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| Sustainable Initiatives |
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Sustainable Initiatives
The City of Shawnee is committed to environmental sensitivity and the pursuit of sustainability. Below are some of the major ongoing projects undertaken by the City in this area.
Guiding Documents
 Policy Statements/Administrative Codes
Department Stories
Parks and Recreation
 Public Works
In addition to adhering to the City-wide policies for sustainability, the Public Works Department recycles materials whenever possible.
The Public Works Department is part of Operation Green Light, a regional effort to synch traffic signals in corridors of the region. This helps traffic flow and reduces emissions of idling vehicles. Additionally, the traffic signals and pedestrian indicators standards for the City call for LED displays.
The Public Works Department strives to improve air quality. To do this the Department installed a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling station that has allowed the Department to operate 3 CNG vehicles. Additionally, the Department is retrofitting some of the old diesel engine vehicles to improve air quality. Public Works suspends mowing activity when there are Red Ozone days and has decreased mowing the right-of-ways by 40% over the last three years.
To reduce pollution and protect water resources, Public Works ensures clean water run-off at development sites throughout our community through their Land Disturbance Permit procedures and has created a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) for each of the City’s facilities. The street sweeping program reduces trace pollutants from reaching our streams.
The Codes Administrative Division enforces the 2012 IECC energy codes adopted by Council.
The Public Works Department has retrofitted lighting for City facilities as well as piloted LED and induction lighting street lights around the City. These projects are paid for through Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant money.
Planning
IT
The Information Technology department’s green initiatives have placed a higher priority on projects in pursuit of environmentally conscious strategies. These green strategies include reducing energy consumption, use or design of technology equipment, recycling or product disposal, and reducing carbon footprint and employee engagement.
Specific initiatives currently underway include:
Consolidate Servers Using Virtual Software:
Computer servers consume vast amounts of energy. They are required to run non-stop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They require additional cooling systems and related equipment to keep them functioning properly. A virtual server is simply software that has been coded with the ability to host multiple servers within the same physical server. By reducing the number of physical servers the City’s requirements of a localized server room is drastically reduced with decreased power consumption and heat output.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI):
IT components contribute significantly to the environmental impact of most organizations with IT equipment consuming over 2% of the electricity in the US and that figure is growing each year. Desktop computing makes an especially large contribution to energy use, e-waste, and other areas of environmental impact. Converting a portion of our desktop PCs to use a virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI, can be highly effective at reducing our environmental impact to our community.
Alternative Storage Methods:
Storage drives are another main component of data center hardware and, as companies’ storage needs increase; more energy is used to power these hard drives. This can be remedied by using large capacity drives and performing audits to eliminate redundancies in the system.
Print Suppression, Document Imaging and use of network printers:
It is wasteful in today’s society to print many documents when we have e-mail, electronic signatures, and the ability to create PDF documents. This saves time, energy and money by reducing the use of printers and paper.
Asset Usage Practices:
This includes using energy saving settings and encouraging employees to turn off equipment at the end of the work day and on weekends.
Proper Disposal and Recycling:
The IT Department encourages reuse of equipment that the City no longer utilizes through City Purple Wave Auctions. Some items that cannot be sold or auctioned are taken to an authorized electronic disposal processor.
Development Services
Police
Fire
City Manager’s Office
Finance
Events the City Participates In
Programs sponsored by the City
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