The Village of Pinecrest, filled with beautiful, freshly-cut gardens and tall, luscious trees gives a postcard-perfect image of a clean, idealistic suburban city. In fact, Pinecrest, in more ways than one, maintains a clean image. The Village holds a steady reputation as a green city, holding silver certification in the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC), since May 8, 2012. Pinecrest’s green plans include the concept of “Green Schools” and public transportation.

“I think it’s great that Pinecrest is going green and becoming more aware of the environment,” sophomore Abigail Hason said. “[They’re] doing the right thing.”

Pinecrest’s resolutions to go green strike well with Palmetto students. Many show their support for all of the Village’s efforts to recycle, reuse, reduce and repair.

As well as silver certification in FGBC, Pinecrest holds the title as a Tree City USA community, a reward the Village received through planting 10,000 trees since 1997. Pinecrest’s Going Green Advisory Group, established May 2009 under the leadership of Mayor Cindy Lerner, strives to gather and disseminate information regarding sustainability.

“I wouldn’t say [Pinecrest has] any one big project,” City Council-member Mr. Joseph M. Corradino said. “I believe that our largest impact is in developing a program that addresses the environment in a complete manner.”

The Pinecrest “Going Green” Campaign involves themselves in various activities with the goal of creating a greener village. Notably, the Campaign hosted the Going Green Conference in January of 2010 and the Earth Day Festival in April 2010.

Pinecrest lists multiple goals in the effort to create “Green Schools”. Plans include an environmental science academy development and green curriculum enhancements at Palmetto Middle School and Miami Palmetto Senior High School. The Village also plans for continued collaboration with Dream In Green and the establishment of environmental awareness community activities for students and parents.

Pinecrest partners with Just Green Lifestyle in order to go Carbon Neutral. Families and businesses can join the partnership by becoming members for a monthly fee between $19.99 and $39.99, which includes gift cards and other benefits.

Pinecrest’s latest project, a free charging station for electric cars, takes place at the Pinecrest Gardens. Electric cars are environmentally friendly vehicles that require electrical energy stored in batteries or other energy storage devices. Since the electric cars require charging, getting to a destination in time before the energy runs out proves a challenge for users. However, with the new charging station at the Pinecrest Gardens, electric car owners have the opportunity to recharge their cars.

“This experimental project will allow people with electric vehicles to charge them for free when the visit the gardens,” Mr. Corradino said. “It will begin getting people used to electric cars and the way they recharge. We can see a day when every mall, restaurant and recreational facility has many of these stations. Gas stations may become a thing of the past.”

Pinecrest’s green efforts range from big to small. However, all these efforts contribute towards creating a more environmentally friendly Village.