Burlington kicks off bid for green honors

Free Press Staff 12:08 a.m. EDT April 27, 2016

(Photo: Courtesy Destenie Vital/Burlington Electric Department)

Although Burlington’s reputation as a green city extends well beyond its borders, local residents were asked Tuesday to tout those credentials further, specifically by tooting BTV’s horn through social media.

An air of playful urgency informed the appeal from the dozen or so Burlington officials and business leaders who gathered at the Community Boathouse.

The message: Burlington is in the semi-finals for national sustainability bragging rights, competing against Boulder, Colorado, and Evanston, Illinois, in a “We Love Cities” contest sponsored by nonprofit World Wildlife Fund.

Locked in competition for the next two months, the municipalities will trumpet their climate and sustainability plans via Instagram, Twitter and other online channels in an attempt to sway a distant panel of judges, according to a news statement released by the Mayor’s Office.

The winner, announced this summer, will be crowned the U.S. Earth Hour Capital — and will advance to compete against 20 international cities for top global honors, the release states.

Local organizers offered a three-pronged strategy designed to burnish Burlington’s rankings:

• Vote for Burlington online atWeLoveCities.org/Burlington;
• Share ideas on that website about how Burlington might improve its performance; and
• Launch glowing accounts of Burlington’s sustainability past, present and future on Instagram and Twitter using the #WeLoveBurlington hashtag address.

Mayor Miro Weinberger, an accomplished wielder of social media, stepped up to an old-fashioned microphone to drive the point home: “Together, let’s send a message around the country and the world that Burlington knows what it means to be a leader in environmental stewardship, and let’s win the title of most sustainable U.S. city.”