What a Year! Check out our 2018 Year in Review

The last few years have been incredible for us here at SLCgreen and this past year was no exception.

We are thrilled to share our progress from 2018 with you. As always, we’d like to give a huge shout out to all of our partners— those in City government, other government agencies, non-profit associations, passionate neighborhood groups, and dedicated community councils with whom we work. Building a more sustainable SLC takes many hands!

Below are some of the highlights from our 2018 annual report. You can download the full 2018 report here. 

Don’t miss our reports from 2017 and 2016 too.

Highlights from 2018 include:

Air Quality and Climate Change

• Eliminated user fees at public Level 2 EV charging stations.
• Partnered with Utah Clean Energy to lead a climate communications program. The four-part series brought together over 50 professionals to build momentum for collaborative solutions in Utah.
• The Utah Climate Action Network, co-convened by Salt Lake City, received national recognition for innovative partnerships at the 2018 Climate Leadership Conference.

Energy

• Celebrated the opening of two new net-zero energy fire stations (FS 3 & FS 14) for the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
• Joined the Utah Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program being facilitated by the Governor’s Office of Energy Development.
• Received a Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky grant award to support the installation of solar panels on the Sorenson Multicultural Center and Sorenson Unity Center.
• Recognized high performing buildings through the Elevate Buildings initiative. Four exceptional organizations were recognized for their energy efficiency accomplishments and best practices for energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

Food

• Partnered with Square Kitchen, and opened a culinary incubator kitchen, which provides accessible commercial kitchen space and business resources to budding food entrepreneurs.
• Continued partnership with the Green Urban Lunch Box (GULB) to harvest 66,746 pounds of fruit from local trees. To date, the SLC FruitShare program has donated almost 250,000 pounds of fruit.
• Awarded $15,000 through the Local Food Microgrant Fund in partnership with Urban Food Connections of Utah. Since the Fund’s inception in 2017, $45,000 has been awarded!
• Established the new Gateway Garden in the Depot District neighborhood that serves over 45 families. This is SLC’s seventh community garden established through the Green City Growers program.
• Completed the third season of the Urban Greens Mobile Market, an initiative to increase access to local, affordable organic produce in local neighborhoods.
• Collaborated with Waste Less Solutions, University of Utah, and the Salt Lake County Health Department to establish a framework to promote Food Rescue SLC. To date, 40,000 meals have been delivered to food insecure families that would have otherwise gone to the landfill.
• The Pesticide Free public outreach campaign took off in 2018, with regular blog posts and social media tips for how residents can eliminate harmful chemicals from their homes, gardens, and landscaping. Over 300 yard signs were also distributed! (Get yours)

Waste and Recycling

• Provided education and outreach on new recycling rules which took effect in 2018 in response to changing global markets, while continuing to maintain one of the most inclusive, robust recycling programs in the state. Plastic bags, shredded paper, and Styrofoam are no longer allowed in Salt Lake city’s blue curbside recycling containers.
• Rolled out the new Call 2 Haul bulk item collection program. Nearly 4,000 requests were fulfilled, collecting nearly 3,600 tons of material from July through December. Roughly 37% of that material was diverted from the landfill for recycling and compost. Interested in scheduling a collection? Visit the program page here.
• Implemented an electronic routing and scheduling program for the Call 2 Haul and container maintenance requests, which eliminated the use of over 15,000 sheets of paper, improved the routing process, and reduced associated fuel use and emissions.
• Implemented a new illegal dumping protocol in coordination with several other agencies, including the Salt Lake County Health Department. Between July and December, the Waste & Recycling Division removed 677 illegal piles.
• The waste and recycling fleet is comprised entirely of alternative fuel vehicles, including 26 compressed natural gas and eight clean diesel trucks that provide weekly collection of waste and recyclables for the residents of Salt Lake City.
• Provided waste and recycling collection for over 100 special events.
• Hosted four electronic waste collection events across Salt Lake City.

Make sure to check out the full SLCgreen 2018 Year in Review to see more PLUS get a feel for what we have in store for 2019 (pssst . . .our goals are big!) 

We are excited about upcoming projects in the works. As always thank you for your support!