Make my city greener, leaner and greater by...
Citizens in Hazel Park, Southgate and Ypsilanti are partnering with their city governments to create local climate action plans. Through a yearlong public planning process, these cities are asking residents for their ideas to reduce greenhouse emissions, improve environmental quality, enhance quality of life, and save energy and money. The final climate action plans will strategically identify and prioritize sustainable strategies in order to achieve community goals.
This site is a supplement to our public meetings and allows residents from across the three cities to share ideas. For more information on how to get involved in person or to see the information we’ve collected so far, follow this link.
How would you make your community greener, leaner and greater? Share your ideas below!
27 results found
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encourage businesses to have close to work employees
give incentives to businesses who hire walkers or bikers. Or have businesses pay for parking spaces of employees to encourage walking/biking workers
2 votes -
Purchase Neighborhood Electric Vehicles for use by code enforcement and other city functions where a full size vehicle is not needed.
Full size, 8 cylinder vehicles are not needed to transport workers to a job site, or to enforce codes in the city. Non-public safety activities such as transporting workers to a worksite, checking fire hydrant operation, code enforcement, even civic patrols can be better served by using electric vehicles within city limits. At 10 vehicles replaced, the results would be as below.
$3.30 Price of Gasoline ($ per gallon)
$0.0988 Price of Electricity ($ per kWh)
15.7 Miles per Gallon of Vehicle Replaced
0.2 kWh per Mile of New Vehicle
12,042 Average Annual Miles per Vehicle
7,670 Annual Gasoline Savings…2 votes -
Using Programmable thermostats to turn down the heat or cooling in residential, commercial, and civic buildings
ENERGY STAR recommends turning down your thermostat by 8 degrees Fahrenheit on winter nights and 8 degrees on winter days when you’re not home. However, while this degree of energy saving / greenhouse gas reduction may not be comfortable for all, the savings are as follows:
For every degree you turn down your thermostat in winter, at night or during the day, you would save 29 dollars a year, and save 248 pounds of c02 a year. If 7000 homes did just one degree of heating savings, we could prevent 868 tons of c02 per year.
2 votes -
Educate the citizens of the city that own their own older homes to insulate their outside walls and attic with cellulose insulation.
I am exploring insulating my exterior walls with GreenFiber cellulose insulation. This is "green" insulation, since it is made with recycled newsprint. This insulation is blown in through 1" holes in either the exterior of the home, or in the interior walls of the home. A 1" hole saw is used to do the holes between wall joists. A small home, with 915 of square foot wall area, would take about 15 bags of this insulation, for a cost of 148.12. Home Depot rents the blower for free with a purchase of 20 bags. Only problem is the holes needed…
2 votes -
Commit to purchasing "green" generated electricity from the DTE "Green Currents" program, or purchase Renewable Energy Certificates.
While not a perfect option, doing this generates the most "bang for the buck" in terms of reducing the greenhouse gases that are generated by electrical use. We all can't make our own clean power, but by purchasing green energy, we force the utility to create and generate clean power. For example, in a city with 16000 residents, a 20 percent "green power" buy could reduce the greenhouse gases (c02e) by 9,997 metric tons a year, while costing the average resident a whopping 18 dollars and change A YEAR!
Renewable Energy Certificates are similar in principle to the purchase of…
1 vote -
1 vote
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lower or eliminate the recycling bin fee
the loss of bin fee revenue might be offset by greater SOCCRA payments for increased recycling
1 vote
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