Welcome to our Inaugural Newsletter!
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Message from the Director
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Welcome to the inaugural Baltimore Office of Sustainability newsletter! Once per month, we will be sending you the latest local sustainability happenings including events, funding and volunteer opportunities, and important news and information from the Office. We will also be featuring sustainability champions in the community.
The Office was created to be a resource and an advocate for a sustainable and resilient city. We also aim to be collaborative, transparent, and, above all, accountable to our residents. To these ends, we hope you find that this newsletter useful and a way to learn more about the goals of the
2019 Sustainability Plan, as well as a resource for all things sustainability-related in Baltimore.
We welcome your feedback, so please email
sustainability@baltimorecity.gov
with any input, questions, or story ideas. You are on this email list based on previous interactions with our Office or from expressing interest in our work. If you would like to unsubscribe, you can use the link at the bottom of the newsletter.
Here's to a more sustainable and equitable 2020.
Lisa McNeilly, Director
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Every Story Counts Campaign
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You don’t have to be a climate scientist or city planner to help improve the sustainability and resilience of Baltimore. Everyone has a story to tell about making Baltimore a stronger, fairer, and safer place for all of us. We’ve been collecting stories
on our website
, and we invite you to share yours with us by posting on social media with the hashtag
#EveryStoryCounts
and/or by
emailing us.
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Cynthia Tensley of the Carrollton Ridge Community Association. Photo by Becca Gahn.
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What makes a community thrive? Neighbors like Cynthia Tensley, that's for sure! This month, we’re shining the spotlight on this amazing woman who is also the President of the Carrollton Ridge Community Association. Inspired by her faith and the joy in helping others, she’s worked with neighbors to clean up alleys and transform vacant lots into community gardens and gathering spaces.
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Composting to Reduce Food Waste
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Baltimore is working to cut city-wide food waste in half by 2030 with the support of our
Food Matters Program. Food waste reduction is being approached in several ways including by: engaging with schools and institutions to reduce food waste in their cafeterias; creating a network of community compost locations; and Farmers’ Market residential food-scrap collection programs at both the 32nd St and JFX markets. Between May and December of 2019,
we diverted 20,000 lbs from our landfil
l
via our market drop-off programs alone! We partner with three local farms (
Liberty Delight Farms
,
Albright Farms
, and
Pahl's Farm
) that receive the compost and then use the rich organic nutrients to feed their pigs!
You can drop off your compost at the
32nd St Farmers Market Saturdays from 7am-noon @ 32nd St and Barclay St all winter long. Not sure what can be composted?
Download this informational sheet. Fun fact- you can keep your organic food scraps in your freezer until you are ready to drop them off so they don't smell or attract pests!
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Ava Richardson, Food Matters Technical Advisor for the BoS, shows off the impressive amount of compost collected at the JFX Farmers Market. Photo by BoS Staff.
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If you are part of an environmental / nature-based organization who is interested in becoming a 'green'
YouthWorks
host site this summer, keep reading. Baltimore's
Cities Connecting Children to Nature
team held a
webinar detailing how to become a host site.
The program is part of a larger city strategy to increase youth exposure to nature-based environmental careers. Host site registration is open through March 31st. You can also read more about our office's work with this program
here.
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Youth working hard to green the community with the Parks and People Foundation Branches Program. Photo by the Parks and People Foundation.
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Sustainability Highlights
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Baltimore Plastic Bag Ban
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Plastic bag flowers created by Loyola University students in support of the plastic bag ban. Some were personally delivered to Council President Scott by students from Baltimore Beyond Plastic when they met with him about the bill and other environmental issues in Baltimore. Photo by BoS Staff.
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On Monday, January 13th, Mayor Young signed the
Comprehensive Bag Reduction Act into law after the bill passed through City Council on November 18th. This law bans the retail distribution of plastic grocery bags but allows Baltimore retailers to charge customers 5 cents for distribution of other bag materials such as paper. The overall goal is to encourage residents to switch to using reusable bags to reduce single-use items. Retailers have one year to make adjustments before the law goes into effect. Single-use plastics are a serious challenge for our city and our world. They are made from fossil fuels and contribute to climate change through their extraction, manufacture, and transportation. They also pollute our environment, clog storm drains, degrade the quality of our waterways, and kill marine life.
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City and State Styrofoam Ban
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Students from Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School rallied with others outside of City Hall before the vote on the EPS ban in 2018. Photo by BoS staff.
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A huge win took place in 2018 after years of advocacy by local activists, including the student group
Baltimore Beyond Plastic. The Baltimore City Council
passed a law prohibiting restaurants, carry-outs, and other institutions from using expanded polystyrene (EPS, aka Styrofoam) trays, cups, and takeout containers. The law went into effect just this past October with the Baltimore City Health Department at the helm of the public awareness and enforcement efforts. The State of Maryland also recently passed its own ban, which will take effect on July 1st, 2020 and will apply to state-wide sales of EPS. While all disposable petroleum-derived products cause environmental harm, EPS is particularly problematic since it breaks down into tiny pieces that absorb toxins, don't biodegrade, and are hard to clean up.
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Turtle is our office mascot who loves to share the occasional fun fact or sustainability reminder so that we all can make a difference.
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In the winter, our BGE bills are at their highest, but most of that energy is getting wasted! One way to save energy (and money) this winter? Turn down your thermostat just 2 degrees.
Baltimore has some beautiful houses, but they’re old and leak a lot of heat. Try sealing the cracks in your window frames and doors with weather strips. If you want to go even further, you can also have energy-saving equipment installed by the
Baltimore Energy Challenge or get your home retrofitted through
Retrofit Baltimore.
Let us know what your green resolutions are for 2020! Tag us on social media
#sustainbmore so we can follow along with your progress and hold each other accountable!
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We Love Feedback
Tell us what you want to hear! Do you have ideas on newsletter content? Or would you like to nominate an organization or person to be featured? Email us at
sustainability@baltimorecity.gov
.
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Our Mission
The Office of Sustainability develops and advocates for programs and policies that improve Baltimore's long-term environmental, social, and economic viability.
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417 E Fayette St, 8th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
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