The site, sustainability.pinellas.gov, details the county’s six-step Sustainability and Resiliency Action Plan (SRAP), and explains what it’s doing to protect the 25 percent of Pinellas land in the Coastal High Hazard area, where communities are deemed extremely vulnerable to storms and floods.
While some storm-protection projects like canals and beach restoration aim to mitigate flooding, a big chunk of the plan centers on measuring and lowering carbon emissions. Phil Compton, senior organizing representative at Sierra Club’s St. Pete office, thinks this is a good place to start.
“If you only focus on resilience and forget sustainability, we forget the mitigation of the things that you’re doing that are contributing to climate change,” Compton told