Earth Day is just around the corner!

The Office of Sustainability invites you to join in the fun of making a cleaner, greener Asheville at home, at work, and in our community. There are many ways to make small changes with big impact to the health and quality of our environment.  Below are a few examples and a super fun opportunity to join in the fun. Earth Day is this Friday and it's not too late to schedule your earth action!

City of Asheville completes aggregated solar project

Recently the City of Asheville “flipped the switch” on a photovoltaic array, commonly known as solar panels, at the Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center on Shiloh Road. This is the fifth City facility to include onsite renewable energy production. This completes the City’s portion of projects included in the joint initiative to install solar panels on City of Asheville, Buncombe County, Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Schools and AB-Tech facilities. 

Office of Sustainability shares results of Solarize Asheville Buncombe campaign

The City of Asheville is one of over 180 local governments that are members of the Urban Sustainability Network (USDN). One of the recent initiatives of the USDN was a partnership with World Resources Institute and Rocky Mountain Institute to implement a renewable accelerator residential solar cohort that provided technical assistance (including analyzing rooftop solar economics and tracking campaign equity impacts) to local governments implementing a bulk purchasing solar program. The City of Asheville was one of twenty-one local governments selected to participate in the cohort. 

Office of Sustainability shares update on Climate Justice Initiative

The Climate Justice Initiative includes a community led definition of Climate Equity and Climate Justice, as well as the creation of the Climate Justice Data Map for staff and public to visualize and understand local climate threats alongside compounding social and economic stressors. A Climate Justice Guide and Screening Tool for internal operations are also included.