By SHARON UDASIN
04/23/2013
Councilman Reuven Lediansky merges members from Tel Aviv Green Movement and Let Live parties under one unified hat called “Green Transformation.”
Just in time for Earth Day and six months ahead of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipal elections, one city councilman has launched a new movement with a revamped environmental platform.
With the assistance of an expert environmental advisory board, Councilman Reuven Lediansky has merged together members from the Tel Aviv Green Movement and Let Live parties under one unified hat called “Green Transformation.”
An active, rather than passive environmental outlook, will be critical to the new party, which promotes an improved day-to-day quality of life for the city’s residents, Lediansky explained. Rather than simply treating individual environmental issues, the movement will advocate an all-inclusive vision for tackling the city’s green challenges, in which the public has access to transparent information along the way.
“If we weren’t convinced that it was possible to do something different, that we could have a green transformation, we wouldn’t be sitting here with you,” Lediansky said at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon.
At the head of the environmental advisory board is Green Movement chairman Prof. Alon Tal, who has been guiding Lediansky in developing the Green Transformation platform with the help of zoologists, veterinarians, agronomists, marine biologists, former government officials and many others.
“It is not a coincidence that Lediansky and his team chose to present their platform on Earth Day,” said Tal.
While there are many green party lists in Tel Aviv, Tal emphasized that this one is unique in the way its members are relying on environmental expertise and taking a proactive approach to the issues.
One particular goal of the new movement will be making 70 percent of the city’s transportation occur by bike, public transportation and foot by the year 2017, with fast public transportation options available seven days a week, Tal explained. In addition, Lediansky and his team are advocating adding 100 km. in additional bike paths and closing 10% of the city’s streets to traffic – mimicking many European urban designs.
Another focus will be on encouraging green building throughout the city, as well as maintaianing what remains of the nature there, Tal said.
Every resident should be within five minutes walking distance of a green area by the year 2020, and the city should have 100,000 trees by two years prior, according to the movement’s goals.
Lediansky and his colleagues also aim to achieve a reduction of trash heading to landfills by 50% over the next five years and introduce much more separation of waste at source in private homes, Tal said.
“Tel Aviv, despite modest progress in many areas, has not yet emerged as an innovative leader environmentally and as an impressive green city,” Tal told The Jerusalem Post. “Our aspiration is that in the same way as Tel Aviv is a world leader in culture and tolerance to the gay community, we would like to see a city that is ambitious in its environmental vision.”
For this reason, the movement worked to bring in the team of environmental experts and generated a “pragmatic environmental platform that includes clear quantifiable measurable objectives that will allow us to chart our progress as we move forward,” Tal added.
While his current Let Live Party has only two spots in the city council, Lediansky told the Post that he expects to have six seats with the new list. In establishing the movement, he said he hopes to bring about change in areas that have been neglected for the past 15 years.
“We joined together six months ago to establish this new Green Transformation movement, with the understanding that today in Tel Aviv there is a political and professional vacuum in everything that is related to creation of green standards in the city,” he said.
http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Environmental-movement-emerges-ahead-of-TA-council-election-310752