In 2014 Sheboygan joined the Green Tier Communities of Wisconsin. Their mission is to help communities across the state of Wisconsin move continuously toward a sustainable future through initiatives that promote environmental stewardship, economic growth, public health, and social equity.
Legacy Communities are Leaders in Sustainable Implementation. In 2007, Sheboygan became an Eco-Municipality to serve as a model for our citizens, encouraging economic development, and industrial initiatives while protecting the ecosystem.
In August of 2008, the Common Council created the Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force. The purpose of this Task Force was to study and make recommendations regarding strategies to be adopted by the City for creating and maintaining a sustainable Sheboygan, focusing on such topics as recycling, green purchasing, energy conservation, waste management and sustainability measures, and raising community awareness of environmental stewardship.
Sheboygan’s sustainability goals, policies, and action steps were developed and implemented by the SSTF under the direction of Chad Pelishek, who was recently named Sheboygan’s Sustainability Coordinator. The 2015 City of Sheboygan Sustainability Report detailed a number of accomplishments that have been achieved. Following are some highlights from the report.
A City Employee Sustainability Week was held for all city employees. Sustainability week not only raised morale, but also helped city employees realize simple changes can be made to make everyone’s lives more sustainable. Recycling Bins were provided where needed for City offices along with educational materials explaining what can be recycled in the bins.
Sheboygan lies on the coast of Lake Michigan and one way we protect Lake Michigan is to sweep the streets to prevent dirt and debris from being carried into the waterways by stormwater. Sheboygan sweeps the streets for 32 weeks (128 Days) per year, and in 2015 Sheboygan collected 851 tons of sweeping debris.
The City of Sheboygan was awarded a matching $75,000 Planning and Implementing Clean Energy Investment in Wisconsin Communities Grant from the State of Wisconsin Energy Office. This will allow the conversion of 168 street-light fixtures along Kohler Memorial Drive from High Pressure Sodium fixtures to high-efficiency LED fixtures. Once this project is complete, 10% of city-owned street-light fixtures on Sheboygan roads will be high-efficiency LED fixtures.
Sheboygan has entered into a garbage contract where no charge is applied to the transfer of blue bag recycled materials. To take advantage of this pricing and encourage residents to renew their recycling efforts, the Sheboygan Water Utility mailed approximately 15,000 recycling brochures to customers in the quarterly water bills. The Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force is spearheading the campaign and has created the handouts and educational pieces on recycling that are distributed throughout the City. In 2015 an additional 435 tons were recycled and Sheboygan achieved 20% of the goal to recycle 40% of curbside waste.
In 2015 Sheboygan conducted a Hot-in-Place-Asphalt Recycling Pilot Project to resurface city streets. This method of resurfacing re-uses the street’s own existing asphalt by heating the surface, regrinding and combining the asphalt with new materials until the desired texture is achieved and the surface can be laid. The hot-in-place-asphalt method saves resources by re-using the existing asphalt, saves the City money, and lessens inconvenience as it takes a fraction of the amount of time as more traditional methods of street resurfacing.
Tree Planting – The city planted 24 trees along South Taylor Drive as part of the road construction project. The city is conducting a planting inventory which will show all public and boulevard sites that need a tree and what type of tree. The Park and Forestry Department will use this plan to start planting 200 plus trees a year.