The City of Clearwater is taking going green to a new level. The city recently hired a sustainability coordinator, Sheridan Boyle.
“What’s awesome about sustainability is it really does trickle down to everything,” Boyle said.
In this position, Boyle will manage the city’s “Greenprint Plan,” the blueprint for sustainable initiatives.
“Some days I might be like green energies, so solar panels, the expansion of our natural gas operations and really getting creative with those ideas. The next it might be urban planning,” she explained.
A variety of duties with a variety of goals — the next thing she might tackle could be recycling or education.
“Expansion of urban agriculture, I would really like to see more promotion of green businesses of individual businesses that are taking extra steps to do something good,” Boyle said.
Some businesses on Clearwater Beach have already started to do that, like Sharmaines Salon and Day Spa.
“We cut your hair, we sweep it up, we put it in a bin, and it gets sent away to be use to clean up oil spills,” co-owner Lori Fudens said.
From recycling to safe dumping, the salon boasts at being the first to be both “Ocean Allies” and “Green Circles” certified.
“As a salon, we’re able to divert our color and our chemicals and get it out of the salon and not in the water and not in the trash, it really helps us feel better about what we’re doing for the environment,” Fudens said.
With someone leading the way, Boyles hopes other people can feel that way too.