By Adrienne Herr
When you think of Greenville, South Carolina, you don’t tend to think about the environmental landscape. You don’t really relate cities to sustainability or a small carbon footprint. But just like many cities around the country, Greenville has taken the initiative to achieve sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint. They have done this by changing public transportation and appointing a sustainability commission to look after the programs they implement. So, Let’s look at all that Greenville has planned so far.
On the topic of public transportation, Proterra, a vehicle manufacturing company, built four electric buses for Greenlink Transit. This means that these buses are very quiet and do not emit toxic gas or smog. In fact, each bus eliminates 230,000 pounds of CO2 per year when replacing the diesel buses. The eventual goal, says Mayor Knox White, is to “have an all-electric fleet that uses the technology developed right here.”
Another measure taken by the city is to introduce a tree-planting campaign. With the newly launched #plantGVL campaign, Greenville hopes to plant 1,000 trees in parks and other public areas. This also follows an ordinance that essentially requires developers to replace every tree they cut down. The city states on its website, “to protect and enhance the natural environment and aesthetic beauty of our community, the city is actively working to preserve existing trees and promote and support tree-planting efforts citywide.” To encourage community participation and increase public awareness, the city will include free tree giveaways to plant on private property.
Greenville is also in the process of developing the banks of the Reedy River near Unity Park. They are attempting to reintroduce native trees to the area with an emphasis on American beech and hickory trees. However, as reported by Greenville News, there is more going on behind the project with multiple strange tree trunks sticking out of the ground. Bill Fox, who is a part of the publicity agency for the park, states that these tree trunks are “meant to form standing ‘snags’ to create wildlife habitat for a variety of woodpeckers and other birds and mammals.” The area will ultimately turn into a canopy of trees with the trunks being surrounded by other trees and plants.
With these plans implemented by the city, it’s important to ask if the residents are on board with the goal. The community is very tight knit with local farmers supplying local restaurants and small businesses thriving off of people familiar with the area. One of the best examples of this is Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery that manages to draw in large crowds with their quality foods and products. They are also a business that helps the community by buying produce from local farmers and selling it all in one location to eager customers. Having locals provide food creates a unique relationship within the community as everyone is able to get what they need. The community is onboard with implementing eco-friendly practices so, in the future, when people think of Greenville, let’s have them think of sustainability.
