The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

This is cool.  Good for OKC and this person. 

I know our Mayor has a staff person responsible for sustainability and the environment but I haven't heard much beyond that.  PlaniTulsa speaks to sustainability for sure and I've heard that Tom Adelson has 'Green' on his agenda.  Dewey = nada on the environment/sustainability as far as I've heard.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-sustainability-chief-finding-green-allies/article/3413934?custom_click=lead_story_title#ixzz0VjuEuWY4

Oklahoma City sustainability chief finding ‘green’ allies
BY BRYAN DEAN    Comments 4
Published: November 2, 2009

When Autumn Radle first came to work in Oklahoma City, the idea that she would be leading the city’s environmental efforts seemed far-fetched.

The New York native, who came to work for the city in 2007 as an urban redevelopment specialist, has undergraduate and master’s degrees in environmental science and planning.

Only two years after arriving in the city, Radle is the city’s first sustainability manager, responsible for coming up with a plan to spend $5.4 million in grant money from the U.S. Energy Department on efforts including reducing fossil fuel emissions, reducing energy use, improving energy efficiency in the transportation and building sectors and creating and retaining jobs.

"I’ve been with the city not even two and a half years now, and when I got here I didn’t think we would have an office of sustainability,” Radle said. "The amount of progress we’ve made just since I’ve been here is amazing.”

Although the aim of the grant is rather broad, Radle is trying to focus her efforts. She is working with a consultant to develop a strategy which must be presented to the federal government in December.

Some of Radle’s ideas include energy audits for city buildings, a compressed natural gas fill station to serve the city’s fleet of 60 CNG vehicles and examining ordinances across the country on topics like building codes and historic preservation guidelines to see what might work in Oklahoma City.

It helps that the city has included plenty of environmental elements in the MAPS 3 proposal that will go before voters Dec. 8. In addition to money for mass transit and cycling and pedestrian trails and sidewalks, the concept for the proposed downtown park includes windmills and solar panels.

"I’m finding I have a lot more allies than maybe I thought when I started,” Radle said. "It’s great to have city departments already on board the sustainability wagon. I think the MAPS proposals are really showing how green the city is willing to be.”



Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-sustainability-chief-finding-green-allies/article/3413934?custom_click=lead_story_title#ixzz0Vk7blZY5

Our vehicle fleet should be entirely CNG.  Partner with ONEOK (who has all, or at least mostly CNG vehicles) and make it happen.  Wouldn't it be great to be a leader in some area?

If the city adopted the concept, partnered with ONEOK, and even got QT on board at a few stations . . . CNG could be a real option in the Tulsa area.

I know Adelson wants to do this with the city fleet. 

Honestly though nobody can tell me OKC is serious about sustainability. If it were, then it wouldn't be continuing to sprawl in the ridiculous way that it does. OKC is really good at giving lip service to a lot of these "nice ideas" like urbanism, environmentalism, etc etc.. that's what happens when you have a populist mayor simply referred to as "Mayor Mick."

Looks like Tulsa will have one too.  Mayor Bartlett is creating the city's first Sustainability Department that will enhance city efforts to use more CNG and look into ways the city can save money by conserving energy.  

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=20100303_11_0_MayorD308841 (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=20100303_11_0_MayorD308841)

Hopefully in addition to energy conservation an expanded recycling program that includes businesses and apartments comes out of this, as well as stricter regulations for contractors to increase recycling of construction debris/waste.

I hope this guy looks at all facets of 'sustainability'.  In addition to traditional connotations of energy conservation I hope he recognizes the intrinsic values of urbanism to such a goal and takes some of the momentum being generated by PlaniTulsa to that end and uses it to help our City change some its policy and capital investment priorities.

Way too often the 'sustainable' values of urbanism are overlooked.

I agree, I hope it's someone with urban planning experience who, in addition to directing the city's efforts with energy conservation and sustainability issues, also is a big proponent of PlaniTulsa's implementation and that developers buy into the changes being made.

I am pleased with the selection to lead this new department. I feel very comfortable that the director and their skill set is a good match for Tulsa sustainability issues.

I think this is a good move for the city and believe that this position will be truly sustainable and pay for itself through savings.