Sustainability initiatives take center stage in Florida county

Palm Beach County, Fla. (2022 estimated population: 1,538,450), is the second largest county in Florida by land area and the third largest by population. County leaders have been implementing resiliency and sustainability initiatives for more than a decade, says Melissa McKinlay, commissioner of Palm Beach County District 6. “However, a few years ago, the Board of County Commissioners concluded that having a dedicated Office of Resilience was essential to coordinate sustainability initiatives on behalf of the county.” McKinlay says it is important to have a central hub of experts dedicated to helping county departments and community stakeholders. She believes this group of experts can help ensure that county departments include environmental sustainability in their policies, programs and day-to-day actions.

Yes, sustainability and resilience initiatives are important in this Florida community, especially as the effects of global warming continue to make headlines. Here’s how McKinlay sees it: “The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners is committed to ensuring a sustainable, thriving community while facing a changing climate. As the county government, we address this goal through climate adaptation, climate mitigation, and sustainable development policies, programs and initiatives.”

There are limits, though, to what the county’s lean-staffed Office of Resilience can accomplish, McKinlay tells Co-op Solutions. “Still, a team of three people can only do so much. Palm Beach County relies on the county administration, department directors, and all staff to carry out the county’s mission to ensure we are a sustainable, thriving community.” She offers the following examples: “From our Parks and Recreation Department working to eliminate Styrofoam use at its facilities to Palm Tran assessing when it can convert its bus fleet to electric buses, environmental sustainability is a shared responsibility.” Palm Tran is the public transit system serving Palm Beach County.

The county commissioners continue to position sustainability advocates within its workforce. The commissioners have created an Environmental Protection Cross-Departmental Team (CDT) that has more than a dozen different departments represented on the team. The CDT’s goals are as follows:

Palm Beach County is incorporating sustainable practices in county activities in several ways. It is working on reducing polystyrene and other single-use plastic waste at county facilities. Staffers have conducted a county survey on single-use plastic consumption. They have also analyzed purchasing trends and aggregated local ordinance examples covering sustainability. The county workers recently presented their findings to the Board of County Commissioners at a board workshop.

In April 2021, the county launched a Resiliency and Sustainability in County Capital Construction Projects policy and procedures manual. The volume formalizes resiliency and sustainability planning in county capital projects. “Through this manual, county departments with construction authority assess ways to minimize a project’s carbon footprint to the extent practical,” McKinlay explains.

Palm Beach County has inserted sustainability into procurement operations in several ways. It developed a Sustainable Paper Procurement Ordinance in 2015 to promote the use of sustainable paper products. Its purchasing department provides sustainable options at the county’s purchasing warehouse made from compostable and paper materials. The county encourages departments to purchase these sustainable options and decrease Styrofoam use where financially feasible. In addition, several county departments have created their own “Green Teams” to coordinate department sustainability initiatives.

McKinlay says recruiting and hiring exceptional staff has helped Palm Beach County achieve its sustainability successes. She says the county’s strong internship programs have helped find, build and retain talent. “For example, our Department of Environmental Resources Management has a Green Futures Summer Internship program. This paid internship targets disadvantaged youth and youth of color and aims to expose these interns to the various pathways toward careers and connections with nature and our natural resources.”

McKinlay, who was first elected to the Board of County Commissioners in 2014, offers this advice to public sector leaders in the U.S. as they consider programs to improve the environment: “I recommend that local governments create a dedicated sustainability and resiliency team or hire a staff person if they can manage it.”

It’s McKinlay’s belief that local governments can use cooperative contracts to advance their sustainable procurement policy or sustainability initiatives. Palm Beach County, however, tends not to use cooperative contracts because of the county’s preferences set forth in its Local Preference Ordinance and Equal Business Opportunity Ordinance. “The county may use a cooperative contract if there are no county-certified small minority women business enterprises that can provide the goods and/or services needed,” McKinlay tells Co-op Solutions. She notes these additional requirements:

The Palm Beach County commissioner says there are several benefits to using cooperative contracts and piggyback agreements. These include the economies of scale that are available in cooperative deals. “In cooperative contracts and piggybacks, the pricing is usually better than the pricing that the vendor can offer the county via its own solicitation.” In addition, the procurement process can be faster.

The OMNIA Partners Public Sector website lists many cooperative contracts that offer sustainable products and services and resilient solutions. Grainger, Ricoh, Herman Miller, Trane, HD Supply, Steelcase, Office Depot, Cintas, Toro, and dozens of other vendors and suppliers participate in these cooperative contracts. Search under the keyword terms “resilience” and “sustainability” to get information on the cooperative agreements.

Michael Keating is senior editor for American City & County. Contact him at [email protected].