Bloomington commissions take steps to reduce city’s carbon footprint by 2012

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Bloomington is taking big strides to reduce its carbon footprint by the year 2012.

The City of Bloomington Environmental Commission and Commission on Sustainability recently released a report on the city’s carbon footprint and what can be done to reduce it.

The report, titled “Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Bloomington, Indiana: Footprints, Projections, and Recommendations” measured Bloomington’s carbon footprint in 1990, 2006 and its projected level for 2012. It measured levels from the city’s residential, commercial, transportation, industrial and solid waste sectors using software from the International Council for Local Government Initiatives, an organization described in the report as “an international association of more than 800 local governments and organizations working on sustainable development initiatives.”

In 2006, Mayor Mark Kruzan signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which committed Bloomington to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

To do this, according to the report, Bloomington would still need to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 220,160 tons from its 2006 level to meet the 2012 goal.
The report identified five main strategies for meeting this goal: switching light bulbs to more efficient types such as compact fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes, more commonly known as LEDs; promotion of more energy-efficient buildings; pursuing more renewable energy sources; and promoting alternative transportation such as public transportation, bicycles and use of more energy-efficient cars or cars that use fuels with lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

“We need to reduce emissions and use energy that comes from renewable resources,” Commission on Sustainability Chairwoman Cynthia Schultz said in a press release. “A healthy and sustainable future will depend on our willingness to reduce energy consumption, seal up our buildings, provide green jobs, produce food locally and improve our public transportation systems.”

However, even with these suggestions in mind, the estimated carbon footprint reduction is only 186,354 tons – 33,806 tons short of the agreed-upon goal of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Phaedra Pezzullo, chairwoman of the environmental commission, said the commissions’ reason for issuing the report was simply to lay down concrete ways the goal of the climate agreement could be reached.

“They’re just some examples to get us toward the goal,” Pezzullo said.

The main sectors the report identifies as areas that  need the most improvement are residential, commercial and transportational. Pezzullo said IU has many ways it needs to reduce its footprint, which IU’s sustainability advisory council is working on.

Steve Akers, advisory council member and is also IU’s associate director for environmental operations, said the work of IU’s Sustainability Task Force, now replaced by the advisory council, did a lot of work in identifying IU’s areas in need of carbon footprint reduction during the year-plus it was active.

“It did establish a benchmark for what CO2 is being emitted for the campus that year,” Akers said.

The advisory council is working on reducing those emissions, Akers said.

Pezzullo said Bloomington has started some public outreach campaigns to help residents reach toward the goals of the climate agreement and those set forth in the report. One of these is the Green Building Campaign, which she said has been successful.

“The city has made a commitment that its buildings, its utilities need to be part of this goal,” Pezzullo said.