Green Omaha Coalition Featured Articles

Omaha Named North American Host City For World Environment Day - June 5th 2009

2009-05-05T09:50:00.003-05:00

Washington, D.C./Omaha, Nebraska – April 13, 2009 – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has selected Omaha as the host city for the North American celebrations of World Environment Day 2009. This year’s theme is “UNite to Combat Climate Change.”

As host city, Omaha businesses, organizations and individuals will work with UNEP’s Regional Office for North America (RONA) to schedule a series of World Environment Day events, as well as events taking place during the six weeks that “bridge the gap” between Earth Day on April 22 and World Environment Day on June 5.

Commemorated each year in more than 100 countries around the globe, World Environment Day is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. With thousands of events in UNEP’s six global regions including North America, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and West Asia, World Environment Day is considered one of the largest environmental events of its kind.

The selection of Omaha reflects the city’s commitment to environmental and sustainability issues. This commitment is demonstrated by the creation of the Green Omaha Coalition, a partnership of public agencies, non-profit groups and private organizations dedicated to promoting a healthy, sustainable community through partnerships, policy, and smart solutions, as well as Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey’s signing of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. In addition, Omaha was recently ranked 25th nationally in SustainLane’s 2008 U.S. Cities Sustainability Rankings.

According to Mayor Fahey, “Maintaining the sustainability of our environment remains a priority for the City of Omaha. The six-week campaign bridging Earth Day and World Environment Day offers an opportunity for individuals to learn about the environment, re-examine their own impacts and take action to prevent further environmental degradation.”

“The issue of climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time,” said Amy Fraenkel, Director of UNEP’s Regional office for North America. “While UNEP thinks globally, we must act locally by engaging partners from all sectors of society, including cities, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, youth, and the media. It is important to bring this message to all parts of the United States, and we are proud to partner with Omaha on World Environment Day 2009.”

Throughout Omaha and at venues around the world, events will highlight resources, initiatives and methods that promote low carbon economies and lifestyles, such as improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation and eco-friendly consumption, among others.

Bayer Corporation, UNEP’s World Environment Day partner in North America, will sponsor the youth program, including the opening of a special exhibition of the International Children’s Painting Competition (ICPC) in Omaha, an awards ceremony for ICPC North American winners and an interactive environmental workshop for Omaha students led by Dr. Mae C. Jemison. Former director of the Jemison Institute of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College and founder of the international science camp, The Earth We Share (TEWS), Dr. Jemison is a scientist, educator and the nation’s first African-American female astronaut. She also is Bayer’s national spokesperson for its company-wide Making Science Make Sense® program.

World Environment Day was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the June 5 opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP. Mexico City, Mexico will serve as the 2009 international host city.

About the United Nations Environment Programme’s Regional Office of North America (UNEP RONA)
The Regional Office for North America (RONA), located in Washington, D.C., is one of six regional offices for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). RONA’s mission is to foster cooperation on environmental issues in the United States and Canada, thereby promoting effective responses to global environmental challenges. RONA’s strategy to achieve these goals includes promoting collaboration between UNEP and various sectors of North American society, facilitating the participation of the region in UNEP-sponsored global events and activities, developing environmental education initiatives, and organizing environmental awareness-raising campaigns.

For more information, please contact: Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, Deputy Director, UNEP RONA at egc@rona.unep.org, tel: (202) 974-1307 or (202) 812-2100; Tess Cieux, UNEP RONA at tc@rona.unep.org, tel: (202) 785-0465; and Kate Kavanaugh in Omaha at (402) 393-8537 or by email at kate.cavanaugh@gmail.com.

www.omahaenvironmentday.com
www.rona.unep.org
www.unep.org

Please register any environmental events between now and June 5 with Mike Klug at moklug@cox.net for publication on the Omaha Environment Day website.

Earth Day Events

2009-04-06T11:37:00.008-05:00

Celebrate Earth Day!
Earth Day Omaha www.earthdayomaha.com
Saturday, April 18 Elmwood Park 808 S. 60th Street

Join the Earth Day Omaha celebration April 18 at Elmwood Park. Admission is free. Highlights include displays, exhibits, and hands-on events from noon to 6 p.m.; food and live music from noon to 8 p.m., and a beer garden from 3 to 8 p.m.

Earth Day Omaha also is teaming with GRX to collect and responsibly recycle electronic devices. GRX will be at Earth Day Omaha from noon to 6 p.m. to accept your devices and will take anything with a plug, except for refrigerators and air conditioners. It's free; however, an $8 charge applies for computer monitors and a $15 charge applies for certain televisions.

The keynote speaker at Earth Day Omaha is Dr. Richard Komp, an international solar energy expert who has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry and a minor in physics. He has conducted ongoing research on solar panels since 1960 and lives in an off-grid home he designed and built in Maine. Dr. Komp will speak at 4.05 p.m. Find more information at ceen.unomaha.edu/nses.

Lincoln Earth Day
www.lincolnearthday.org
Sunday, April 19 UNL Campus

Lincoln Earth Day 2009 will be held Sunday, April 19th from 1 to 5 p.m. on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. The theme is "Energy – A Time for Action" and the event will spotlight effective ways of using "energy" to make Lincoln a more sustainable community. Lincoln Earth Day will be full of learning opportunities for energy conservation and renewable energy innovations, but even more importantly, for using human energy in the form of personal and political engagement to hasten the transition to sustainability. Dr. Komp also will present at Earth Day Lincoln. The time has yet to be announced.

From Here to Community Garden - A Community Garden Panel

2009-01-16T10:47:00.001-06:00

“The most important word in Community Garden isn’t garden.” This statement, attributed to food activist and journalist Mark Winne, reminds us that bringing good food to people is more about the people and culture than about carrots and potatoes.

In his book, "Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty," Winne presents the benefits of community gardens: “In addition to supplying low-income residents with healthier and more nutritious food, community gardens have been tagged with many other beneficial characteristics by their advocates. Among those cited by Jerome Kaufman and Martin Bailkey in their paper "Farming Inside Cities" are reducing the amount of vacant and unproductive urban land, improving the public image of troubled neighborhoods, increasing the amount of neighborhood green space, developing pride and self-sufficiency among inner-city residents who grow their own food, and providing jobs for youths and adults.”

Community gardening is succeeding in the Omaha metro. The Green Omaha Coalition’s January Green Living Workshop will focus on the successes and challenges of these endeavors.

The GOC is hosting a community garden panel, titled “From Here to Community Garden.” The purpose of the panel will be to acquaint attendees with the concept and benefits of community gardens and provide them with practical information on how to support and/or start a community garden. Come and hear about the successes and the challenges of expert community gardeners around Omaha.

The panel will be comprised of the following representatives: Andy Jameton (City Sprouts Community Garden), Stephanie Ahlschwede (BIG Garden Project), Chris Foster (Gifford Park Community Garden), Dave Lampe (Lamp, Rynearson & Associates Corporate Community Garden), and Norita Matt and Dave Fanslau (City of Omaha Planning Department). Topics of discussion will focus on funding, volunteers, leadership, land acquisition, resources and case specific stories.

Please join us for “From Here to Community Garden – A Panel of Community Garden Experts and Zoning/Land Use Representatives” on Saturday, January 24 from 10 am to noon at the Neighborhood Center, 115 S. 49th Avenue in Omaha. This panel is free and open to the public. To RSVP, please e-mail Trilety Wade at trilety@hotmail.com.

Open House for Natural Environment Element

2008-12-08T10:09:00.003-06:00

OMAHA - How can Omaha improve the sustainability of its natural
environment? The City of Omaha and Omaha by Design are seeking the public's
input on this issue at a public information open house set for Thursday,
Dec. 11. The event, which is free and open to all interested members of the
Omaha community, will be held at Lauritzen Gardens, 100 Bancroft St., from
6:30 to 8 p.m.

On Nov. 6, city officials and Omaha by Design announced plans to create an
Environmental Element (EE) for Omaha's master plan to address the
sustainability of the city in a comprehensive manner. The EE will cover
five major topics: the natural environment, urban form/transportation,
building construction, resource conservation and community health.

The Dec. 11 event is an opportunity for the public to share their thoughts
on what should be included in the EE' natural environment component, said
Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design.

The evening will include a brief overview of issues associated with the
natural environment, followed by a public information open house. An
information station for each of the natural environment's strategic goal
areas will be set up. Members of the Natural Environment Advisory Committee
and city staff will be available at each station to answer questions and
record comments.

Funding for the initiative, which will receive significant city staff and
resource support, is provided by grants from the Papio-Missouri River
Natural Resources District, the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency and the
City of Omaha's Stormwater Management Plan Program Grant from the Nebraska
Department of Environmental Quality. Communications support is provided by
HDR.

Metro Area Transit Route 10 stops at 6th and Bancroft near Lauritzen
Gardens. For those who drive to the meeting, carpooling is encouraged.

For more information, contact Omaha by Design at 402.554.4010 or email info@omahabydesign.org.

Learning from our mistakes, Omaha can protect our trees' future

2008-08-25T14:49:00.004-05:00

If you're looking for the Green Homes Tour, click here.

The metro area's June windstorm did a number on our trees. The good news: we can improve our community and the environment, not only by realizing where we went wrong with our trees in the past, but how we can do right by our trees in the future.

There are several ways in which we went wrong. According to Jack Phillips, a registered consulting arborist based in Omaha, the heart of the problem is that we don't know how many trees exist–or existed–in Omaha.

"In this area, we don't really have anyone who keeps track of trees," Phillips said. "If you don't know how many you have to begin with, it's difficult to assess the damage. Our losses certainly were in the hundreds, and many more are yet to die."

A project he started prior to the storm is working to determine the number and type of trees in downtown Omaha with the Downtown Business Improvement District.

Phillips said most of the trees he examined throughout Omaha after the windstorm were not killed by the storm, but had been damaged prior to it. There are many factors that contribute to failed trees, including tree selection, incorrect planting, construction, incorrect care, and prior storm damage.

"We know which species are more storm resistant, he said. "It doesn't make sense to plant trees that are highly susceptible to storms and disease."

Phillips said many trees are planted incorrectly, and the cause is often improper instructions.

"Many things that are written and taught about planting are simply incorrect," he said. "There are lots of misconceptions about tree planting. What is important is that there's a proper site analysis so the correct species is planted. People often ask me 'What's a good street or shade tree?' It depends on the site. What's a good tree in your yard may not be a good tree in your neighbor's yard."

Construction often is a detriment to healthy trees. Phillips said many people involved in construction believe that if they somehow stay outside the drip-line of a tree, or the horizontal extent of the canopy, the tree will be fine. But that's not the case.

"The root zone of the tree needs to be identified,” he said. “The critical root zone is determined by the size, age, species and condition of the tree. Then appropriate measures need to be taken to keep the work, equipment and construction activity out of the area.”

Incorrect care can seriously damage trees. Synthetic nitrogen is harmful to trees.

"A tree becomes greener after it's fertilized, but it's often at the expense of the root system," Phillips said. "Automatic irrigation can also be a detriment to trees. First, the installation of sprinkler systems can damage roots. Second, most tree specifies don't do well with consistently wet soil. It creates soils with low oxygen content. People really are trying to do nice things for trees, not realizing the harm that's done."

Another factor that contributes to the impairment of root production and growth is placing mulch too close to the tree trunk. Landscape fabric, river rock and added soil can do lots of damage to tree roots.

"Planting around the trunk of a tree–adding 'tree tutus'– causes huge problems," Phillips said. "It's like leaving a diaper on a baby too long. It causes diaper rash."

Phillips believes the ice storm of 1997 affected trees more than this summer's windstorm.

"We're still cleaning up from that storm," he said. "Many trees that fell this time were damaged in '97. I believe that the clean up was worse than storm. Many trees planted at that time set the community up for failure. Many trees were removed that didn't need to be, and many were pruned that should have been taken down. There was lots of structural decay because trees weren't pruned correctly or should have been removed. Many replacements were not good urban trees."

The top solution to the metro area's tree dilemma: education by experts.

Residents and businesses can contact the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. Its experts can make recommendations for planting as well as provide proper planting instructions. They also can contact a registered consulting arborist, such as Phillips, who provides similar assistance. The Nebraska Forest Service also can be contacted. It provides education and services to Nebraskans in all aspects of planting, protection, care and utilization of our forest and tree resources.

The ReTree Nebraska program is an additional educational resource. Its primary goal is to work in partnership with people across Nebraska to foster the proper planting and maintenance of one million new trees by 2017.

Financial resources are available to neighborhood associations for tree replanting, including a grant from the Omaha Public Power District for up to $2,500. The Nebraska Forest Service and Nebraska Statewide Arboretum are also giving grants to communities.

Phillips would like to remind people of the significance of trees to the community.

"Trees change the character of a community," he said. "The social value of trees is left out of the conversation. It's pretty easy to talk about the environmental benefits of trees, but trees really make the character of a neighborhood more than we realize. I think there's a great psychological, social and spiritual impact when we have storm events. That's all the more reason why we ought to really pay attention to how we plant and care for our trees."

Phillips also will lead a walking tour of the Gifford Park neighborhood during the Green Home Tour, held on September 6.

Tree education resources:

Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, http://arboretum.unl.edu/
Jack Phillips, registered consulting arborist, consultingarborist.org
Nebraska Forest Service, http://www.nfs.unl.edu/
ReTree Nebraska, http://www.nfs.unl.edu/retreenebraska.asp

2008 Green Home Tour Sept. 6

2008-08-11T10:15:00.004-05:00

OMAHA - Metro area residents will have the opportunity to learn how to green their living environments this fall in conjunction with the 2008 Green Home Tour. The event, the first of its kind in Omaha, is set for Saturday, Sept. 6, from 1 to 5 p.m.

The tour, presented by the Green Omaha Coalition’s Green Neighborhood Council, will feature four homes. Each will focus on a different sustainability topic – food, water, energy and materials. Participants will also be able to take a guided walking tour of one of Omaha’s sustainable neighborhoods, Gifford Park, including stops at the Gifford Park Community Garden and the Community Bicycle Shop of Omaha.

“We want the public to know that greening your home or apartment can be easy, affordable and even fun,” said event organizer Tim Hemsath, chair of the Flatwater Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. “The tour will be a great way for people to learn about sustainable practices by observing them firsthand.”

The tour stops are outlined below.

• The Food Home
Located at 1412 N. 35th St., this tour stop will feature an edible garden and orchard tour.

• The Energy Home
Located at 350 N. 36th Ave., this tour stop will feature examples of energy-saving practices that will work in your home or apartment. (The guided walking tour of the Gifford Park neighborhood begins at The Energy Home.)

• The Water Home
Located at 5073 Jackson St., this tour stop will feature indoor and outdoor examples of water conservation practices.

• The Materials/Resources Home
Located at 1018 S. 36th St., this tour stop will feature a home that’s been constructed with repurposed materials and designed with energy savings in mind.

Tour goers will receive free “green” giveaways at each home while supplies last. A “green” grand prize drawing also will be held at each home.

The cost of the tour is $5 per person. Proceeds will help fund the Green Neighborhood Council’s programs and activities. Tickets can be purchased at any of the tour homes the day of the event.

Media sponsors for the 2008 Green Home Tour are The Reader and KIOS 91.5 FM.

Hemsath said a host of organizations have collaborated to help plan the inaugural tour, including the Flatwater Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Sierra Club, City Sprouts, the Community Bicycle Shop of Omaha, the Gifford Park Neighborhood Association, Omaha by Design and Destination Midtown.

Financial support is provided by the Omaha Public Power District, the Metropolitan Utilities District and Home Energy Defense.

For more information about the tour, contact Hemsath at 402.472.4472 or themsath@gmail.com.

Green Your Eating

2008-07-02T13:46:00.001-05:00

“Eat Locally” – But why?

Ask seven Omaha foodies why it’s important to eat locally and this is what you’ll learn.

Taste & Nutrition: Local produce - harvested close to the “sell date,” - is fresher and more nutritious than national/global food because fewer “in transit” days are required to bring the food to your table. Choosing locally means you eat kale from Blair, Nebraska, not California.

Food Security: Good food for all, this is “Food Security” at its simplest. Growing and purchasing locally grown/raised produce/meat increases the local food supply - providing greater access to healthy food for families/citizens. For more information see www.foodsecurity.org or www.usda.gov and search “Community Food Systems”

Resiliency: – Producing and consuming within one region (e.g. local) reduces dependence on external resources. A “resilient” community indicates a city’s/town’s ability to be resilient enough – i.e. produce enough food locally – to prevent a crippled economy in the face of food or oil shortages.

Economics: Purchasing food/meat from local farmers/ranchers, who direct funds back into the community, builds a sustainable economy. When you pay a local grower/rancher, you are paying for the production of your food – not for packaging, long-term storage, or long-distance transportation. And when food is in-season and plentiful, it’s usually inexpensive too!

Bio-diversity: Liberating your food choices from a commercial market, dominated by a few hybrid varieties, means you have more decision-making power about what varieties of fruits/veggies/even meat you eat. A dwindling agricultural gene pool creates concern about the vulnerabilities of monotypic crops – think Irish potato famine and Food Security.

Lifestyle: Gardening creates connections - connections between people and nature, consumers and producers, and citizens and their community. Growing food for yourself/family/friends/consumers can engender a sense of awe and it’s fresh-air-exercise!

“Peak Oil”: Peak Oil is the concept that oil is a finite natural resource and the world is running out of cheap, easily accessible oil. If your food was 1) grown with commercial chemical inputs, 2) harvested with oil dependent equipment, 3) transported long-distances via trucks/ships, and/or 4) wrapped in petroleum-based packaging – then your food is Oily! Growing and eating local food can reduce our oil dependence and mitigate effects of “peak oil.”

Start “Eating Locally”

Visit Farmers’ Markets in Omaha

o Omaha Farmers’ Market-Downtown – 11th & Jackson Streets – Saturdays, 8:00 am to 12:30 pm www.omahafarmersmarket.com
o Village Pointe Farmers’ Market – 168th & Dodge – Saturdays, 8:00 am to 1:00 pm www.voterealfood.com
o Omaha Rockbrook Farmers’ Market – 10744 W. Center Rd. – weekdays 10am to 6pm
o Benson Farmers’ Market – Military Avenue & Maple, Saturdays 8am to noon
o Bancroft Street Farmers’ Market – 2702 S. 10th Street, Sundays 10am to 1pm
o Cirian’s Farmer’s Market – 4911 Leavenworth Street, 402.551.1879
o For markets in the State of Nebraska, visit www.agr.state.ne.us/pub/apd/produce.htm or www.localharvest.org

Join a Food Co-op Visit the Nebraska Food Co-operative – www.nebraskafood.org - to find a variety of local meats, cheeses, eggs, and baked goods.

Join or start a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Visit www.csacenter.org or www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml. The Alternative Farm Systems Information Center defines a CSA as a “community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farm becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the grower and consumer providing mutual support and sharing responsibilities and benefits of food production.”

Community Gardening allows you to cultivate food on a nearby plot of land with other food-interested folks. You can learn and grow side-by-side with neighbors and friends. Omaha’s community gardens include the City Sprouts garden at 40th & Franklin (www.omahasprouts.org), the Gifford Park Community garden at 35th & Cass St. (www.giffordparkomaha.org), and 13 BIG Garden Project gardens (www.gardenbig.org). To find out more about community gardening visit www.communitygarden.org.

Be a Local Food Advocate Talk to the managers at your local grocery store and restaurants, members of the school board, representatives of your city, and your local corrections system. Explain to all these folks why choosing locally produced/raised food/meat is important and see how you or your organization can work with them to begin buying local!

Grow Your Own Food: Land doesn’t need to be “set aside” to produce crops. You can plant a kitchen garden (www.kitchengardeners.org) or a square-foot garden (http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Build_a_Square_Foot_Garden) - a modified style of Biodynamic & French intensive gardening. Better yet, become a permaculturist. Developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, permaculture – permanent culture and permanent agriculture - includes good practices from many disciplines and systems, and offers them as an integrated whole, a sustainable earth care system. Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture explains, "Permaculturists can grow food just about anywhere, repair environmentally damaged lands, design lovely and long-lasting green buildings, produce power, run successful, people-oriented businesses, and build authentic community--all by using the same fundamental permaculture principles and applying a Permaculture Ethic: Care of People--Care of the Earth--Share the Surplus." (www.midwestpermaculture.com)

Don’t limit yourself – try locally “value added” foods like flour! Visit www.agr.state.ne.us and click the “Food & Meat Directory” link under “Brochures.”

Please attend the Monthly Green Living Workshop: Green Your Eating - 10:00am to 12noon on Saturday, July 26, 2008, at Village Pointe Farmers’ Market – (south side of Village Pointe Shopping Center, 168th & W. Dodge Rd.) Learn what questions to ask your local growers, see a demonstration by chefs of the Metropolitan Community College Institute of Culinary Arts, and be introduced to food storage – and sign-up for a chance to win Green-Food prizes. RSVP to Trilety Wade at trilety@hotmail.com.

The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Green Neighborhood Council of the Green Omaha Coalition (www.greenomahacoalition.org)

Collaborative effort by Food Choices Committee of the Green Neighborhood Council – (Trilety Wade, Kathy Townsend, Mary Green, Nancy Williams, Katja Koehler-Cole, Daniel Lawse)

Firstar Fiber Turns to RecycleBank to Boost Recycling for Nebraskans

2008-04-25T09:23:00.004-05:00

Firstar Fiber (Firstar) is proud to announce an exclusive relationship with RecycleBank, a rewards program that motivates households to recycle. Firstar is the first to offer this groundbreaking and totally recharged way to recycle across all of Nebraska. Through Firstar's partnerships with haulers throughout the state, the average household in the program can expect to earn hundreds of dollars worth of rewards each year through their recycling efforts.

Here's how it works:

RecycleBank motivates households and communities to recycle by rewarding RecycleBank Reward Points to households for their recycling efforts.

Households receive a cart embedded with an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip and all recyclables (with no sorting) are placed into the cart for curbside pickup
Recycling trucks retrofitted with RecycleBank technology read the RFID chip and record the amount the household recycles
The weight and participation is then translated into RecycleBank Reward Points These Points can be viewed and redeemed at www.recyclebank.com with hundreds of national and local RecycleBank Reward Partners such as Coca-Cola, Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS/pharmacy, Hy-Vee, BLIMPE and Kraft Foods.

The first private hauler to offer this program to its subscribers is Elkhorn Sanitation Services (ESS) which services households in the Omaha area. In the Lincoln area, service will be offered through RecycleLink.

To sign up for the RecycleBank program in NE, contact the participating hauler or go online to www.recyclebank.com and click on the request service button.

About Firstar

Located in Omaha, Firstar Fiber provides processing for commercial and residential recyclables. Firstar Fiber uses processing technology that allows recyclables to be commingled at the point of generation. This technology is called:"single-stream" recycling. The company provides this and other recycling services throughout Nebraska and a good portion of the Midwest Region. From Firstar Fiber's facility in Omaha the company sells the sorted recyclables to markets both national and internationally. Firstar Fiber was founded in Nebraska in 1997. Visit www.firstarfiber.com for more information

###

About RecycleBank

RecycleBank is a rewards program that motivates people to recycle. It does this by quickly and easily measuring the amount of material each home recycles and then converting that activity into RecycleBank reward points that can be used at hundreds of local and national rewards partners. RecycleBank is simple to implement, market-driven and proven to work, saving municipalities' money and rewarding citizens for their environmental stewardship. Visit www.recyclebank.com for more information.

Neighborhood Scorecard

2008-04-16T13:43:00.007-05:00

Download the Scorecard here!

Dear Neighborhood Leader,

Are you interested in finding out how "green" your neighborhood is?
Does the opportunity to work with organizations to "green up" your neighborhood interest you?
Would you like to be recognized for your efforts to create a "green neighborhood?"

Then keep reading!

Green Neighborhood Council Launches Scorecard
The Green Omaha Coalition's Green Neighborhood Council has developed the Green Neighborhood Scorecard, a tool to be used to assess the "greenness" of neighborhoods while identifying areas of environmental need.

Download the Scorecard here!

Why Your Neighborhood Should Participate
Neighborhoods that complete and submit the Scorecard will help the Green Neighborhood Council do the following:

Find out current "green" scores for neighborhoods in Douglas County
Assess what environmental information/resources are needed by neighborhoods in Douglas County
Develop practical projects to create "green" neighborhoods
Establish a baseline to help you measure your neighborhood’s environmental progress

The Scorecard is
The Scorecard is a 15-question survey to be completed at a neighborhood level. Topics covered in the survey include Waste & Recycling, Food, Water & Stormwater, and Transportation.

The scorecard also provides practical tips and resources for neighborhood leaders to use in their efforts to begin greening their neighborhoods.

Completing the Scorecard is an interactive process that will require respondent(s) to get out and walk around their neighborhoods to find answers to most of the survey questions. The Scorecard can be completed over a few days/outings.

How Can My Neighborhood Participate?

You can find the Green Neighborhood Scorecard included with this letter
The Green Neighborhood Scorecard will also be available for download, starting April 15, 2008, at the Green Omaha Coalition website www.greenomahacoalition.org.
Copies of the Green Neighborhood Scorecard can be picked up at the Neighborhood Center for Greater Omaha, 115 S. 49th Avenue, Omaha, NE
Additional Scorecards can be mailed to you by contacting Ann Hosford (Scorecard Committee Member) at 551.4862.

Submittal Deadline

Completed Scorecards should be submitted to the Green Neighborhood Council by 30 June 2008
Completed Scorecards can be mailed/dropped-off to the Green Neighborhood Council Co-chair, Daniel Lawse, at the Neighborhood Center for Greater Omaha, 115 S. 49th Avenue -- Omaha, NE 68131

Outcomes

Neighborhoods with high scores will be eligible for recognition at a neighborhood summit scheduled for September.
Interested neighborhoods, which have submitted a completed Scorecard, will be eligible to work with the Green Neighborhood Council, and other environmental groups, to learn ways to create a green neighborhood.

Get Involved In Shaping A Leaner, Greener Omaha

2008-03-14T09:39:00.013-05:00

The Green Omaha Coalition's five councils are anticipating a busy year filled with workshops and activities that will help make Omaha one of the greenest cities in the country.

The GOC's councils (Public Agency, Green Education, Green Neighbor- hood, Green Business and Design and Construction) promote various grassroots activities in the Omaha metro. We encourage you to visit one or more of the council sites (Just click "Councils" on the navigation bar to your left) and drop us a line with your suggestions on how to build a more sustainable Omaha. We also encourage you to check out our calendar of events and let us know about your own green events and activities. Finally, we encourage you to get involved in the exciting work of one or more of our councils.

The Green Neighborhood Council offers a good example of how volunteers are becoming involved in their community. Homeowners from downtown to the edge of the metro area use a consensus-based planning process to address such issues as reducing waste and increasing reuse and recycling, efficient energy use and clean energy, local food markets and sustainable water use. Current and upcoming projects include the development of a "Green Neighborhood Scoreboard" to identify what makes a neighborhood green and to create a baseline from which to measure progress. The council also sponsors workshops that educate individuals on best practices and sustainable ways of living and is planning a "Green Home Tour" among many other activities. It's a great time to sign up and get involved in the exciting work of this energetic council.

The GOC's Green Business Council is also bringing tremendous energy and excitement to businesses large and small interested in sharing sustainable practices and recognizing leading green businesses in Omaha. The focus of the GBC is to engage interested businesses from all industries to improve the sustainability of their operations, addressing such issues as procurement, resource efficiency (energy and water), waste reduction (solid and hazardous), climate change, and green building.

There has never been a better or more important time to get involved in your community. Sign up today and become part of a growing movement to make Omaha a healthier and more sustainable community.

JOIN IN MAKING A GREENER OMAHA BY BECOMING A MEMBER TODAY!

Slumming in Suburbia?

2008-02-15T16:31:00.004-06:00

The subprime mortgage crisis is more than just bad news for the economy. In fact, it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sustainability of our cities according to Christopher Leinberger, a professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan. In the March 2008 issue of the Atlantic, Leinberger writes that fundamental changes in American life may turn many of today's McMansions into tomorrow's tenements. The mass of foreclosures nationwide will only spur migration back to more compact and walkable urban areas, predicts Leinberger, resulting in vast neighborhoods of empty McMansions that will become the slums of tomorrow.

Leinberger notes that police are now mapping foreclosures in suburban communities to predict emerging criminal hot spots. He cites places around the country including Elk Grove, California, where 10,000 homes were built in less than four years and where many of these homes are now empty. There is graffiti, broken windows, gang activity and other signs of decay.

"A structural change is underway in the housing market - a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work," Leinberger writes. "It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound."

Thankfully the mortgage crisis has had less of an effect on the Omaha metro, but we should nevertheless be mindful of changes taking place in our living patterns. We can make all of our neighborhoods, urban and suburban, better places to live and work through sustainable practices. The GOC's Green Neighborhood Council, for example, is engaging neighborhoods from downtown all the way to Gretna in an emerging dialogue to make all of our neighborhoods better, healthier and greener places.

Partnering With OPPD in Sustainable Energy

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With the recent approval of a one percent rate increase to fund a new renewable-energy initiative program, OPPD is showing conservation leadership while also issuing a challenge to those who benefit from its power generation--all of us--to help the utility meet its environmental goals.

The rate increase translates into about $5 million annually that OPPD will use to develop incentives for customers to conserve and expand its use of renewable energy.

According to Marc Nichols, OPPD manager for sustainable energy and environmental stewardship, the cheapest kilowatt is the one never used. He said utilities with a strong commitment to sustainable energy have found that they can meet about two-thirds of their projected growth through conservation, and that the other one-third could be met through building renewable energy projects.

The ultimate success of OPPD's initiative depends on all of us to do our parts to conserve energy. This is not about making sacrifices, but rather about breaking some bad habits and exercising some common sense in our energy consumption.

If the program succeeds OPPD can delay construction of another power plant, a step that will help reduce our carbon footprint as well as future costs to energy consumers.

As a founding partner of the Green Omaha Coalition, OPPD is offering its leadership working toward sustainable energy solutions. It is up to those who benefit from that energy to make the initiative a success.

Noted New Urbanist Headlines November 15 Conference

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"We are committed to reestablishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community, through citizen-based participatory planning and design." From the Preamble of the Charter of the New Urbanism, 1996

The first signature to appear on the 1996 Charter of the New Urbanism belongs to noted urban planner Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, who will be among the featured speakers at "Envisioning Nebraska: Building Resource Efficient Communities," from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 15 at Quarry Oaks Golf Course near Ashland.

Plater-Zyberk, co-founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, will be joined at the conference by Susan Seacrest, founder of the Lincoln-based Groundwater Foundation and recent recipient of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment; and Brad Klein, Environmental Law Fellow at Chicago's Environmental Law and Policy Center.

Public policy and development practices are the primary shapers of our communities. "Envisioning Nebraska: Building Resource Efficient Communities" will examine how our future quality of life in the Omaha metro and beyond will depend on leaders and citizens coming together to shape those policies and practices.

The conference sponsor, Omaha-based Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities, shares the Congress for New Urbanism's inclusive and interdisciplinary approach to community and regional planning and its goals to support the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.

Those wishing attend "Envisioning Nebraska: Building Resource Efficient Communities" should RSVP by Nov. 12 to Katie Torpy by calling 402 595 1902 or emailing ktorpy@sustainabledesign.org

Registration is $15 per person and is payable at the door. Funding for "Envisioning Nebraska: Building Resource Efficient Communities" is provided by the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund.

For more information visit www.ecospheres.com

October Featured Article

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The shaping of the earth was an integral part of the shaping of the city—and preceded it. That intimate biotechnic relationship is one that (we) disrupt at our peril...

-Lewis Mumford

The built environment is a major contributor to the degradation of our global environment and its finite natural resources. How we have built our buildings, and how we have designed our communities, is simply not sustainable.

On a global level, the challenge seems overwhelming. But in our towns and cities, in our neighborhoods and homes, leaders and citizens are coordinating, streamlining and enhancing public-private efforts to make efficient use of resources and create healthier, more economically viable and culturally vibrant communities.

In this spirit the Green Omaha Coalition was formed in December 2006 to facilitate and accelerate the adoption of green practices, policies, and programs in the Omaha metro through partnerships, policy initiatives, and smart solutions.

The GOC gathers together the collective energies of the many individuals and groups in the Omaha area that are dedicated to building sustainable communities, serving as a conduit for communication and collaboration among various public and private groups and organizations.

There is much hope for a sustainable Omaha, a city that was signatory to the 2005 U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement resolution on global warming and a city that is dedicated to building a healthier community through such neighborhood-scale initiatives as Omaha by Design and Activate Omaha.

It is through the collective efforts of the Green Omaha Coalition that the city will continue to make strides toward a sustainable future and the goal of the 2006 U.S. Conference of Mayors to dramatically reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

We hope you will visit our website often and become involved in the many projects and initiatives that will build a sustainable Omaha and help shape and inspire a sustainable future for communities everywhere.