Green Riverside Impresses at the Congress of Cities
November 22, 2011
by Raksha Vasudevan

Last week, I arrived at the Congress of Cities in Phoenix, both excited and anxious about meeting our members and working a large conference for the very first time. Would I be in the right place at the right time? Would I have answers for the questions that our members might ask? For the most part, I was scheduled to work within the Green Cities track, helping to coordinate sessions and make sure things ran smoothly. Walking into the Convention Center on that first day, I figured I’d be too caught up in my work to fully listen to and retain information from the wealth of experts that were speaking.

Not only was my anxiety misplaced (the members were extremely welcoming and pleasant) but I was also able to learn an immense amount about sustainability initiatives across the country. There were several moments throughout the conference where I felt excited and inspired by what local governments were doing to actively pursue their sustainability goals.

Let’s take the mid-size city of Riverside, Ca. as an example. Their story begins in 2001, when the city made smaller, but crucial strides towards greening their internal operations (changing light bulbs, cutting energy costs, etc.) . Since then, with the support of the community, their sustainability efforts have taken off- within a few years, Mayor Ron Loveridge created a Clean & Green Taskforce; the Taskforce developed a Sustainability Policy Statement in 2007; and this policy statement ended up serving as the guiding framework for the Green Action Plan that the city implements today.

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