Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and DeKalb County have been certified as gold Green Communities for demonstrating leadership in sustainability practices.
This was Brookhaven’s first time as a Green Community, while DeKalb County was upgraded to gold certification level.
“The City of Dunwoody and the Dunwoody Sustainability Committee have worked hard to achieve this designation by planting trees, installing electrical vehicle charging stations, and holding the ever-popular hazardous household waste and electronic recycling events each year. These efforts and others help make our community greener and more sustainable,” Dunwoody Community Development Director Richard McLeod said.
Brookhaven’s sustainability efforts that earned it the gold certification included construction project inspections to enforce Georgia’s energy codes; installing solar shades and solar-powered device charging in Skyland Park; using geothermal energy to heat and cool its new Public Safety Building; requiring that bicycle parking accommodates cargo and other types of bikes; and replacing invasive species manually at nine sites with native flora.
Sandy Springs’s sustainability efforts included creating a Green Infrastructure Manual for small-scall residential developments; acquiring new greenspaces, such as 8.5 acres to expand Allen Road Park and Crooked Creek Park; becoming a Bee City USA Affiliate to protect pollinators; increasing the availability of EV charging stations through incentives; following a Green Fleet Policy with 11 electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid vehicles.
DeKalb County has numerous sustainability efforts earning its certification, including resolving to achieve 100 percent renewable energy for county electricity use by 2035, and 100 percent for the entire community by 2045; ensuring the parking lots meet shade requirements; replacing more than 27,000 High-Intensity Discharge streetlights with LED streetlights; the ReLeaf DeKalb program planting new trees in residential front yards and public properties; tracking and measuring the effectiveness of its solid waste and recycling programs.
Alpharetta, Johns Creek, and Peachtree Corners were the other honorees in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s (ARC) Green Communities program.
The Green Communities Program was developed in 2009 to recognize which local governments invested in programs and policies for a more sustainable region. Communities earn credits toward the certification through the construction of green buildings, protecting tree canopies, and implementing water conservation measures.
Certification levels range from bronze to platinum. Twenty local governments in metro Atlanta – 14 cities and 6 counties – are certified in the program.
