The goal: To make Atlanta as green a city as it can be.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin articulated that goal in her January speeches outlining the state of the city.

MARIA SAPORTA • E-mail Saporta Recent columns

"Sustainability," Franklin said at this year's State of the City Business Breakfast. "We need to be part of a global movement to save the planet and to preserve this place that we call home."

In the same talk, the mayor described how hundreds of mayors had signed a "U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement," pledging to conform with or exceed the targets of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions by relying more on renewable energy. "We can change the way we behave," she told business leaders that day.

The idea for the Sustainable Atlanta Initiative was presented more than a year ago by Barry Berlin, the investment manager who represents the Kendeda Fund, an influential donor who prefers to remain anonymous.

Berlin offered to financially support Atlanta's efforts to green up its act by first researching what other cities had done, implementing recommendations within the internal operations of city government and then reaching out to the community to adopt sustainable practices.

"The main effort here is to work within the walls of city government and change practices there," said Berlin, who added that the fund has pledged $1.5 million toward the initiative.

"Do those things, but then encourage the populous and neighboring governments to follow suit. Until you clean up your side of the street, you can't expect your neighbors to clean up their sides of the street."

So was born the Sustainable Atlanta initiative.

Lynnette Young left her job as Franklin's chief operating officer in August to head up the Sustainable Atlanta initiative. In the last year, much work has been done.

• Consultants studied best practices across the country, focusing on 10 cities that were ahead of Atlanta.

• An advisory board was formed (see box at right). The Coca-Cola Co. offered one of its executives, Ben Jordan, to work on the initiative for a year.

• And the Kendeda Fund is providing the initial support for the city's new director of sustainability, Mandy Schmitt. She is working within city government to implement the recommendations of Sustainable Atlanta.

The "high impact" projects for city government include: lighting retrofits, green building requirements for major renovations and new buildings, reflective roofs, recycling, paper use reduction, green fleets and green procurement.

"We want to institutionalize this and get it embedded in government," Young says. "There has got to be a different way of doing business that protects Atlanta for generations to come."

Knowing that sustainability means different things to different people, the initiative has said that for the city "sustainability means making Atlanta a community that lives within the self-perpetuating limits of its environment, while maintaining high standards for economic growth, environmental integrity and social justice."

The next step is to take the message to the community at large and partner with multiple organizations already working on these issues.

Among the prospective partners: Atlanta Recycles, Southface Energy Institute, the Clean Air Campaign, Park Pride, Livable Communities Coalition, Citizens for Progressive Transit, the Georgia Conservancy, the sustainability initiative of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Sierra Club.

Each organization will lead in its area of expertise. But Young envisions that Sustainable Atlanta will act as an umbrella where every group is working together.

"We believe the partners will lead us," she says.

Young says the city probably will adopt a carrots and sticks approach to encourage change in the community. The city can provide incentives for businesses to adopt strong sustainability programs. And the city also can adopt new ordinances that would stipulate green practices.

At a talk at the Commerce Club last week, Young explained that there are limitations to what Atlanta can do.

But she hopes that neighboring governments would want to participate so the whole region would become more environmentally sound.

At some point, it will be necessary for federal and state governments to adopt their own policies for sustainability.

"The federal government should play a huge role," Young says. "But there's been a void at the federal government level."

She did add that the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency has been helpful, but there's a need for a much more comprehensive approach in Washington.

Young says it's only a matter of time before people will put pressure on their governments to adopt more environmentally friendly practices. "Ultimately, every one will do it," she says.

But the most progressive communities already have extensive sustainability plans under way. The Atlanta region and the state can choose to lead or to follow.