Author Archives: Thad Curtz

W4.2 Demolition waste Promote alternatives to traditional building demolition such as relocation, deconstruction, and salvage through construction outreach programs. The Urban Sustainability Directors Network’s Sustainable Consumption Toolkit website includes a page of resources on Encouraging and Mandating Building Deconstruction with … Continue reading →

W1.1 Municipal energy efficiency * Improve efficiency of municipal water and sewage treatment systems. Prioritize components that consume the most energy and have high GHG emissions. Repairing/reducing leaks Watchtower, a company founded by some MIT grads, makes a tiny robot … Continue reading →

W1.2 Public water systems Increase the efficiency of public water systems (Group A and Group B). This includes replacing pumps and other systems that consume large amounts of energy, or repairing/reducing leaks. (Group A water systems have 15 or more … Continue reading →

W4.1 Residential composting Expand residential programs for composting and recycling food waste. Prohibit organics in landfill pickup bins Prohibit food waste, compostable paper, yard waste and recyclables in garbage (ie landfill) bins, as Seattle does. Require that food waste and … Continue reading →

W2.1 Municipal water ordinance Develop a mandatory municipal water conservation ordinance. Googling “municipal water conservation ordinance” gives you a lot of examples of model ordinances and actual ordinances.

W2.3 Water conservation outreach Expand water conservation outreach and incentive programs for residents and businesses through new funding sources (ex. grants) and partnerships. Olympia offers a variety of rebates for drinking water customers and for commercial customers. Tumwater has some … Continue reading →

W4.5 Gleaning Create systems to support food donations by hospitality industry and other institutional food producers. Support local business and encourage local food donations. Create additional incentives for farmers to encourage gleaning. Support distribution model that improves access of low … Continue reading →

W2.9 Tiered rates Study effectiveness and strategies for conservation with tiered rating structures for water and sewer, and if proven, apply new rate structures. Make as much of the bill as possible depend on volume used rather than a flat … Continue reading →

W1.3 Rural wells Encourage/promote use of efficient technology when permitting wells to serve new rural development. Well efficiency is apparently a function of how the driller originally develops the well, not just the efficiency of the actual pumping equipment. Opinions … Continue reading →

B5.5 SolSmart * Pursue SolSmart designations and adopt solar friendly practices. SolSmart is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office; it provides no-cost technical assistance from a team of national experts who evaluate programs and practices … Continue reading →