Women Leaders Go Green

Written by Mary Welch Sunday, April 04 2010

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Lynette Young

Lynette Young says that when the environmental movement was in its early stages it was led by “women wearing Birkenstocks and hugging trees.”

Then about 10 years ago, “The movement became more about science, and men took over. Now it’s about time that women lead the way again,” she says. “Women care about the environment and how it affects not only their family but everyone’s family. It’s good that women are breaking out and having a say in local and national policy.”

Indeed they are. Young is executive director of Sustainable Atlanta, a brainchild of former Mayor Shirley Franklin and now an independent 501 (c) 3 corporation.

Mandy Mahoney served as director of sustainability under Franklin and now under Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. Mayor Franklin, she says, was inspired by issues at a U.S. Congress of Mayors meeting. She came back and said the city was going to take action. “And we did,” Mahoney says. “Fortunately Mayor Reed is just as committed to the environment and sustainability.”

Rebecca Watts Hull is program manager of Mothers & Others for Clean Air. The Atlanta-based organization is made up of five health-related organizations as well as the Georgia Conservancy.

For its part, Sustainable Atlanta helps orchestrate strategy, best practices, policies, and programming that make Atlanta more environmentally responsible.

“We’re a generalist,” Young says. “We have people on our board who specialize in water or air quality. We’re like the umbrella that keeps everyone together, and the spokes of the umbrella are the different concerns, like energy or recycling. We like to bring together groups that sometimes are on different sides and let all the voices be heard.”

Among Sustainable Atlanta’s initiatives are:

 

• New Look. Recommending ways to implement new high-impact policies and programs.
• Studying. Creating an ordinance that focuses on sustainable building and development, air quality, and transportation initiatives. A report, which took 18 months to complete, was tabled during the last City Council session. Young says it should come up again.
• One More Time. Creating a recycling materials management initiative. “We have an industry of recyclers who wanted recycled materials, and they have to import them from other places,” she says.
• Big Picture. Starting a new task force to write a 50-year water usage plan. “People say planning 50 years ahead is crazy,” Young says. “But the Japanese do 100-year plans. You need to create a framework so you can grow but also look back and see what made sense.”