Making the Commitment

The City of Asheville believes it is our responsibility to our community, businesses and taxpayers to strive for organizational efficiency through energy reduction measures.  Because the threat of global warming needs local solutions, the City of Asheville formed a citizen group in January 2007 called the Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment and City Council passed two sustainability resolutions in April 2007.

Goal: Reduce the municipal carbon footprint by 80% by 2050
Plan: Achieve a 2% reduction each year through conservation, technology and behavior change

Goal: Reduce the negative impact on the environment from municipal buildings
Plan: All new municipal buildings will be LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

To meet these goals, the municipality created a Sustainability Management Plan (SMP) and the Office of Sustainability to focus on solid waste reduction, energy conservation, community outreach and stormwater management (see below for more SMP details and to download plan).  The City of Asheville has gone one step further by joining commitments with hundreds of cities around the country and world when the mayor signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and became a member of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).

What does carbon footprint mean?

You may have been hearing the phrase carbon footprint and wondering what that means.  Carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide) that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, a household, a building or an organization.  These greenhouse gases are produced through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal for electricity, natural gas for heating, gasoline or diesel for transportation, etc.  Just in the first year after establishing the carbon footprint reduction goal, the City organization reduced it's carbon footprint 2.5%, more than the requirement, which was due to staff's dedication and efforts.

Current Initiatives: 

The Office of Sustainability has grown to three staff members to coordinate the City’s efforts to further reduce its carbon footprint through the following initiatives.  Funding for these initiatives and the staff to coordinate them was established through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant the City received in January of 2010.

• Comprehensive Recycling Program launched April 2010 with goal to recycle 40 tons (8, five ton elephants) in 70% of City Facilities by end of 2010.  The Office of Sustainability plans to implement this program with the remaining 30% of facilities (i.e. parks, WNC Nature Center and other special facilities) later this year.  
• Recycling outreach programs being conducted with afterschool and summer programs at all Community Centers where students design and create recycling posters specific to their center after learning about the benefits of recycling through hands-on interactive lessons. Click here to check out the video 21^stCentury afterschool program students from Burton Street Community Center created to educate and engage other students to recycle. 
• Increased recycling capacity at the Civic Center and City of Asheville’s special events (i.e. Bele Chere) with more recycling bins through grants received from Keep America Beautiful/Coca Cola and NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) Division of Pollution and Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA).
• Energy Retrofit projects – The City is implementing four projects over the course of 2010 to reduce energy usage and costs.  The City Hall energy efficient lighting project, a new more efficient HVAC system for the Civic Center’s banquet hall and solar thermal systems and weatherization for fire station 6 in West Asheville on Haywood Rd and Fire Station 8 in East Asheville on Tunnel Rd will help the City to significantly reduce its carbon footprint.
• Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) Program training completed by City building inspectors and maintenance staff to evaluate and improve building energy efficiency.  Diagnostic equipment and software was also purchased for inspectors and maintenance staff to conduct energy audits.
• Green Team is a volunteer steering committee consisting of representatives from each of the City’s departments focusing on organizational sustainability initiatives.  With its first meeting in February of 2010, the Green Team is focusing on developing comprehensive standard operating procedures, codes and administrative policies as identified in the Sustainability Management Plan. 

Accomplishments:

• 2.5% carbon footprint reduction in 1^st year Office of Sustainability and programming began!
• $65,000 in energy savings in 1^st year of programming – see below for more info
• Office of Sustainability received $804,700 funding through Energy Block grant to fund Sustainability Outreach Specialist and Retrofit Project Manager positions, energy retrofit projects, seed money for PACE program and HERS training and equipment

Sustainability Annual Report

The Annual Report details municipal energy usage, energy spending and carbon footprint for the entire municipality as well as each department.  The 2008-2009 Annual Report will be available soon.  Important to understand the big picture of the municipality's total carbon footprint and smaller segments of carbon Click the link below to review the entire 2007-2008 report:

Sustainability Management Plan

In April 2007 City Council passed a resolution committing to reduce the municipal carbon footprint 80% by the year 2050 and requiring a strategic plan to lead this effort. The internal SMP brings together the organization’s carbon footprint reduction policy and the sustainability initiatives of various departments in a coordinated and comprehensive plan.  The outcome of this internal sustainability management plan is a consensus-based set of 23 sustainability goals, a comprehensive list of 107 prioritized action items, and an implementation plan for moving forward. 

The full plan and the executive summary of the plan can be reviewed online at the following links:

Sustainability Management Plan                   Executive Summary                        

$65,000 in Energy Savings

Over the last year, the city reduced its municipal energy usage by 867,000 kilowatt hours, which is the same amount of energy it takes to operate City Hall for six months. As a result, the city reduced its municipal carbon footprint by 623 tons representing $65,000 in savings. The city points to three key sustainability programs as major contributors to the organization's success during the last year: the compressed work week, an automatic computer shutdown program, and the employee energy conservation challenge.

• The compressed work week, where employees typically work four ten hour days as opposed to a traditional five-day week, was first piloted in the Public Works Department and soon spread to other divisions. The schedule allows the city to realize energy savings by utilizing buildings, computers and other equipment 20% less. It also reduces the carbon footprint associated with employees commuting to work. Currently there are 180 city employees working this schedule.
  
• The computer shutdown program utilizes software to automatically turn off more than 500 city computers at 8 p.m. to reduce energy usage.
  
• The energy conservation challenge encouraged employees to voluntarily reduce energy usage wherever possible. Simple acts like turning off the lights when rooms were not in use and adjusting thermostat made an impact, especially in smaller facilities like community centers and fire stations.
  

Helpful Links and Resources

• The City of Asheville's Sustainability Programs
• Energy Related Federal and State Tax Incentives 
• Progress Energy Carolinas Rebate Programs
• PSNC Rebate Programs
• Citizen Sustainability Advisory Committee

Contact Information
The Office of Sustainability
Maggie Ullman, Energy Coordinator
Location: Room 208, Asheville City Hall
Mailing address: P. O. Box 7148, Asheville, NC 28802
Office: (828) 271-6141
E-mail: mullman@ashevillenc.gov

Rachel Doebber, Sustainability Outreach Specialist
Office: (828) 251-4057
E-mail: rdoebber@ashevillenc.gov

Linda Fowler, Energy Retrofit Project Manager
Cell: (828) 337-2676
Email:lfowler@ashevillenc.gov