November 14th, 2008 · No Comments

Also making local and national green headlines, New Orleans was named as one of 13 Solar Cities in America, an honor bestowed as a part of President Bush’s Solar America Initiative, created to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional energy sources by 2015. By winning this award, the city received a $200,000 two-year grant (in 2007), and will be receiving technical assistance from the US Department of Energy.

All in all, New Orleans wants to effectively make smarter eco-friendly choices, Mayor Nagin’s office tells us.

Syracuse, NY

The ‘Emerald City of New York’? Yes, Syracuse is becoming an international leader in Sustainable Living. Syracuse Mayor Matthew Driscoll is an environmental maverick, directing the college and technology-based city to institute energy, sustainability and environmental initiatives.

These efforts, Driscoll maintains, have placed the city “on the international stage”.

The numbers so far are impressive: by creating a culture of conservation through a program called SyraStat, in its first year alone, the city calculates that $13.75 million dollars have been saved, and they’ve won a New York award for being a model of best practices.

“Back in 1998, I was talking about going green and it was thought to be kind of ‘out there,’ but since people have been paying up to four bucks a gallon of gas, now they’re very much more in tune with a green culture.” He adds,

“People here in Syracuse are working, encouraged and excited about the green-collar jobs in research and development that are going on, making more jobs in green science,” he says. “People are getting it and appreciate us thinking long-term for the city.”

Included in the many green initiatives taking place, the Syracuse baronial city hall, built more than 100 years ago (see historic photo), gets all of its power from renewable energy, not fossil fuels. The city uses traffic signals at 354 intersections that use energy-stingy LED lights.

Syracuse also is renovating each of its 37 K-12 public schools to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, improving indoor air quality and lessening the schools’ dependence on fossil fuels while updating the structures.

The Emerald City is home to the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The center is a collaborative effort by more than 70 companies, research and economic development organizations, and colleges and universities that are making way for many green-collar jobs.

At the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which educates 1,500 undergrads and 600 graduate students, leaders participate in Campus Commitment to Climate Neutrality, a program focused on creating a zero-carbon footprint by 2015.

Also making headlines, Syracuse’s top tourist attraction, the Carousel Center, is expanding its complex to create Destiny USA, a “retail city” by the lake that will include additional shopping, dining, hotel accommodations; a technology park for companies whose work focuses on renewable energy is planned nearby. The entire complex will derive its power completely from renewable energy sources.

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