The sustainability manager for the City of Toledo, Dana Reising, recently discussed with the Toledo Free Press the various sustainability initiatives she’s currently leading.
FOOD COMPOSTING
Food composting is one of those initiatives. Launched a year ago, it has collaborative support with Metroparks Toledo, Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful (KTLCB) and three Toledo city council members (Nick Komives, Theresa Gadus and Sam Melden).
The city has also partnered with GoZERO Services for a one-year trial program. GoZERO is a company that provides convenient food waste compost services and support.
“When we first started exploring GoZERO as a potential partner for our composting pilot program, they were an attractive option because they have worked with companies and organizations of all sizes,” Meldon said.
“The key to this pilot program is taking this in phases, and making sure we walk before we run. I hope this turns into a city-wide operation where everyone has easy access, but we have to prove the case first,” he noted.
Reising explained that composting is important because, “First of all, it makes you a lot more aware of how much food you are wasting. When I personally started composting this past year, I felt I have so much compost now; I need to garden more.
“And it made me think that I really need to be a lot more conscientious when I purchase food. Is this something that I will use in time, or will it go to waste?,” she said.
A massive amount of food is thrown away in the U.S. every year. In 2022, around 88.7 million tons of food were wasted, making up about 38 percent of the nation’s food supply. Individuals added to this waste primarily in restaurants, grocery stores and households. On average, each person threw out 349 pounds of food in 2022.
Reisling then mentioned that food waste that gets landfilled produces methane, and methane emissions from human actions cause 30 percent of global warming. Methane is a greenhouse gas with 80 times the ability to trap heat as compared to carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere. According to the EPA, nearly 60 percent of landfill methane emissions are from food.
She added that you can also use the compost for plants that sequester carbon, so it helps with the whole carbon cycle.
The three sites for the composting drop off program are located at:
- Swan Creek Preserve Metropark
- Glass City Metropark
- Toledo Botanical Garden Metropark
Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful has instructions about how to participate in this program at Composting.
Reisling said she is very enthusiastic about this program and that’s it’s been going great. During its first year, the program diverted more than 60,000 pounds of food waste.
“2025 will be the second year of the pilot program. We are looking at options for making it permanent,” she noted.
CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
Another topic we covered was the Climate Action Plan. This plan outlines clear steps and goals for Toledo to lower greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate change effects. Reisling is the project manager for this effort.
“We hired Nutter Consulting to help us with developing the plan. We did a comprehensive plan review, so we looked at all of the projects and plans that the city has already completed and projects that we’re already implementing. And then we worked on doing a greenhouse gas inventory – this is getting close to final draft stage,” she explained.
“We also had an internal visioning workshop, in which we brought city leaders and directors together and asked them initial questions about climate action and sustainability in their roles,” she continued. “They provided input on what they have already accomplished and what they wish to accomplish in the future.
“Now, we’re compiling that information and taking note of the ideas that received the most votes and the most consensus to begin outlining a plan,” which should be completed in 2025.
Other Ohio communities that have developed Climate Action Plans include: Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton and Bowling Green.
PURCHASING EVs TO REPLACE THE CITY’S OLDEST VEHICLES
At a recent Toledo city council meeting, Komives, assisted by his legislative aide Evan Snapp and Reising, presented a resolution (R-583-24) to replace the city’s oldest vehicles with electric ones.
And on Wednesday, that resolution declaring the intent of the Toledo City Council to replace the City Fleet’s oldest, least efficient vehicles with efficient and cost-effective Electric Vehicles passed with unanimous city council support.
Research has shown that EVs are cheaper to run and cost less to maintain. “A 2023 Consumer Reports study concluded that owning an EV can save drivers between $6,000 and $12,000 over the vehicle’s lifespan, compared to a similar gas-powered model.”
Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Dublin have electric vehicles in their fleets. The Bowling Green police division uses hybrids.
Not mentioned in the discussion of this resolution is the reality that the exhaust from gas powered vehicles is a health hazard. 17,000 – 20,000 people are killed annually in the U.S. by this toxin.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Reising discussed that a greenhouse gas inventory in 2023 showed that at lot of excess gas emissions were from the city’s facilities due to inefficient use of electricity and natural gas. She indicated that they were considering several projects to address a few of the community centers and fire stations in need of work.
“There are also some buildings that the city has that have original electrical and the roof has failed, so we’re trying to get these buildings back in healthy operating condition, and then maybe we will start looking at things like renewable energy heat pumps,” she said.
Reisling also indicated that one of the other issues they are working on right now is converting to LED lighting.
“That’s done a lot of good … so far. They are also making sure that our buildings are well insulated and considering other strategies, like perhaps when it’s time to replace the roof, we make sure it’s a white roof to save energy, or even looking to potentially doing green roofs,” she suggested.
