City of Miami, FL
United States Mayor: Francis Suarez-
Population 417650
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Area 143.1km 2
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GDP N/AN/A
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Targets by N/A N/Aemission
In 2009 The City of Miami in
partnership with General Electric,
Cisco Systems, Florida Power &
Light and Silver Spring Networks
launched a smart grid project
developed to deploy smart meters
on every home and most
businesses in Miami-Dade County.
Upgrades (and installations)
of outdoor lighting to more
efficient LED, CFL and
other technologies are
occurring throughout the
City's operations. Most of
these upgrades are
performed by the City's
GSA department with
general municipal funds.
Other departments such as
the Office of Sustainable
Initiatives are performing
installations and upgrades
of outdoor lighting to more
efficient technologies using
federal grant funding.
- Facilities
In 2010 the City launched
its 'Miami 21' initiative which
entails a holistic approach
to land use and urban planning. Miami 21 will take
into account all of the
integral factors that will
make each area within the
City a unique, vibrant place
to live, learn, work and play.
Six elements serve as the
lynchpins in the
development of the
blueprint of Miami: Zoning
(Miami 21 Zoning Code),
Economic Development,
Historic Preservation, Parks
and Open Spaces, Arts and
Culture, and Transportation.
Miami 21 instituted a
number of programs for
sustainability that were
adopted into the Code of
the City of Miami. Under
Miami 21, the City Code
requires all new buildings of
more than 50,000 square
feet of habitable Rooms and
habitable Space in certain
zones to be at a minimum
certified as Silver by the
USGBC LEED standards or
equivalent standards
adopted or approved by the
City. Incentives exist for
Gold and Platinum
certification and also for
properties below 50,000
square feet achieving LEED
or equivalent certification.
The initiatives require a fee
payment schedule based on
square footage of building:
50,000 - 100,000 sf = 2% of
construction cost; 100,000 -
200,000 sf = 3% of
construction cost; and >
200,000 sf = 4% of
construction cost. The
enforcement mechanism for
this initiative is the issuance
of a performance bond prior
to City granting Certificate
of Occupancy, if certification
is not achieved.
- Buildings
The City has performed
limited renewable energy
installations on some of its buildings and facilities,
including solar PV electrical
generation and solar water
heating. Financing varies by
project and includes private
financing and grant funding
where applicable. The City
continues to examine
methods for increasing its
renewable energy
installations.
The City has performed a variety of outreach programs and projects
designed to educate the population of sustainability and climate change related issues. Information on the topic has been diseminated via;
public tree giveaways, urban forestry education programs for schools, home energy saver workshops, a large scale sustainability and climate change focused conference and tradeshow
- 'Gateway to Green'
(http://www.miamigov.com
/msi/pages/GatewayToGreen
/default.asp), and via several other outreach events. Additionally, in the spring of 2012, the City will formally open the Miami Green Lab. The Miami Green Lab will be a
community green resource center and green job incubator, providing a variety of training, education and certification programs. Miami Green Lab also aims to promote the awareness of energy-efficiency, climate change and sustainability efforts at a community level including for schools and interested residents, and to increase the awareness of sustainable products, technologies and services through demonstration. The project is funded by federal Stimulus funds and a private foundation grant. The Green Lab will be a unique and extremely beneficial resource for the local economy and job market. The completed facility is a former City of Miami fire station renovated to LEED Gold standards and features energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems, solar hot-water heating, rainwater harvesting, recycled building materials, bicycle racks and xeriscaping amongst other green features. The building also features a 1,200 square foot training/meeting space. Lastly through its Office of Sustainable Initiatives, the City hosts a quarterly meeting of the Miami Green Commission whose members include residents, non-profit organization and private sector entities. Miami Green Commission meetings provide updates and information on the City's efforts to promote sustainability and to address climate change related issues.
- Other Emissions
The City has performed
energy efficiency retrofits of
several of its buildings and
facilities. Retrofits have
primarily focused on
lighting, HVAC and water
fixtures/systems upgrades.
The City utilized federal
Stimulus funding for ESCO
energy savings
performance contracting to
perform the first round of
audits and retrofits. The
City is currently exploring
other financing mechanism
including private financing
for future building retrofit
efforts.
- Buildings
The City of Miami's Tree Master Plan, and the programs and projects which support it, aim to restore Miami's canopy coverage to 30% by 2017. Through several City Departments including Public Works, Parks & Recreation and the Office of Sustainable Initiatives, the City is working to achieve this goal through various tree planting initiatives including the planting of shade trees in the Public RoW, increased tree plantings in City Parks, and through event tree plantings such as the annual National Arbor Day observation every April. In addition, the City hosts several fruit tree giveaways each year for the past six years, with over 1,500 trees given to City of Miami residents each year for planting within the City's borders. In addition, The City's Green Miami Campaign designed to restore and enhance the City’s tree canopy into a thriving urban forest that provides multiple aesthetic and environmental benefits, through increasing public awareness and education of urban forestry in partnership with several local tree-focused community-based and non-profit organizations.
Read More Read Less- Other Emissions
The City passed an
ordinance establishing an
Environmentally Preferable
Purchasing Program to
integrate environmentally
preferable policies into all
City purchases of goods
and services. The
ordinance seeks to: (1)
Increase purchases of
environmentally preferable
products and services while
maintaining performance
and availability and
remaining cost effective,
with continual improvement.
(2) Reduce occupational
health hazards for City staff
and reduce exposure of
City residents and visitors
to potentially toxic
chemicals by purchasing
environmentally sensitive,
sustainable goods for use
or identifying products to be
used by service providers
that do not harm human
health or the environment.
(3) Reduce the City
contribution to global
climate change by
purchasing goods and
services that lead to a
reduction in GHG emissions
from commodities. (4)
Improve the air quality for City residents and visitors
by purchasing commodities
that minimize emissions of
air pollutants. (5) Protect the
quality of the City ground
and surface waters by
eliminating the use of
chemicals known to
contaminate local water
resources and ecological
systems through toxicity,
bioaccumulation or
persistence; (6) Preserve
resources locally and
globally through purchasing
practices that include: (a)
Maximizing the use of water
and energy efficient
products; (b) Maximizing
post-consumer recycled
content and readily
recyclable or compostable
materials; (c) Reducing the
use or creation of landfilled
materials; (d) Favoring
long-term product use
through durability,
repairability, and reuse; (e)
Considering life-cycle
analysis of products
consisting of, but not limited
to, manufacture,
transportation, use, and
disposal; (f) Supporting
strong recycling markets; (g) Creating a model for
successfully purchasing
environmentally preferable
products that encourages
other purchasers or
consumers in our
community to adopt similar
practices. Additionally the
City passed an ordinance
that established the “Miami
Green Fleet Program” that
established policies that
assure the City is
purchasing, leasing or
otherwise obtaining the
most energy efficient
vehicles/vessels possible
that meet the operational
needs of the department or
agency for which the
vehicles/vessels are intended, and that fleets will
be managed and operated
in an energy efficient
manner that minimizes
emissions.
- Other Emissions
The City has developed a number
of initiatives to improve the
accessibility to public transit
systems. One recent effort was the
2012 launching of the City's free
trolley system which of up to 28
diesel powered trolleys serving the busy hospital district and Little
Havana neighborhood. Operation
and maintenance of the trolleys are
funded by federal Stimulus dollars
and money from half-cent transit
surtax funds. Additionally through
its Capital Improvement and
Planning Departments the City has
instituted a number of projects and
programs (funded via various public
and private mechanisms) to
increase bicycle infrastructure (bike
lanes, parking etc.) throughout the
City. Specifically, efforts have been
undertaken and plans are in place
to increase bicycle infrastructure
around and leading to public transit
hubs in the City. In 2010 the City
launched its 'Miami 21' initiative
which entails a holistic approach to
land use and urban planning. Miami
21 will take into account all of the
integral factors that will make each
area within the City a unique,
vibrant place to live, learn, work
and play. Six elements serve as the
lynchpins in the development of the
blueprint of Miami: Zoning (Miami
21 Zoning Code), Economic
Development, Historic
Preservation, Parks and Open
Spaces, Arts and Culture, and
Transportation. Under Miami 21,
several requirements have been
adopted into the Code of the City of
Miami to spur Transit Oriented
Development (TOD).
- Transport
The City has an extensive
Brownfield redevelopment program
in place that attends to the
environmental priorities of
assessing, cleaning up, and
reusing our Brownfields. Brownfield
redevelopment helps to reduce
urban sprawl, and provides
economic opportunity in socioeconomically
depressed area,
through job training and
preparation programs often with a
'green' focus.
- Other Emissions
Via a Resolution of the City Commission, the City of Miami entered into an Interlocal agreement with 6 other municipalities to establish the Green Corridor Property Assessment Clean Energy (PACE) District. The Green Corridor PACE District aims to increase the adoption of renewable energy and energy-efficient building technologies for property owners (Commercial only in the City of Miami) using the PACE financing model, per the Florida Legislature House Bill 7179 in 2010 which created Florida's PACE Program.
Read More Read Less- Buildings
The City has an extensive Bicycle
Initiatives program. Under this
program the City has developed a
bicycle master plan, bicycle action
plan, bicycle action committee and
various community bicycle
advocacy and outreach efforts.
Under the bicycle master plan, and
through its Planning, Capital
Improvements and Sustainable
Initiatives departments, the City
has completed several publicly and
privately funded projects to
increase and enhance bicycle
infrastructure throughout the City.
- Transport
Primarily through its Solid
Waste Department, the City
has a number of municipal
and residential recycling
collection programs in place
for its operation, including
regular recycling waste
collection for its facilities,
and recycling programs for
household/office hazardous
waste including batteries
and small electronics. The
City does not own or
operate any recycled
material processing
facilities, and transports
collected recycled materials
to County facilities.
- Waste
The City's Office of
Sustainable Initiatives leads
the 'Green Team'. The
Green Team meets monthly
and serves to educate and
engage employees on
sustainability,
environmental and climate
change issues, and
measures employees can
take to reduce their carbon
footprint in their daily lives.
- Other Emissions
Miami 21
instituted a number of
greenspace requirements that
were adopted into the Code of
the City of Miami. Under Miami
21, greenspace requirements
have been enacted that are
specific to; landscape standards
(by zone), single family
residential districts, commercial
districts, and conservation
districts. Additionally, the City's
Office of Sustainable Initiatives is
responsible for managing the
'Green Miami Campaign' which
aims to increase the City's tree canopy cover to 30% by the year
202
(http://www.ourgreenmiami.org).
Under the Green Miami
Campaign, the City has
performed several large scale
tree plantings in the public right of
way and in parks, as well as
hosting several public tree
giveaway events. The Public
Works Department conducts
regular tree plantings in the public
right of way via the request of City
residents for trees in front of their
properties.
The final keystone of the City's
Climate Action Plan is Adaptation
to climate change. The City plans
in the future to develop
adaptation measures to increase
resilience and resistence to sea
level rise. The City continues to
work with Miami-Dade County at
various levels and on various
current and future initiatives for
adapting to sea level rise.
- Human health
Miami 21 has
been amended to include 'Heat
Island Effect Ordinance for
Non-Roofs' which includes the following requirments for shading
of hardscapes: "Sites with new
construction shall be required to
comply with the following: (a)
Provide any combination of the
following strategies for fifty
percent (50%) of the site
hardscape: (i) Shade from solar
panels or roofing materials with a
solar reflectance of at least 0.30.
(ii) Shade from trees within five
(5) years of occupancy. (iii)
Paving materials with a solar
reflectance of at least 0.30. (iv)
Pervious pavement system. OR
(b) Place a minimum of fiftypercent
(50%) of parking spaces
under cover (defined as
underground, under deck, under
roof, or under building). Any roof
used to shade or cover parking
must have a solar reflectance of
at least 0.30."
The City of Miami has a well
established detailed Hurricane
Plan that in part addresses the
projected increased risk from
tropical cyclonic activity.
Miami 21 has been
amended to include 'Heat Island
Effect Ordinance for Roofs' which
includes the following
requirements for Solar
Reflectance: "All roof exterior
surfaces shall have a minimum
solar reflectance as specified in
Sections 951.5 through 951.7
when (i) tested in accordance with
ASTM E903 or ASTM E1918, (ii)
tested with a portable
reflectometer at near ambient
conditions, (iii) labeled by the
Cool Roof Rating Council, or (iv)
labeled as an Energy Star
qualified roof product. Any
product that has been rated by
the Cool Roof Rating Council or
by Energy Star shall display a
label verifying the rating of the
product."
Mayor Francis SuarezCity of Miami, FL, United States
Initiative
