GREENER COMMUNITIES PROGRAM

One Size Does Not Fit All

When facing the looming specters of global climate change and rising energy prices, the environmental and economic benefits of a solid recycling program are impossible to deny.  What is more difficult, however, is getting successful programs off to the right start or updating existing programs to achieve better results.  Low recycling rates, confusion about the options before a community, and a dearth of research aimed at the places where recycling rates are lowest: smaller towns, all contribute to a continuing trend of slower and slower growth in the national recycling rate.

Corcoran Environmental Services began the Greener Communities Project to address exactly these ills.  Begun in January of 2008, the program is growing and approaching a mature state where it will become available to CES client municipalities who wish to see more out of their recycling programs than just a national average.  A town or city that wishes to become a Greener Community sets its sights at nothing less than environmental excellence achieved through quality research and careful planning and strategizing.

What is the Greener Communities Program?

The Program is many things at once:

Research/Analysis Effort

Program staff are enthusiastic, educated, and up-to-date experts on the state of the industry.  New methods, new technology, and unique solutions to specific problems faced by the community are all examined from multiple angles to better understand the community's specific situation.  This information is then condensed, simplified, and provided to community officials and the public to spread that understanding and raise awareness while making the information itself easier to grasp.

Policy Think Tank

Once the problem is better understood, suggestions for new methods to solve problems, new ways to increase efficiency, and changes that can be made to existing methods and means often become self-evident.  These improvements are specifically sought after, analyzed, and presented to community officials to be debated and implemented.  These suggestions are specifically tuned to the community's individual needs, character, and resources.

Community Outreach Program

The most common 'choke point' to successful recycling programs is resident participation.  Special attention is paid towards education and persuasion efforts to involve and engage the public in the community's programs.  From community event planning and organization to educational materials design, Program Staff will ensure that the best practices available are tuned to resonate specifically with the Greener Community's residents.  Rather than blanket a community with bland, generic information, the community's particular and unique character is emphasized and linked to recycling behaviors.