeting gives a pretty good sense of the progress that has been made.   This is not for quotation without atribution.

New National Rankings Posted

We have posted the latest rankings of U.S. cities on the OurGreenCities web site.  This is the most recent update since 2007.  This new set of rankings considers the 54 largest cities in the country plus Pittsburgh (currently the 59th largest city).  As before, the rankings are based on an assessment of how many of the 38 different specific policies and programs each city has enacted and implemented.  This is the only set of rankings that explicitly looks at local policies and programs, and is truly city-based (rather than metropolitan, county, or regionally based).  The cities of Portland, Denver, and Seattle are tied for first place.  Check the web site for more information, and let me know if you have any questions about the methodologies employed in these assessments.

New National Ranking to Be Released Soon

I'm finishing up my latest rankings of cities' sustainability programs, and I hoping to release them within the next two weeks.  This year's rankings will be different from those of the past.  This release will rank the 54 largest cities in the U.S. rather than just the cities that have announced that they have a sustainability program.  The newer set of rankings will include all cities in the U.S. from Santa Ana, with a population of 324,000 up to New York City.  The older rankings included many cities smaller than this, including cities that have very impressive sustainability programs such as Boulder, CO and Santa Monica, CA, Grand Rapids, and MI, Madison, WI, to name a few.  Keep checking the Our Green Cities web site (http://ourgreencities.com) for this update.

Sustainable Communities in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has not been a leader on issues of sustainable communities, although from time to time Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, and Newton, among others have at least stated to talk a good game.  For those who would like to advance the cause in MA, there is a Massachusetts Sustainable Communities conference on April 15, at the Holiday Inn in Marlborough.  For more information about the program, speakers, and registration, go to http://www.masustainablecommunities.com .

NRDC Report examines water quality and pollution in cities

Analysis reported by the Environmental Working Group entitled "Over 300 Pollutants in US Tap Water," assessed the quality of drinking water in 100 U.S. cities.  They tested for many different types of pollutants, far more than is required under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.  What they found was that some cities have pretty decent drinking water, including the three best -- Fort Worth, TX, Providence, RI, and Arlington, TX, while other cities have very serious problems.  They found that Las Vegas was the 98th worst, Riverside, CA was the 99th, and Penscacola, FL was the worst.

Wall Street Journal Article examines water shortage issues

An article in the Wall Street Journal online takes a look at two studies of city water shortages.  This article, entitled "The Ten Biggest American Cities That Are Running Out of Water," discusses how and why major cities are facing serious water problems.  Based on analysis by CERES and by the NRDC, the articles suggests that the ten cities with the biggest problems, from the tenth worst to the worst, are (10) Orlando, FL; (9) Atlanta; (8) Tucson; (7) Las Vegas; (6) Fort Worth; (5) San Francisco; (4) Phoenix; (3) Houston; and (1) Los Angeles.  One thing that pops out from the analysis is the obvious conclusion that it's probably not a good idea to build a big city in a desert. 

CERES Report on Water Shortages in Large U.S. Cities

CERES has issued a 2010 report that examines serious challenges with municipal water supplies. This report, The Ripple Effect: Water Risk in the Municipal Bond Market, suggests that when municipal utilities take on bonded debt, investors might not have a full range of knowledge about the risks they incur as a result of serious water shortages. Presumably, the goal of this analysis is to get municipalities to take issues of water quality and quantity seriously lest they face increasingly high interest rates on the bonds they issue. 

Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Symposium at FSU

I had the great pleasure to give a talk at the Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: Barriers and Best Practices for Local Governments Symposium held on December 10 at Florida State University in Tallahassee.  

The Symposium was attended by around 50 local administrators, many of whom have responsibilities for local energy or sustainability programs in Florida cities and counties. There were also attendees from the U.S. Department of Energy, including Mark Johnson, the Director of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  The Symposium was sponsored by the Institute for Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability at FSU,(IESES) the Florida City and County Management Association, and the Center for Florida Local Government Excellence.

This was a terrific opportunity to hear about the many initiatives under way in Florida and around the country involving various models of achieving energy efficiency and the development of renewables.  For example, Maggie Theriot discussed the efforts in the Leon County (Tallahassee) FL sustainability office, Lee Haynes Byron talked about the latest efforts in the Sarasota County Sustainabilty Office, and Richard Reade, the Sustainability Coordinator from Delray Beach, outlined his efforts. Most of these projects revolved around their efforts to retrofit major buildings, and use the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funding provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The challenge has long been for local governments to be willing (and able) to make up-front investments in energy efficiency that will pay off down the road.  Local and county governments have been very reluctant to make the initial capital investments, even when the payback period seems like a no-brainer.  The EECBG has been used my many local governments to make that up-front investment. 

Another thing that became pretty clear is how involved the private sector is in these efforts.  Of course, when local government elects to retrofit a building to achieve energy efficiency, they contract with local companies to do the work.  But increasingly, they are turning to ESCOs - energy service companies -- to do the work and to guarantee a certain level of energy and cost savings over a designated period of time.  We heard from Chuck McGinnis from Johnson Controls, one of the many companies that has gotten a tremendous amount of business of this sort. 

For a look at the full agenda from this Symposium, click here. Download ~$ergy Efficiency and Sustainability Agenda.

Tufts Receives a Coveted NSF IGERT grant for Water Diplomacy

I am very happy to be one of a small group of Tufts faculty to have been awarded a NSF IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) grant to support a new Ph.D. program in "Water Diplomacy."  The idea behind the grant is to provide financial incentives ($30,000/year stipend and full tuition waiver) to doctoral students entering existing disciplinary-based Ph.D. programs to expand their research into other disciplines involving water and water conflicts. 

It seems inevitable that water will soon become the most pressing environmental challenge all around the world. Although no one has yet fought a large scale war over water, serious conflicts have arisen. The expectation is that the intensity of these conflicts is likely to get worse, and few people are prepared for such a possibility. So this program will allow students of water science or water engineering to study issues of water policy, diplomacy, and conflict resolution. It will allow students of diplomacy to study water science and engineering.  The expectation is that we will train a small generation of new scholars and professionals who understand water issues from a variety of different scientific, engineering, and social science perspectives.  If you think you might be interested in this program, or know somehow who might be, check the Tufts Water Diplomacy web site for details.

Tufts hosted the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Conference

Last week (October 20th - 22nd), Tufts hosted the international meeting of the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge winners.  Every year, Dow sponsors a competition for targeted colleges to make awards to graduate students who are working on projects or products that promise to contribute to sustainability. This year's event featured Mindy Lubber of CERES as the keynote speaker, and was attended by the members of Dow's Sustainability External Advisory Council, a very distinguished group of world leaders on sustainability including Seetha Coleman-Kammula from Simply Sustain, David Cook of The Natural Step fame, Liz Dowdeswell, former Executive Director of the U.N.'s Environmental Program, and others.