This Week in Sustainability at the City of Louisville
This Tuesday (15 August) starting at 6:00 pm, the Louisville City Council will meet in City Hall’s council chambers. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. City Council will receive the final presentation of its commissioned municipal decarbonization plan. This plan details how the City can eliminate the carbon footprint of municipal buildings and operations. At this presentation’s conclusion, after taking public comments, City Council will deliberate and eventually vote to adopt or not to adopt this plan. I will fully support adoption, and I will urge City Council to implement the plan’s recommendations for achieving municipal decarbonization. The Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board’s letter to City Council clearly elucidates my reasoning; I quote from pages 64 and 65 of the packet.
The Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board writes you today regarding McKinstry Engineering’s plans for decarbonizing the City’s buildings and operations. First of all, the Board wishes to commend City Council for recognizing the necessity of and prioritizing the planning for this municipal decarbonization. The Board also appreciates being involved in the planning process. Moreover, the Board applauds City Council’s goal of complete municipal decarbonization by 2030. The Board considers municipal decarbonization to be the City’s singlemost important sustainability initiative and one of the City’s most important initiatives: decarbonization is absolutely crucial to mitigating climate change. The Board also wishes to emphasize the urgency of municipal decarbonization: considerable decarbonization within the next decade is absolutely essential to keeping global warming within livable bounds.
At the Board’s June meeting McKinstry presented its latest plans for municipal decarbonization. The Board was impressed with McKinstry’s work, and the Board endorses McKinstry’s plans, both McKinstry’s recommendations for how to achieve municipal decarbonization and McKinstry’s timeline for implementation of these recommendations. The Board recognizes that this timeline does not achieve complete municipal decarbonization by 2030, but the Board understands the reasons for and supports extending the timeline. The Board suggests that the City investigate the capacity for City-owned lands to sequester carbon, potentially offsetting the extra carbon emitted over this extended timeline. More specifically, the Board supports McKinstry’s plans for increasing the City’s own solar energy generation rather than relying on Xcel Energy’s efforts to transition to carbon-free energy sources.
The Board thus recommends that City Council adopt McKinstry’s plans for municipal decarbonization and swiftly pivot to these plans’ implementation. The Board further recommends that City Council establish means to hold the City accountable for achieving its decarbonization goals, for instance, by appropriately forecasting staffing and budgetary needs. The Board recognizes that the City will most likely require supplemental funding to meet these goals; accordingly, the Board strongly encourages the City to explore all possible avenues of funding, ensuring that City staff has the capacity to pursue this funding.
Finally, the Board recommends that the City revisit and revise its municipal decarbonization plans in the next few years. The City may be able to advance more rapidly towards its decarbonization goals by taking advantage of new technologies and methodologies. In particular, if City Council decides not to achieve complete municipal decarbonization by 2030, then the Board recommends that the City make definite plans for achieving complete decarbonization at an appropriate time after 2030.
The City’s decarbonization efforts will set an example for not only the Louisville community, which is about to begin its own decarbonization planning, but also neighboring municipalities and communities. Given the necessity and urgency of decarbonization, the Board hopes that Louisville will become a shining example through its actions.
This Wednesday (16 August) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet at the Louisville Public Library. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board’s chair will present on how to fully electrify one’s home, and the Board will continue to discuss avenues for improving its community outreach and engagement. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
