SSDN‘s Green Minds

Sustainability spans across a multitude of disciplines, and the variety of individual backgrounds of sustainability professionals are a reflection of this reality. 

In this episode, we visit with Casi Callaway (Mobile, AL), Glen Hadwen (Fort Lauderdale, FL), Lennie Massanelli (Little Rock, AR) and George Santucci (Town of Boone, NC) to discuss their unique paths. 

This episode of Green Minds focuses on the sustainability organizational and staffing structures of four different size cities in the SSDN network and both their differences and commonalities: Susannah Troner of Miami-Dade County, FL; Helen Peplowski of the City of Winston-Salem, NC; George Santucci of the Town of Boone, NC; and Rebecca Harvey of Boynton Beach, FL. We discuss their histories, their current staffing, and future growth plans of each of these diverse cities.

The first 2022 episode of Green Minds explores the making of the latest canopy study for the City of Sandy Springs (GA) with Bridget Lawlor, GIS Manager. She is followed by Dr. Kendra Abkowitz, Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (TN), who discusses the latest efforts in Metro Nashville to preserve and increase the tree canopy. 

 

Sandy Springs' urban canopy resources

Root Nashville initiative

Free canopy assessment and planning tools: i-Tree

 

Tune into this episode as Green Minds Co-hosts Catherine Mercier-Baggett and Laurel Creech as we talk with five SSDN cities to hear about their accomplishments in 2021: Fulton County, GA; Winston-Salem, NC; Orange County, FL; Durham, NC; and Chapel Hill, NC.

 

For more headlines and stories from SSDN's members in 2021, check out our year-end newsletter (plus our archives!) and latest blog post on our website.

This episode of Green Minds is focused on City Scale's recent report The State of U.S. Local Climate Action Planning, a collaborative reflection of a group of local climate practitioners. Through a series of conversations in 2019, climate practitioners across the country came to a shared recognition that local climate action planning had reached an inflection point. Guests Michael Armstrong, Katherine Gajewski, and Ariella Maron, of City Scale, bring their local government expertise to this enlightening and much-needed discussion.

The IPCC is releasing its sixth round of reports (AR6), confirming that we must control our impact on climate. Dr. Jairo Garcia, author of the Atlanta Climate Action Plan and instructor at Georgia Tech, explains what is the IPCC and why their findings are critical for local governments. Nell Boyle, Sustainability & Outreach Coordinator for the City of Roanoke, VA, reveals how the IPCC report release makes a difference in her work. 

 

IPCC AR6 - Summary for Policymakers

This episode of Green Minds features Michael Dexter, SSDN's new Manager for the Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center (SSRC) which supports communities in their mobilization of COVID-19 relief and economic recovery in innovative ways which yield equitable solutions that make our communities more resilient to future stressors. We talk about the SSRC and how it will be valuable to members and Michael's previous roles in federal and local agencies.

Learn more about the SSRC here.

In this second episode of Green Minds, Catherine Mercier-Baggett (Sandy Springs, GA) discusses what sustainability means in the municipal context with Dr. Lynn Patterson of Three Points Planning and Georgia Tech, and Vanessa King, Network Manager at SSDN. 

This is the first episode of Green Minds hosted by Laurel Creech and features Kris Stenger, the founder and former host of Green Minds Think Alike. We discuss Kris' new position as he leaves City of Winter Park to work as International Code Council's (ICC) Director of Energy.

Meg Jamison, Executive Director of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network , joins the podcast to talk about the power of the network and the SE Sustainable Communities Fund. We also dive into what impacts Covid has had on the network and what opportunities lie ahead.