Arlington County Government, VA Most Recent, 1 Jan 2014

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From YouTube: Jay Fisette on Environmental Sustainability

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Arlington County Board Chairman Jay Fisette addresses the County's environmental sustainability at the Board's annual organizational meeting, January 1, 2014.

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Finally, let me speak directly to environmental sustainability, as I am passionate about it and believe that environmental and economic sustainability go hand-in-hand. Our Arlington initiative to rethink energy builds economic vitality through smart energy management and lower energy bills. Arlington's community energy plan has made us a national leader in long-term energy planning.

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Arlington now has 72 leed-certified buildings, minimum certified, which are ever more energy-efficient, thus protecting our environment while reducing costs and increasing our economic competitiveness.

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Another great initiative is the Arlington energy masters program, a partnership of Arlington ians for a clean environment, the Virginia Cooperative Extension, Service, Arlington thrive and the county it trains, volunteers in retrofitting, weatherization and water conservation techniques for lower income apartment residence in each apartment, volunteer teams walk through a 25-point checklist since 2011 nearly 250 families have cut their power and water bills by an estimated two hundred fifty dollars per year.

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That's the Arlington way in 2014 will also deepen our commitment to reduce reuse and recycle, and I plan to ask this board to consider implementing a 25-year strategy to achieve zero waste.

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This means diverting more than ninety percent of waste from landfills or incineration. A lofty goal that several other cities have already set when we adopted our solid waste management plan. Ten years ago, we aimed to increase our recycling to forty seven percent by 2024. Well, it's 2013 nope 2014. We have already surpassed that goal and now recycle 51 percent of our communities waste this year. Our citizen advisory group is likely to recommend that we raise that goal to sixty percent by 2025.

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We can do that in part by adding yard and food waste collection in coming years. County government is also doing its part. More than ninety five percent of paper County government buys, is recycled more than one-third of the office products we buy. Our green and many of our contracts include environmental provisions. I have asked the manager to review our goals and practices and to develop a formal environmental purchasing policy and an educational campaign. I want Arlington to lead the region in this effort.