Community Sustainability

The next meeting of the Green Practices Committee will be held on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 6:30 pm at City Hall in the second floor conference room.  The Committee agenda will include a discussion on the progress of sub-committee reports and to review and finalize documents that will make the Green Practices Committee into a formal Commission. 

September 2 meeting agenda GPC Meeting Agenda - September 8, 2010
GPC August 11, 2010 Meeting Notes GPC August 2010 Meeting Notes 
Attachment Summary of Environmental Projects and Draft Commission Framework Document

August 2010 meeting agenda GPC Meeting Agenda - August 11, 2010
GPC July 14, 2010 Meeting Notes GPC July 2010 Meeting Notes

July 14, 2010 meeting information:
July 2010 meeting agenda GPC Meeting Agenda - July 14, 2010
GPC June 9, 2010 Meeting Notes GPC June 2010 Meeting Notes

The Mission of the Green Practices Committee of University City is to encourage sustainable practices and programs that improve the health and quality of life of our community; restore and protect our natural resources, and strengthen our economy.

AmerenUE Energy Assistance News - Energy Assistance Newsletter - August 2010

The initial designs are in for the UHome UCity green homes sites in the Sutter Heights neighborhood.  Graduate architecture students from the Washington University Sam Fox School of Design have submitted their initial designs to the green homes team (the City, Arcturis, Richard Reilly, Don Koster, and Green Space Construction) for our initial review.  Descriptions and drawings of the 10 designs are located on the City's Facebook page here. Comments by the general public are encouraged as the team will be narrowing down the list of potential designs and making revisions to insure that the homes can be built for under $200,000 and meet the highest level of green certification by the US Green Building Council.  

The UHome UCity team is still going strong.  Graduate architecture students from Washington University-Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts have made their initial presentation of their architectural plans to the green team ( the City, Arcturis, Richard Reilly of Trumpet Builders and Green Space, the construction firm for the project) last week.  Selection of the plan(s) for the five properties in the Sutter Heights neighborhood will be made shortly.  The City is also seeking a lending institution to be available to potential buyers.  You can read more about the project at www.uhomeucity.com

In addition to building new LEED certified green homes in the Sutter Heights neighborhood, the City is also working closely with St. Louis County's Community Action Agency (CAA) to bring green to the existing neighbors through home weatherization.  CAA hosted a town hall meeting for folks living in the Sutter Heights neighborhood. Sutter Heights was chosen as the pilot/test site because it is the location of where the new LEED-Platinum homes will be built.  

The meeting provided residents with information on the home weatherization program and how simple improvements, such as insulation, new water heaters and furnaces, repairs to windows and exterior doors, new refrigerators and replacing all light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulb (CFLs) will drastically reduce the energy use in the home.  The City would like to "green" the entire neighborhood and demonstrate to U Citians how they can green the earth and their pocket books.Not only will these measure help save the planet, it will add much needed "green" to your wallet.  If a family meets the federal income requirements, CAA will make some or all of the improvements to the home at no cost!   

The municipal parking lot #5 located near the Post Office (west Loop) has been reopened for use. The total project cost is around $130,000 which includes not only the new permeable pavers, but sidewalk, curb, entrances, demolition of the old brick wall and installing a new decorative fence.  The project was financed by the Economic Development Fund.  Although the permeable pavers are more expensive to install on the front end than asphalt, the  pavers will pay for themselves over time because of the 25 year lifespan, low maintenance costs and reduction in costs to MSD for impervious surfaces. The new pavers are also more ecologically sound. By reducing the amount of storm water runoff entering our natural waterways, permeable pavers help protect the quality of our water from contaminants and pollutants. And with less runoff comes less flooding, which in turn helps reduce the rate of erosion on river banks and stream beds. Creating natural filtration and groundwater recharge helps keep our ecological system intact. In fact, research has proved that permeable pavements can reduce pollutants found in surface runoff, like sediments, pesticides, chemicals, and heavy metals, an average of 60-80%.  The next parking lot to be refurbished with a permeable surface is the Tivoli lot.

The Green Practices Committee is seeking volunteers to be on subcommittees to help devise the specifics of the City's Sustainability Plan.  The subcommittee will explore and make recommendations for actions the City and its citizens can do to make us more sustainable.  The Committee seeks citizens who have a expertise or a genuine interest in the following subjects: 

1) Land Use/Open Space/Parks
2)Transportation/Mobility
3) Energy (Traditional/Renewable)/Emissions
4) Green Building 
5) Waste/Resource Conservation 
6) Ecosystems/Habitat 
7) Air Quality and
8) Water/Stormwater  

If you would like to participate in these important subcommittees, please contact Staff Liaison Lynnette Hicks at 314-505-8567 or  

Green Tips     Fall 2010 Household Chemical Collection Events 

Green Tip #1
We Encourage Everyone To Use Reusable Water/Drink Containers. You can keep tons of individual water bottles from crowding up landfills and even save on the energy that would be used to recycle them by using reusable drink containers.  Keep an eco-friendly drinking container or bottle that can be refilled and re-used.  If you are planning a small meeting or training, offer an eco-friendly drinking container or provide glassware instead.

Green Tip #2
Recycle at Work (and Home)! Did you know you can recycle at your desk?  Place unsoiled paper, drink containers, magazines, cardboard, etc, right into your recycling container.  It can all be mixed together as long as it is not soiled with food.  Almost 90 percent of the waste generated at work can be recycled.  Help preserve the environment, do your part, and recycle!  If you need a recycling container contact Public Works.

Green Tip # 3
Switch to Compact Fluorescent Bulbs as your existing bulbs burn out, replace them with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs).  CFLs use 75% less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.  They are more expensive (although the prices have been dropping) but the investment will pay for itself 10 times over during the life of the bulb.  You can save $45 over the life of one bulb and reduce emissions of CO2 by 67 pounds over the lifetime of one bulb. This is the easiest green thing you can do! 

Recycle your used CFL bulbs by depositing them in the CFL container at City Hall on the 3rd Floor (Public Works Department). This specially marked CFL bulb container was provided by AmerenUE as a part of their UE Efficiency program. Please, no florescent tubes.

Recycle your used Rechargeable Batteries and cell/mobile phones in a specially marked Call2Recycle container at City Hall on the 3rd Floor (Public Works Department). We recycle Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-ion), Nickel Zinc (Ni-Zn) and Small Sealed Lead (Pb)*weighing less than 11 lbs./5kg.

Green Tip # 4
Driving Tips to Reduce Emissions and Increase efficiency of course, we would love for you to walk, ride a bike, or take transit, but if you drive there are ways to reduce the emissions produced by your vehicle and increase your fuel efficiency (which means using less gasoline). 

Here are a few tips:  Avoid "jack rabbit" starts and aggressive driving.  Flooring the gas pedal not only wastes gas, it leads to dramatically higher pollution rates.  Once second of high-powered driving can produce nearly the same volume of carbon monoxide emissions as a half hour of normal driving.

Use Cruise control.  Keeping a steady pace burns gas at a constant temp, which lets you go as much as 10% farther on a single tank. Likewise, try to anticipate stops and let your vehicle coast down as much as possible.  

Clean Air Filters and Keep Tires inflated. 

A yearly tune up can improve a car's efficiency by 15% and keep more than one ton of carbon dioxide out of the air. Pump your gas at night when temps are cooler.  This help prevents fumes from entering the air when you pull the nozzle in and out of the vehicle. 

Tighten your gas cap until it clicks 3 times.  Each year in the US 147 millions gallons of gasoline evaporates into the atmosphere because of loose, damaged or missing gas caps!

Download this document for more tips.