Mayor John Hamilton received a 2019 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence on Sept. 18 on Bloomington’s behalf.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management gave out six of these awards this year in different categories. Bloomington won the award in the Greening the Government category for its Sustainability Action Plan, which was passed by the city council in October.
“We are honored to be recognized for integrating sustainability into all of our decisions and practices,” Hamilton said in a press release from the mayor’s office.
Lauren Travis, Bloomington’s assistant director of sustainability, said the action plan is the first of its kind in Bloomington.
“For a lot of people, ‘sustainability’ has become a buzzword,” she said. “The plan took a broader vision of sustainability and brought it down to a local level.”
Travis said the action plan is a five-year plan that took into account more than 200 community members’ input. The plan includes strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, divert waste from landfills, stimulate job growth in the sustainability sector, provide access to sustainability programs for low-income residents and more.
According to the press release, the city has a partnership with the Solar Indiana Renewable Energy Network and has created the Solarize initiative. The initiative has resulted in 31 solar installations on city facilities and has started the installation of residential systems across Monroe County. More than 600 residential solar customers from Monroe County make up 10% of the state’s total, according to the release.
The award also recognized the city’s active role in diverting waste from IU students moving out for the summer, largely through the annual Hoosier To Hoosier Community Sale in collaboration with Sustain IU, the Warehouse and the Cutters soccer team, according to the release. The sale has diverted more than 400 tons of items from landfills for resale and reuse over the last 10 years.
According to the release, the city plans to become a zero-waste community by reducing waste production, increasing material reuse and growing participation in recycling and composting.
A progress report on Bloomington’s sustainability initiatives will be released in January 2020.
