By Susan Jarvis and Judy Sheahan
February 6, 2006

Environmental Committee Chair Charlotte Mayor Patrick McCrory focused the Committee’s attention on the issues of green buildings, water reuse, regionalism, and land use planning. These topics were “best practices” to help alleviate major environmental problems identified by the Conference of Mayors including global warming, water availability, and air quality.

“At our last meeting in Chicago, two important topics came forward – the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement which challenged mayors to do what we could to reduce a city’s impact on climate change and the Urban Water Council’s survey results which indicated that 35 percent of 414 cities that responded did not know where their water would be coming from in 20 years,” McCrory said. “The Solaire Project in Battery Park, New York City, is a best practice solution for both of these problems,” he added.

Susan Kaplan, Senior Project Manager for the Battery Park (NY) City Authority and Dr. Andrew Higgins, Chief Technical Officer for Applied Water Management, gave an overview of The Solaire Project, a Gold LEED certified building, which has an independent wastewater treatment and recycling system that reduces the demand for potable water by up to 50 percent. The Solaire Project is a 92-acre site, comprised of both commercial and residential developments. In addition to meeting Gold LEED standards, the building was held to strict architectural standards, including street walls, stone bases and masonry facades, in order to create a “real environment." The building features a central air filtration system that filters 85 percent of particulates, and provides each apartment with fresh filtered air that is heated and humidified during cold weather, and cooled and dehumidified during warm weather. The energy efficiency of the heating and cooling system is further enhanced by design features, such as window selection and placement that take advantage of passive solar heating, and planted roof gardens that help alleviate the heat island effect that plagues most urban environments.

The Solaire was the first beneficiary of New York Governor George Pataki's Green Building Tax Credit, which allows building owners and developers to deduct expenses associated with the design and construction of “green” buildings.

McCrory also stated his passionate commitment with dealing with environmental problems holistically across media and as a region. “I feel strongly that efforts need to be coordinated among jurisdictions,” McCrory said. “For example, it doesn’t matter if I do something to improve air quality in my city and if the neighboring counties or states don’t do their part. Much of what we deal with – air and water issues to name two – doesn’t have the same borders that our jurisdictions do.”

A best practice example of working together is a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Program in the Charlotte region. Charlotte is one of 84 governmental jurisdictions participating in the SEQL (Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life) initiative; a program designed to support the region’s efforts to develop integrated and sustainable long-range planning. The program addresses air and water quality, transportation, land use, energy use, and economic development. According to presenter Jeff Clark, Director, Policy Analysis and Communications Staff Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, US EPA, SEQL is putting in place environmental improvement measures and developing a regional vision in order to incorporate environmental considerations into planning. So far, the 84 jurisdictions have implemented 732 actions impacting air quality, water quality, sustainable growth, and other environmental measures.

Kevin Greenwalt, CEO of Novelis North America presented plaques to the Cans For Cash Winners. For the second year, The US Conference of Mayors and Novelis sponsored the Cans For Cash City Recycling Challenge, which challenged like sized cities to recycle the most aluminum cans during a two-week period. “We are pleased with the results of this year's campaign and want to thank communities for their enthusiasm and tremendous effort in encouraging their residents to recycle aluminum cans,” said Greenawalt. This year, more than 40 cities collected over three million pounds of aluminum cans equating to 107 million used beverage cans.

The winners of the $5,000 awards for the most aluminum cans recycled are:

Division One (population 250,000-) Milwaukee, – Mayor Tom Barrett at 1,002,792 pounds

Division Two (population 100,000-249,999) Knoxville, – Mayor Bill Haslam at 182,672 pounds

Division Three (population 50,000-99,999) Des Plaines, (IL) - Mayor Anthony Arredia at 356,380 pounds

Division Four (population below 50,000) Artesia, (CA) – Mayor Larry R. Nelson at 73,020 pounds

To help mayors engage their communities in recycling and raise awareness about its importance over the long term, cities submitted innovative education and marketing ideas for an additional $5,000 award. The cities being recognized for the most innovative campaigns are as follows:

Division One: Louisville – Mayor Jerry E. Abramson

Division Two: Salt Lake City – Mayor Rocky Anderson

Division Three: Fargo – Mayor Bruce Furness

Division Four: Monticello (IN) – Mayor Bob Fox

All presentations are available on our website at usmayors.org/mwma.