WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Richmond 2015 officials marked an historic occasion Earth Day, April 22, when they announced that the 2015 UCI Road World Cycling Championships would be the first Road World Cycling event to receive the official UCI reCycling eco-label.

Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) created the reCycling program to help its members organize more environmentally responsible cycling events by addressing practices in transportation, energy and water conservation, recycling and waste management, accommodations, catering, and supplies. UCI awards the eco-label to cycling events that have submitted an Environmental Management Plan documenting intended actions that meet the reCycling criteria.

During the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, attendees will notice mobile water-filling stations provided by the City’s Department of Public Utilities in the spectator zones to reduce plastic use by making it easy to refill bottles. A Green Team of volunteers will also be on hand to carry out the eco-label initiatives.

“The City is strategically leveraging the World Championships to further community-wide initiatives that are essential for a vibrant and resilient Richmond," said Mayor Jones. "These initiatives will continue to benefit our residents long after the nine days of racing are over and the visitors have returned home.”

Recycling and composting bins

During the Earth Day event, Mayor Jones issued a progress report on the City’s RVAgreen sustainability plan, "Moving Sustainability Forward." The progress report tracks headway in achieving the 55 sustainability initiatives established in in the plan such as green jobs, healthy food access, community energy use, recycling, open space access, housing cost burden, and alternative modes of transportation. It sets goals to reduce government and community greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, equal to a 1.8 percent reduction every year.

As a result of work related to the 2015 Championships, the City of Richmond and collaborators are planning to enhance sustainability for future events. In addition to the mobile water filling stations and Green Team of volunteers, improvements include recycling and composting stations; and a green event toolkit to provide free information and resources to help organizers make their events more sustainable.

About City of Richmond RVAgreen

RVAgreen is the City’s sustainability program. It includes the RVAgreen Sustainability Plan released in 2012 to further the City’s sustainability goals: improve the quality of life for residents, create a healthy environment and enhance economic opportunity in the city of Richmond. For more information about RVAgreen including a copy of the RVAgreen Progress Report called Moving Sustainability Forward visit www.richmondgov.com/sustainability

About Richmond 2015, Inc.

Richmond 2015, Inc., is the independent nonprofit corporation responsible for the organization, management and promotion of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships. 

Partners of Richmond 2015 include Altria, Anthem, CarMax, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, Davenport and Company, Dominion, Genworth, Hourigan Construction, Kings Dominion, Lansing Building Products, MARTIN’S Food Markets, MWV, McGuireWoods, Norfolk Southern, PIASCIK, The Community Foundation, TowneBank, VCU Medical Center and Williams Mullen.

In addition to its corporate partners, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the City of Richmond, Hanover County and Henrico County are all key partners of Richmond 2015. For more information about Richmond 2015 visit http://richmond2015.com. 

About the 2015 UCI Road World Championships

The 2015 UCI Road World Championships, cycling’s pinnacle event, will be held Sept. 19-27, 2015 in Richmond, Va., and is expected to attract 450,000 onsite spectators over the course of the nine-day event as well as a worldwide television audience. More than 1,000 cyclists – Elite Men and Women, Under-23 Men, and Junior Men and Women – from more than 75 countries will compete in three categories: the traditional Road Race, Individual Time Trial and Team Time Trial. The event, which is being held in the United States for the first time since 1986, culminates with the traditional road races on Sept. 26 (women) and Sept. 27 (men).

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014

Early next year, some garbage collection routes will be selected as the first to participate in Richmond's new recycling program. Homeowners and residents of apartment buildings with four or fewer units will receive a new giant green cart with a blue lid. Put all your recyclable items such as paper, No. 1 and No. 2 plastics, cardboard, junk mail, newspapers, glass bottles, aluminum and tin cans in this bin instead of your regular trash can and it will be picked up every other week on your regular trash collection day.

Six thousand 95-gallon cans will be distributed during the first phase of the program, made possible by a $420,000 grant from a recycling nonprofit organization. These carts will go to neighborhoods with alley trash pickup. Recipients will receive postcards in the mail explaining when the carts will arrive and how to use them. The carts will have electronic tracking tags, so they can be traced if stolen.

By the end of 2015, all city residents will have the cans.

Central Virginia Waste Management Authority will administer the recycling program. The total cost of supplying carts to all 61,000 city households is approximately $3.2 million, but will save $26,000 per year by reducing the amount of regular trash collected and buried in the landfills and reuse of materials will have an economic value of $6.5 million.

Once the program is fully operational, the small, 18-gallon recycling bins will no longer be collected. Residents living in apartment buildings and condos larger than four units should use the recycling containers provided by their building management.
 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014

GRTC, along with the City of Richmond and Henrico County, is preparing to introduce RVA’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line along a 7.6 mile corridor from Rocketts Landing to Willow Lawn, in October 2017. 

BRT buses will run frequently and make fewer stops, serving 14 stations that offer more amenities than traditional bus stops. To improve trip times, riders will pay for their trip before boarding the bus, using off-board payment stations.

GRTC will unveil the name of the BRT service, logo and vehicle design in Spring 2015.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

The City of Richmond achieved another milestone toward becoming a bike and pedestrian friendly city by adopting a Complete Streets Policy in October. Complete Streets is a transportation policy and design approach that helps make communities healthier, more livable, economically competitive and resilient. They are streets designed and operated to be safe, comfortable and convenient for all users regardless of age, ability or mode of travel.

Adopting a Complete Streets Policy was a recommendation of the Mayor’s Pedestrian, Bicycling and Trails Commission, the City’s RVAgreen Sustainability Plan, Richmond Connects and the Green City Commission. The policy outlines the design and construction standards for sidewalks, public ways and public rights-of-way and requires that City transportation improvement projects provide appropriate accommodations to promote safe usage for all users.

The City Administration is working to develop guidelines for implementing complete streets in the City of Richmond as required by the City’s Complete Streets Policy. As detailed in Resolution 2014-R172-170, the City Administration has 12 months to develop implementation guidelines and incorporate those into the City’s “Right-of-Way Design and Construction Standards Manual.”

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2014

Keep Virginia Beautiful (KVB) hosted a cleanup in June 2014 in honor of Pedaling For A Cleaner America. Volunteers picked up litter from the park along Dock Street and the start of Virginia Capital Trail near 17th Street, continued to 14th Street and proceeded across Mayo Bridge.

John Deuel, the recently retired recycling coordinator for the City of Norfolk and Keep Norfolk Beautiful, has been rode his bike across America beginning in April 2014 to raise funds and awareness for Keep America Beautiful and bicycle safety for kids. He did cleanups at some of his stops across America but Richmond’s event was a focal point.

With the World Road Cycling Championships coming to Richmond in September 2015, the Virginia Capital Trail and the numerous biking initiatives growing, KVB is hoping to capitalize on the biking craze. Partners in this endeavor were the Richmond Clean City Commission, Richmond 2015, Virginia Capital Trail, City of Richmond Sustainability–RVA Green, James River Association and the many biking groups across the RVA region.

Keep Virginia Beautiful’s mission is to engage and unite Virginians to improve our natural and scenic environment. Since 1953, KVB has been bringing people together to build vibrant communities through litter prevention, waste reduction, recycling, beautification, and education. Get involved with KVB to help deliver a positive and lasting impact by visiting www.keepvirginiabeautiful.org.