Posted: June 23, 2009

Bayside — The village's efforts to undertake several core "green" initiatives to enhance the energy efficiency of its facilities and operations, promote environmental stewardship in the community, and provide leadership in enhancing environmental friendliness has earned an honor. The Milwaukee Business Journal selected the village of Bayside as its first-ever Green Community of the Year. The six areas of focus include building; village operation and procedures; infrastructure; community; regulation and communication. The specific initiatives include:

• The village established a performance benchmark of reducing total village building and facility energy consumption by 10 percent. Consumption was reduced by 17.1 percent from the previous year.

• increased recycling collections by 100 tons between April through October 2008 with single stream recycling;

• diverted 520 tons of yard waste from the landfill. Yard waste was stored and ground to create a high quality mulch material, which was then used on village grounds and provided to residents.

• implemented several performance measurement changes which reduced the amount of time spent collecting materials by 2,122 hours since 2006, reducing additional vehicle emissions by that same amount of hours;

• revised snow and ice procedures to reduce salt application by 25 percent;

• designated as a first-time Tree City USA;

• held first spring clean up days, a two-day event to bring the community together to clean yards, ditches, streets, collect yard waste, recycle materials, computer and electronic recycling program to reduce landfill impacts. More than 100 computers and electronic equipment were recycled in the two days.

• formed Greenscape Bayside Committee, whose mission is to "to educate and encourage a sustainable relationship with the environment while promoting an aesthetically pleasing community";

• Bayside has been featured by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District as a model program for other municipalities, as the village purchases rain barrels and then sells and delivers them to residents. Seventy-one rain barrels have been sold to date, plus they have been installed at village facilities.

• established tree planting program and tree farm for future tree planting;

• enhanced environmental corridor collection site, now providing residents the opportunity to recycle used oil and dispose of yard waste in addition to single stream recycling drop off site; and,

• distribute Bayside Buzz via e-mail weekly as a way to keep the community up-to-date in lieu of printing publications and mailing/sending deliveries to 1,625 homes.

The village received its designation during an awards breakfast by the Milwaukee Business Journal at the Pfister Hotel on Friday.