Join the Green Challenge
	Municipal officials are on the front lines of environ-mental protection and efforts to hold down energy costs. With so much scientific information and with energy costs rising almost daily, where should you begin? How do you organize your efforts? And how do you allocate limited resources? To assist you with these questions, we offer the NCLM Green Challenge. We can work together to protect natural resources while saving energy and money. We can solve these challenges together, just as the North Carolina League of Municipalities has for a century, by sharing ideas and supporting one another. The purpose of the NCLM Green Challenge is to encourage member cities and towns to implement short-term and long-range actions that will conserve resources and save money, thereby protecting the environment and operating municipal government in a more cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly manner. Change takes time, so the program will be organized in levels and implemented over the next three years.
Click here for resources and meetings of interest
Click here to read more about the NCLM Green Challenge
Click here for a PDF version of the Intention and Progress Survey Or click here for an online version
Questions?

How does the program work?

Participating cities and towns choose practical actions that can save energy, money and natural resources. There are three levels to the Green Challenge, and a city or town will receive recognition for completing one or more levels. Special recognition may be given for exceptional accomplishments.

The first level includes five practical actions that a municipality can take, focused on commitment and planning. For each item, we provide a description and helpful resources or examples. We list an outcome that would provide proof of your implementation as we keep track of participation. The items of the first level fit under the broad categories of Policy Adoption and Energy Efficiency. Cities and towns with populations greater than 10,000 must complete three of the five suggested actions to achieve the first level. Those with populations under 10,000 must complete two.
Our Green Challenge is patterned after a similar program of the Virginia Municipal League and we appreciate the VML’s willingness to share their good ideas.

If your city would like to take part in the Green Challenge, we ask that your board notify the League offices of your intent by September 1, 2008, along with any actions you have taken or will take on the five items in Level One. A sample ordinance for your board is included along with an Intention and Progress Survey that must be completed. All of the information, including the survey, is available on our website, www.nclm.org.

Recognition

Your city will receive a plaque signifying its commitment. This plaque will be presented at the NCLM Centennial Conference in Charlotte, October 12–14. When your municipality achieves the intermediate or advanced level, additional recognition will be given.

Please read the additional information on the NCLM Green Challenge. I know that many of you already are implementing these energy-, resource- and cost-saving programs. I hope that each of you will take up the NCLM Green Challenge. Through this challenge, we can demonstrate our continuing commitment as dedicated stewards of the environment and fiscally responsible public servants.

Sincerely,

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess, Charlotte
NCLM President

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