The holidays mean big gatherings, big meals – and big piles of discarded paper, shopping bags and boxes. The EPA estimates that household garbage increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. That makes the holidays a great time to utilize recycling opportunities in Asheville and fill up those Big Blue bins [...]
The City of Asheville is pleased to announce that the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center at 285 Livingston Street has achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification. The designation is the highest level of certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council in its recognition of building [...]
From the City of Asheville Office of Sustainability: Beginning Monday, Nov. 12, the city will move into the third and final phase of the streetlight upgrade program in which traditional bulbs will be upgraded to LED fixtures. When complete in June 2013 all roads in city limits except Department of Transportation roads will be upgraded [...]
A gathering of bicyclists, joggers, walkers and parents with strollers celebrated the opening of a new section of the Reed Creek Greenway on Saturday, Sept. 8. The event marked the latest addition to the City of Asheville’s growing greenway network. The Reed Creek greenway runs parallel to Broadway Street, crossing Cauble Street, and the addition is [...]
A team collaboration to rework the City of Asheville’s Information Technology Services Department has resulted in a dramatic 75 percent cut to the department’s energy consumption and won the city accolades on a national level. The energy reduction initiative, undertaken over the course of a year, earned the City of Asheville a Technology Solution award from [...]
What’s cheaper than gasoline, burns cleaner than gasoline and reduces dependence on foreign oil? The answer is compressed natural gas, and the Asheville area now has even more access to it thanks to the City of Asheville’s newly expanded CNG fueling station at 45 McCormick Place. That news came June 27, as the City, alongside partners [...]
Sustainability directors from 22 cities across four southeastern states met in Asheville June 14 and 15 to share notes and exchange strategies for creating greener and environmentally sound organizations. The Southeast Sustainability Directors Network kicked off its first conference with a series of workshops and sessions designed to spotlight energy and waste reduction techniques that [...]
City of Asheville residents stepped up their recycling game in a big way following the introduction of “Big Blue,” the 96-gallon carts rolled out in April, with a whopping 87 percent increase in recyclables collected over April 2011. April was the first full month of implementation of the Zero Waste AVL Recycling Program, with 28,000 homes [...]
ASHEVILLE – About two dozen people came out to Tuesday’s official launch of the city’s new interactive recycling kiosk at the Asheville Civic Center. The kiosk – which urges people to “be social, do good” – was funded by a grant from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and was created through a partnership [...]
ASHEVILLE – This year’s Bele Chere festival is going beyond dancing, music, and art — it’s going green. Festival attendees can participate in the first Green Scavenger Hunt and earn a prize by tracking the green leaf icons on the Bele Chere 2011 brochure maps that will direct them to Green Scavenger Hunt sites. Attendees can take [...]
The City of Asheville was awarded the “Best Local Government Recycling Program” award by the Carolina Recycling Association during its annual conference and trade show in Charleston, SC in March. The award was presented to City Council during its June 14 Council meeting. The CRA’s local government award recognizes one local government in North Carolina or [...]
The City of Asheville’s push to increase energy efficiency and reduce the city’s overall carbon footprint takes a big step forward this week with the replacement of street light bulbs in two neighborhoods with LED lights. The LED (light-emitting diode) lights, use dramatically less energy than standard bulbs, which means a significant reduction in energy [...]