CitiesGoGreen -September 2008 - (Page 3) From the Editor elcome. In May we published our demonstration issue and launched CitiesGoGreen.com. With this issue we begin monthly magazine publication, with additional content and your comments on the website. We focus on answering the question, “How can local governments become sustainable most quickly and effectively?” Subscriptions to the digital edition are free to anyone in government, and $20 to anyone else. Already we’re attracting a wide range of local government subscribers, from mayors and county executives to planners and many others, which is gratifying. Your readership makes CitiesGoGreen possible. We will celebrate accomplishments and achievements, look at new strategies and essential steps. We will profile leading communities and their elected officials and staff who are making a difference, as we do in this issue with Arlington County, Virginia. Also featured in this issue is an organization central to effective local government greenhouse gas reduction, known as ICLEI— Local Governments for Sustainability. ICLEI has been developing tools and expertise to assist local governments for more than a decade. It is becoming increasingly accepted that we have a global climate problem. We like the simplicity of what 350.org is doing to draw attention to the level of greenhouse gases we need to achieve climate stability. According to Dr. James Hansen, we’re in the danger zone if atmospheric CO2 is above 350 parts per million. We’re now at 387 ppm. This is a piece of information containing some urgency, as we attempt to show. The urgency lies not in some panicky, “sky is falling” sense of impending disaster. The urgency lies in the power of this figure as a significant point of reference, a threshold, and a goal. Having crossed it we are, whether we realize it or not, in a new frame of reference, literally a new world— one we probably don’t want to stay in. If enough of us decide to act, we can return to CO2 levels below 350, where the world, or at least its climate, was stable. That’s our number, the goal for a sustainable world. Widespread local action is essential to accomplish this aim, and we (or rather, you) can help facilitate that action in a major way this September 21st. As explained in the Open Letter to Mayors and County Executives from William Fay of the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition, that’s when building officials from local governments across the US will vote on a set of residential building code changes which will increase the energy efficiency of new homes by about 30 percent. This is a significant step forward and it’s important that as many building code officials as possible be there to vote “yes” on this proposal. Buildings are responsible for 48 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions and 75 percent of our electricity use. By 2030, 75 percent of our buildings will be new or renovated, so changing how we do buildings is a huge opportunity to cut GHG emissions, save energy and insulate ourselves from increasing energy costs. Green buildings are also a bargain if we look past first cost even a little bit. In this issue Stacey Hobart of the New Buildings Institute introduces a series on both the technology and the human side of high performance buildings, with examples. Kathleen O’Brien contributes her sage advice on the convergence of community design and building design, including the essential steps she has observed by which municipalities can encourage greener building. Finally, communities can’t do it all alone. Our Fast Forward column this month illuminates the essentials of good renewable energy policy, and how local governments can encourage the spread of renewable energy installations by interacting with their utilities and state governments. We at CitiesGoGreen feel there is a place for widely sharing information on how local governments are becoming increasingly sustainable. If you enjoy and find this issue useful I hope you’ll share it with your colleagues. If you’re reading the digital edition just choose Tools – Send in the upper left corner of the screen to send a link to an article or the whole magazine to someone who would appreciate it. Warmly, W Daimon Sweeney September 2008 .com 3 http://citiesgogreen.com http://350.org http://CitiesGoGreen.com
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