Pride Month, New Staff, Arts+Culture, and Storm Season! |
Dear Baltimore Office of Sustainability Friends,
June marks the beginning of the 2021 hurricane season. As such, Baltimore is storming in with lots of exciting news this month! We are welcoming new team members to the office including summer Mayoral Fellows and interns, and are introducing Ava Richardson as our new Sustainability Manager! Learn more about Ava below. We are also hiring a Climate Engagement Fellow and kicking off the development of a community engagement strategy to update the city's 2012 Climate Action Plan. Our Nature Nurtures event series will begin this Friday, June 18th, providing Baltimoreans with fun, relaxing, and educational ways to connect with nature across the city while enjoying the healing capacity of the outdoors – see "Local Opportunities" for more details.
June is also PRIDE month – a time to honor the struggles and triumphs of the LGBTQ+ community, speak out against violence towards trans women and men, and commemorate 52 years since the Stonewall Uprising which occurred on June 28th, 1969. Read our “Community Spotlight” to learn about JOY Baltimore, a local non-profit helping LGBTQ+ youth with housing, mentorship, and meal services. Additionally, as the nation and the city braces for hurricane season, we do so during an era marked by the highest levels of carbon dioxide on Earth in over four million years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is a recipe for more severe storms, more intense flooding, and higher temperatures making more people susceptible to adverse health effects of extreme heat. Check out a recent NPR article under "What We are Reading" to learn more about rising greenhouse gases.
And finally, did you know we have an Arts & Culture section of our 2019 Sustainability Plan? Sustainability is and should be in every part of our cultural expression. As many of us reemerge from a year of staying indoors in sweatpants and we look once again to fashion as a method of self-expression, we wanted to offer some tips and tricks to making our summer closets more sustainable! Check out our "Turtle Tip of the Month" to learn more.
Happy Reading!
Baltimore Office of Sustainability Staff
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JOY Baltimore is a grassroots organization formed in 2016 by Lonnie Walker, who has an extensive background in youth services. The group’s mission is to provide vulnerable children with safety, support, and stability while striving to put an end to youth homelessness in our city. Since its founding, JOY has helped hundreds of homeless, displaced, runaway, LGBTQ youth, and families in the community find assistance and gain access to vital services. JOY’s programs include a Drop-In Center, where youth can get support with emergency and permanent housing, medical and dental services, community services, vital records, and Maryland State ID. They also offer a free bi-monthly marketplace, facilitate mentorship connections between African American males, provide free meal services to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and offer events and celebrations throughout the year. They just concluded their first Youth Pride with three days of free programming, and we wanted to give them a big congratulations and a thank you for all their important work!
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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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Welcome back, Ava Richardson! |
Ava Richardson started June 14th as the new Sustainability Manager! Besides her previous work with our Office as a technical adviser for the Baltimore Food Matters program, Ava has over a decade of experience leading public health initiatives, advocating for environmental policies, and managing programs designed to address social inequities. Most recently she served as a project director at the Baltimore City Health Department, leading efforts to address decades of trauma in West Baltimore. Ava holds a BS in Biology from Frostburg State University, an MPH from Morgan State University, and is currently obtaining a DrPH from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Join us in welcoming Ava back to the Office! She can be reached at ava.richardson@baltimorecity.gov.
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Welcome back, Ava! Photo c/o Ava. |
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Get Involved with the Climate Action Plan Update! |
The Office of Sustainability is developing a public engagement strategy to support the update of the City's 2012 Climate Action Plan (CAP Update). The goals of the CAP Update include: 1) accelerating local climate awareness and action through deep community engagement focused on equity and resiliency planning; 2) strengthening the planning and policy connections between climate, flooding, adaptation, and resiliency in Baltimore; 3) evaluating new and ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets; and 4) integrating and prioritizing high impact GHG emissions reductions strategies and priority mitigation and adaptation actions from other City plans.
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New Floodplain Maps are Here! |
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has remapped Baltimore's regulatory floodplain and the new maps will become effective on June 16th, 2021! The formal adoption process started back in 2018 and included public meetings, public comment periods, and compliance checks with the Maryland Department of the Environment and FEMA. The process also included a Floodplain Code update that is intended to clarify and simplify the rules and requirements that apply to projects located in Baltimore's regulatory floodplain. The new floodplain maps are available to the public through the Baltimore CityView and the Baltimore CoDeMap. And here you find information about the Floodplain Code Ordinance. For questions or comments, please email bruna.attila@baltimorecity.gov.
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Flooding in Baltimore. Photo c/o Bruna Attila. |
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Sustainability Highlights |
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Mayor Scott with OFG youth at a cleanup in April. Photo c/o the Mayor's Office. |
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'On Fertile Ground' Program |
Submitted by Mary Alexander, Director of Unique Fabrics -- The climate change emergency demands a worldwide shift on the individual level. But impoverished youth face daily existential threats, and climate change is background noise in comparison. In Baltimore’s most troubled neighborhoods, our young people's “environment” is crumbling sidewalks, debris-filled gutters, overflowing trash cans, and abandoned lots. How can urban youth hope to combat melting glaciers and encroaching extinction when powerless over their own blighted neighborhoods? Struggling to survive in Baltimore City, how can they care about habitat destruction half a world away?
Macrocosmic shifts start with microcosmic change. Through UF’s On Fertile Ground program, we help city youth lead community-level changes, promoting their confidence as advocates on a larger, global scale. Our program aims to reconnect young men to our local community through community food distribution and cleanup projects, and to our living planet through gardening, landscaping, and urban farming. Currently, we’ve linked 15 young men with community cleaning and greening opportunities, promoting their role as successful agents of environmental change. While transforming their neighborhood spaces, our young men also cultivate life skills to thrive in their families, the workforce, the community, and beyond. With proper tools and guidance, we believe young men can evolve from personal to planetary stewards - but it starts with individuals feeling empowered to affect change. UF is seeking inspired partner organizations and innovative ideas to help Baltimore’s young men grow and flourish. We can reshape the future of our youth and our planet. It’s time to plant the seeds. If interested in partnering, please email Mary.
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MEA Grant image of City Hall c/o the Dept. of General Services |
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City Awarded Grant to Support Microgrids |
The City of Baltimore was awarded $100,000 by the Maryland Energy Administration as part of the organization’s Resilient Maryland Program. The City was one of eight organizations to receive funds for “feasibility analysis, planning and, design of microgrids bringing resilience and sustainability to Maryland communities, critical infrastructure, essential businesses, and emergency services”.
With the funds awarded, the City will conduct feasibility analyses, plan, and design a campus microgrid to serve our downtown municipal campus which consists of 14 buildings. Congratulations to the Department of General Services Energy Office on their great work acquiring this grant for the City!
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Books + Articles our Staff are Reading |
How Parking Destroys Cities --The Atlantic. Parking requirements attack the nature of the city itself, subordinating density to the needs of the car.
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Fabric samples hand-dyed with natural dyes from cochineal and logwood. |
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Building a Sustainable Wardrobe |
Fashion is a key aspect of cultural, artistic, and individual expression, but we don't often think about clothing beyond its utility and aesthetic. We forget to question where it comes from and where clothing goes after we finish wearing it.
Buying sustainable, ethical clothes can be expensive and inaccessible to most consumers, but here are some general tips for making your closet more sustainable without having to throw out your sense of style!
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Dyes: wear clothes colored by natural dyes, or learn to dye your own fabrics! Check out Blue Light Junction or MICA's Nature Dye Initiative to learn more.
- Fabrics: buy natural and organic fibers to reduce the plastic & fossil fuels used to produce synthetic fibers.
- Wash your clothes less often, and with natural soaps! This helps clothes & colors last longer, prevents the release of synthetic fibers into waterways, reduces water pollution from dangerous chemicals, saves water and energy, and saves you money!
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If you do have the financial resources, buy from companies that prioritize sustainability and fair wages/ conditions for their workers. Some examples--though not perfect--include Kotn, Reformation, Allbirds, Patagonia, Veja, or Girlfriend Collective
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Beware of greenwashing! Many companies slap a "green" label onto clothing without any real changes made to their practices.
- Reuse & Buy Used: start shopping at thrift stores, yard sales, or flea markets! This reduces the number of new clothes being produced, diverts textile waste from landfills, AND is much cheaper than buying new!
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If you prefer online shopping, there are also ways to buy used online: check out Poshmark, Depop, Thred Up, or even Ebay and Facebook.
- Mend your clothes instead of trashing them!
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Educate yourself: watch The True Cost to learn more about the global impacts of the fashion industry.
- And most importantly? REDUCE consumption--normalize re-wearing outfits. Get creative with what you own, repurpose articles of clothing, mix & match!
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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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Lead Editor: Aubrey Germ, Climate and Resilience Planner
Newsletter Contributors: Bruna Attila, Coastal Resources Planner + Acting Floodplain Manager; Abby Cocke, Environmental Planner; Amy Gilder-Busatti, Environmental Planner; Kim Knox, Green Network Coordinator; Lisa McNeilly, Sustainability Director; Ava Richardson, Sustainability Manager; Anika Richter, Youth Sustainability Coordinator; Lauryn Countess, Communications Intern; Sara Kaiser, Baltimore Public Allies Fellow; Brianne Martin, STATS Intern
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