Lansing needs a Sustainability and Environmental Affairs Department, and it should be part of the charter. Other Michigan cities have departments or highly situated offices dedicated to sustainability and the environment. These include Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Detroit. Lansing does currently have a Sustainability Office within the Public Services Department, but it does not have equal standing to the highest administrative levels in the city. This needs to change.

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Lansing is already witnessing the effects of a warming world and will face many more challenges in the years ahead. We need a city department that is well-staffed and focused on how we as a city can adapt to increasingly erratic weather patterns, mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases, and work to increase the supply of energy from clean, renewable resources. By taking these steps, the department would have a direct impact on public health.

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All residents would experience health benefits from lower levels of water, air, and solid waste pollution and other sustainability actions such as restoration of Lansing’s tree canopy. However, it is the city’s less well-off residents who bear the brunt of the environmental damage in the community. A Sustainability and Environmental Affairs Department would ensure environmental justice concerns are always top-of-mind.

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There are some potential objections:

1. "This does not belong in the charter."  The departments in the current charter, police, fire, finance, planning, etc, are undeniably essential to the healthy functioning of the city. In 2025, it is impossible to say that attention to environmental affairs is not essential to the health and well-being of the city’s residents. It belongs in the charter.

2. "It is too expensive."  The assumption is that a new department would require additional financial resources. Most of the staff required for the department likely already work for the city and could be reassigned. Decentralization as it exists today presents challenges (see below for further discussion). From a broader perspective, the question arises: Is it too costly to address the health and welfare needs of Lansing residents facing increasingly severe storms, flooding, and other unpredictable weather events? The city requires a department that works to mitigate the public health impacts of climate change, air and water pollution, and solid waste disposal.

3. "This work is already being done in existing city departments."  Decentralized decision-making about sustainability, which is today's reality, leads to inefficiency and neglect. A central department focused on sustainability would be more efficient, reduce duplication, lower costs, and respond better to unforeseen events, while planning for the future. Increased visibility of such a department would highlight these issues within city government and among residents.

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Sample language for the charter: 

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ARTICLE 4 – EXECUTIVE BRANCH

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Chapter 3. DEPARTMENTS

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4-309 Sustainability and Environmental Affairs Department

.1 The Director of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs shall be the administrative head of the Department of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs and shall be responsible to the Mayor for the sustainability, environmental affairs activities, and environmental justice within the City.

.2 Any agency, with the knowledge of the Director of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs, may undertake the study of any sustainability or environmental matter within the scope of its duties.

.3 The Department of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs shall receive all reports concerning sustainability or environmental matters, environmental justice, and other information that it requests.

.4 The director shall, with the head of any agency involved, evaluate all reports and information received by the department in the light of the policies, programs and priorities of the adopted sustainability plan.

.5 The director shall be responsible for providing the Sustainability and Environmental Affairs Board with staff and all information necessary for the Board to carry out its assigned duties under Sections 5-701 and 5-702 of this Charter.

.6 The department shall prepare plans for the City and its various departments when such plans involve the character, location and extent of activities and facilities which impact on the natural environment of the City.