The Mayor and I hosted a small press conference yesterday to announce a new energy initiative for the City that we are calling the 20-40-15 plan. The objective of the plan is to increase the overall efficiency of the City government’s use of electricity, fuel and other energy resources. The plan calls for increased energy efficiency in City-owned facilities by 20 percent; increased fuel efficiency in the City’s fleet of vehicles by 40 percent; and accomplishing these goals by the year 2015. Get it? 20-40-15.
The City will measure its success for meeting the goals against benchmark information from 2005. Each year we’ll measure our energy consumption and report the progress toward meeting the goals to the City’s citizen advisory Conservation Commission and then also to the City Council.
We’re already well on the way toward meeting our goals under the 20-40-15 plan. Some of the actions the City has already taken include replacing standard stop lights with light-emitting diode (LED) stop lights that use 90-percent less energy. In the Police Department, traffic officers have improved fuel efficiency by reducing the amount of time their vehicles idle. Repairs to City buildings have helped reduce the amount of heated and cooled air that escapes to the outside.
The 20-40-15 plan is not the kind of plan where the boss figures the whole thing out and then announces The Big Plan to the employees to go implement. The 20-40-15 is something that we (staff, Council, advisory commission members, and citizens) are going to figure out together. It’s a plan under construction. We have established the goals. Now we’ll establish the path to get to the goals together.
Look for more information on the 20-40-15 plan soon.
