It is amply clear that Michael Nutter, the Mayor of Philadelphia is committed to moving Philadelphia and its region to be more environmentally sustainable.
The City appointed a Director of Sustainability, Van Jones has been regularly consulting and talking with city and regional leaders and the convening of a cabinet level meeting promoting Green Jobs on February 27, all underscored Mayor Nutter’s commitment to moving to a Green Economy.
Great!!
What concerns me is the low level stuff, the little things that each of us can do in our every day life to reduce our carbon footprint.
The struggle to reduce our carbon footprint will be lost or won by millions of people all over the United States who decide to make very small changes to their daily life.
Things like:
- Systematically shutting the light when you leave an empty room – even if you are coming right back, or
- Systematically collecting all recyclable items, or
- Systematically shut your car engine after two minutes of idling.
- Replacing light old filament light bulbs with high efficiency light emitting diodes.
This is where the city falls way short. Here are a few examples, I am sure you have seen more yourself.
- How many times have you seen two city cops in their police cruisers parked driver window to driver window – shooting the breeze while their car engine is running on idle??
- Or these three employees of the Fairmont Park Commission who were having a nice 20 mniutes conversation on a Sunday morning on Martin Luther King Drive, while one of their truck engine was on idle all along.
- I have watched another employee of the Fairmount Park Commission mindlessly throwing the wrapper of his lunch sandwich out of the window of his truck. For me, this would be cause for immediate firing.
I think City employees need to be held to a high standard of care and mindfulness. - How about the Fire Department Ambulance driver who stops at his bank and leave his co-worker in the cabin with the engine of the ambulance on idle while he does his banking?
I understand that letting the engine run while the employee is talking with his colleagues is a sign that he is still “at work” since his truck engine appears to be “on standby” – ready to work. Humans are social creatures, city employees need to be able to shoot the breeze on my dime, I understand that.
On top of that, they are using city paid gasoline to let their engine run on idle, they are polluting the air with sot AND they are increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Anything else for you?
I also realize that it is rather difficult for me, a white guy (even though I do not define myself as a “white guy”), to be telling an African-American City employee what to do without getting the employee pretty upset.
That should not be the case, and neither should this country been built on the sweat and blood of African slaves
So I am calling on Alan Hughes, the newly appointed Director of Sustainability of the City of Philadelphia to organize without delay a short, to the point training for ALL city employees so they all have no excuses of not knowing the consequences of their total lack of awareness.
In moving toward a more sustainable economy, discipline is key. The discipline of doing every day the many little things that affect the amount of Greenhouse gazes in the atmosphere.
The best part is that as a result of a collective effort from every city employees in reducing the city carbon footprint, the city would actually save significant money. Let’s see, the city has about 6,000 vehicules in its fleet, each vehicule cost about $6,200 in fuel and maintenance cost per year, which means that a 5% reduction in fuel costs from elminating idling fleet vehicules would result in a yearly cost saving over $1,000,000/year.
Any takers?
