Bridgeport, CT
A wide-reaching collaboration that has resulted in impressive environmental and financial benefits for the city of Bridgeport.
Over 20 million dollars: this is a conservative estimate of the total amount of annual savings and increased profits the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut could accrue over the next twenty years if all sustainability goals are reached. In their efforts to achieve such targets, some cities rely on heavy investments in high-tech industries, others turn to federal regulations. The key to success in Bridgeport is collaboration. Through an extensive public-private partnership between local government, the Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC), and a great variety of community stakeholders, Bridgeport is well on its way to lower emissions and higher returns.
In October of 2008, Mayor Bill Finch delivered an executive order that set an initial framework of green goals and action items for the City. The programs identified by the mayor are not only vital to the environmental health of Bridgeport, but will result in colossal savings for local businesses and to municipal budgets. In addition to outlining scores of ambitious objectives, the Order acknowledged that to effect real change and progress in social, environmental, and economic arenas, the City would have to work with a diverse coalition. To start, Bridgeport recognized that it needed a strong, influential partner; one with community-wide reach and great impact on local quality of life. The Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC) stepped up to the plate, and thus, the City’s Sustainability Initiative, B-Green 2020, was launched as a public-private partnership.
One of the first steps under the directive of the City and the BRBC was the formation of a Community Advisory Committee made up of over 40 individuals representing neighborhoods, businesses, city and state agencies, and other stakeholders to guide the direction of the Initiative. B-Green 2020’s focus on collaboration did not end there, however. The five technical committees formed to address diverse areas of concern such as green buildings, water resources, and sustainable transportation are made up of over 100 individual stakeholders from the private sector, community groups, and municipal staffs. Incorporating a wide variety of participants has not only contributed to greater community support for the initiative, and therefore greater chances for its success; it has also brought additional resources to the table and helped avoid unnecessary and overlapping efforts.
Through the leadership of the BRBC, the City of Bridgeport has already made significant strides toward improving local sustainability. Although it has been under a year since B-Green 2020 first commenced, a partnership with the EPA is currently underway, a City energy plan is on the drawing board and a draft sustainability plan is being prepared. With help from the EPA, the Water Pollution Control Authority of Bridgeport and a local utility company, B-Green 2020 is working toward energy upgrades and a biomass gasification study at two local sewage treatment facilities, the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the City. Plans for a Green Energy Park are also being prepared. The Park would be located in a closed landfill site and supply energy to the grid through renewable sources. And an Energy Improvement District is being created to help lower costs and support renewable energy development. Other significant projects include the creation of a green business incubator, a career-ladder green jobs training continuum through the local workforce board, and a green purchasing program.
Smaller programs able to be implemented more quickly have already begun such as the Street Tree Adoption Program, municipal building retrofits including the greening of the historic Burroughs Library, residential and commercial recycling, and rain barrel distribution. Finally, B-Green 2020 created the Mayor’s Conservation Corps, a group of 20 – 30 door-to-door canvassers promoting energy conservation, recycling and storm water management issues. With the combined forces of local government, civic groups, and the business community, B-Green 2020 is quickly advancing Bridgeport’s social, environmental, and economic agendas—sustainability’s triple bottom line.