Montgomery County, TN – The Green Certification Program is pleased to announce that the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission (RPC) is the newest Green Certified organization. A green ribbon cutting was held on Monday, September 28th to honor the Regional Planning Commission’s achievement.
Ribbon cutting attendees included Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett and Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts along with representatives from the Green Certification Board. Mayor Pitts thanked the Regional Planning Commission for its work to become Certified and commended its employees for working together to achieve certification.
Over the past few years, the RPC has been working diligently to undertake small projects to become more sustainable.
Jeffrey Tyndall, Director, said “We as a staff looked at things we can do on a small scale that will have an impact. We have an older building so we looked at lighting and HVAC but we also evaluated waste and paper usage.”
The RPC is upgrading its lighting to LEDs as bulbs burn out and last year completed an HVAC upgrade that to date has resulted in an electric savings of over $1,000 for the year. As for waste, the RPC has reduced breakroom waste by eliminating Styrofoam and switching to reusable kitchen products.
Another big success on waste reduction came from the RPC’s reduced use of paper. Last year the Planning Commission invested in technology that allowed it to prepare electronic packets for its commissioners. Prior to the investment, staff would prepare a dozen monthly hardcopy packets, sometimes several hundred pages each, for all their Commissioners.
The initial cost of the technology has been recouped by the reduction in paper purchased, toner, and employee’s time overseeing packet printing. Going forward staff will continue to look for more ways to continue to reduce paper or go paperless.
The RPC oversees all land development and zoning for the City of Clarksville and Montgomery County. Its office is located in Downtown Clarksville at 329 Main Street. For more information on the Planning Commission and the work that they do, visit them online at www.cmcrpc.com/.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Green Certification Program promotes environmental stewardship within Montgomery County. The free Program is open to any organization with a physical location within the County and focuses on expanding recycling and improving resource efficiency.
If your organization is interested in learning more about the Program, contact Carlye Sommers at cmsommers@mcgtn.net or call 931.245.1867. You can also find information about the Program at www.mcgtn.org/green.
