St. Louis Green Business Challenge

Chesterfield received an Award of Achievement in the 2016 St. Louis Green Business Challenge for advancing our sustainability efforts! St. Louis Green Business Challenge Accomplishments & Innovations (page 16).

The St. Louis Green Business Challenge, a joint program of the St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Botanical Garden, delivers "triple-bottom" line results (financial, social, and environmental) to businesses of all types and sizes across the St. Louis region. The Challenge supports integration of sustainability measures into the kinds of everyday operational practices common to every business. Participants identify and adapt the strategies that improve financial performance and engage employees in voluntary measures to reduce environmental impacts.
 
Since its inception in 2010, 152 companies representing more than 130,000 employees, have completed the Challenge for three or more years, with 21 companies engaged through all six program years. 

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENTS
  • Bikeable Walkable plan outlines goals and objectives for future developments & improvements, including closing existing gaps in the network and ensuring connectivity. A project was recently approved to construct a pedestrian bridge over I-64.
  • Established a Green Team of city staff to lead sustainability efforts; aimed to advocate for efforts in both the community and city practices. The Citizens Committee for the Environment, established in 1995, is made up of volunteer appointees that hold open meetings at City Hall.
  • The nuisance ordinance includes language pertaining to invasive plants, noxious weeds,
  • nuisance plants, and native plants. It provides opportunities to choose appropriate vegetation to preserve water quality, wildlife habitat, riparian corridors, stream banks, steep slopes, and other environmentally sensitive areas without affecting human health, safety or public welfare.
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
  • On-site solar thermal panels capable of producing 2.7 million BTUs of thermal energy have been installed at City Hall along with a pre-programmed energy recovery system and a computerized energy management system allowing the building to operate at maximum efficiency. This, paired with rechargeable equipment, a low-flush valve system, PV solar panels, and upgraded HVAC equipment, minimizes the waste and energy usage of City Hall.
  • City Hall has been designed to reduce the amount of water runoff by integrating a large amount of pervious surface, native plantings, and high level of biodiversity. The site has 2 rain gardens, is 43% pervious surface, and has 46 different species, 15 of which are native to Missouri. 
  • Within the last 6 years, the city of Chesterfield has replaced 150 fixtures with 6-70w fixtures reducing energy consumption in various rooms by 60-86.5%.