Don’t call him “Your Honor” or “Mayor Buttigieg,” just a simple “Mayor Pete” or “Pete” will do. I’m talking about Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, a local kid who came back home from Harvard, Oxford, McKinsey and the U.S. Navy to lead our city by the river. Pete and I have known each other since we were kids; we’re both graduates of St. Joseph’s High School—my younger sister and my wife were in the same class as Pete—and like me, he’s a musician too, and we’ve jammed a few times.
Mayor Pete is also a friend of Inovateus and other sustainability-minded, forward-looking companies, nonprofit organizations and committed individuals in the area. Since he took office in January 2012 as the youngest mayor of a U.S. city of more than 100,000, he has tirelessly worked to serve his constituents and get South Bend ready for the future, while also adding his voice to the growing chorus of mayors calling for climate action and clean energy. As a result of his climate activism and down-home, get-things-done attitude, Mayor Pete has achieved some national attention, including a guest appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” earlier this year. Suffice it to say, he’s not your typical elected official.
Since Inovateus believes in being active in the community and we’ve collaborated with Mayor Pete’s administration on several initiatives, we thought it would be cool to get him on the record for our blog. Not surprisingly, he agreed, and despite his busy schedule, we were able to carve out some time to talk to him in mid-September. The following interview was conducted by Tom Cheyney, a veteran solar industry commentator who works for our marketing and PR agency, Kiterocket.
Inovateus: When did you first become interested in clean energy, sustainability, and the like?
Mayor Pete: Growing up in a community like South Bend, we’re very conscious of our relationship with the environment around us. It’s a community that exists because of a river that runs through our area, and it’s one that’s been through a lot of ups and downs environmentally because of our relationship with some of the industries that our city was built on. I’ve come at this primarily through the lens of economics. This is a community that is figuring out a new economic future, one that is going to power us into the rest of the 21st century. And part of that means making sure that we’re thinking a few steps ahead. It’s really exciting to know that companies like Inovateus and others that are in the renewable energy industry are creating jobs that are very much in line with our tradition of making things and providing goods and knowledge around the country and around the world. Even though they’re deeply rooted in who we’ve always been economically, they are something that is really new for a lot of folks and connects us into a bigger future.
Inovateus: How can private industry and local government work together to make the change that we’re talking about, to move toward a clean energy economy, a more sustainable version of capitalism, if you will?
Mayor Pete: There’s no one entity that can tackle an issue like this. We’re talking about something that is literally as global and comprehensive as heading off climate change. It’s clear that you need solutions from the public, private and social sectors. If you look at some of the initiatives that we’ve been pursuing here in the community, a lot of what we’re working on really draws on all of the above. One thing that we’re doing is participating in the SolSmart program, which allows us to evaluate the processes that are in our wheelhouse as a city to make sure that they are as solar friendly as possible, which sometimes is harder than it sounds. Making sure that zoning and building permits [are in line], even our relationship with the historic preservation commission can be an issue, for example, when you’re trying how to make it as user friendly [as possible] for cities to go solar and encouraging homeowners to do that. We’ve been working as a community to make sure that we can do that, and it wouldn’t really be possible without the support and expertise that we get from outside the government. From different organizations, companies that have a lot of expertise in this, and that’s part of how we all pull together.
I’m also excited about Solarize South Bend, which is an initiative that really came from the grassroots, and was brought to my attention by some folks in the community who were really passionate about this. We’re able to collaborate to make it a little easier to bring down the purchasing costs. It was a great bipartisan initiative that is encouraging more people to go solar, which is particularly important as we get ahead of some regulatory changes here in Indiana. We’re trying to practice what we preach, so even as a city we’re doing energy performance contracts, we’re pursuing LEED certifications at our new fire stations, and doing a comprehensive audit of our building stock. First of all, just to understand what we have in the way of buildings but also to make sure that it’s sustainable. Again, all of this is facilitated by relationships between the nonprofit world, the companies that have so much of the expertise, and the government itself.
Inovateus: You’ve described some of the specific programs that are a part of your sustainability initiative. Is there anything else you could add on his behalf, in terms of the initiative?
Therese Dorau (South Bend’s sustainability director): I think we highlighted a lot of our energy-related programs, but the sustainability office supports a number of other initiatives citywide, including things like looking at our long- term control plan for green stormwater infrastructure opportunities, working on transit and walking and biking opportunities, implementing our complete streets policy, and bringing bike share to South Bend. It really is a broad portfolio of sustainability efforts, ranging from clean energy all the way to how we design our city for the future.
Inovateus: You have an opportunity in a smaller city to accomplish things compared to a larger city, where the wheels often turn more slowly. You are also providing a model for other smaller cities as well that might not be as far down the road as you guys seem to be.
Mayor Pete: We like to view our scale as a real advantage, in the sense that we’re big enough that it matters if we can solve a problem here, and what we do here can be replicated. But we’re small enough that we can be a little more nimble and turn some of those gears of government a little more quickly to get something done.
Inovateus: What can a small-city mayor do to effect change on things like sustainability, clean energy and climate, which you are also very active in, obviously on the local and state level, but on the national and international scale?
Mayor Pete: You can’t look at this as simply an issue to be handled by a national government or global institution. The reality is, individual communities, especially if we’re working in concert, can make a lot of difference here. Some of the initiatives I just described are examples of how to do it, and every city can be flexible and find their own way, but we all need to pull in the same direction. We can make these decisions collectively, without even waiting for national government to catch up. I think you’re seeing a lot of cities, not just around the country but around the world, adopt that model as a way to cut through some of the clutter and the ideology, and just get stuff done to head off what we know are some very serious problems coming our way if we don’t act more quickly on climate.
[/fusion_text][fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_2″ layout=”1_2″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no” border_position=”all”][fusion_imageframe image_id=”19130″ style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”yes” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”Mayor Pete | South Bend Smart Streets Bike Path” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://inovateus.comtestwp/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/MayorPete-768×1024.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_2″ layout=”1_2″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no” border_position=”all”][fusion_text]Inovateus: What about something like the Mayors for 100% Clean Energy group. It’s one thing for 150 mayors to put their name on an initiative, but what’s really going on behind the scenes in terms of coordination and collaboration?
Mayor Pete: I think a lot depends on what we actually do in our own communities. But we’ve also got to come together collectively and talk about why these issues matter so much. For us, this is no longer theoretical. We had an extreme rainfall event last year in South Bend that was very costly, it compromised hundreds of homes and really harmed a lot of families. We’ve been told that we can expect more frequency and intensity of these kind of extreme weather events, and it’s just not something we can afford. We want to make sure that, as a community that’s been on the receiving end of the impact of climate change already, that we’re acting promptly to head it off in any way we can. Whether that’s related to energy, or steps we can take related to vehicle emissions, or even the way that our buildings are set up, if we do it all, and adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach, we can make a big difference. We acknowledge that each city has a different flavor to it, but when you add it all up, we think it can really matter. We also hope to get the attention of national policymakers saying that, this is no longer an academic argument for us, this is something we’re dealing with every day.
Inovateus: One thing that strikes me in Indiana when it comes to some of these issues, is that you’ve actually managed to achieve some level of bipartisanship. Mayor Brainard of Carmel, for example, who’s a Republican, shares many of the same perceptions that you have, and sees this local approach to a global problem.
Mayor Pete: The community of mayors just thinks differently from other bodies of elected officials, like the U.S. Congress, for example. (Laughter) A lot of times I’ll collaborate with a mayor on something, to find out later whether they were a Democrat or Republican. It’s really secondary to the problem solving. Whether it’s Jim Brainard of Carmel, or the recent mayors of Indianapolis, the current mayor Joe Hogsett and his predecessor Greg Ballard, who are both pretty serious about sustainability, you’re really seeing this cooperation around the state and increasingly around the country. Mayors are very practical. We can’t get sucked into an ideological debate. This is about what we can do to protect our cities, and what we can do to make sure we’re part of the solution rather than the problem.
Inovateus: We have a couple of minutes more, and we know your time is quite valuable. Is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap things up?
Mayor Pete: We covered a lot of ground, and that’s great. I really appreciate the chance to weigh in, and appreciate the work that you guys are doing. Thanks for everything you bring to the community, and keep up the great work.
The bottom line is that we’re a community that’s thinking about this on both ends. On the receiving end, because we know that we will face the consequences if we don’t deal with climate, that you’re either going to invest now or you’re going to pay a whole lot more later. But we’re also working on the front end to be part of the solution. What’s great for us, if we’re able to help lead the way with some of what we’re doing, and working with different private sector and nonprofit partners, then we’re growing our economy at the same time that we’re doing the right thing environmentally, and that’s obviously a win for us. We talk a lot about a triple bottom line, one that’s social, economic and environmental, and I think that it’s very much in keeping with the traditions of South Bend that we work to stay that way. We’re always eager to find new ground in this field, and are looking forward to finding even more opportunities that we haven’t found just yet.
By TJ Kanczuzewski, president/CEO, Inovateus Solar
