My Clearwater
Meet the City’s New Sustainability Coordinator
Due to the ever-increasing impacts of greenhouse
gases and climate change, the city took a proactive
approach to help combat those problems by
creating a sustainability coordinator position. That
person is Sheridan Boyle.
Boyle is relatively new to the city and has proven herself by
bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas to spur change.
Hired in March 2018 as the city’s recycling specialist,
she reinvented the city’s recycling education program by
emphasizing the importance of recycling properly. She and
others on her teams focused on communicating ways that
residents can partner with the city and help combat recycling
contamination.
In her new role as sustainability coordinator, Boyle will help
roll out the Greenprint Sustainability Plan, environmental
initiatives and resiliency goals. She also will continue
overseeing the city’s solid waste and recycling efforts. She is
the perfect person for the role, because her heart is in it.
In her time away from work, she gardens. In fact, she is vice
president of the Oldsmar Organic Community Garden.
02 MyClearwater
She loves and adores native plants. If she
doesn’t plant native plants, she plants
edible ones. She is currently growing
bananas, papayas, dragonfruit,
a young olive tree and leafy
greens. She employs
Florida-friendly
landscaping practices
in her garden and
practices active
water conservation.
Her plants are also
beautiful and helpful
to pollinators.
Boyle is a volunteer for the
Sierra Club and is an Ocean Allies board
member. Ocean Allies is a grassroots
community-led effort that focuses on
ocean-friendly practices, including
water conservation and energy practices.
Currently, the organization’s most
important goal right now is the reduction
of single-use plastics.
“Being on the gulf, we’ve seen the harmful effects that singleuse
plastics have on marine life but also on public enjoyment
of outdoor spaces,” she said. She created and implemented
the city’s highly-successful Strawless Summer Challenge by
working with and encouraging more than 40 Clearwater
businesses to stop providing straws. Other municipalities
used the city’s program to create their own similar programs.
Boyle would someday like to see the city develop a backyard
composting program. She said a lot of people don’t realize
how easy composting can be, and it doesn’t have to be a
smelly process. She installed a compost tumbler in her
backyard and achieves nutrient-rich soil that she uses in her
garden.
With the creation of the sustainability coordinator position,
the city has taken an important step in demonstrating
its commitment to protecting natural resources and to
environmental stewardship. With Boyle at the lead, the city
is off to a great start.