Cities
and towns find ways to go green
By Matt Lail
Private industry and citizen entrepreneurs may garner much of the press when it comes to energy conservation. But local governments, as the major employers in many communities, can play a significant role in promoting “green” initiatives. And many in North Carolina are doing just that.
Close to 40 North Carolina cities and towns of all sizes have become designated as Cool Cities. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker has stated that he wants his city to be a model green city. Charlotte's city attorney's office has an environmental attorney at its disposal. And Asheville recently approved the purchase of five diesel-electric buses (hybrids) along with opening a compressed natural gas fueling station.
“The bottom line is our city council has made it clear that we will be a flagship city to develop energy reduction goals that are achievable,” said Asheville Assistant City Manager Jeff Richardson. “And we're going to achieve those goals.”
Asheville has also taken the commitment one step further by hiring a full-time energy coordinator.
“It was such an important policy goal for council that they were willing and able to set aside money for this full-time position,” said Richardson.
“It's been great walking into an organization that cares from the top down,” said Maggie Ullman, a UNC-Asheville graduate who began work on January 15 as the city's energy coordinator. “Now part of the challenge will be bringing that core value to the entire organization.”
The good news, from Ullman's point-of-view, is that city leaders care about energy reduction. She points to the city's aforementioned fleet management plan as an example. In 2006, the city established the Sustainable Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE), which was charged with making recommendations to the city council about sustainability issues. Among those initiatives was the city's goal of reducing the city's energy consumption by 80 percent by the year 2050. The idea is to reduce the consumption by 2 percent annually, a goal that Asheville has reached the past couple of years. In fact, an April 2007 city resolution states that it will be “incumbent on each and every employee employed by the City of Asheville to make the commitment to participate in the plan's implementation to reach this vital goal” of energy reduction.
“We've been doing a lot of tracking of our carbon footprint,” said Ullman.
The next step for Ullman will be to create an energy management plan and an internal social marketing campaign to “bring about environmental concern” within the city's employees.
“There's really potential for each of the departments to own energy conservation and environmental stewardship.”
In Charlotte, the city council has an environmental committee.
“Many cities are taking initiatives to provide more efficient city operations,” said Charlotte Mayor Pro-Tem Susan Burgess, current League president. “In my city, the environmental committee serves as an idea generator.”
The Queen City has also put together an “environmental cabinet,” made up of employees from various city-wide departments, that gets together one a month. Three “green teams” fall under this cabinet; the three teams are charged with looking at internal operations such as fleet management, purchasing, and design and construction and operations of city facilities. An internal website is scheduled to be launched in the coming month. This site will be “geared toward educating employees about what they can do at work and at home to help the environment and reduce energy consumption,” said Catherine Bonfiglio, a communications specialist with the city's corporate communications department.
“We have found high interest in energy efficiency throughout the city's employees,” Burgess said.
A ‘compelling' case for green urbanism
There is perhaps a misconception out there that urban means gritty and thus unclean. But many sustainability experts believe that metro areas are actually more conducive to promoting sustainable initiatives – and succeeding at them.
“Finally, the urban environmental agenda is at the fore,” said Timothy Beatley, professor of sustainable architecture at the University of Virginia.
Beatley addressed North Carolina downtown boosters and municipal planners at the recent N.C. Main Street conference in Rocky Mount. His presentation noted the successes and plans of major metro areas: Chicago's call for 250 “green” roofs in the coming years; New York City's plan to plant 1 million new trees and convert its taxi fleet to hybrids; and the “most ambitious greenhouse reduction plan” that London has offered of reducing it by 60 percent by 2025.
In short, Beatley believes that cities are set up to be green leaders.
“The combination of green plus urban is very compelling.”
And urban doesn't necessarily have to mean larger metropolitan areas. Waynesville, for instance, will soon be using solar power to heat its indoor swimming pool.
“We're paying about $60,000 a year in natural gas to heat it,” said Town Manager Lee Galloway.
The project is expected to cost about $60,000, but the initial costs should be recovered within five years. The facility “sits out in the open. It will get sun as long as there is sun,” Galloway said.
The town is also in the final stages of completing a new fire station about one-half mile away from the existing station. (The existing police/fire station is being renovated and expanded into a structure to be used solely by the police department.) This new building will be constructed with the first floor set aside for the development office (including public works director, planning director, building and fire inspections, etc.); the second floor will house offices for the Downtown Waynesville Association and a new meeting room for the town board and other boards and commissions the use meeting space.
“We tried to factor in sustainable design elements such as awnings over the windows to deflect the heat, skylights, recycled materials, and landscaping that requires no sprinklers, just to mention a few,” said Galloway.
Eighty percent of the traffic lighting for which the city of Asheville is responsible has been switched out to LED lighting, along with more than 50 percent of the city's emergency exit signs.
The town of Edenton recognizes that it is perhaps too small to do a whole lot when it comes to energy reduction. But that doesn't mean it's not trying.
“Being an electric municipality, we have spent a lot of time over the past couple of years focusing on energy conservation, trying to help the citizens understand things they can do to save money and energy,” said Anne-Marie Knighton, Edenton's town manager. “Our staff is becoming more capable of presenting information to customers.”
The town holds an annual energy fair, and has partnered with ElectriCities to conduct energy audits for citizens. About 100 such audits have been conducted over the past couple of years.
Setting an example
Most municipalities appear very receptive to the public's desire for energy consumption. In Edenton, an active citizens' group makes recommendations to the town council. Asheville's residents have expressed a strong desire to see their community promote development that is environmentally friendly, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified.
“They want to see us develop economic incentives that promote LEED-certified development,” said Richardson. “We've heard that loud and clear.
“They really want us to work hard in the realm of LEED certification. There will be opportunities over the next several years for us to place high levels of attention on our buildings and maintenance and necessary building improvements.”
But cities are also showing the way to sound environmental stewardship.
Charlotte has an environmental focus area plan that stresses “sustainability and protecting habitats – things that are external – but it also has component specific to adopting sound environmental practices in city facilities and operations,” said Bonfiglio.
The city council has also passed an ordinance on post-construction controls, which lays out a series of measures to keep pollution and dirt out of stormwater runoff due to development, and to mitigate erosion in local streams.
Charlotte is also partnering with UNC Charlotte's Motorsports and Automotive Research Center on a maintenance and fuel cost reduction study, which would examine the applicability of fuel additives, alternative lubricants, improvements in subsystem performance (e.g. air conditioning systems), and insulation and coatings technologies for use in the city's fleet.
“We really feel that we've got to set an example,” said Bonfiglio, “so we've got to really do what we're saying we're going to do. It's important, not just by the size of our employee base, but it behooves us to set a good example in the public sector and partner with the private sector to help them take those steps to reduce energy consumption.”
Officials in Edenton, a town known for its historic homes, educate residents about easy-to-do home energy use reduction techniques such as “insulating your crawlspaces and attics, and making sure you doors are hinged properly,” said Knighton.
[Knighton is proud to note that the first private citizen in the state to earn NC GreenPower solar photovoltaic credits on a municipal electrical system was an Edenton resident.]
Asheville, with 1,200 employees, believes it can be a statewide or national leader when it comes to energy efficiency. But, like the old saying goes, it's better to “think globally, act locally.” That's a philosophy that a number of North Carolina municipalities are buying into.
“We've got to step up to the bat first,” said Ullman. “We want citizens to say, ‘I know my city government, with my tax money, is doing what is environmentally responsible… and it shows my city government has that core value, that our community has this core value.'”
This article originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Southern City.
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More energy Savings in the News
-Raleigh inspectors to check for low-flow devices , WRAL.com, March 4, 2008
- Gov. Easley announces plans for plug-in hybrid plant in N.C., NBC 17, February 13, 2008
- Port City planning to make roads safer for walkers, bikers , Wilmington Star-News , February 6, 2008
- Fayetteville city council approves recycling rollouts , Fayetteville Observer, January 29, 2008
- Group's goal is to put less in landfills , Winston-Salem Journal, January 22, 2008
- Auditing energy use to find ways to save money and resources , Southern City , January 2008
- Slow but steady gains in Raleigh's 'green' goals, Raleigh News & Observer, January 22, 2008
- Basnight has bright idea, Raleigh News & Observer, January 7, 2008
- For fuel, N.C. looks homeward, Charlotte Observer, December 27, 2007
- Chapel Hill greens its fleets, Town of Chapel Hill, October 25, 2007
- Cities save some 'green' while being green, Southern City, December 2007
-Don't flush those toilets, council woman says, Raleigh News & Observer, December 17, 2007
-Port City adds hybrids, Wilmington Star-News, November 28, 2007
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