Darell S. Bagley, the City of Frisco’s senior landscape architect, recently accepted a Merit Award from the Texas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in behalf of the Development Services Department. The award acknowledges the Department’s efforts in framing and implementing Frisco’s new landscape requirements, which the ASLA says “exemplify a commitment [...]

Dedee DeLongpre Johnston, Director of Sustainability at Wake Forest University (Photo: Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University)

As corporate and nonprofit recruiters prepare to storm college campuses this fall, applicants need new ways to distinguish themselves in an increasingly challenging job market. Viewing the world through the lens of sustainability and demonstrating practical experience with a “greener resume” can make a difference when applying for jobs, says Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, Director of Sustainability at Wake Forest University.

A recent study found that 93 percent of CEOs believe sustainability will be “important” or “very important” to the future success of their companies. DeLongpré Johnston offers three simple solutions for students wanting to bolster their green potential without greenwashing their resumes.

After the gifts have been opened and the holidays are gone, Frisco residents annually are left with a nagging question:

What do you do with the Styrofoam?

One solution: If you can’t completely solve a problem, minimize it.

That’s what is happening at Frisco Environmental Services, where Manager Jeremy Starritt came up with a creative way to make the best of a bad situation.

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By Barbara Kessler

Riding a bicycle offers a chance to stop and smell the roses on your way to work or school.

If Americans substituted biking for just half of their daily short car trips they’d enjoy extensive health benefits, while contributing to cleaner air, which would enhance health in their entire community, according to a study by University of Wisconsin researchers.

The study takes the conventional wisdom – that biking can displace pollution and improve health – and quantified it for a set region under certain circumstances in order to project what the real outcomes would be if Americans moved out from behind their steering wheels, at least some of the time.

To project actual benefits, the UW research team measured the potential effects of replacing short car trips (under five miles round trip) with bike trips, at least half of the time and only on good weather days, in urban areas in the Upper Midwest.

They found that parking the car and taking the bike in their scenario would prevent 1,100 premature deaths and save more than $7 billion in healthcare costs annually in the six states that comprised the study area.

By Bill Sullivan

Finding enough money to provide citizens with top-notch facilities and services is always a challenge, especially in these economically trying times. In Frisco, some creative thinking and deft planning has helped relieve some of the pressure on those precious funds.

The City is in the final phase of implementing six projects funded by an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The $825,800 award was obtained through a collaboration of City departments, each of which offered input into how they might make their facilities a bit more environmentally friendly.

By Bill Sullivan

Thanks to a 17-year-old Frisco High senior, a portion of the bat population of Beavers Bend Park enjoys a higher standard of living these days. As part of a Girl Scout project, Ainsley Campbell (an Ambassador in Troop 1289) built and installed a total of 10 bat houses in the park, her own way of saying thanks to one of nature’s most sustainable and efficient forms of pest control.

When Frisco Green Living learned about her efforts, we contacted Ainsley to see if she would be willing to share her thoughts on what drew her to the project, how she went about it, and what she learned in the process.

Here’s what she had to say: