CitiesGoGreen - January 2009 - (Page 26) got three and more are studying for the test. We put together a study group this year, so that was another fun project. There are lots of those kinds of projects always going on. From what the Mayor was saying you are kind of the… The glue. Yes, you pull it all together somehow. Yes, I’m the glue. I’m kind of the go-to person, especially for outsiders who don’t know who to call. If you go to the web you can always find me, and you can always send me an email. And even though it might be a Public Works-related issue or something like that, I can help steer it. I usually give people my phone number and say, “Call if you run into problems, but here’s how to go about it.” I don’t have direct authority over any other department, so some of my job is convincing people that this is the right thing to do. But a lot of our staff are so incredible. They are out there doing stuff that I don’t even know about until after the fact. I think it’s important to realize that I’m not the only driver in this program. The way it’s set up, people in Public Works are empowered to do the right thing, people in Purchasing are empowered to do the right thing, people in Regulatory Services—and they are doing it, they truly are. How long have you been doing this job? In various forms I’ve been doing this job since 2005. At one point, I was doing this and I was also the manager of the environmental regulatory program. That got to be a little much! What are the challenges that you have faced over those years? The challenge is always resources, but I think keeping the staff short helps. It really does work to have all these other departments take on sustainability initiatives that in other big cities the Sustainability Department would do. Having Public Works do the right thing is a lot easier than having me work through Public Works to do the right thing. So where there aren’t a lot of resources, there are also some efficiencies involved that make it really wonderful. Also there is never enough time. In my opinion, climate change is truly a serious 26 issue. We have to get moving yesterday. I can lose sleep over that one pretty easily. But what makes my job so incredible is the mayor and how supportive he is. And I have 13 Council members who are all right there too. I don’t have anybody that is anti-environment. If anything, I get too many ideas and think, yeah, we should be doing this, and yeah, we should be doing that. How do you discriminate? How do you narrow the field to what is actually possible for you? Some of it is thinking, is there a partner out there who could do this work, and all they need is a little bit of support? Or is “We’ve got employees who are doing incredible things, there a department where this fits more things I often don’t know about until after they’ve into their business happened. And it’s very, very important for our long-term line, and all they need are resources? success that these hard-working folks with too much For example, when work to do get the credit for going above and beyond.” I first went to our Fleets department —Prest and said, “Let’s form a Green Fleets team,” they said “Sure!” I didn’t want to So you’re really sharing the limelight lead it, I just wanted to be supportive, with all these other people who are inso I set them up with some of the folks I volved in various ways. knew in the state that were into that, and Absolutely. We’ve got employees who are it was really easy for them to get going. doing incredible things, things I often don’t know about until after they’ve happened. So part of your job is putting people And it’s very, very important for our longand organizations in touch with term success that these hard-working folks each other. with too much work to do get the credit for Initially that was a huge part of it, but going above and beyond. now we have a lot of great technical experts in the various departments. At the Is there any advice you have for other beginning I would put folks in touch with, cities that want to be more sustainable for example, the leading green architects. and to inspire their city departments to Now the leading green architects call go more in that direction? us and want us to be on their teams for First, decide what’s important. And different things. So more and more I don’t you can start small. Then, figure out need to do that kind of work. the matrix. What is your baseline? And One of the things that I’m good at now then, you would be surprised how is finding out things that are happening many hidden champions there are in an nationally. Folks internally know a lot organization and how many partners about who our partners are regionally, there are out there willing to work with but I can give them various perspectives you, even anxious and excited to work on what other cities are doing, and give with you. And then it kind of feeds on them contacts to staff there. itself. The first couple of years are harder, And I can give you lots of stories about but our annual sustainability report, for our staffers. When we started making our example, is getting easier and easier to city operations buildings more green, do. In fact we have too much stuff to the staffer that was working on it started report! We end up having to say, no, we having so much fun with his job that can’t put that in, even though it’s great. Finance and Commerce, a local newspaper, Sustainability does build on itself. It put a picture of him on the cover that said creates a momentum all of its own. v January 2009 “Mr. Sustainability.” It wasn’t me, it was him, and that was so cool! And our fleets guy—this guy who was buried in the organization became chair of the green fleets committee, and he just took it on. We got him in front of the City Council when he’d never been in front of the City Council before, and it was just so much fun. And with our green cleaning policy, we’ve had TV cameras come out to interview employees that have to clean bathrooms, and they give you great stories, saying ‘I love this stuff, I don’t have to worry about my eyes, my skin ’ http://www.CitiesGoGreen.com
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