Bgreen 2020

BGreen 2020 was established to bring together community members, city departments, and the business community of Bridgeport to identify those strategies available to us locally, which could begin to impact these forces that often seem beyond our control. In coming together, we jointly learned and reaffirmed one fundamental notion: that the actions necessary to stabilize the national economy and protect the global environment simultaneously bring so many local benefits and environmental justice to Bridgeport.

• An Energy Improvement District in Bridgeport will implement renewable electricity generation projects and develop programs to retrofit municipal buildings, businesses and homes, that reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, lower household and commercial utility bills, and shrink property tax bills by making city operations more energy efficient.
• A focus on transit and complete streets will lower greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and lower households’ transportation costs by limiting the need for automobiles.
• A Green Collar Institute will consolidate resources to help businesses improve their bottom line through efficiency, help individuals develop the skills they need to find jobs in the new economy, assist the city in attracting and growing green businesses locally through a Green Business Incubator and a Green Business Cluster, and drive the creation of a green marketplace through purchasing policies.
• Zoning and Geographic Information Systems that encourage green redevelopment will reclaim the city’s vacant and contaminated land for taxpaying buildings that will provide local jobs and affordable housing opportunities, and will shrink property tax bills by reducing the burden on existing households to support municipal services.
• Increased recycling and composting will significantly reduce the cost of disposal, create local jobs, save money in the city budget, thereby reducing taxes, and move us away from an industrial process that emphasizes disposable goods.
• A Conservation Commission will implement a parks plan that will bring open space, greenery, and the waterfront within reach of every city resident, and add neighborhood amenities like pocket parks, community gardens and other quality of life measures. And it will also champion the stormwater management issues that take into account the fragile nature of our community.
• A youth Conservation Corps, going door-to-door, will provide information to residents and businesses to help them save money, be stewards of the environment, and help improve the quality of life in our community

There’s a clear, common theme throughout: going green saves or even makes green $! Environmental action will provide the economic foundation to grow the city’s jobs, tax base, and opportunity while lowering household bills for energy, water, and property taxes.

The plan is organized into two sections. The first part lays out the Need for Change, and describes the planning process and summary of goals and opportunities that bring us From Vision to Plan, and charts the course for institutionalizing action From Plan to Implementation. The second part describes the 64 strategies in detail for the city and the community to act on over the course of the coming decade.

Action cannot take place within the corridors of City Hall and its government alone. The city is responsible for only 4% of local greenhouse gas emissions. Government must act in a leadership role, but the actions of local businesses, neighborhoods, residents, and workers will be the determining factors in making Bridgeport’s campaign to create economic, environmental, and social prosperity a success. A solid corps of our city’s young adults has already begun going door-to-door spreading word of the benefits available to us through individual action and sharing the skills necessary to achieve results. This Conservation Corps will continue to be one of the most effective strategies for spreading the word of sustainability and the hope that it contains for our future. It must, and can, be joined by others.

Though creating a new, green path for Bridgeport’s future will be challenged by inertia and the status quo, of greater strength is the desire of the Bridgeport community to emerge from this recession more prosperous and equitable than ever before. BGreen 2020 is intended to show the way.