St. Petersburg Recognizes Connection Between Sustainability and Business Success as Winter Park Chamber Offers Keynote Address

On October 25, the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership and the Florida Environmental Defense Fund co-hosted the first Sustainability Leadership Forum and Awards Ceremony.   As one of the most vulnerable cities in America to climate change, St. Petersburg’s business leaders were looking for a way to recognize those organizations in the city leading on sustainability.   At the event, the organizations recognized three companies and heard from Betsy Gardner Eckbert, president/CEO of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce.   “The companies we recognized today are leading our community’s efforts in sustainability and ensuring the future of our city is as great as our present,” says Jason Mathis, CEO, St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership. “Having Betsy set the stage, with her community’s connection between sustainability and prosperity was a great lesson for us all to hear.”   The Winter Park Chamber, located outside of Orlando, was recently featured in a “Chambers in Action” story because of its focus on sustainability in its Prosperity Scorecard.   During her keynote address, Gardner Eckbert discussed tri-sector leadership and how Winter Park engaged businesses, local government, and nonprofits in her community to tackle the issue of sustainability and climate change.   “Tri-sector leadership is required for change because change is tough,” Gardner Eckbert says. “You have to engage all of the stakeholders and embed change for it to last. This kind of change must be normalized and embedded and picked up by all the sectors.”   After Gardner Eckbert’s talk, the group recognized three local businesses for Sustainability Leadership, showcasing the positive work being done by community and business leaders throughout Pinellas County.    Businesses of all sizes were eligible and the selection process focused on innovation related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, structural preservation, water conservation, water quality, electric vehicles and more.   “From the level of companies we recognized to the fabulous advice given by Betsy, we are extremely pleased with the results of this inaugural event,” says Dawn Shirreffs, Florida director, Environmental Defense Fund. “These leaders understand that sustainability growth makes economic sense and we hope others will be inspired by their stories to embrace these forward thinking and lucrative practices.”

Award Winners:

Institutional Award Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, operating the region’s transit system with a focus on converting to electric buses. In March 2021, the organization released its first Sustainability Strategic Plan.

Retail Award Brick Street Farms, an urban farming company that has developed containers producing 16 acres to 20 acres of crops on 1/3 of an acre of land.

Developer Award Stoneweg U.S., a multifamily real estate investment company with a goal of reducing its portfolio’s site Energy Use Intensity by 15% by 2025.

If you would like to learn more about clean energy opportunities in your community, please contact Alan Byrd.   Also, if you would like to donate time or money in support of FL’s recovery from Hurricane Ian, you can do so via this link at the Florida State Chamber of Commerce website.

Winter Park Chamber leads community sustainability with innovative prosperity scorecard

Winter Park is one of Central Florida’s more desirable communities. It’s home to a top private college with an established shopping and dining area downtown. Its business community is engaged, led by multigenerational family residents, but filled with fresh voices and faces. The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce has been a staple of the community since 1923, sharing its offices with the city’s Welcome Center in the heart of the community. When COVID-19 hit, the Winter Park Chamber, like so many others, mobilized to work on a multitude of issues outside of the typical purview of a chamber, even creating an Economic Recovery Task Force. “We became aware of needs that we didn’t traditionally look at, like poverty and food insecurity,” says the chamber’s president/CEO, Betsy Gardner Eckbert, IOM. “Afterward, we thought we needed to create a tool measuring total prosperity where everyone could plug in and see the factors that create prosperity.” The Winter Park Prosperity Scorecard launched earlier this year. While it has the traditional aspects of prosperity models – employment, industry types, housing costs, social services – it also includes measures on sustainability and clean energy, specifically: Public electric vehicle charging units (38 units) Percentage of city fleet that is electric (six percent) Breakdown of renewable/clean energy mix under city utility portfolio (20 percent) Number of annual solar permits (residential and commercial) in the city (45 permits)

“We like going to places that align with our community,” Gardner Eckbert says. “We’re focused on incentivizing the private sector by showcasing our successes and leading in this space.” The chamber and its leadership know sustainability efforts can be improved. The community of 25,000 residents count its embrace of solar electricity for homes and businesses as a success. But the city-owned electric utility only purchased renewable energy for 20 percent of its wholesale power. “If you’re going to be sustainable, you want to use renewable energy for your electric vehicles,” she says. “We’d like to see strategic planning on how to grow that mix of wholesale power – we think that percentage should be much higher.” Gardner Eckbert believes leading on the issue of sustainability should be part of any chamber’s plan. With a background in corporate governance for multinational businesses, she has personally seen how companies that embrace sustainability usually have better financial results.

If you would like to learn more about clean energy opportunities in your community, please contact Alan Byrd.