ALLENTOWN, Pa. —The realm of environmental sustainability is in a constant state of change, Veronika Vostinak said.
“There's always new technology, new best practices — there's a lot going on in this space,” said Vostinak. “And it's moving very rapidly and there's a lot of cross-departmental overlap.
“Having somebody who's dedicated to keeping up with the opportunities, letting me find the money and then working with [city] departments to make sure that it actually happens … There's a lot of nuance, but if you don't have somebody who is familiar or knowledgeable or focused on finding those nuances, it's really easy to just keep doing business as usual.”
A native of the commonwealth’s third-most-populous city, Vostinak four months ago was hired as Allentown’s first-ever sustainability coordinator.
The position, budgeted for one year after the annual process turned contentious, focuses on creating and facilitating sustainability initiatives while capturing grant funding to cover the cost of related projects.
It’s a new position for the city and the region, but it’s the second time Vostinak has blazed a sustainability trail with a municipality.
“I was the first sustainability staff person in another city before, so it feels a little bit familiar to me,” Vostinak said during a phone interview. “I'm happy to be able to take some of my experience from forming a new department in city government previously and kind of do it over again.
“ … And do it with some experience under my belt, to really be able to start making some impacts quickly.”
Budgeting for sustainability
Allentown is the first in the Lehigh Valley to carve out a position for a sustainability coordinator, a position dedicated to overseeing environmental initiatives and bolstering community engagement.
But, getting the position added to the city’s 2024 budget wasn’t easy, as Allentown City Council and Mayor Matt Tuerk were at odds during the process, turning it tumultuous.
At first, Tuerk vetoed a tax-increase-free budget that did not include the sustainability coordinator position, arguing for a 2% tax increase. However, council members held their ground, putting forth another budget with no new taxes.
Around the same time, advocates launched a letter-writing campaign to pressure the city to hire someone to oversee and address environmental justice issues.
The letter, with the subject, “Please hire a dedicated sustainability manager,” included several paragraphs of arguments to answer why the position is so sorely needed.
The city’s Environmental Advisory Council also submitted comments to council arguing for the position to be funded.
“Based on our own member experiences, and the experience of other cities that have such a position in place, we are confident that the sustainability coordinator will help the city to lower its costs through implementing more sustainable practices and through bringing more money to the city in federal, state and county grants as well as philanthropic sources,” according to the comments, which are posted on the EAC’s website.
In mid-December, city officials adopted a budget with no new tax increases by default after no action from Tuerk. During the same meeting, but in a separate vote, the governing body unanimously added a sustainability coordinator to the budget.
Soon after, the job was posted to an online job board and the city’s website, with the salary listed at $66,977.
Responsibilities listed for the position included “overseeing the development, implementation and management of sustainable initiatives in all city departments and functions,” as well as “collaborat[ing] with various stakeholders to develop and implement sustainable strategies and programs” and other tasks.
Qualifications included a bachelor's degree in environmental science, sustainability or a related field, as well as at least five years of experience in conservation and sustainability.
During his campaign, Tuerk’s “Sustainability Plan” included hiring a “Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) with responsibility for plan management. The CSO will employ an interdisciplinary approach by engaging a broad range of city departments and external partners.”
Allentown is the only major city in the Valley with no Climate Action Plan in place. However, the city’s EAC in July 2021 submitted to the council a climate action report.
Bringing experience back home
After graduating from Parkland High School and then Temple University, where she studied linguistics, Vostinak moved to the Bay Area of San Francisco. There, she worked for a federal government contractor.
A project focused on sea level rise gave her the opportunity to “get to know the environmental players” in nonprofits as well as in local, county and state government, she said. From there, she became the first sustainability analyst for Half Moon Bay, a California coastal city south of San Francisco.
“I formed their sustainability department, where I did a Climate Action Plan, a climate adaptation plan,” she said. “I wrote a couple ordinances related to plastic and energy. I did a lot of public outreach and work there.”
In November, after working with Half Moon Bay for a little less than five years, she and her husband moved back to the Lehigh Valley. He drove her favorite plant, a split leaf philodendron, cross-country.
“I saw this opportunity with the city of Allentown, looking to form a sustainability department,” she said. “I was really excited to get to use my experience and bring it back here to where I grew up.”
While it may seem counterintuitive, her background in linguistics has provided a solid foundation for her work in public outreach and collaboration, she said.
“The biggest overlap for me is more on the public outreach and the collaboration side more than anything else,” Vostinak said. “I think through that I'm able to take some really complex topics and make them more understandable and relatable to like whoever it is that I'm talking to.”
Working in local government is often about connecting ideas and priorities with expertise, and then developing a project, program or plan, she said.
“I also came into this field not necessarily being an expert, so I've learned from a lot of people. That way, I'm able to learn the technical information and then distill it, or make it more realistic or relatable, to just people in general.”Veronika Vostinak, Allentown's sustainability coordinator
“I also came into this field not necessarily being an expert, so I've learned from a lot of people,” she said. “That way, I'm able to learn the technical information and then distill it, or make it more realistic or relatable, to just people in general.”
Electric vehicles, tree equity, emissions inventory
Only a few months into the job, Vostinak already has her hands full.
The city this year was included in the latest cohort of the state’s Shared Energy Manager Program, which pairs municipalities with an engineering company to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
“There's a ton of money out there right now for environmental sustainability initiatives for both communities and local governments,” she said. “The Shared Energy Manager has been helping to define the scope of what is most in line with some of Allentown’s goals and what funding opportunities are available.”
So far, she’s applied for two grants for an electric vehicle project, as well as a federal tax credit, taking “a $400,000 project down to a $100,000 budget line,” Vostinak said. She’s also working with the Shared Energy Manager to bolster energy-efficiency in city buildings to save money on utility bills going forward, “to make sure inefficiencies are turned into efficiencies.”
“Right now, it's about taking advantage of the funding opportunities that are available. And then setting ourselves up so that we can have a good inventory, and then a good plan to then shape what the sustainability program in the city of Allentown will look like going forward.”Veronika Vostinak, Allentown's sustainability coordinator
Then, there’s work with individual city departments, like Planning, Purchasing and Public Works, to see what projects she can help facilitate. There’s also a grant-funded tree equity project, aimed at federally disadvantaged communities within the city, as well as a greenhouse gas emissions inventory in the works.
“Right now, it's about taking advantage of the funding opportunities that are available,” she said. “And then setting ourselves up so that we can have a good inventory, and then a good plan to then shape what the sustainability program in the city of Allentown will look like going forward.”
Asked how she’s feeling about the job so far, Vostinak said she’s “feeling great.”
“The city was doing quite a bit before I got here,” she said. “The EAC has been working with the city to get some of this work done. I was able to, even week one, insert myself into some meetings and start getting things going.”
She’s also established herself as the “resident plant lady” at the city offices.
“Over here in the Parks Office, we've got a thriving indoor plant collection and I've been finding more and more,” she said. “So if anybody just wants to talk indoor plants or share cuttings, I've got a little propagation station over here that I would love to spread around.”
She’s situated her 6-year-old split-leaf philodendron in her office, adding “It seems to like it here.”
Now that she has “the lay of the land,” it’s time to look to the future, she said, asking, “What does this program look like going forward?” and “How will that plan come about?”
“We want to make sure that whatever we're doing here in the city as far as climate action is concerned is in line with what the community wants to see, too,” Vostinak said. “Really having an opportunity to engage with them, see what the community's priorities are, so that we can incorporate that into what this program will look like going forward.”
