Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Dublin’s Green Game Plan Now and Years to Come
Ambition meets action as we sit down with Operations Administrator/Sustainability lead Emily Goliver to unpack how Dublin is turning big goals into everyday progress. From electrifying the light‑duty fleet and expanding public EV charging to building rain gardens and rethinking zoning, we walk through four pillars guiding our new Sustainability Plan.
Emily pulls back the curtain on zero waste operations at major events, including on‑site sorting teams, composting stations, and cleaner power options. We explore the three R's to reduce, reuse and recycle through real programs that not only conserve precious resources but beautify our neighborhoods too. If you’ve wondered how to handle e‑waste, foam, or seasonal pumpkins, you’ll get the roadmap—plus a reminder that batteries never belong in the trash.
Equity sits at the heart of the strategy. We talk multifamily recycling for renters, affordable access to services, and future plans like curbside composting within three to seven years. The data keeps us honest and motivated: a 47% diversion rate (one of the highest in Ohio!), city facilities powered by 100% renewable energy, and EV charging that saves residents money while shrinking emissions.
Ready to help Dublin lead among leaders? Follow our monthly City Manager Report and check-out the volunteer page to get involved. If this conversation sparked an idea, subscribe, and share with a neighbor to keep our momentum going to be THE most sustainable global city of choice!
Hello and welcome to Link Ahead, the City of Dublin podcast. We talk a lot about planning for the future here in Dublin, and today's topic is a big part of that future. Our path toward becoming the most sustainable global city of choice, Lindsay.
SPEAKER_01:You know it, and joining us today is Emily Golliver, the city's operations administrator, sustainability, and our lead on all things green. Emily, welcome to Link Ahead. Thanks for having me back. Yeah, that's right. Repeat guest, I forgot to mention that. So let's start with the big picture. On October 6th, Dublin City Council adopted the Dublin Sustainability Plan that you were working on for, I think, maybe five to ten years. Let's start with the why. Why did we undertake this effort and why does it matter?
SPEAKER_02:So in 2018, City Council adopted the sustainability framework. So that was for the years 2018 through 2020. We extended it to 2021 because a pandemic, we couldn't do much in 2020. And then after that, the 2022 strategic framework dropped. And I know that has been mentioned many times on this podcast. That's where we got our sustainable, connected, resilient goals from. So obviously, sustainability is kind of a core pillar of that framework. So it became more important for us to be looking at in terms of advancing our sustainability goals, establishing us as the most sustainable global city of choice. That's a really lofty goal. So we wanted to really dive deeper into that. So sustainability isn't new to us, but this just helps us focus our efforts on the highest impact things that we can do to make a difference and help move that goal forward.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So let's dig a little deeper on that. So can you talk more about that plan? Like how you know you talked about 2018. What are the nuts and bolts? Like how what is the driving force in this?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So the 2018 framework, it established 35 goals and we substantially completed 31 of them. So we did a ton of things. Your work is done. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_01:Four more to go.
SPEAKER_02:But so part of this updated uh sustainability plan, we reviewed the 2018 framework. So there's a ton of crossover with it. This is really just the next generation of those goals and advancing more as the industry has evolved over time. We are evolving our goals to fit those.
SPEAKER_01:And the new plan is organized around four core themes. As you mentioned, they're kind of lofty. Modeling sustainable leadership, designing sustainable communities, supporting the natural environment, and achieving zero waste. Can you explain how these pillars kind of come to life in city operations?
SPEAKER_02:It's every day we're doing something. So we are continuing to install EV chargers to support our ever-expanding electric vehicle fleet. We have some additional ones that are going at the service center to support, just provide the infrastructure for us to be able to continue expanding that fleet. The sustainability plan establishes a goal of electrifying 45% of our light duty fleet by 2035. It's a little bit of a mouthful. But to do that, we need to have chargers. We need to be able to overnight and during the day charge those vehicles. So that's something that we're our city operations, we're looking at expanding doing that, and that we continue to have. So we obviously already have charging stations for our current uh EV fleet, but as we expand that, we need the infrastructure to support that. We also are reviewing our entire zoning code. We're identifying opportunities for improvement in that. Um the zoning codes can sometimes be put together uh different years, so making sure that we have consistency across the whole zoning code. Um and then I know you guys have had the Shrubby Buddies on this podcast before. Uh them and our parks team and our forestry team, everybody who manages our natural spaces, they do an incredible job. And I really want to shout out um Matt Guthrie of the Shrubby Buddies and his crew. They um little known thing, they just do things and they don't really tell people. And so I just want to highlight uh something that they did that's really cool. So at the rec center, there's um a drainage basin that was just kind of there. And so they installed, it looks amazing. They installed a little rain garden right there. So as you go down the hill, as the water gets closer to the drainage, it goes from some water-loving plants to like I'm obsessed with water-loving plants. Like these, these plants love that. So it's a rain garden to help decrease what we're putting into our stormwater system, but um, it looks really good. So uh I just wanted to give them a shout-out for that because that's something that they just do because that's what they do, and it looks really good and it does good for the environment. Um, and then obviously we have our recycling drop-offs. Uh, we have recycling at all of our events, and we have Sustainable Saturday, which I'm sure we'll get into more, but just all other ways that um our city is offering these opportunities for people to be more sustainable.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we've also had our friends from Swaco on the podcast. That's the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, and they often talk about the 360 circular economy. Broadly, it's how efforts to recycle, reduce, and reuse precious resources contribute to a more vibrant and sustainable world. How are those three R's threaded through our goals as well? You mentioned earlier that we have four themes.
SPEAKER_02:Um, the fourth theme is entirely supportive of reduce, reuse, and recycle. So at Spectacular, we had a Halloween costume drive. We partnered with One Dublin to host that. And that's just taking things for reuse, giving taking them from people who have used these to giving them to people that need them. Um residents can donate gently used clothing and small household items to Goodwill anytime or any of the donation centers, but through Sustainable Saturday, we're presenting a really easy opportunity for people to bring these items for reuse. And then one thing that we've been promoting a lot recently, Swaco has a save more than food program. Part of that, they have something called a food guesstimator. And so it helps reduce the amount of food that you're purchasing if you're hosting a party or gathering, anything like that. A lot of people, my family's Italian, we overbuy, we overprovide foods. It's just what we do. Um and I love my mom. She is the worst at doing that. Uh so you can do a food guestimator and say, I'm gonna have this many people, I want this kind of food, here's how much I need to buy. And it just helps reduce the um food that we're purchasing that's just gonna go straight to compost, but we don't want it out in that system anyway.
SPEAKER_00:I do like that you're not just having these big events, but you're incorporating sustainability in existing events, like spectacular. When I heard about the costume donation, I'm like, oh my god, the kids, I still have some of the costumes.
SPEAKER_01:Like you didn't bring them in.
SPEAKER_00:No, I did not bring them in. I you never know when we might need them.
SPEAKER_01:No, just my little pony, what was cool back then? That was it.
SPEAKER_00:That was one of Ellen's was my little pony. Yeah, you nailed that. That's a good guess. Holy cow. So, like with things like that, I mean, how do you come up with these ideas for these for different events?
SPEAKER_02:Just try to think of what is something people are thinking of right now. And so I sat down with One Dublin to talk about, we just kind of floated this idea past them for the costume drive. And maybe we didn't get a million costumes at Spectacular, but one thing we were able to do is promote that you can bring those to One Dublin. So that that's something that they look for. We had the opportunity, um, I think last year to help One Dublin sort some of their costumes that they had donated. We were sorting it by um size, age, different things. And um, so I was just aware that they did that. And so just having that awareness that this is out there for people to have as an opportunity, just kind of connected those dots. And I think it went pretty well. I brought something, my uh some co-workers and I, we were snap, crackle, and pop last year. So I had a little hat from that that I didn't need anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. All right, let's get into some uh specifics here. What are some of the key actions the city's already taking? I know we've made moves on renewable energy, sustainable fleet, and zero waste events. I don't mean to gloss over those, but like hit me with uh some specifics there.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell You can kind of see it if you come in through one specific entrance at the Irish Festival, but we have a team on site that is sorting through the waste that is generated at the Irish Festival. So it's dirty work. It's kind of gross at times. Um, but I love going over there. They are so passionate about what they're doing. It's a volunteer opportunity. We get a lot of high schoolers that are just really interested in sustainability and helping us achieve zero waste at our events. So we have this group that we hire and they do that at the events. Obviously, we have recycling, we have composting in certain areas of um some of our events, and um we also have some solar power generators, things like that. We bring in a lot of power for the Irish festival and our events specifically. So um just looking at more sustainable ways to do that. We also um have 10 autonomous or almost 10, I should say, autonomous mowers out in our park system. Um they don't all have names. Lightning Mo Queen, Lightning Mo Queens here, Moby One, could be a little bit more than awana, Moana and I just call them all Mobi-Wan units. I stick to Star Wars.
SPEAKER_00:There we go. Good call on that.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but we have those out in our park system, and uh that just helps us reduce the amount of gas that we're using. Obviously, we have to mow the grass that we have in our park system, and so we're able to use those to just reduce the amount of mows we're doing, and it also makes it really easy for us. So at our pools, we have a lot of stuff going on at the pools when they're open in the summer. It's really hard for us to get mowers in and out of there without disturbing swim teams or something like that. These autonomous mowers make that easier.
SPEAKER_00:I know we have the the one over here at City Hall, and it's amazing just the patterns that you can do. And it like, you know, have you thought about doing anything cool or exciting?
SPEAKER_01:Like a Death Star?
SPEAKER_00:No, no Death Star. Just perfect lines. That's what every line maintenance person strives for.
SPEAKER_02:Um there the lines look pristine, and I will say Chris Nickel, he uh is the uh operations administrator for parks, and he goes and he changes those because you don't want it to go on the same line every time it mows. So he goes and he edits those. So I will see what he can do about getting the link ahead logo mowed in.
SPEAKER_00:Now you are talking. You might get a third visit.
SPEAKER_01:Uh well, Emily, you have said that this plan is both a guiding document and a call to action. I love that, and I know that that resonates with our community always looking to be greener. How do we hope the community will get involved with this plan?
SPEAKER_02:I think just learning about ways to make a big impact through small changes. Um, I think the community being willing, and I know that there's residents in the community I hear from them all the time, that are just looking for lifestyle adjustments that they can make to uh be more sustainable, thinking before they throw things away. We've made it really, really easy for residents to recycle. And so just using this plan, using the education that's going to come out of it to continue to learn what is recyclable, because that's ever evolving. I know we had Rumkey on the podcast at one point to talk about that. So things we continue to add things that are recyclable, we continue to add ways to divert waste to the orange bag program through the hefty renew partnership with with Rumkey. So just adding things and then working to get that education out. Um, and then I think the other thing is just if if residents can reduce their energy consumption. We are going into the winter and I hate the cold and I'm the first person to want it to be 80 degrees in my house all the time. Um but that's not that's not feasible. So looking at ways that we can reduce energy consumption um in support of the greenhouse gas reductions that we were outlining in the plan.
SPEAKER_01:Well, real quick shout out to Romke that you mentioned, and they have added so many things to this program over the last few years. Uh let's just get this on the record. Your Starbucks cups, all those coffee cups, including the lids, all of that with the sleeves, throw that in the recycle bin, and of course the clamshell containers. Those are a few new ones. And you know, you still see people not used to that, so we can't say it enough.
SPEAKER_00:So can you dive into some of the programs that that we have on a you know that people might not know about residents that can do day-to-day? I know our producer Scott takes a total advantage of one of these uh programs. So hit us with some of those.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I don't want this to be a one-hour podcast, but um uh yeah, we have a 24-hour uh drop-off for styrofoam and compost. I'm guessing that's what Scott's doing.
SPEAKER_00:Keep going, keep going.
SPEAKER_02:Uh we have a drop-off for e-waste, so pretty much anything is is drop-offable, if you will. Uh we have a prescription drug take back over at the Justice Center. A lot of people don't know that that is actually a really sustainable thing to do. It keeps the prescriptions out of our water systems, out of the landfills. Um, and then pumpkin composting at the service center. That's a seasonal program that we do. And we actually really love seeing the um designs when people bring their pumpkins. We're always out there looking at what people are bringing. Um, I mentioned it earlier, donating textiles. We've got a lot and plenty of opportunities around Dublin to donate your old clothes, different things like that. Um, Bruce and I actually have been working on a tool to put on our website that'll make it easier for residents to figure out hey, I've got this light bulb. What can I do with this light bulb? And so we're working on getting that launched and just making it more convenient for people to figure things out. And then, of course, community backyard rebates programs, installing rain barrels, planting native plants, at-home compost bins. Like I said, I could go on.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and you know, you not just talk the talk, you walk the walk. I've seen you in City Hall with the compost bins.
SPEAKER_02:Emptying the compost bins. I do make a point to stop by Bruce's office and get his banana peel that they have had to dig out of the trash once or twice.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, but I have ease learning, though. And I assume you're doing that for your mom too. After she overbuys the Italian food, you're going and compost.
SPEAKER_02:My parents they have really bought into it. I think I just talk about it enough. They've got a rain barrel and uh they cop us.
SPEAKER_01:So you've also talked about equity and inclusion. How does this plan ensure that our approach to sustainability is something every resident can engage with and benefit from?
SPEAKER_02:I think number one, making sure that the programs that we're doing are affordable across the board. We also want to incorporate renters into some of our programs that are historically residential oriented. Um, that is completely unbiased as I am a renter. But um we want to get multifamily recycling. That's something that we're working on in the next year to kind of wrap our heads around how can we do that? What's the best approach to take to make sure that um all of our residents, not just single-family homeowners, are have access to being able to recycle I said earlier, how easy we've made it. I did leave out renters in some cases. So um just trying to incorporate these across the board. And then partnering with your team, Lindsay and Bruce, to diversify our outreach efforts and making sure that we're crossing any language divides, any cultural divides to make sure that we're getting the messaging out and being able to educate residents on the many, many programs that we have available to them.
SPEAKER_01:So besides individual efforts from home to home, does the city have you know committees or volunteer efforts our residents can join that are related to the sustainability plan?
SPEAKER_02:There is part of a plan, um, part of the plan, I should say, for the HOAs to develop more sustainability supportive bylaws. So in partnership with our planning team, we can do a lot as a planning team, but there's also HOA regulations. So working with uh your HOAs to get those in, we have CSAC, our Community Services Advisory Committee. They are our internal, external, sustainability body. They are appointed by city council. And then we also uh are going to be specifically calling out some of our volunteer opportunities that are sustainability focused. So we have a ton. Um the Mike Ut Soyota River cleanup is one that comes to mind that's a pretty obviously sustainable one. But there's some other ones that we have out there that we want to just be able to call out specifically for people as they're looking for a sustainability-focused volunteer opportunity, they can go to that. Um, and then very similar to park ambassadors, just recruiting some sustainability ambassadors down the road to help take the message that we have and help spread it amongst the community and kind of lead those education programmings.
SPEAKER_00:So let's go back to the plan. So even though it's new, we're already making measurable progress. So Dublin's 47% waste diversion rate stands out. And it's one of the highest in all of Ohio. And our city facilities have been 100% powered by renewable energy since 2023. What else are we tracking in terms of results?
SPEAKER_02:We track everything. So um in 2024 alone, thanks to the free EV charging stations that we have out in the community, we helped residents and our own internal uh use. We saved two about$250,000 in gas and over$460,000 in greenhouse gas savings. So we have a lot of data that we're able to access for that. Some more numbers. I'm a numbers. Um so far in 2025, our composting has been the equivalent to reducing about$462,000 miles driven in the average gas-powered vehicle, which is a crazy number. Thank you, Scott. Uh and then we even track savings from things like the Dublin connector and the e-scooters that we have. So again, so far this year, there have been 6,300 um CO2 saved in the Dublin connector alone. So uh we track a lot and we just want to make sure that as we have these goals to for reductions, that we're tracking those and measuring progress towards those goals.
SPEAKER_01:All right, talking about measuring progress, what does success look like to you in five, 10, 15 years from now? What's your vision for what Dublin could become uh through this shared effort? This feels like an interview. Um it is an interview.
SPEAKER_02:It is. Wow. Um but obviously the most sustainable global city of choice, um, that would be what it looks like down the road. Um I want Dublin to be referenced as a leader amongst the leaders. I got to go to a conference recently, and um Swaco got a shout-out at an international conference, and it was just really cool to hear. I want that to be us, I want us to be referenced um by these industry leaders. So the plan outlines things in increments of one to three years, three to seven, and then seven plus years. Um, so my focus is really in the next three years more, we've done all of these things. In the next seven years, we've done all of these things, and then in 10 years, we've done all of these other things that we said are going to help us achieve the goals that we've set out. Um, and then just continuously tracking um industry trends I mentioned earlier. Things just are always changing. So continuing to monitor those and make adjustments whenever we need to.
SPEAKER_01:Well, so much of what we do here in the city is service-oriented. What do city services look like five, 10, 15 years from now? And I'm thinking of things like curbside composting bins and likely more e-waste efforts since batteries are powering our lives nowadays. Um, we talk about it through that lens. I want to plug for no pun intended there.
SPEAKER_02:Um I want to unplug for um our friends at Rumkey. Please do not throw your batteries away. Um, they cause fires and they just generally wreak havoc for Rumkey to have to deal with. So to Lindsay's point, those are uh those can go in e-waste. And then for things like car batteries, you can take those to HHW. But yeah, I think that um curbside composting, that is in the plan. That is identified as a three to seven years from now.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02:So looking at expanding that and then just expanding access to things. So if we continue to have these drop-offs, we want to make them easier for residents to get to. Not that the service center isn't easy to get to, but it's just in one corner of the city. How can we get things to be a little bit more convenient for other residents?
SPEAKER_00:Before we wrap, can you point residents to where they can learn more about how to get involved? Now, I know you were talking about a list of things. The city manager report is an excellent repository of monthly things that you are doing uh on a day-to-day basis. I strongly recommend people doing that. But where else can people get uh more information about this?
SPEAKER_01:Nice shout out for the city manager report. Yes, Megan O'Callahan. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Please check that because I work hard on that every month. Um I would say look for volunteer opportunities. That's the best way that you can get involved. We have those. There's a dedicated webpage for volunteer opportunities. Reach out to our volunteer team. They can connect you with things that make the most sense for your interests. We also have a city services page. It is very kindly. Thank you, Bruce. Um, there is a little recycling logo on the front page of the city's website. So if you're looking for any of our city services, you can find them there. And then it makes it really easy for you to find exactly what you're looking for from there. Or ask the chat bot on the city's webpage. So, or website.
SPEAKER_00:You know, it's not just our website or my website, it's the city's website. So it's fueled with all of our PIOs working hard and making sure everything is up to date. So, Emily, if someone is interested in a career and sustainability, how do they go about doing that?
SPEAKER_02:I did not have a normal career path into sustainability. I actually was talking to a couple high schoolers yesterday about this. I would say if they're interested in it and it's something they're passionate about, if that's something they want to study, do it. But I really kind of stumbled into it just because it was something I was passionate about in my personal life. Um and so I would say just find what you're passionate about. And if you really care about the environment and sustainability and you want to learn more about it, learn more about it. I did a lot of just self-educating with sustainability and with just general natural resources, anything. And um, so I would say just learn about it. I don't think you have to make that your major in college if you don't want to do that. But uh, if you want to get involved in sustainability, find ways to volunteer, figure out if that's exactly what you want to do, and then find opportunities from there.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Well, Emily, as you know, we wrap every episode with a few fun rapid fire questions. So, ready or not, here we go. What's your favorite outdoor spot in Dublin?
SPEAKER_02:This is like picking a favorite child. Um anytime I'm outside with my dog, that's my favorite place to be, is really the answer. I love ML Red Tribute, but I want to be original, and I think someone said that before, so I'm gonna say Indian Run Meadows. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:That's a good choice. All right, compost or recycle. Which one are you more passionate about? Do both of them.
SPEAKER_01:You don't need to choose. One sustainable habit you wish everyone would try.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if you're gonna like it. Meatless Mondays. Um I would love for that to be a thing. Savings with just not eating meat on a Monday. You could save 133 gallons of water, reduce your carbon footprint by eight pounds every Monday. So I would do that.
SPEAKER_00:All right, dream speaker or influencer to bring to Dublin to talk about sustainability.
SPEAKER_02:All right, I'm gonna go Sarah PageyU. She is the CEO of a company called Blue Land. Um, it started out, it got uh its investments from Shark Tank. It's a really cool company, um, reduces kind of the carbon footprint of everyday things that you use, like soap, laundry detergent. Um, so I think she would be really cool to hear from. And then I'm gonna go Andy Lord, who's the head of transport for London, um, because I would love to get more public transportation around central Ohio.
SPEAKER_01:Uh okay. It's well known in the city that you are a certified Swifty. If our sustainability plan were a Taylor Swift song or album, what would it be?
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna go for a deep cut here. It is a song called Change from her 2008 album, Fearless. And there is a line in there, not to be cheesy, but it says it's a revolution. So that's the sustainability plan.
SPEAKER_01:I knew she'd have a good answer to that. All right, Emily, thank you so much for your work on this plan and now the hard work of implementing it uh with the community. And thanks for joining us on Link Ahead. Thanks for having me back.
SPEAKER_00:And to our listeners, thank you as well for connecting with your city. Join us next time as we continue to explore the people, projects, and progress that make Dublin a great place to live, work, and grow.