Exploring St. Petersburg – America’s First Green City

Ever visited a Green City? How about America’s First Green City? Not only are there environmental benefits to green cities, but they also improve communities and their economy, as well as physical wellness and mental health. Read on to learn more about what a Green City is, and the amazing initiatives St. Petersburg, Florida supports as America’s pioneer Green City!

What is a Green City?

—an urban enclave whose design, construction, and operation prioritizes the preservation of the natural world alongside the economic, social, and physical health and wellness of the city’s inhabitants.

Green City: What Is a Sustainable City and Why Is It Important? (milwaukeetool.com)

Aka ‘sustainable city’, aka ‘eco-city’, the latter of which was originally coined in 1987 in the book Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future by Richard Register. And in 2015, the United Nations General Assembly set forth 17 Sustainable Development Goals, for the better of the people and our planet. The 11th of these goals highlights “sustainable cities and communities”.

A “Green City” is one that meets certain sustainability criteria. When being considered for the title, evaluation includes ratings for:

• Greenhouse gas emissions per capita
• Miles of bicycle lanes and walking trails
• Overall accessibility by public transport
• Renewable energy resources (these include solar, wind and geothermal)
• Waste management/recycling/compost programs
• Climate change mitigation efforts
• Tree planting and urban farming efforts
• Public green space
• Water conservation initiatives
• EV charging stations

Meet America’s First Green City

St. Petersburg, Florida was designated America’s first Green City back in 2006. Certified by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) it was also the first city in Florida to receive the certification, in 2008. The city has an Office of Sustainability & Resiliency, which was established in 2015 to align city wide programs and policies.

In 2016, St. Petersburg introduced the Integrated Sustainability Action Plan (ISAP) in an effort to further focus on it’s goal to meet 100% clean, renewable energy. The city is also a LEED Certified City and has been awarded the Tree City USA award, ANNUALLY since 1986!!

St. Petersburg is also part of several global initiative for climate change including Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate Change, America’s Pledge and the Carbon Disclosure Project, We Are Still In, and Ready for 100. 

Where St. Pete’s Green Shines through

Over the years, the demand for more sustainable initiatives across the country have led to many cities superseding St. Petersburg. That said, it still has a lot to offer as America’s First Green City. Upon visiting America’s First Green City, it becomes quickly evident where the ‘green’ initiatives exist. Here is a list of ‘Green City’ attributes you’ll find in St. Petersburg, Florida:

• 40+ miles of bicycle trails
• Bike and Scooter share programs
• Bicycle Friendly Business Program
• Public transportation – including the FREE Looper Trolley and SunRunner Hybrid Bus
• Highly walkable
• Initiatives for green construction
• Solar power projects
• Road to Zero Waste by 2050
• Water conservation program
• Home to the largest Farmer’s Market in the Southeast
• Over 100 local EV charging stations

There are also several local environmental organizations in the St. Petersburg area which support the sustainability and responsibility initiatives:

• Tampa Bay Estuary Program
• St. Petersburg Ocean Team
• USGS St Petersburg Coastal & Marine Science Center
• Florida Fish & Wildlife Research Institute
• Tampa Bay Watch

Our Visit to America’s First Green City

We stopped into St. Petersburg for two nights, as we were passing through on our Florida West Coast road trip in late October of 2022. We stayed at The Inn on Third which is classified as a ‘Travel Sustainable Property’ on Booking.com. This charming, classic style bed & breakfast has everything you need for your ‘green’ weekend getaway, down to the sustainable toiletries’ containers. It’s in walking proximity to most of the downtown St. Petersburg attractions and sits on the public transportation route.

From here, we were able to walk to the Saturday Morning Market which runs every Saturday, October-May 9am-2pm (in summer it is held in a different location with different hours). This is the LARGEST farmers market in the Southeast US and in the top 20 largest in the country! With over 150 vendors, it’s easy to spend quite a bit of time walking the aisles of the market. We grabbed a fresh made coffee and Cuban sandwich for brunch, which we ate across the street, along the waterway.

We made our way down a block to the Salvador Dalí Museum, sister museum to the Museo Dalí we visited in Figueres, Spain in 2019. Next, we walked along the St. Petersburg Pier (pictured in the leading photograph for this post). We returned to the hotel to freshen up and spent a night on the town before heading to Clearwater the next day.

Disclaimer: This next part of the post was produced as part of a sponsored press trip by Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Though some amenities were compensated during the visit, all opinions in this post are my own.

Don’t Miss the Clearwater Marine Aquarium

If you’re in the area, swing by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA), about 40 minutes’ drive northwest of St. Petersburg. This stop is not only a great place to experience some of the local wildlife, but they have a great mission! CMA is a non-profit organization that depends heavily on volunteers and donations to keep their programs running.

Attention movie buffs – Have you heard of ‘Winter’ the dolphin? Maybe you’ve watched the movie ‘Dolphin Tale’ starring Morgan Freeman? The star of the movie is ‘Winter’, a bottlenose dolphin with a prosthetic tail – true story! Winter was a resident dolphin at CMA who won the hearts of many and unfortunately passed in November of 2021. The movie itself was partly filmed at the facility, and if you keep an eye open, you’ll find some of the filming locations.

Some of their residents are rescues that are temporarily visiting as they complete recovery and rehabilitation in preparation for returning to the wild. That said, some of the residents will ultimately not return to the wild, due to severe trauma that would impact their abilities to survive. Take for example, current residents Rex & Rudolph, two rough-toothed dolphins who each were rescued and deemed to be impaired with severe hearing loss. As a result, their ability to echolocate (i.e. communicate, forage and navigate by sound) is impacted and would be a major detriment to their survival in the wild. They also have rescued sea turtles, otters, and pelicans on display.

Be sure to take the time to attend some of their scheduled, educational presentation to learn more about the animals and programs they have at the aquarium.

Build a Salad for A Sea Turtle

Looking for a way to get some hands-on experience with animal rehabilitation while visiting the CMA? Check out some of their add on experiences, include the Build a Salad for a Sea Turtle experience. During this 30-minute workshop, you’ll go behind the scenes, into the CMA‘s hydroponic farm. Here, you’ll harvest fresh greens fit for a sea turtle! You’ll learn about the hydroponic process, what greens they are growing, and have the opportunity to build a salad for the resident sea turtles. You can then watch the sea turtles eat your hand-crafted salad in real time, during the sea turtle feeding presentation. How neat is that?!

After about two hours of exploring everything the CMA has to offer, we bid our farewells to the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, as we set off on our next coastal adventure to Key West, Florida.

Here at Staying Afloat Blog, we are no stranger to sustainable cities. Check out Madison, Wisconsin, for another Green City destination, and Wichita, Kansas to learn more about another Tree City. Looking to boost your ‘green game’? Check out these sustainable daily use items.

Have you every visited a Green City? We’d love to hear more about your experience!