Leawood keeps going green, thanks to work of sustainability group

From schoolkids to homeowners, citizens are going green in Leawood through the efforts of the city’s Sustainability Advisory Board.

The group, made up of nine citizens and city council members Debra Filla and Julie Cain, has pushed recycling efforts, green mobility and more.

This week, in support of green mobility, schools in and around Leawood took part in the International Walk/Bike to School Day. Participating schools included Brookwood Elementary, Corinth Elementary, Cure of Ars Catholic School, Leawood Elementary, Mission Trail Elementary and Nativity Parish School.

“When we go in, we’re having a conversation: ‘Here’s what we can do to support you,’” Filla said.

Safe Kids Johnson County also led an event with a walking school bus at Clear Creek Elementary School in DeSoto and schools around Johnson County participated in the international walking and biking initiative on Wednesday.

At Corinth Elementary, school nurse Kristen Albert has partnered with Leawood’s sustainability board to encourage more kids to walk to school for the past two years. One problem had been that the school is near the busy intersection of 83rd Street and Mission Road, and one part of the sidewalk was extremely narrow.

She took her concerns to the PTA and the city of Leawood. The sidewalk in question was actually in Prairie Village, and the two cities worked to make changes in the road and widen the sidewalk to make it safer for kids to walk there.

“I feel passionately that kids should walk to school the way we all used to,” Albert said. “It was a really cool thing that (we were able to make) changes.”

Filla said Leawood often works with other cities on green mobility issues involving bike trails.

Another part of the green mobility scheme that’s attracted schools is the idea of a walking school bus. That’s where students walk in a group, accompanied by adults. Along the way to school, they pass bus stops — places where other children wait in groups to join the ones already in motion.

“With the walking school buses, you want the kids to be safe,” Albert said. The walking bus “addressed the problems with congestion and traffic, and the parents like the safety in numbers.”

Kids who participate in all four weeks of the walking school bus at Corinth this month will get to enter a prize drawing.

Green mobility isn’t the only thing on the sustainability board’s agenda in Leawood.

Recycling has also been a top priority of the group. In Leawood, homeowners associations — not city officials — handle recycling contracts with waste disposal companies.

When the board wanted to change the way residents recycled, they had meetings with those associations about the scope of the recycling residents were doing and how the board hoped residents might expand recycling efforts.

Some residents didn’t even know to look for the numbers inside of the recycling symbol to see if a container could be recycled. After the board worked with the associations, Leawood residents increased recycling by 30 percent, Filla said.

Another recycling effort from the board put recycling bins in the city’s parks, which Filla said have collected more than 60 tons of material.

Anytime the board wants to reach out in this way, it finds people willing to be liaisons between the board and the particular group. That’s true for working with associations, schools and religious organizations.

Increasing awareness of what residents can do to help is important to the board.

“Using our resources wisely is something each individual participates in. That requires us all being part of the solution,” Filla said. “Homes associations are our first level of government.”

The board has also partnered with Johnson County through a matching grant program to encourage residents to plant rain gardens.

“Grass has a three-inch root system; after that, our yards become saturated (with rain),” said Filla.

The problem is that runoff from yards that goes into the streets and down storm drains often contains oil and other impurities picked up as it journeys to the drain.

“A rain garden helps slow and clean the water. It has plants with very long roots (that help filter the water),” Filla said. “When water comes into the aquifer, it’s clean.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2014 at 9:18 PM with the headline "Leawood keeps going green, thanks to work of sustainability group."