Students Prepare for Sustainable Practices

Iowa State University professor Monica Haddad was on a mission… find an Iowa community to partner with her community and regional planning students to increase sustainable practices within their city. Many communities were not interested, but then she heard about Urbandale. “It was just the right moment. The city had already established a sustainability mission in 2023 and developed an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions (in conjunction with the University of Northern Iowa), “said Haddad.

Over the spring of 2024, 15 undergraduate students created a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make it more attractive to new and existing Urbandale residents and businesses. According to John Konior, Director of Risk Management/Support Services, “I feel that in the end, this will build a better community in Urbandale.”

College junior Greenlee Dahle was one of the students who worked on the project. “We did not know how much went into the project when we started,” said Dahle. “Reaching out to city staff, community members, and even refugees to discuss our plan required a lot of creative thinking.”

Kristi Bales, Assistant Director of Community Development, worked closely with the students. “We were very pleased with the results,” said Bales. “When we first met with them, they had lots of ideas. But they took our feedback and developed an exciting and comprehensive plan.”

Bridget Carberry Montgomery, an Urbandale City Councilperson, had been educated as an urban planner so she followed the plan's development closely. Montgomery was “incredibly impressed” with the proposal and was happy to see the students address the needs of lower-income residents. “These people are affected the most by climate change but have fewer resources to deal with it.”

On May 1, the students presented their 10-point plan to city council members and area residents at a shelter house in Lions Park. This included short-term and long-term actions the city could take, including purchasing additional EV & hybrid vehicles, adding more solar panels to city buildings, and creating a sustainability coordinator staff position.

Other ideas would require more work like changing the city code to allow community gardens on public property, reducing the size requirement for parking lot size for Urbandale businesses, and reducing barriers to creating a more walkable community.

The final plan will be presented to the Urbandale City Council in September. The student’s May 1st presentation can be found at www.urbandale.org/SustainableUrbandale

For more about this and other climate change information, contact Urbandale Climate and Social Justice at ucsj2020@gmail.com or follow them at https://www.facebook.com/share/o2C6HzAFaRwz5wV8/?mibextid=qi2Omg

Wayne Bruns is an Urbandale resident and a volunteer with Sustainable Urbandale. This article was previously published in Urbandale Living: https://www.iowalivingmagazines.com/urbandale-archives