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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAYOR ANNOUNCES NEW GREEN CITY EXECUTIVE ORDER

St. Petersburg, Fla. (May 16, 2008) – Today, Mayor Rick Baker rode his bike to work in honor of National Bike Month. Along the way, he stopped in Vinoy Park to announce a new executive order that aims to reduce St. Petersburg’s carbon imprint.

Already recognized by the Florida Green Building Coalition as the first “Green City” in Florida, and noted for its excellence in programs to conserve water, plant trees, preserve estuaries and sensitive lands, use fuel-efficient technologies, provide earth-friendly recycling programs and more, the mayor’s new executive order commits the city to additional green policies.

Executive Order 08-01 (attached) puts in place new green standards for the city to meet, some of which include: (1) creating a carbon scorecard that measures facility energy use and vehicle energy use in terms of greenhouse gas emissions; (2) reducing energy use through use of ethanol and biodiesel in the city’s fleet, replacing incandescent lights with fluorescent lights, converting street signals and lights to more efficient technologies, and more; (3) new city facilities and renovation of major existing city facilities will meet U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED–NC or LEED-EB standards; (4) a city-wide Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Program that meets the USEPA Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines will be put in place; (5) a prototype solar project for a city-owned office building will be developed; and (6) each department will designate an employee to be responsible for coordinating and implementing the executive order requirements. A summary of the city’s green initiatives and progress in meeting these goals will be posted on the city’s Web site at www.stpete.org/green.

“St. Petersburg has already made much progress in meeting these new commitments,” said Mayor Rick Baker, who co-chairs the Governor’s Action Team on Energy and Climate Change. “We have emerged as a model city in Florida for our green initiatives. But as we all recognize, there is much to be done if we want to leave a sustainable city and state to tomorrow’s generations.”

Before Mayor Baker continued on his bike route to work, staff provided an update on the city’s efforts to makes its streets safe for cyclists and pedestrians, and to encourage people to take advantage of St. Petersburg’s great outdoors on bikes and on foot. In recent years, 75 miles of bike lanes have been created through the CityTrails program, and St. Petersburg has developed the largest network of bike trails in the United States; the Pinellas Trail extension from its current end at 34th St. to downtown St. Petersburg will be completed next month; 18 crosswalks have been equipped with ITS-Enhancer flashing lights, and another 61 crosswalks have been upgraded with new paint and signage; and 83 streetlights were equipped with countdown pedestrian signals. These measures, combined with enforcement and education, have resulted in a 17 percent reduction of pedestrian crashes and a 15 percent reduction in bicycle crashes in the last four years.

St. Petersburg was also recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists, and as Florida’s Best Walking City by Prevention magazine. Also, after being cited in a national survey for its “mean streets,” St. Petersburg was recognized nationally for improving bicycle and pedestrian safety. In January, Mayor Rick Baker was invited to give the keynote address at the “Getting Transportation & Land Use Decisions that Create Walkable Communities with Mobility Choices” conference.

"St. Petersburg has gone from being at the top of the Mean Streets list to becoming one of the best safety turnaround stories in America,” said Anne Canby, president of the conference organizer, the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership.

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