|
|
|
After national leaders passed on a decade-old international climate treaty, some Glen Ellyn residents are taking the matter into their own hands.
A group of residents is urging the village to sign onto a nationwide pact to go green.
Since 2005, more than 500 towns and cities have signed the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, which is a commitment to environmental benchmarks set a decade ago. The towns that have signed on — dubbed “Cool Cities” by the Sierra Club — are pledging to reduce carbon emissions to 7 percent below the 1990 level by 2012.
While Glen Ellyn officials are exploring the idea, a formal commitment still is far off. Residents and village leaders are awaiting an environmental audit that will say what needs to done to become a Cool City.
But Glen Ellyn already is taking a step in the right direction, said Jeffrey Gahris, the resident who is leading the effort.
“Everybody says, ‘Yeah, I’m green,’” Gahris said. “But it’s really hard to put that into concrete action. It’s even harder for a village.”
The Cool Cities initiative began with Seattle’s mayor after national leaders did not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations climate agreement. Nine mayors initially made the pledge four years ago, and since then the number has grown. Elmhurst, Villa Park and Westmont have signed the agreement.
In Glen Ellyn, residents began exploring the pact years ago, but it was not until last month that the idea gained traction.
The Environmental Protection Agency provided an intern who since early September has been studying the village’s carbon footprint.
With help from village officials, she has documented a long list of factors — among them: the village’s vehicle fleet, waste output, emissions and the electricity used in streetlights.
The end result will be baseline number showing the village’s current carbon output. Software that looks at environmental trends will estimate Glen Ellyn’s pollution rate in 1990, said Adam Kreuzer, a member of Glen Ellyn’s Environmental Commission.
It won’t be until the study is finished that the village will be able to determine what a 7-percent reduction would be — or whether one is needed at all. Some towns that finished the audit found themselves already well below 1990 levels, Kreuzer said.
“We may find out that we are here, ‘x,’ and if we are here at ‘x,’ great. We can show ourselves as having conformed ourselves,” Kreuzer said.
After national leaders passed on a decade-old international climate treaty, some Glen Ellyn residents are taking the matter into their own hands.
A group of residents is urging the village to sign onto a nationwide pact to go green.
Since 2005, more than 500 towns and cities have signed the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, which is a commitment to environmental benchmarks set a decade ago. The towns that have signed on — dubbed “Cool Cities” by the Sierra Club — are pledging to reduce carbon emissions to 7 percent below the 1990 level by 2012.
While Glen Ellyn officials are exploring the idea, a formal commitment still is far off. Residents and village leaders are awaiting an environmental audit that will say what needs to done to become a Cool City.
But Glen Ellyn already is taking a step in the right direction, said Jeffrey Gahris, the resident who is leading the effort.
“Everybody says, ‘Yeah, I’m green,’” Gahris said. “But it’s really hard to put that into concrete action. It’s even harder for a village.”
The Cool Cities initiative began with Seattle’s mayor after national leaders did not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations climate agreement. Nine mayors initially made the pledge four years ago, and since then the number has grown. Elmhurst, Villa Park and Westmont have signed the agreement.
In Glen Ellyn, residents began exploring the pact years ago, but it was not until last month that the idea gained traction.
The Environmental Protection Agency provided an intern who since early September has been studying the village’s carbon footprint.
With help from village officials, she has documented a long list of factors — among them: the village’s vehicle fleet, waste output, emissions and the electricity used in streetlights.
The end result will be baseline number showing the village’s current carbon output. Software that looks at environmental trends will estimate Glen Ellyn’s pollution rate in 1990, said Adam Kreuzer, a member of Glen Ellyn’s Environmental Commission.
It won’t be until the study is finished that the village will be able to determine what a 7-percent reduction would be — or whether one is needed at all. Some towns that finished the audit found themselves already well below 1990 levels, Kreuzer said.
“We may find out that we are here, ‘x,’ and if we are here at ‘x,’ great. We can show ourselves as having conformed ourselves,” Kreuzer said.
The resident effort includes other established village organizations. The League of Women Voters is participating, as is the Citizens for Glen Ellyn Preservation, a group originally dedicated to protecting houses and buildings.
“Tree protection and protection of our green space — that’s a vital part of our character to our village,” said Linda Gilbert, president of the preservation group.
But the pact would be about more than just preservation, Gahris said.
As village leaders are poised to adopt a long-term strategy for the downtown, he said he hopes environmental standards will ensure future developments are sustainable.
“There are a lot of savings that go along with becoming green,” Kreuzer said. “That makes good business sense for the village, and I think that’s where the light bulb is turned on.”
