Here are  several excellent examples of green development/projects in Ridgeland that the City is undertaking or has completed.

• LED traffic lights that save energy/electricity

• Replacement of pump sewer station with gravity flow sewer

• Promoting Urban Forestry with Tree Ordinance and Tree Mitigation, Landscape Ordinance, and related activities that earned by the City’s Community Development Department a Going Green Mississippi Award, 5th place in the State.

• Tree Planting at Ridgeland High School by students. City assisted them in obtaining the grant for the project.

• Reducing Solid Waste and Promoting Recycling earned the City’s Public Works Department a Going Green Mississippi Award, 3rd place in the State.

• Green City Mayor Award for Mayor Gene McGee

• Tree City USA Award by the Arbor Day Foundation

• Arbor Day Celebration including tree seedling planting at Highland Elementary School. We coordinated this event and also are coordinating a give-away of orchard trees and a planting at the school through the Mississippi Urban Forest Council.

• Mayor Gene McGee has served for 2 years as President of the Board of the MS Urban Forest Council.

• Cigarette Litter Prevention Program reduces litter and pollution to waterways and aquatic life.

• Tree Preservation of canopy trees and other significant trees in our parks.  Frequent tree plantings in our parks and along our public rights of way.

• Ridgeland’s Multi-Use Trail provides alternative transportation routes to schools and businesses from neighborhoods, reducing vehicle emissions and use of fuel. Recent extensions of the trail have brought the distance up to over 7miles.

• Promoting use of bicycles as an alternative means of transportation.  Working with local bicycle enthusiasts to provide helmet safety events and to bring awareness to “share the road”.

• Ridgeland Area Master Plan earned the statewide Planning and Development Award from the Mississippi Municipal League and Clarion Ledger.  The Plan reflects green planning principles including the preservation of green space, green “cluster housing”, and protection of flood-prone areas.

• The Ridgeland Area Master Plan also won a Merit Award by the Louisiana Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects on March 14.

• The City conducts a Spring Cleaning Week and Household Hazardous Waste Day for the safe disposal and recycling of hazardous wastes.