Sustainable City Network Magazine - Vol. 15 - April 2015

BEST PRACTICES FOR LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE.

SUSTAINABLE CITY NETWORK

VOLUME 15 APRIL 2015

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WINTER BIKE COMMUTING RACKS UP MILES

9 PARKS GUIDE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 13 BIOMASS PROJECT BENEFITS 27 CROWDSOURCING CONNECTS THE DOTS

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contents

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Cover photo Š 2015 Ingram Image Ltd.

VOLUME 15 APRIL 2015

Rails-to-Trails Project Spurs Local Economy

7

How Parks Can Guide Regional Development

9

Biomass Project Provides Economic, Environmental Benefits

13

Marin County Partners Launch App to Track Sustainability

16

Concrete Ideas for Reducing Concrete Waste

17

Older Volunteer Workers a Boom, not a Bust

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College Rivalries Grow into Recycling Competition

22

Crowdsourcing Connects the Dots

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cover story

WINTER BIKE COMMUTING RACKS UP MILES

24

Nurses in High Demand as Cities Compete for Quality Health Care

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Sustainable City Network Magazine

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Free Webinar April 23, 2015 Learn how Sullivan County, N.H., planned and implemented a $3.4 million biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) district energy system to serve its 166-bed nursing home and 168-bed prison complex, among other buildings in Unity, N.H. The system is almost entirely fueled by locally sourced, renewable wood chips. Presenters include Sullivan County Facilities Director John Cressy and Bob Waller of Thermal Systems, Inc., who managed all specification and procurement services for the project. Sponsored by Hurst Boiler.

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from the editor Welcome to Sustainable City Network Magazine – the Best of sCityNetwork.com! This quarterly magazine is a compilation of the most popular articles on our web site and in our email newsletter, the InBox, which is delivered to more than 40,000 leaders in government, education and healthcare across the U.S. and Canada. Sustainable City Network produces advertiser-supported, non-partisan articles, webinars, trade shows and white papers that provide local institutions with quality, organized and timely information about sustainability projects, plans and best practices. This magazine is another way we fulfill our mission.

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OUR MISSION “To make U.S. cities more sustainable through quality and well-organized information.”

As we wrap up a very cold and snowy winter in many parts of North America, our lead story is an encouraging feature about the recent surge in bicycle commuting, even through snow and bitter cold temperatures.

Congratulations to the top U.S. cities for rates of bicycle commuting: Davis, Calif. (19.1%), Boulder, Colo.

(12.1%), Palo Alto, Calif. (9.5%), Eugene, Ore. (8.7%). Even cities in some much colder climates made the top 10, including Cambridge, Mass. (8.5%), Madison, Wis., (6.3%) and Missoula, Mont. (6.2%).

In other top stories: Learn how a “rails-to-trails” partnership between Johnson City and Elizabethton, Tenn., focused on history and natural heritage to create economic and community development opportunities.

The 10-mile “Tweetsie Trail” is nearly complete and is enhancing the educational, recreational, business, employment and quality of life opportunities for citizens of both communities.

The Parklands of Floyds Fork in and near Louisville, Ky., (Page 9) is featured in an article that explores how parks can use green infrastructure on a regional scale to manage urban growth and popularly-supported community development.

Other articles in this issue focus on a biomass combined heat and power installation in Sullivan County, N.H.; an application that tracks sustainability progress in Marin County, Calif.; ideas for reducing concrete waste; how to connect with and recruit volunteers of all ages; RecycleMania, a college recycling competition between millions of students in 48 states; a nursing shortage that threatens to become a critical economic development and workforce concern for local communities and regions; and how to use crowdsourcing to gather public input.

The articles in this magazine have been selected by our readers. We’ve packaged them together in this convenient magazine format, available as a digital download or in print at sCityNetwork.com/Bestof.

We hope you find value inside.

The U.S. Leader in Sustainability News & Information Best Practices for Leaders in Government, Education and Healthcare [3]

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Winter Bike Commuting Racks Up Miles U.S. Bicycle Commuting Up 61% Since 2000

BY F. ALAN SHIRK

Biking is not just for summer commuting. As bicyclists – and the cities they live in – are discovering, getting around on two wheels works when there’s snow on the ground too.

It just takes a little planning.

While winter cycling or “ice biking” can be challenging, especially in the A RT HUR ROSS North, not only are more cyclists hitting the streets year-round, but cities are increasingly more bike-friendly, working closely with any number of bike advocacy and community organizations.

In America, the country of car culture, biking to work winter and summer has increased by about 60 percent in the past decade, according to USA Today, but cyclists still account for less than one percent of all commuters. In Copenhagen, 50 percent of residents commute by bike and the city has more bikes than people.

During the years 2008-2012, about 786,000 Americans commuted by bicycle, up from about 488,000 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That jump is the largest percentage increase of all commuting modes tracked by the 2000 Census and the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

Some large cities more than doubled their rate of bike commuters, according to Brian McKenzie, a Census Bureau sociologist and author of the survey. Portland, Ore., had the highest bicycle-commuting rate at 6.1 percent, up from 1.8 percent in 2000; Minneapolis saw its bicycle commuting rate jump from 1.9 percent to 4.1 percent.

The survey reported the Top 10 U.S. cities with populations of more than 65,000 residents with the highest rates of bicycle commuting are:

8. Santa Barbara, Calif., 6.9 percent 9. Madison, Wis., 6.3 percent 10. Missoula, Mont., 6.2 percent

Survey Population Measured The survey measured the percentage of commuters who bike to work, as opposed to walking, taking public transit, driving or using another form of transportation, McKenzie said. College towns and cities ranked high as students and faculty of universities often live very close to where they work on-campus or close to campus.

GearJunkie writer Stephen Regenold said untold thousands of people in the U.S. pedal year-round to work or school, commuting on city streets and plowed trails.

“New cycling equipment, better apparel and a growing awareness of the feasibility of wintertime riding has caused a jump in participation.

The attraction? Street parking is free. Gas prices do not apply. In a storm, two wheels and pedals can be faster for getting around a city than a car struck in a traffic jam,” he wrote.

“Winter riding is not without hardship. Evenings come early, forcing riders to pedal home in the dark. Snowdrifts squeeze streets, eliminating a comfortable side lane for bikes. Frozen fingers and feet are common issues for the unprepared. But dress right, use fenders and lights on the bike, maybe add studded tires, and commuting in the bleak months can be comfortable and efficient.”

Boulder and Madison are among the best cities for winter cycling, and ones where there is a strong partnership between local government, bicycle groups, civic organizations, environmentally friendly agencies and other champions of sustainability. Boulder is a platinum-level and Madison a gold-level Bike Friendly City, as designated by the League of American Bicyclists.

1. Davis, Calif., 19.1 percent

Boulder’s Approach

2. Boulder, Colo., 12.1 percent

Marni Ratzel, senior transportation planner for Boulder for 13 years, said the city stresses and supports a balanced approach to commuting that includes walking, biking or using public transit.

3. Palo Alto, Calif., 9.5 percent 4. Eugene, Ore., 8.7 percent 5. Cambridge, Mass., 8.5 percent 6. Fort Collins, Colo., 7.9 percent 7. Berkeley, Calif., 7.6 percent [4]

“We want to recognize and celebrate the culture of the people who choose to live and work in Boulder. Cycling is obviously part of our culture,” she said. “As part of our master transportation plan, a long-

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term goal is to reduce single occupant cars to only 25 percent of our commuting total. More year-round bike use can help achieve that.”

Ratzel and her staff strive to raise awareness for and promote 60 miles of bike paths.

“That includes telling everyone what a great place Boulder is to bike in the winter,” she said, adding that many Boulder cyclists say their bicycles are faster than getting across town in a car held up by winter weather and traffic.

The city recently held its seventh annual “Winter Bike to Work and School Day”, Ratzel said, which attracted more than 1,000 riders and about a dozen local businesses serving breakfast and encouraging commuters. That same day, a new Bus-Then-Bike shelter was unveiled as the “crown jewel” of the redesigned Boulder Transit Center. This shelter includes 144 free, secure bike racks.

Madison, Wis. is a very bike-friendly city and is proactive in supporting winter cycling, said Arthur Ross, pedestrian-bicycle coordinator for the city of Madison. “We take biking seriously,” Ross said. “We recognize that bikes are out there and Madison strives to do the best it can for people who ride.”

According to MetaEfficient.com, Madison’s successful bicycle infrastructure has made getting around town by bike such a feasible venture that many Madison bike commuters do continue on through the winter months. Currently, the town has 87 miles of bike lanes and 43 miles of off-road bike paths that are quickly cleared of snow by the

Bike to Work believes that riding a bicycle can be a fun way to get to and from work while increasing physical activity, reducing traffic congestion, helping the environment and saving money. While the yearly cost of owning and operating a vehicle is more $9,000, or 18 percent of the average household’s income, owning and maintaining a bicycle can cost as little as $120 per year.

The Bike to Work website is maintained by the Pedestrian Bicycle and Information Center (PBIC), a national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access and mobility for pedestrians (including transit users) and bicyclists. The PBIC serves anyone interested in pedestrian and bicycle issues, including planners, engineers, private citizens, advocates, educators, police enforcement and the health community.

Winter Riding Tips Workshop Community Cycles, a non-profit organization of Boulder bicycle enthusiasts, also held a workshop offering tips about winter riding as part of the Winter Bike to Work event.

“Luckily, we live in a town in which citizens have funded, supported and valued a wonderful bikeway system that can keep cyclists off the road a majority of the time,” said Sue Prant, executive director of Community Cycles. “As I’ve seen during the recent cold snaps and snow, these paths are cleared early and often.

“Winter commuting by bike is not an all-or-nothing deal. You can start slowly, build confidence and skills, and even cherry-pick good weather days. What you’ll find is that it is invigorating and very doable,” she added. “We educate the community about bicycle safety, and advocate for the use of bicycles as affordable, viable and sustainable transportation.” n

Another excellent example of what bikers mean to Boulder is the annual June Bike to Work Day, held since 1977, Ratzel said.

Samantha Thomas, a built environment manager at Blue Zones, LLC, commutes to work on a bicycle on a recent day in Albert Lea, Minn., where the temperature was minus-15 degrees.

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“Winter riding is not without hardship. Evenings come early, forcing riders to pedal home in the dark.

Snowdrifts squeeze streets, eliminating a comfortable side lane for bikes. Frozen fingers and feet are common issues for the unprepared. But dress right, use fenders and lights on the bike, maybe add studded tires, and commuting in the bleak months can be comfortable and efficient.” parks department. Many Madison cyclists claim the bike paths are often cleared before the streets.

improvement ($89 million) and value of greenhouse gas reductions ($1.1 million).

Website Supports Bikers

According to the study, “Bicycling enjoys a long history in Wisconsin.

County construction of bicycle paths was authorized by the legislature in 1901, and bike lanes on roads have been in use since at least the early 1940s.”

The city’s website devoted exclusively to bicycling is a great resource and support for year-round bike commuters, Ross said, and “all Madison Metro buses are equipped with bike racks available on a first come, first served basis.”

Ross has been the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator in Traffic Engineering for nearly 30 years and is himself a year-round bike commuter with a four-mile round trip. He “guesstimates” that as many as 20 percent of Madison’s commuters ride bikes.

Madison has created a master map of all facilities, roads, highways and other transportation links designating which city department is responsible for snow removal.

“Our Pedestrian/Bicycle Commission works closely with the Streets Department to ensure there is no duplication with snow removal.

This allows us to clear bike paths quickly. We have good lines of communication and work consistently to improve our ability to support bikers with efficient snow clearing,” Ross said.

Equally important, he added, is the positive impact biking has had on Madison, citing the 2010 study, “Valuing Bicycling’s Economic and Health Impacts in Wisconsin,” done by the University of WisconsinMadison’s Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

“The study estimates the value of recreational bicycling in Wisconsin and the potential health benefits from increasing the state’s bicycle commuting at nearly $2 billion,” he said. “For Madison, it means that bicycling can contribute substantially to our health and economic well being. And because the study helps us understand the demographics of current and future cyclists, we can better target future investments in winter and year-round biking infrastructure.”

Chicago is a major hub for winter cycling and is home to Bike Winter, an all-volunteer, grassroots project that began in 1999 and has since spread to other cities and towns. It also sponsors events in Madison.

According to its website, “The idea of Bike Winter is simple: with a little inspiration, education and determination, it’s easy to stay in the saddle year round. Add in the camaraderie of hundreds of riders and dozens of exciting events and there’s no reason to put your bike in the basement when the temperature dips and snow starts to fall.”

Dozens of volunteers organize events and promote Bike Winter, which has an email discussion list of more than 300 for planning and swapping tips and stories.

Chicago’s Chainlink There is also an active discussion group on The Chainlink, which offers a variety of resources to help local cyclists safely and comfortably bike through Chicago’s tough winters.

“For years, The Chainlink’s forum has allowed members to share tips, tricks and suggestions for successful winter biking,” Editor-inChief Brett Ratner said. “In our calendar, it’s never been hard to find educational events such as winter bike clinics. In addition, you can usually find social ‘snow rides.’

Five Categories Included

Many of the people involved in the early days of Chainlink and Bike Winter met through Chicago’s Critical Mass rides. Over the years, these rides have fostered a community of bicycle activists who have launched projects such as Break the Gridlock (BTG), a non-profit umbrella organization promoting appropriate transportation and reducing automobile dependence in the Chicago area. n

The study divides the value of Wisconsin bicycling into five categories: economic impact of manufacturing, sales and services ($598 million), economic impact of tourism and recreation ($924 million), value of additional physical activity ($320 million), value of air quality

Arthur Ross has been bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the city of Madison, Wis. Traffic Engineering Department for nearly 30 years and is a year-round bike commuter with a four-mile round trip.

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Rails-to-Trails Project Spurs Local Economy Tweetsie Trail to Link Johnson City and Elizabethton, Tenn.

BY TOM DOHERTY

When a community looks for economic and community development opportunities, the answer often lies in their own history.

Many communities are using recreational opportunities as major placemaking initiatives and a focus on history and natural heritage has been at the forefront of those decisions.

With a vision to use an abandoned resource to create a cultural link to their past, the cities of Johnson City and Elizabethton, Tenn., partnered to convert a ten-mile stretch of abandoned railway to a greenway to link their communities in a new way.

The two municipalities, with the help of several groups of stakeholders, successfully created new recreational opportunities, spurred economic development, and preserved a key to the area’s rich cultural heritage born around the railroad industry.

The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina (ET & WNC) Railroad originally commissioned the narrow gauge railway in 1868 connecting Johnson’s Depot, modern day Johnson City, to the iron ore mine in Cranberry, N.C. The section of the railroad, later recognized as the Tweetsie Railroad, was completed in 1888, and was part of the final link to connect Memphis to the Eastern Seaboard, according to a Johnson City Press article. The railroad provided ample access to Elizabethton and Johnson City, as well as to the valleys of the Watauga and Doe Rivers.

The railroad was known as the “driving force for the growth of the town,” and Johnson City was commonly referred to as “the Gateway to the Land of Sky,” because of the influx of tourism and business.

However, the Tweetsie Railroad closed to mining traffic, but because it was also constructed with a standard line - meaning both narrow and regular gauge - the rail-line transitioned to passenger rail, providing a means of daily transportation service between the two towns. It continued operation until 2003 and closed as a result of change in ownership and declining business in Elizabethton.

Beginning in 2005, the Johnson City Board of Commissioners led the charge to purchase a section of the former Tweetsie railroad to establish the first and only rail-trail, or conversion of a former rail-line to a low-impact pedestrian trail, in Tennessee. The first section of the rail-trail, 4.5 miles, is part of a major redevelopment effort that was completed without the assistance of state or federal funding. Rather, a dedicated task force – the Tweetsie Trail Task Force – involved several groups including Johnson City, Elizabethton, and Carter

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The first 4.5-mile section of the Tweetsie Trail was dedicated in August. The remainder of the 10-mile trail connecting Johnson City and Elizabethton, Tenn., is expected to be complete by 2016. Photo: Tweetsie Trail

County residents, and raised more than $475,000 for the construction of the first section of trail. In addition to the money that was raised, numerous stakeholders donated materials including pavers, signage, used rail ties, and assisted with construction.

The 10-mile Tweetsie Trail is expected to be completed in 2015 or 2016, and will run from Stateline Road in Elizabethton to Alabama Street in Johnson City. Johnson City Mayor Ralph Van Brocklin stated that “the Johnson City Commission and management are committed to utilizing all tools at our disposal to enhance the livability of our city and to enhance the educational, recreational, business, employment and quality of life opportunities for our citizens.”

A ribbon cutting ceremony on August 30 celebrated the inaugural Tweetsie Trail Trek, allowing cyclists, pedestrians, and each of the mayors to celebrate their efforts on the first section of trail.

“The passionate and committed grassroots effort that brought the Tweetise Trail to fruition speaks volumes about the benefits that railtrails bring to communities like Johnson City,” said Vice President of Trail Development for the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy Liz Thorstensen.

“Particularly in small and medium-sized cities, providing a safe, convenient and enjoyable place to walk and bike is proven to have a tangible and significant impact on the community. Our study of these impacts frequently reveals an increase in commercial activity near the [7]

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from businesses along the trail. In November, Trek Bicycles, a bicycle manufacturer and retailer, announced it will open a concept store in downtown Johnson City near the Tweetsie Trail. Store owner and Trek employee for 19 years Chad Wolfe viewed the location to the Tweetsie Trail as a major benefit to the concept store. He is focusing on attracting not only local cyclists and runners, but also outdoor enthusiasts from North Carolina and Virginia.

According to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, economic development opportunities from other rails-to-trails projects in the nation have had strong impacts on the local community and surrounding environs.

“These are all outcomes that have quantifiable economic and environmental returns,” said Sorensen. “Rail-trail projects like the Tweetsie Trail are proven to be very savvy and far-sighted investments that repay their cost many times over.”

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One of the many bridges constructed with funding raised by the Tweetsie Trail Task Force. Photo: Tweetsie Trail

trail, a boost in quality of life and real estate values, and an increase in regular physical activity.”

In the next couple of years the two cities will be reconnected by the complete Tweetsie Trail. However, after almost 12 years of abandonment, there has already been a resurgence of economic development from recreational opportunities, events, and interest

Like most community visions, it takes a team of dedicated stakeholders to support ideas, profess interest, and get their own hands dirty to make a project come to reality. What Elizabethton and Johnson City accomplished, eventually built a scenic pedestrian highway that will complement the area’s rich history for years to come. In addition to land-reuse projects, visitors and residents will be able to find alternative ways to commute to work or school, and find more reasons to go outside to see the mountains of East Tennessee.

Whether that means retaining business along the trail, or creating a connector that will promote healthy lifestyles, a rail-trail like the Tweetsie in any community can have similar impacts. n Tom Doherty is an environmental specialist with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation - Office of Sustainable Practices.

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How Parks Can Guide Regional Development Parklands of Floyds Fork Manages Louisville’s Largest Watershed

BY ERIC TAMULONIS AND CHARLIE NEER, WALLACE ROBERTS & TODD, LLC

Planned and designed properly, green infrastructure in municipal parks can spark and strategically guide urban growth, bring substantial benefits – including public health and community cohesion – and deliver higher quality environmental conditions.

At a regional scale, green infrastructure is a tool to help manage growth, directing what might otherwise become costly and resource consumptive sprawl to positive, popularly-supported community development.

The Parklands of Floyds Fork in metropolitan Louisville, Ky., is an example of how parks can bring “triple bottom line” benefits to a community.

In the mid-1990s, the Louisville and Jefferson County governments merged into a single metro government. The resulting parks and open space master plan adopted by city leaders then became Louisville Metro Parks’ green infrastructure planning mechanism. A key feature of this was the proposed 100-mile circumferential trail called the Louisville Loop, which connects the county’s three most prominent and remarkable natural landscapes. Among these is the Floyds Fork Valley, the context for the Parklands, which comprises one-fifth of the entire Loop and is the city’s largest watershed.

miles long and up to one mile wide, the Parklands is a large swath of lush rural landscapes, a mosaic of forests, meadows, fields and farmland. Recreational development is focused in several areas, including community and environmental education buildings, large event lawns, signature promenades, playgrounds, picnic shelters, dog parks, playing fields, community gardens and maintenance facilities.

The parks are tied together by a park drive, extensive trail system and water trail, all woven along a sinuous rural Kentucky stream named Floyds Fork.

The Parklands is the work of 21st Century Parks Inc., a nonprofit organization whose vision has guided the project and is responsible for building and maintaining it. The organization and its consultants have won awards from the Foundation for Landscape Studies, National Park Service, American Planning Association and American

The Parklands is a 4,000-acre municipal parkland made up of four major new parks, each larger than the city’s current largest, Olmsted Park. Twelve

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The Marshall Playground and Sprayground at the Creekside Center has been open for four years and has been voted as Louisville’s best playground. Dry laid stone walls frame the site and reflect the natural and cultural heritage of the Kentucky Bluegrass region.

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Society of Landscape Architects. Due to an ambitious, aggressive and successful public private funding strategy that raised more than $125 million since the project’s inception in 2006, the Parklands is scheduled to open fully next year.

Its master plan includes a long-term strategy to connect and integrate with surrounding communities and natural spaces. “Bringing nature into neighborhoods” is the credo of 21st Century Parks Inc., offering a promising way to extend regional green infrastructure into the daily lives of residents. The project provides object lessons in how parks as green infrastructure can provide multiple benefits for the public, including an increase in adjacent property value, transportation connectivity, flood mitigation, habitat protection, social and physical health, environmental education and cultural enrichment.

Below are some of the major ideas behind The Parklands master plan.

Mega Parks as Regional Identity The Parklands is among the largest of a current group of very large American parks, defined here as mega-parks. These are mostly brand new and somewhat unconventional parks, many of which are measured in thousands of acres, and have a significant regional impact. By virtue of their size and individual character, they help define a regional sense of place. The impact that public open space of this size can wield can be harnessed to serve larger growth management concerns as follows.

Open-space Focus as a Solution to the Problem of Sprawl Green infrastructure is a way to organize and manage community growth and diminish the environmental effects of urban sprawl. The Parklands serves as an open space focal point and amenity for adjacent neighborhood development, much as the city’s three celebrated original Frederick Law Olmsted parks did at the turn of the 20th century. The Parklands will dictate the form of urban development in the eastern metro area for decades to come, helping improve what Dan Jones, founder and CEO of 21st Century Parks Inc.’s calls, “Louisville’s leading edge.”

To address the Parklands’ role in neighborhood development, and to help assure a healthy context for its future, its master plan includes a long-term strategy for close relationship with surrounding communities and natural spaces. This “parks without borders” concept extends the influence of the park and links it to future community development along Floyds Fork’s tributaries and connecting roadways. In this way, The Parklands will be threaded into smaller community and neighborhood parks via a pedestrian/ cyclist-oriented system of trails, and into nearby habitat patches via riparian and forest corridors.

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At almost 4,000 acres and nearly 12 miles in length, The Parklands of Floyds Fork is Louisville’s new mega-park, led by 21st Century Parks Inc. The Parklands is made up of four major new parks linked by a park drive, a first rate urban trail system, and a remarkable water trail tracing the Floyds Fork creek.

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Long-established parks typically have a devoted user constituency, and almost every square inch is spoken for or contested by some special interest. In contrast, start-up parks, particularly megaparks in the planning stage, are generally too abstract, big and new for people to get their heads around.

The open spaces of Floyds Fork and their amenities will bring people from adjacent neighborhoods and throughout the Louisville metro area together to experience a more active and healthy lifestyle, while creating a lasting environmental legacy for the city. Ambitious programming provides environmental education for school children and activities for the general public, such as concerts, festivals, outdoor skills classes, nature hikes, charity walks/runs and farmers’ markets.

Programming Long-established parks typically have a devoted user constituency, and almost every square inch is spoken for or contested by some special interest. In contrast, start-up parks, particularly megaparks in the planning stage, are generally too abstract, big and new for people to get their heads around. The challenge of designating places for activities was addressed in the Parklands by creating key spaces as recreational activity areas called “pods” and linking them with the circulation network. As the process evolved, some of these pods were assigned specific facilities and activities, and some still remain unspecified, allowing for flexible future accommodation of uses as of yet undetermined.

Connectivity The park plan includes more than 145 miles of trails, roads and watercourses for hikers, bikers and paddlers (horse trails are still under consideration). The main trail, The Loop, connects surrounding communities and the remaining 80 miles outside of the park to most

parking areas at prominent trailheads located at major gateways.

From the trailheads, the Loop connects to three types of trails, each designed to present a contrasting experience. Signature trails lead to highlighted design features in the major public gathering spaces; informal gravel excursion trails provide easy access to the transitional landscapes between the designed spaces and forested backcountry; and remote low-impact trails farther inside the parks allow different degrees of challenge, exposure and isolation for the park visitors. Six canoe launches along the continuous water trail provide access for seasonal paddling trips of various lengths, accommodating a range of paddling abilities and endurance.

Implementation: Land Assembly and Permitting The Parklands’ land ownership pattern differs from other megaparks that are homogenous, previously-assembled parcels, such as New York’s Fresh Kills Park or California’s Orange County Great Park Central Park. The Parklands’ land assembly included more than 70 land transactions with properties crisscrossing Floyds Fork, presenting a challenge of stitching together a coherent park experience.

The resulting plan balances visionary contiguity with pragmatic accommodation of ownership: the Louisville Loop connects all major parcels, and a park road connects many, but county roads fill in the missing links in several locations.

Permitting By tying megapark planning and green infrastructure together, the approach to permitting was to plan and proactively portray

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and mitigate the impact of construction in the stream valley. While the construction of a park is a positive contribution, it still makes an impact, requiring some mitigation. Creating a habitat and environmental restoration can be part of a park’s mitigation strategy.

Regional Identity as Design Inspiration Architectural and landscape design reflect the natural and cultural heritage of the Kentucky bluegrass region. These iconic images create a distinctive local identity tuned to the spirit of the place.

The Parklands’ location in the Floyds Fork prompted every facet of design to reinforce the presence and quality of the stream as the central feature. Roads, paths and plantings respond to the dynamic, water-dominated ecosystem of the creek and its valley. Pathways and building locations reflect the fluid action of water, with its myriad forms of turbulence and serenity.

People encounter and experience the creek by going along, over and through the water. n

The Louisville Loop is a proposed 100-mile multi-use trail that will eventually encircle the City of Louisville. Nearly 20 miles of the Loop are being constructed as part of the Parklands project. The loop connects all major land parcels and its layout responds to the dynamic, waterinfluenced ecosystem of Floyds Fork Creek and its valley.

the Parklands as a comprehensive balance of environmental enhancements to mitigate the impact of construction. Among the very complex range of checks and balances in this approach, stream crossings and floodplain impact demanded the most involved regulatory compliance and permitting strategies. The permitting strategy addressed local and federal requirements based on the National Environmental Policy Act, triggered by federal funding awarded to the project.

The disturbances of bridges to the environment were minimized to avoid overstepping permitting thresholds. Other potential mitigation was avoided by thinking of new ways of obtaining permits for the project, such as treating each individual impact, rather than the impact of the entire project. Cultural resources, for example, were kept away from potential archeological sites to prevent having to relocate The Loop, park road or park programming. The park road is out of the flood plain and away from the Fork, but positioned as close as possible to water while still being sustainable.

The permitting process was eased by the intent of the park project to increase the environmental health of the area. Aspects of reforestation, creation of habitat through meadows, and riparian plants near the water were all intended to improve water quality

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Kentucky’s bluegrass–country architectural heritage, reflected by walls of stacked stone and the dark stained-wood siding of park structures, recalls the imagery of tobacco barns still prevalent in the park.

The iconic imagery of the bridges over Floyds Fork also serves to celebrate the affinity with water and the challenges faced in connecting the land parcels. Designed to suggest the energy and grace of a deer leaping across the creek, the bridges were created by local architects to merge contemporary and traditional craftsmanship using stone, steel and concrete.

Plantings around the edges of habitat areas are designed to echo these forms, and shape a rich middle ground between forest edge and buildings. With time, the simple pattern of fields and hedgerows will be greatly enriched by many techniques drawn from the rich history of classical and contemporary garden and park design, such as allee, bosque, grove, copse, garden, perennial border, maze, vista and axis.

These efforts shape the landscape for people, while deferring to the landscape that makes the Parklands special. They reinforce the project’s guiding principle that humans and nature are intertwined instead of separate opposing forces.

Conclusion Guided by the vision of 21st Century Parks, The Parklands at Floyds Fork offers numerous lessons in how to use green infrastructure planning to manage community growth and instill a healthy environment. Green infrastructure is a tool to enhance the future of towns and cities of every size, in any region. n

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Biomass Project Provides Economic, Environmental Benefits Sullivan County, N.H. Installs $3.4 Million CHP System

BY HARRIET LUBLIN AND KAREN PHILLIPS, HURST BOILER

Perseverance was the key for Sullivan County’s District Energy biomass project, but officials said it was more than worth the wait since the benefits have been immediate.

Sullivan County, N.H. was interested in utilizing biomass for quite some time in order to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and carbon emissions.

After much research by Facilities Director John Cressy and his team, the county purchased a Hurst biomass boiler district heating system with a backpressure steam turbine/generator to serve the county’s 166-bed nursing home and 168-bed prison complex, as well as two smaller on-site buildings in Unity, N.H. At a cost of $3.4 million, the Biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) District Energy System was constructed at its Unity Complex. The system is almost entirely fueled by locally sourced, renewable wood chips, provided by Cousineau Forest Products in Henniker, N.H., and produces inexpensive heat and electricity for the more than 215,000 sq. ft. of conditioned space. The system has replaced 95 percent of fuel oil purchases and 10 percent of electric purchases in the nursing home.

An initiative and a feasibility study for a biomass project was in progress when Cressy arrived five years ago, but he said it did not meet the county’s expectations and the entire project was shelved. Then the Wood Education and Resource Center stepped in and offered to do a new feasibility study.

“The study blew our minds,” Cressy said. “The numbers looked almost too good to be true.”

In the meantime, he also was busy researching biomass boilers for the project, looking at almost two dozen plants to see what they were using.

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The hybrid system in place.

“I ran into a (vendor) at the Northeast Biomass Conference two years ago and was shown some of his equipment. We liked the concept and robust nature of the ‘walking floor’ so I specified it in our bid package,” he said. “The equipment specified by the winning bidder turned out to be Hurst equipment.”

“Ninety percent of our fuel load has replaced fossil fuels,” (Facilities Director) Cressy said. [ 13 ]

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An example of the process schematic.

Sullivan County built a new 3,000 sq. ft. building for the project, instead of retrofitting another space. The front of the plant is a huge hopper where the chips are poured. From there, they drop onto a conveyor belt and are carried up to the boiler. By running a steam line to both facilities, the new biomass system provides space heating, hot water heating, power to steam dryers and to the kitchen of the jail and nursing home. Steam provided to the nursing home is used to drive the 40 kW backpressure turbine/generator, producing electricity. The exhaust steam is used throughout the nursing home.

At a glance

“Ninety percent of our fuel load has replaced fossil fuels,” Cressy said.

• Project cost: $3.4 million

Sullivan County officials are very pleased so far with the performance and savings from the new biomass system.

• Project savings: $300,000 annual energy savings plus avoided costs Energy profile (annual): • 120,000 gallons fuel oil, plus 5,000 gallons propane offset • 137,000 kWh electricity produced from renewable energy • 1,900 tons wood chips used • 1,200 tons net CO2 reduction Equipment: • Hurst Biomass Boiler – 5.0MMBtu/hr, 150 psi, Hybrid Design • Hurst Fuel Reclamation System – custom engineered to encompass a nine-tree reciprocating floor, this was a complex challenge requiring specialized construction designed to take into account the entirely unique natural terrain of the site, and the 15´ elevation discrepancy between the material handling and storage areas of the boiler room • Hurst ‘Oximizer’ Deaerator – with a duplex pump set • Hurst Propane Package Boiler – 80 hp, 150 psi [ 14 ]

“This will significantly lower our energy costs and create a net savings in the first year of operation,” said Jeff Barrette, chairman of the Sullivan County Commission.

The county estimates operation of the biomass plant at less than $300,000 a year by 2025, while fossil fuel costs for the complex would climb to nearly $1 million. They also project that the annual fuel savings will pay for the construction bond within 15 years. With the sale of energy credits, the county expects to receive a minimum of $75,000/year of offsetting revenue.

Bob Waller and his company, Thermal Systems Inc., coordinated and performed all specification and procurement services for the project. Waller and TSI oversaw the development of the equipment specifications, the equipment arrangement design and the procurement of the components necessary to meet the requirements of the county initiative.

“Even though it’s still a new system, I’m very pleased with the Hurst equipment,” Cressy said. “It’s robust, which is important in New Hampshire, as we put heating systems through a lot up here.”

The equipment utilized in the project included a biomass boiler at 5.0MMBtu/hr, 150 psi, with a hybrid design, a fuel reclamation

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system, which was custom engineered to encompass a nine tree reciprocating floor – a complex challenge requiring specialized construction designed to take into account the entirely unique natural terrain of the site, and the 15-ft. elevation discrepancy between the material handling and storage areas of the boiler room, an ‘oximizer’ deaerator with a duplex pump set and a propane package boiler at 80 hp, 150 psi.

The $3.4 million project was funded in part through several grants totaling $675,000, in addition to a tax-exempt bond through a local bank. Due to recent renewable energy incentives now available, the Sullivan County Unity District CHP Energy Project was able to secure several grants, including $75,000 from the North Country RC&D Grant, $250,000 for the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, and $300,000 from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission.

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The project layout.

In addition, the project allows all those energy dollars to stay in the local economy. Inspired by the success of this project, Cressy has been working on educational outreach through local schools and technical centers within the county about the benefits of biomass energy.

dollars into the local economy,” he said, noting that most of the woodchips used for fuel are found within a five-mile radius of the county complex. n

“One of the most important parts of this biomass initiative is building public awareness of the benefits of lessening dependence on fossil and foreign fuels, thus putting more

John Cressy will be featured in an upcoming Sustainable City Network webinar. For more information on this free one-hour webcast, see http://sCityNetwork.com/webinars.

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Hurst also manufactures a complete line of boiler room peripherals such as blowdown separator surge tanks, and pressurized make-up feed water tanks.

Join the Conversation

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Marin County Partners Launch App to Track Sustainability Web Site Tracks Progress Toward Climate Action Goals A partnership of 16 jurisdictions in Marin County has launched a new interactive sustainability tracker illustrating progress being made by local governing bodies, residents and businesses toward reducing emissions and increasing sustainable practices.

The Marin Sustainability Tracker includes 12 metrics gauging a community’s level of consumption and implementation of sustainability measures related to energy, waste, transportation, water and greenhouse gas reductions.

The Marin Climate and Energy Partnership was created in 2007 to address various energy and climate-related issues on a countywide basis. The partners include 11 cities, three public utilities, a transportation authority and the county itself.

The interactive map allows a user to see how a city or town is doing in comparison to other local jurisdictions over time and provides additional information on how each member of the community can take further action to help reduce emissions and meet California’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

Metrics tracked include community and household energy consumption, the rate of solar energy installation, the conversion of conventional streetlights to LED streetlights, the number of electric vehicle charging stations in each town, and the amount of waste landfilled and water consumed each year.

“We’re thrilled to provide this tool and we hope it inspires people to

Visit The Marin Sustainability Tracker at www.marintracker.org take more action to meet our communities’ sustainability goals,” said Cory Bytof, MCEP chair.

“The Marin Sustainability Tracker shows, for example, that household energy use has hardly dropped at all since 2005. So, while Marin County and local jurisdictions have made some excellent, early progress on other measures such as reducing the amount of waste sent to our landfills, we still have a way to go on residential energy consumption,” Bytof said. “This interactive map is a fun and engaging way to track progress and to create some friendly competition between Marin communities as we continue to work together to create a more healthy and sustainable Marin.”

Bytof, who is sustainability and volunteer program coordinator for the city of San Rafael, has served as chairman of the MCEP for the past two years. The partnership was originally formed with the help of a grant from the Marin Community Foundation and operates on member dues of $2,000 per jurisdiction and a variety of other grants.

Bytof said the tracker was developed by “two young guys in the Bay Area” who were paid to custom-build the online application. The data behind the app is primarily utility data updated annually and data from the county-wide greenhouse gas inventory updated every five years.

While the target audience includes county residents, Bytof said the tool is also intended to help elected officials and city staff track how the county and local jurisdictions are progressing toward the greater goal.

Marin County emissions totaled more than 2.3 million metric tons in 2005. In order to meet the county’s statemandated target, emissions must drop 15 percent by the year 2020. n

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Concrete Ideas for Reducing Concrete Waste Experts Around the World Look for a Better Way

BY MICHELLE VOLKMANN

Civil engineering researchers, sustainable construction advocates and innovators in the zero-waste movement are on the hunt for the most effective and efficient ways to use and reuse concrete.

The world is literally covered in concrete and with an annual production of 3 tons per person TIEN PENG globally it is the second most consumed material on earth, after water. Its strength and durability are coveted by construction crews from New Zealand to Zimbabwe.

But, it is also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.

“It (concrete) accounts for around 5 percent of global anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and affects a wide range of sustainability issues, including climate change, emissions to air and water, natural resource depletion and worker health and safety,” according to Philippe Fonta, the managing director of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) & Tire Industry Project (TIP), at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

That’s why researchers and innovators are exploring “greening concrete,” or reducing the amount of waste concrete on construction sites and encouraging money-saving methods to recycle concrete collected at demolition sites.

The effort to reduce the amount of old concrete that clogs landfills is being embraced by many countries throughout the world. In the Netherlands, for example, concrete waste is banned from landfills and instead must be recycled, except for some residual process waste, according to CSI’s report on Concrete Recycling. The report also said that 38 states in the U.S. use recycled concrete aggregate for road sub-base and 11 recycle it into new concrete.

“Recycling or recovering concrete has two main advantages: (1) it reduces the use of new virgin aggregate and the associated environmental costs of exploitation and transportation, and (2) it reduces unnecessary landfill of valuable materials that can be recovered and redeployed,” Fonta said.

Recycling concrete isn’t the solution in all cases. Its effectiveness is determined at each site.

“Regarding recycling of concrete from construction and demolition waste, there are technically many possibilities. One has to be sure to balance the impacts compared to virgin aggregates. Recycling requires energy to transport, process, store and then often more transport. Concrete can be processed back into very clean aggregates with the right equipment and demolition practices. This can then be used like any other aggregates. The best solution will always be the one with least transport and handling,” Fonta said.

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association’s Vice President of Sustainability Tien Peng explained the factors to consider when using Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA).

“The use of RCA in concrete may or may not be the best solution, depending on availability of virgin materials, quality of existing concrete, cost to produce quality RCA, cost to landfill old pavement, cost to build with RCA concrete,” Peng said.

A leader in effective concrete recycling is the Colorado-based Recycled Materials Company Inc. RMCI specializes in construction services for the removal of concrete, processing of concrete rubble into specification aggregates, subgrade preparation and sub-base installation for interstate highway and airport projects, according to its website. RMCI gained attention with the demolition and recycling of 6.5 million tons of aggregate at Denver’s former Stapleton International Airport.

“The project, known as The World’s Largest Recycle Project, covered 1,400 acres of runways, taxiways and aprons and the total aggregate recycled there could build a two-lane highway from Denver, Colo., to Chicago,” according to RMCI. The Construction Materials Recycling Association estimated in 2012 that about 140 million tons of concrete are recycled annually in the United States. Road base is the most common end use.

Another way to reduce concrete waste is to mix only the amount needed for a particular job.

Peng said that on average 5 percent of ready mixed concrete produced in the United States is returned to the concrete plant. [ 17 ]

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“Return concrete can be made into blocks. It can also be stored, crushed and reused as aggregate, so long as there is storage space,” Fonta said. He said the latest equipment on the market can now recycle the water along with the solid aggregate in uncured concrete.

Currently a Canadian-based manufacturer is selling a sustainable and reusable landscape block mold that converts waste concrete into a useable product. Steve Thorpe, the founder of Formablok, said he had been toying with the idea for about 30 years. His first prototype was made out of steel in 2011.

“My main thinking behind Formabloks has been onsite waste concrete recovery. We all order more concrete than we need. If we are pumping we add an extra yard to the pour as well. All this leads to waste on the ground of construction sites,” Thorpe said. “The primary idea was

to build a universal ‘full floating’ block that could be placed with minimal tools and skills.”

After some trial and error, the company came up with a mold made of plastic and aluminum that is lightweight, rust-proof and durable.

Now Thorpe sells four designs (half or full block with either a dowel or flat top) that form interlocking blocks. Once the concrete hardens, the forms are stripped and reused. Footing, cutting, core filling and mortaring is not necessary when using the Formablok. Thorpe’s design recently received a U.S. patent.

“Production of segmental blocks makes sense because they can be easily handled and stored onsite until the final landscaping portion of the project,” he said. “There are very few sites built today, residential or commercial, that don’t use segmental blocks somewhere within the building envelope.”

On his website, Thorpe includes step-by-step tutorials for using the blocks.

“The way our forms come apart allows users to add custom liners and monograms. We have some forms that have about 500 pours on them and are still as good as the day they were made.” he said.

Formablok molds have been sent as far as Seychelles and South America.

“By making a segmental concrete block, you produce a product that almost everyone can use for many applications,” Thorpe said. “People seem to be building mostly anything you can imagine when it comes to landscaping, but I just sent some to Jamaica and the guy is intending to build a cottage with them.”

The CSI is working on methodologies to evaluate the environmental and social impact of concrete, including manufacturing, the use phase and the end-of-life stage/ recycling phase.

“This will allow us to compare different materials and constructive solutions over the full life cycle, and will enable us to understand the offsets, for example, a larger footprint in the manufacturing stage that is more than compensated by savings in the use phase,” Fonta said In the future, these efforts will encompass an in-depth examination of the entire production cycle of concrete, starting with improved biodiversity management in pits and quarries to new uses for old concrete. n

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Older Volunteer Workers a Boom, not a Bust Agencies Help Orgs Connect with Volunteers of All Ages

BY JULIANNE COUCH

Many communities across the country face the same sort of human service problems. Too many people with needs for things like better education and access to health care, but not enough resources to make those things happen.

At the same time, a less visible set of needs surrounds skilled older LINDSAY DOL CE adults, who are retired or have time to contribute but don’t know how to connect with individuals or organizations needing their help.

Older adults are an untapped resource in many communities, with a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as the time to share it. Communities and organizations around the country are recruiting adults 55 and older to volunteer in local initiatives. In some programs, their work is rewarded through stipends or other benefits. In other cases, their time is compensated by the experience itself.

Communities and organizations who wish to access volunteer workers of any age can connect through the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). This is a federal agency established in 1993. Typically non-profit organizations, individuals or faith-based organizations seeking older workers will apply for funding. According to CNCS, it engages more than 5 million Americans in service through its core programs, which include AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. Both of these programs serve as umbrellas for other programs.

The CNCS operates in all 50 states, and Colorado is typical of many.

It has a large metropolitan area composed of many municipalities, stitched together along the front range of the Rocky Mountains. That is the Denver area, but there also are many mid-sized metropolitan areas and small rural communities in the state. Each has different needs and different resources to apply to its human service needs.

The Colorado Senior Corps website currently lists more than 1,300 opportunities it says are great for people 55 and older. Volunteer

opportunities exist at approximately 940 locations around the state.

The Girl Scouts of Colorado were a recent source of numerous listings, seeking volunteers to work with youth in communities across the state.

Other recent listings were from Elder Helpers, which seeks older adults to volunteer as helpers for elderly individuals who need assistance with daily activities.

“More than 8,900 people of all ages and backgrounds are helping to meet local needs, strengthen communities and increase civic engagement through national service in Colorado,” the organization stated, and this year CNCS will commit more than $30 million to support Colorado communities through the AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. “Through a unique public-private partnership, this federal investment will leverage an additional $12,580,000 in other resources to strengthen community impact, build local support, and increase return on taxpayer dollars,” CNCS added in its volunteer information.

Lindsay Dolce is executive director of Serve Colorado, that state’s CNCS state-level partner. She explained that State Service Commissions — of which Serve Colorado is one — provide CNCS funding to AmeriCorps state programs through annual grant competitions. Grants are made either directly to an organization or through an intermediary group that handles the distribution of grant funding.

CNCS grants provide assistance to programs to recruit, train and supervise AmeriCorps members meeting critical community needs in the areas of education, disaster services, health, environmental stewardship, economic opportunity and service to veterans and military families.

“In each state, there are different priorities. We’re able to pilot and try new programs within the state,” she said.

The AmeriCorps program might not be the first organization communities think about when considering older adult volunteer workers.

“AmeriCorps positions are typically held by younger people seeking Education Awards as partial compensation for their service,” Dolce

Learn more how your community or organization can access volunteer workers through the Corporation for National and Community Service at www.nationalservice.gov [ 19 ]

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the “Boomer Capitol” of the United States. There might be some jostling for that crown, but currently nearly 300,000 people age 55 to 64 live in the metro area. During the next 20 years, that number will grow to more than 1 million. Meantime, nearly two-thirds of baby boomers in the Denver metropolitan area are employed, but nearly half of area baby boomers actively volunteer and plan to continue doing so, the group said. And one point that should make health care administrators everywhere take note – according to Boomers Leading Change in Health, healthcare navigators help reduce hospital re-admission rates significantly. n

A group of Serve Colorado volunteers, including Colorado Lt. Governor Joe Garcia (fourth from left) at a 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event.

said. “But in some cases, there are opportunities for older adults to serve.”

She explained that an AmeriCorps stint is typically 1,700 hours of service, but that most of the retiree positions are half-time slots of 900 hours.

Serve Colorado has supported older AmeriCorps workers, including those working in a program called Boomers Leading Change in Health.

This program is part of a national organization created to provide adults 50 and older with “meaningful volunteer opportunities that will enable and empower them to affect significant social change,” they said. In the Denver area, the group’s focus in on health and healthcare.

In other locations around the country, Boomers Leading Change has other specific missions, such as homelessness, literacy, access to healthy foods in under-served neighborhoods, at-risk youth and the environment.

“The Boomers program is really a great program,” Dolce said. “It is all about camaraderie among the members.”

According to the Denver area group, baby boomers are healthier, better-educated and more affluent than previous generations. In fact, they say, nearly a third of people in metropolitan Denver are baby boomers. Instead of focusing on what some might worry is the “graying of Denver,” Boomers Leading Change in Health claim that Denver is [ 20 ]

“Older workers in this organization act as health navigators through hospital networks in serving individuals who need extra support,” Dolce said, adding that she knows of one individual with Boomers Leading Change in Health who is working as a patient advocate. When the patient was facing particular challenges, the volunteer was able to go to the doctor’s appointments and advocate for her. For instance, the volunteer was able to call ahead and arrange a longer appointment time for the patient. The patient also happened to be a Holocaust survivor. The volunteer saw signs of depression and spoke about it to the health care provider. The patient was able to access the care she needed, including medication and therapy, Dolce said, and “she is now 180 degrees better. The AmeriCorps advocate got her help.”

Dolce described another older AmeriCorps volunteer worker who spoke Korean. She was able to navigate for a Korean patient who spoke little English. Although she was 55, the patient had never had a mammogram. The volunteer worker was able to get her an appointment.

“It turned out the woman had breast cancer, and the navigator was able to help her through it,” Dolce said.

A few years ago it was easier to recruit volunteers to the AmeriCorps program, at all age levels, Dolce said, “Now as the economy has bounced back, there is more interest in people who are seeking the

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opportunity to find a fully paid job as opposed to a term of service.

However, the interest continues to be there.�

Another program Dolce oversees through Serve Colorado is the Colorado Reading Corps. Not all of its volunteers are over 55, she said, but many are. She recounted the story of a retired teacher who wanted to spend some of her retirement time helping people learn to read. The program allowed her to dedicate more time to individuals one-on-one, compared to what she experienced teaching in the school setting.

Alternatively, the CNCS program, called Senior Corp, is a traditional meeting place for communities or organizations seeking older volunteer workers, and for older adults with time and talent to give. Developed during the Kennedy administration, Senior Corps currently links more than 360,000 Americans to service opportunities. It is the umbrella organization for Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions and possibly its best known program, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).

RSVP provides grants to qualified agencies and organizations for two purposes: engaging people 55 and older in volunteer service to meet critical community needs; and providing a high quality experience that will enrich the lives of volunteers. Some examples of RSVP service include organizing neighborhood watch programs; tutoring and mentoring disadvantaged or disabled youth; renovating homes; teaching English to immigrants; and assisting victims of natural disasters.

Senior Corps service does provide tangible benefits for volunteers. For instance, the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion programs offer modest stipends and other ways to help offset the costs of volunteering. RSVP volunteers choose how, where and how often they want to serve, with commitments ranging from a few hours to 40 hours per week. Volunteers receive pre-service orientation and training from the organization where they will serve. Unlike other Senior Corps programs, RSVP volunteers do not receive monetary incentives, but sponsoring organizations may reimburse them for some costs incurred during service.

Senior Corps and its programs also are a presence in Colorado, Dolce said, although it is not administered through the Serve Colorado office.

According to CNCS, more than 6,000 older adults contribute time to the organization. Foster Grandparents serve one-on-one as tutors and mentors to more than 2,700 young people who have special needs.

Senior Companions help more than 960 homebound seniors and other adults maintain independence in their own homes. RSVP volunteers conduct safety patrols, renovate homes, protect the environment, tutor and mentor youth, respond to natural disasters and provide other services through more than 460 groups across Colorado. n Lindsay Dolce is executive director of Serve Colorado.

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College Rivalries Grow into Recycling Competition Millions of Students in 48 States Participate in RecycleMania

BY MICHELLE VOLKMANN

From beer cans crushed and tossed during tailgating to apple cores and potato skins thrown away in the cafeterias, university students create a lot of trash. But a national competition – RecycleMania – is working to increase recycling and composting on college campuses.

The success of RecycleMania, now in its 15th year, hinges on the cooperation among the student bodies, the custodial staff and university facility managers at participating institutions.

S TACY WHEEL ER

When these three groups work together in tandem toward a selfgenerated sustainability goal, RecycleMania is more than a patourselves-on-the-back recycling competition. It’s a grassroots program that stacks up impressive statistics and in-depth case studies documenting environment-friendly behavior changes.

Since RecycleMania launched in 2001, millions of students from 727 colleges and universities have recycled and composted roughly 653 million pounds of material during the eight-week RecycleMania tournament time.

Working together, participants have prevented the release of nearly 900,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is comparable to removing 7 million passenger vehicles from the road for one year, RecycleMania Inc. President and Co-Founder Stacy Wheeler said.

“When we first started RecycleMania, universities on average recycled about 20 percent of their waste,” Wheeler said. “Now because of the sustainability movement and state laws and I would like to say RecycleMania, the average amount of recycling increased to 30 percent in 10 years. That’s where it remains today.”

RecycleMania was conceived when Wheeler, the recycling coordinator at Miami University, and her counterpart at Ohio University brainstormed ways to increase recycling at their colleges. Playing on the existing rivalry between the universities, the coordinators made it a 10-week competition.

In the end, Miami won the bragging rights by recycling 41.2 pounds per person. Ohio documented 32.6 pounds per person of recycled materials. The second year, more schools were added to the grassroots competition.

This year, 392 schools, 4.5 million students, and 1.1 million faculty and staff are participating in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. New York leads the pack with 34 colleges participating, followed by Texas (25) and Massachusetts (25). In 2014, 86 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials were recovered, which prevented the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 24,846 cars from the road for one year, according to RecycleMania.

“I don’t think we knew this idea had so much potential,” Wheeler said.

“But we found that positive peer pressure between rival universities can be a very powerful motivator. That’s why the program has succeeded from day one. It’s college against college. That rivalry has been the No. 1 motivation.”

And once the competition is over, students continue their habit of recycling.

“When the competition was over, the students continued that behavior.

They incorporated recycling into their daily behaviors,” Wheeler said.

Changing behaviors to increase recycling and reduce waste is one of the overarching goals of RecycleMania, said Alec Cooley, director of recycling programs at Keep America Beautiful. Keep America Beautiful manages the day-to-day responsibilities of the nonprofit RecycleMania.

RecycleMania also aims to be a catalyst to grow and improve awareness of existing recycling programs.

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“If recycling is on the front page of the student newspaper, students are more likely to pay attention,” Cooley said.

RecycleMania runs an inclusion systematic competition that allows colleges and universities to create their own recycling goals and benchmarks.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all competition. It’s a robust program that is constantly evolving to incorporate thousands of private colleges and public universities in all 50 states.

“I find it gratifying the diversity of the schools participating at all stages,” Cooley said.

RecycleMania includes 10 distinct categories. The categories range from the original Per Capita Classic, where schools compete to n Students from Stetson University joined the RecycleMania challenge. see which can collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard and bottles (RecycleMania) falls flat,” Cooley said. and cans on a per person basis, to the new social media-centered 3R Wheeler said there are similarities among the “die-hard” schools that Actions Challenge. In the 3R Actions Challenge, students take a selfie have participated annually for a decade. of themselves doing a waste reduction action and then tweet the photo of their action with the coordinating hashtags. It’s a different type of “Schools that have a dedicated staff actively promoting RecycleMania recycling competition, but it reinforces the goal of using peer pressure tend to have the better results. You need to have university buy-in and to change behaviors long-term. That combination of savvy public use the program as a tool. And you have to have a student component,” relations with tangible actions is what makes RecycleMania effective.

Wheeler said.

Recycle-Bowl and Campus Conservation Nationals are both So what prize does the national winner of RecycleMania receive? sustainability competition built on the RecycleMania model.

Bragging rights. And an opportunity to say to their rivals, “my college recycles more than your college.”

RecycleMania provides the framework, Cooley said, but the real success hinges on the universities and their students.

“That’s the whole spirit behind RecycleMania,” Wheeler said. n “RecycleMania does not work when schools sign up but do not have a good plan for a public relations campaign. A single email push Stacy Wheeler is president and co-founder of RecycleMania. has a limited to no impact. They (recycling coordinators) will say that no one’s paying attention. For the schools without a strategy, it Alec Cooley is director of recycling programs at Keep America Beautiful.

[ 23 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

Nurses in High Demand as Cities Compete for Quality Health Care Civic Leaders, Educators and Hospitals Urged to Work Together

BY JULIANNE COUCH

As Americans age and the Affordable Care Act makes health care accessible to more people, experts say communities across the country will need to compete more vigorously to attract a limited supply of nurses and other qualified health care workers.

More than ever before, health care is becoming a critical economic development and workforce concern for local communities and regions.

For career planners and job seekers, the health care field looks like a good path to choose. In fact, on the Bureau of Labor Statistics list of occupations with the most job growth in 2012 and projected into 2022 the No. 1 job with expected growth is a personal care aid, followed by a registered nurse. Fourth on the list are home health aides and sixth are nursing assistants.

But it isn’t just demand that is behind the projected growth of those careers. It is supply – and a shortage of skilled health professionals can affect communities beyond the hospital doors, as more Americans decide where they’ll spend their retirement years and consider health services as a large part of the equation.

According to the United States Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast, the median RN age in 2000 was 42.4, rising to 45.4 in 2009. Some researchers project that the

[ 24 ]

average age of RNs will continue to rise, not peaking until 2016.

About half of registered nurses - more than a million - are within 20 years of retirement, according to the report.

There was a 2.6 percent enrollment increase in bachelor’s degree nursing programs in 2013, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, but this increase will not meet the projected demand for nursing services. Part of the reason is that with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, more than 32 million Americans will gain access to health care services. But U.S. nursing schools turned away almost 80,000 qualified applicants from nursing programs in 2012 because they lacked the capacity and faculty to train them.

Peter McMenamin, Ph.D., a senior policy fellow and health economist with the American Nurses Association, is concerned about issues related to the economic value of nurses and nursing services. There are ways that local governments and policy makers can take action regarding the flow of nurses into the employment pipeline, he said, but first he pointed out that what is coming isn’t a shortage, exactly.

On the one hand, he noted that nurses – especially registered nurses – are the No. 1 occupation sought in online health care help-wanted ads, especially in fast growing cities. At the same time, he said, hospitals are closing units or cutting back.

“So, is there shortage or overload?” he asked.

While December’s governmental economic growth report indicated that the economy added 320,000 new jobs nationwide, only 4,000 of those were in hospitals, he said. About 25-30 percent of hospital jobs are in nursing.

Since about 60 percent of registered nurses work in hospitals, it is easy to wonder why, if there is a nursing shortage, hospitals aren’t snapping up those employees.

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McMenamin addressed that question by considering the background of the problem.

Most of the mainly female nursing workforce entered the profession in the 1970s and 1980s, in what he called a “super-cohort.”

That came about because of federal funding through Title VIII of the U.S. Public Health Services Act signed in 1964, which put money into nursing education programs for training. But also around that time, traditionally female occupations were joined by other options available to women interested in earning a living. So now that the women in that supercohort are getting closer to retirement, it feels like there is a shortage partly because fewer women have entered the profession since that boom.

n

The combination of an aging population, a growing number of people covered by health insurance and the impending retirement of more than a million registered nurses has led some experts to believe a workforce crisis is brewing in the health care industry. Economic development officials are encouraged to work with local colleges and hospitals to make sure their communities stay competitive as these trends intensify.

“The ANA is encouraging people to enter the profession,” McMenamin said. “It is a good profession, with good salary and benefits. There are professional challenges but there are rewards.”

Nurses are the most patient-centered of health care providers because they are the most involved with the patients, providing patient education, family education and reassurance to people, he said.

In the first three quarters of 2014, McMenamin said, about 123,000 new nurses passed their qualifying exams to enter the profession. The Bureau of Labor statistics indicates 555,000 registered nurses will retire between 2012 and 2022, and that 574,000 new jobs will open up. That’s a net gain of about 112,900 per year over that 10-year period.

“That’s why I encourage people not to talk about shortages,” McMenamin said. “If we sustain that rate there will be enough nurses to fill all the vacancies, although that is not guaranteed. It is possible some areas of the country and some fields within nursing will see shortages while others will not.”

For example, nurse practitioners and nurse midwifes work in fields that are newer, and therefore, the individuals in those fields tend to be younger.

Most employers would rather have experienced nurses instead of new nurses, McMenamin said, which is a concern for younger people in the profession. It might take young nurses a while to find a job in their desired location, he said, adding that more than 40 percent of nurses live within 25 miles of their high school, which he indicates is evidence that nursing is not a very mobile profession, even though there are jobs all over the country.

However, it isn’t just young women who are being looked at to fill the nursing void, if there is one. More men also are entering the profession, selecting specialties that are among the highest paying in the field. According to a 2013 U.S. Census report on men in nursing occupations, at one time most nursing schools refused to admit men, a practice deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case brought against a state‐supported school in 1981. Schools are now actively pursuing higher male enrollment in their nursing programs. [ 25 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

In 1970, about 2.7 percent of registered nurses were men, compared with 9.6 percent in 2011. According to the report, men’s representation among licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses grew from 3.9 percent in 1970 to 8.1 percent in 2011. In 2011, 9 percent of all nurses were men. Men earned, on average, $60,700 per year, while women earned $51,100 per year.

Men’s representation was highest among nurse anesthetists: 41 percent were men. Male nurse anesthetists earned more than twice as much as the average for men in all nursing occupations, on average $162,900 per year, while men’s average for all nursing occupations was $60,700 per year. Regardless of how people find their way into choosing nurses as a profession, McMenamin said there are three things policy makers can keep in mind to be sure a nursing shortage does not hamper their ability to make their city a place where an increasingly mobile society might want to relocate for a job or for retirement.

“Every year between 2011 to the end of this century, 2-3 million people will age into Medicare each year. About 20 percent of beneficiaries are hospitalized in any one year. Medicare kicks in when people are developing chronic illnesses or those existing illness are getting worse, he said. For new beneficiaries between the ages of 6570, known as the “young old,” McMenamin said there is a bump up in utilization because people defer elective surgery until they enroll in Medicare. Such procedures include replacing hips, knees and treating other non-life-threatening conditions.

“Those people will need nurses,” he said. The other piece of the Medicare beneficiary increase is more subtle, he added.

“There will soon be a lot more people in Medicare dying. Death is expensive and requires a lot of nursing care. In terms of potential demand, there’ll be more demand for nurses in geriatrics and to care for those who are dying.”

“First, we need vocational funds for nurse training to be maintained because when there is funding, a whole bunch of new nurses enter the profession,” he said.

Because changes in health care laws still create open questions, McMenamin said he thinks hospitals are taking a wait-and-see approach.

The original Title VIII funds have been supplemented over the years with other funding initiatives, but prospects for the next few years are unclear as the makeup of Congress shifts. The second thing policy makers can do, particularly mayors of cities where there are nursing colleges, is talk to those administrators about their long-term planning.

“As an industry, hospitals are banking resources, wondering about Medicare payments and penalties,” he said. “They’re not moving on employment. But it is time to create a human capital reserve, to hire new nurses. If each hired a few more new RNs than they might otherwise do, they could grow their own experienced work force.

As the tsunami of retirement comes, they’ll have people in place, and the benefit of having more mature nurses to step into those positions. In the short run they’ll spend more money, but it’ll improve performance.”

Nursing college faculty are naturally older than the incoming students they train, but they also are often older than the average nurse. That means that they also are planning retirement, some sooner than others. It’s relevant that faculty in nursing programs earn far less than faculty in other professional schools and some highly specialized nurses actually take a pay cut to go into teaching, McMenamin said.

Those city and college leaders could “work together to improve and retain faculty and attract more to get them into the faculty pipeline.”

In addition, McMenamin said, “governors could be involved because state programs could offer additional placements, subsidies and funding opportunities for students to enroll in nursing colleges and one day become faculty members. Officials at the state level likely have more access to funding than small cities.”

The third solution involves hospitals themselves. They need to start hiring.

“They are in hunker-down mode,” McMenamin said, an approach he thinks is wrong based on the following fact – it isn’t just baby-boomer nurses that are heading into retirement, but a large sector of the American population that is aging into Medicare eligibility.

[ 26 ]

McMenamin pointed out that when the nurse-to-patient ratio increases, patients get better care, meaning fewer hospital readmissions.

“That’s something mayors could talk to their hospital executives about. Ask them what they are doing to attract new nurses into the area as the existing nursing stock is retiring,” he said. “Local leaders want their area to be a place where consumers and providers can count on having resources.” n

related youtube video: https://youtu.be/fKEtM6EIbZY

Peter McMenamin, Ph.D., a senior policy fellow and health economist with the American Nurses Association, is concerned about issues related to the economic value of nurses and nursing services.

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Crowdsourcing Connects the Dots High-Tech Applications Help Gather Public Input

BY MICHELLE VOLKMANN

Townhall meetings and public forums are as old as democracy itself, but the platforms and tools used to interact and engage with stakeholders today make that process more accessible than ever for civic institutions and the people they serve.

DA REN BRABHAM

Crowdsourcing, a term normally used to describe Silicon Valley start-ups and national advertising campaigns, is gaining ground as a viable method of public dialogue in both rural and urban communities. Crowdsourcing platforms, which range from public works phone apps to Facebook groups, make it easier than ever to report a pothole nuisance on a morning commute or give feedback on a proposed bike path in a neighborhood.

“Crowdsourcing is an online process for connecting online communities and organizations in pursuit of a product or solution to a problem,” Daren Brabham, assistant professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism wrote in a report on “Using Crowdsourcing In Government.”

will be released this month.

The term crowdsourcing, which was coined by Wired magazine writer Jeff Howe, has only existed since June 2006.

“We didn’t see crowdsourcing per se happening (in the public or private sector) until the early 2000s. Crowdsourcing depends on the Internet for its reach to communities of solvers or participants, and Internet penetration and capability in the U.S. wasn’t where it needed to be to enable crowdsourcing until then,” Brabham said in an email interview with Sustainable City Network.

“Some argue the general premise of crowdsourcing is just an organization asking people to do things, in which case crowdsourcing is ancient,” Brabham added. “But the way I define it, it is a narrower term that depends on a certain culture and set of technologies to enable this kind of participation.”

In “Using Crowdsourcing In Government,” Brabham simplifies the scholarly definition of crowdsourcing to this: “Simply put, crowdsourcing happens when:

A S HL EY T RIM

• An organization has a task it needs performed • An online community voluntarily performs the task • The result is mutual benefit for the organization and the online community.”

“Crowdsourcing can be accomplished through any number of new media tools, including wikis, blogs, websites, social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), mobile apps, mapping software and so on. Many tools enable communication, and so many tools can make crowdsourcing possible.”

Crowdsourcing is being embraced in a variety of ways by communities across the nation. Some cities are using crowdsourcing to compile ideas and seek public input on proposed polices or programs. Other cities collaborate with residents and allow them to present alternatives throughout the decision-making process.

Brabham, a leader in the academic study of crowdsourcing, also wrote a book about the subject: “Crowdsourcing in the Public Sector,” which

A 2014 New America Foundation report, “Public Pathways: A Guide to Online Engagement Tools for Local Government,” highlights examples

Crowdsourcing isn’t a trend that will fade away in the future. Instead crowdsourcing is becoming a necessity with cities scrambling to choose platforms that fit their purpose and are within their budget. [ 27 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

Download Using Crowdsourcing in Government at www.sustainablecitynetwork.com/pdf_ba257196-c800-11e4-bf11-63dd37009853.html of online civic engagement using available technology.

most from crowdsourcing.

“When it came time for the city of Cincinnati to implement its bike share program the local government used Shareabouts, an online tool that allows residents to identify on a map where they would like bike sharing stations. Based on the over 300 suggestions, and nearly 2,000 votes, the city determined that 35 of the recommended bike share station locations could be implemented,” the document stated.

In his research, Brabham has found that crowdsourcing “is typically something a public administrator takes on, not really a politician.

Urban planning offices – including transportation offices – have found success with crowdsourced public engagement activities for land use or transit systems.”

The “Public Pathways” report, written by Alissa Black and Bita Neyestani, explains that online civic engagement might also be “useful for government staffers because they empower residents to tackle local issues without, or with limited government, intervention.”

For example, in New Orleans there is an online tool called NeighborLand that allows residents to “post ideas, gather with other neighbors online and take action.” The city of San Jose has its own app that allows residents to anonymously submit photos of complaints of everything from graffiti to code violations. The location of the complaint is tagged using the phone’s GPS. A city staff member monitors the app’s webbased dashboard and can efficiently assign the appropriate city department to respond to the complaint.

And then there’s passive crowdsourcing such as the app Street Bump from Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and Connected Bits.

Once installed, Smart Bump uses an algorithm to determine whether or not the vibrations recorded by the resident’s smartphone were street bumps, potholes or just regular road vibrations.

“In the past five years cities have full-on embraced crowdsourcing for citizen engagement. Now there are whole consulting firms and tech platforms catering specifically to municipal crowdsourcing projects,” Brabham said.

The Kansas City-based MindMixer is one such company. MindMixer is an online crowdsourcing product that offers cities, schools, universities and states a method to “build civic involvement outside of the traditional methods of attending meetings,” said Stephen Hardy, MindMixer’s chief product officer.

MindMixer launched three years ago with an idea to “help organizations start conversations with the people who care about their communities.”

Since then it has worked with 1,500 communities across North America to launch sites like Inspire Boulder and Sustainable Southfield.

Hardy said about half of these initiatives focus on a specific short-term project, and the rest provide an ongoing dialog between institutions and their stakeholders. While each site has its own purpose, many communities find that their planning or parks departments benefit the [ 28 ]

Ashley Trim, assistant director at the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement at Pepperdine University, agreed. The Davenport Institute developed a seminar called “Gov 2.0: What Public Officials Need to Know.” The training will be offered at the International City/County Management Association’s national convention this year.

“Generally elected officials are quicker to embrace the technology side of things because they used it in their campaigns,” Trim said. “But this training is more suited to the professional staff, usually midmanagement. It can be department heads, public information officers or financial officers. It can be used to help people understand the city’s budget.”

“From ‘Open Data’ to ‘Gov2.0’ to ‘hackathons’ to ‘online engagement platforms,’ technology is fundamentally changing the relationship between citizens and their governments,” according to the Davenport Institute’s website. “Unfortunately, our understanding of what different terms mean, and what technologies should be used for particular enterprises hasn’t caught up with all of these changes.”

The class was created to illustrate ways city and county governments may use technology to conduct surveys, engage in an open dialogue and provide greater transparency in areas of public information, such as annual budget hearings. The training outlines what types of platforms exist and the different purposes of each platform.

“The technology is not complicated,” Trim said, and before starting, cities should ask themselves “what is the purpose of the engagement?

What is the goal of any given project?”

Identifying the purpose of crowdsourcing and how the information will be used is key to success in this type of communication.

“Generally failure happens when organizations underestimate what it takes to manage an online community effectively, and also when the problem or solution parameters are unclear,” Brabham said.

In crowdsourcing, local governments need to listen more than speak. That role reversal made municipal employees nervous when crowdsourcing was first adopted.

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“People are always nervous when you open something up to broad conversations when you are used to having control, like at a public meeting,” Hardy said. “(But) people willing to share their thoughts to make their community better usually have the best of intentions. This is not something to be afraid of.”

Crowdsourcing websites allow city employees to engage with a larger population than they can in face-to-face interactions or at public meetings.

“We built the platform to broaden the number of voices in the community. With this, the good ideas float to the top and get more attention,” Hardy said.

Brabham said residents are “usually quite happy when a city attempts a crowdsourcing effort.”

“Younger generations especially see this kind of online outreach as normal and expected. Every instance has its bumps and detractors, but mostly it has become pretty mainstream and noncontroversial, which I think is a great thing,” he added.

Crowdsourcing also might reduce the barriers to participation at public meetings, the “Public Pathways” report said.

that this technology is here to stay.”

MindMixer recently launched MySidewalk, a free tool similar to its current crowdsourcing options, Hardy said, and they are steering city employees in that direction as a way “to invite people to the conversation.”

Crowdsourcing isn’t a trend that will fade away in the future. Instead crowdsourcing is becoming a necessity with cities scrambling to choose platforms that fit their purpose and are within their budget.

“I think the future will involve crowdsourcing being seen as just another tool in a city’s toolkit, no more complicated or unusual than contracting with Xerox for the government copying needs,” Brabham said. “Ultimately the future of crowdsourcing in the public sector is its banality.” n Daren Brabham is assistant professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Ashley Trim is assistant director at Davenport Institute for Public Engagement, Pepperdine University.

Stephen Hardy is chief product officer at MindMixer.

“One government staffer told us that in his experience, online engagement tools attract people who might not attend an in-person event, and can open up the discussion to those with more moderate viewpoints, as opposed to the narrow interests that often consume council hearing,” the report said.

Crowdsourcing technology gives cities the opportunity “to reach an audience different than the one that traditionally goes to city hall,” Trim said, adding that the Gov 2.0 training doesn’t push any particular tool, but instead gives attendees information about the options available at various costs.

“We know that governments don’t have a lot of money to invest in this technology,” Trim said. “But people are realizing

n

Crowdsourcing websites allow city employees to engage with a larger population than they can in face-to-face interactions or at public meetings. [ 29 ]

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