Cleveland goes green in attempt to save energy, environment
Associated Press
CLEVELAND – The city is using a $226,000 grant to fulfill the wishes of environmental groups and a city councilman to find ways to help save energy, preserve the environment and create related jobs.
The city’s new sustainability programs manager position is one of several similar jobs popping up in cities around the nation. Seattle, Chicago and Portland, Ore., also have hired sustainability experts.
In Cleveland, Andrew Watterson is charged with making Cleveland green. He’s earning $60,000 a year, paid from the two-year grant from the Cleveland and Gund foundations. The rest of the money is used to hire consultants.
Councilman Matt Zone and local environmental groups pushed for the position, which was supported by Mayor Jane Campbell. The city will decide in 2007 whether to make the job permanent.
“His salary is going to more than pay for itself,” Zone said.
Chicago’s environment commissioner Sadhu Johnston spearheaded projects there that included retrofitting light bulbs in city buildings. Others have saved the city millions, he said.
Johnston said the focus on sustainability is “not about being a tree hugger” but running an efficient, responsible government.
“There’s no doubt this is the future of cities, this is the future of industries,” he said.
Watterson, 28, said he must work to change the image that environmentalists are always activists.
“We live in a capitalist society,” Watterson said, and the message must be put in that context.
His focus now is on relatively simple, inexpensive changes such as replacing incandescent light bulbs with low-mercury, longer-lasting fluorescent bulbs. Establishing a no-idling policy for diesel-fueled city trucks and completing an energy audit on a city building to pinpoint how to cut costs are other efforts.
The city had been working on a three-year plan to install LED bulbs in traffic lights. The LED bulbs are more expensive than traditional incandescent ones. But incandescent bulbs usually need to be changed after six months; LEDs can last eight years. That should save about $2 million in annual labor costs, Watterson said.
Another project he hopes will reap significant savings is a new City Hall roof. In the fall, he will recommend an energy-saving replacement for the dark concrete block pavers. One option is a “green” roof, which would include grass, trees and plants.
Watterson wants Cleveland to become known as one of the cheapest cities in which to do business when it comes to heat and electricity costs.
Watterson, who grew up in Hunting Valley and lives in Ohio City, has spent several years in Cleveland working on environmental projects, such as the EcoVillage, a group of energy-efficient townhouses in Cleveland. The Cleveland Environmental Center, which boasts the city’s first green roof, is another one of his projects.
Supporters say he’s bright, energetic and a good listener. And because he has worked in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, he knows what it takes to bridge the goals of both worlds, they say.
Scott Sanders, executive director of the Earth Day Coalition, said Watterson’s two-year stint must prove a point to skeptics: Being environmental is not just about doing things that are good for the environment, but also about doing good business.
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Posted by: noble on August 11, 2005 at 10:15:54