Business View Magazine September 2018

82 83 our comprehensive sustainability initiative. This has been around since 2007, when Mayor Dyer had the foresight that for us to be a thriving city in the 21st century, a city that attracts a creative class while remaining one of the best for peo- ple to live, work, learn, play, and raise a family in, it’s imperative to integrate sustainability into all aspects of Orlando. “The thought process behind Green Works, in addition to being one of the greenest cities in the country, is ensuring we are socially inclusive, economically vibrant, and environmentally sus- tainable.We often say we’re following the triple bottom line of: people, planet, and prosperity. Green Works looks at seven key focus areas: clean energy, green buildings, local food systems, liva- bility, solid waste, water resources, and transpor- tation.” BVM: What is the ‘Beyond 34’ initiative? Castro: “With millions of visitors coming to our city, producing about a ton of waste per person, we had to figure out what to do with all that waste; how to create a circular and regenerative economy that uses waste in the economic stream. So, we’ve had a goal since the inception of Green Works of being a zero-waste community -divert- ing 100 percent of our waste from the landfill. “Mayor Dyer has really charged us with thinking creatively.We launched a single-stream recycling program a long time ago, one of the first in the country, where people can put all their recycla- bles in one can.We’ve also rolled out a number of public space recycling options. ‘Beyond 34’ came out in 2017, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tiatives such as Green Works Orlando. Business View Magazine recently spoke with Chris Castro, Director of Sustainability for the City of Orlando, about Green Works and the innovative solutions that are making the City a sustainability role model across the nation. The following is an edited transcript of that conversa- tion. BVM: Orlando faces very interesting problems from a sustainability perspective.With so many people using the infrastructure, how are you ad- dressing those challenges? Castro: “We had 72 mil- lion tourists in Orlando in 2017– a five percent growth in tourism over the last year. For every resident there are upward of 245 tourists that visit our city. That’s a big reason for the establishment of Green Works Orlando, which is ORLANDO, FLORIDA CHRIS CASTRO DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY