Greener Alexandria
How would you make Alexandria a greener, more sustainable community?
We asked Alexandria citizens to share their ideas for creating a greener, more sustainable community. 20 answered the call. Now you can help pick the winners! The best three citizen ideas will win a total of $500 in cash prizes and a chance at $2,000 in mini grants to turn their Green Idea into a reality.
How Do I Vote?
- Everyone gets 3 votes to allocate any way they want. To vote, click on "Add Your Vote" under the idea or ideas you like. Online voting is ONE factor used to pick the winners.
Voting ends Friday, April 6, 2025
The Best Ideas Will
- Take under $1,000 to implement
- Be community or neighborhood focused and grassroots oriented
- Not require City resources to implement.
- Special consideration will be given to ideas that target and/or incorporate youth.
Visit the Alexandria Green Ideas Challenge page for the official contest rules and details.
Ideas
I propose creating an Alexandria-based advocacy group that would bring together neighbors who are committed to working towards a cleaner, safer energy future for our children. The need to advocate for clean energy is increasingly urgent as we witness the effects of...
My Idea
- A community-led effort to pursue a neighborhood weatherization project in a team effort to conserve energy and reduce energy costs to home-owners.
How it Works
- ACTion Alexandria encourages Alexandria neighborhood...
Out of the three tenets of greener living--reducing, reusing and recycling--reusing has the greatest environmental impact. Currently, pennies--which cost more than their value to produce--are still in production by the U.S. Mint because trillions are sitting in people's homes or are otherwise...
Sponsor an animal to help the wildlife in Alexandria! Through this project, children would Adopt a Great Blue Heron or Adopt a Box Turtle through donations in cash and/or community service....
So many of our vegetables and fruits come from so far away, and require heavy transportation costs and impacts to our overall air quality and environment - why not bring the source closer? Even if a green thumb is not everyone's forte, a desire to eat fresh vegetables and fruits often is here in...
Green roofs is an idea whose time has come. Alexandria can be a model for this significant growing movement (see http://www.greenroofs.org/). We have lots of real estate on the roofs of the big box stores at...
I'd like to suggest the city install "Big Belly" solar-powered compacting trash cans like the kind in Chicago and Philadelphia. The trash cans have a companion recycling bin. The Big Belly trash cans could be installed near the Metro stops, in shopping centers, and other areas with...
City of Alexandria VA... I heard talk of the tri state area VA DC MD wanting to re-amp the water ways with some type of new docking system all up and down the Potomac river.. Here's my website.. I have designed a floating docking system made out of recycled 2-3 liter soda/water bottles...pvc...
The best way to increase environmental awareness in Alexandria is to implement the idea that helping the environment is good at a very young age. Teaching students early on in education is key. Taking children in 1st or 2nd grade on field trips. Not to museums and such, but to parks where they...
We are a seventh grade Science class at George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia. We had the opportunity to participate in a community-based class project in order to work together to better our city, and we decided to focus on the quality of water at Winkler Botanical Preserve....
Kids love to watch plants grow, and growing programs in schools help them understand the natural world, eat more fresh foods and value their environment. However most school kids never get to take full advantage of the natural growing cycle as school closes for the summer before crops are ready...
We want to encourage people to start growing organically because of all its benefits. First, it is better for your health and puts fewer chemicals into the environment. Second, it is cheaper, so instead of purchasing expensive organic food, growing your own will save you more money...
The best way to increase environmental awareness in Alexandria is to implement the idea that helping the environment is good at a very young age. Teaching students early on in education is key. Taking children in 1st or 2nd grade on field trips. Not to museums and such, but to parks where they...
Green roofs is an idea whose time has come. Alexandria can be a model for this significant growing movement (see http://www.greenroofs.org/). We have lots of real estate on the roofs of the big box stores at...
I propose creating an Alexandria-based advocacy group that would bring together neighbors who are committed to working towards a cleaner, safer energy future for our children. The need to advocate for clean energy is increasingly urgent as we witness the effects of...
Few people know how much energy and money it takes to transform water from the Potomac River into the water we drink and wash with every day. To raise awareness and promote conservation, I propose a Water Action Day involving businesses along King Street in Old Town Alexandria. We...
Scholars at the Alexandria Achievement Center would like to propose a green initiative to plant a community garden in Alexandria. This garden will not only be a place where citizens can create a vegetable garden, but this will also be a place which donates all of their food to the Alexandria...
Cadette Girl Scout Troop 5751 from GW Middle School is working to restore water habitats in Alexandria. We would like to work with the City of Alexandria to find wetland locations, such as along streams, that need restoration. We will be planting native water grasses and other plants...