The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, is continuing to rise in the rankings of the total population in the US. Being one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation in terms of population as well as its reputation of being the second-largest banking city in the country, Charlotte is becoming more and more popular by the year. However, with this popularity comes environmental side effects such as emissions and waste. The average two-person household in Charlotte produces an average of 61.7 tons of CO2 a year, which is over 3 tons above the national average. Due to the city’s modern initiative, it has made strides in order to become a cleaner city.
In December of 2018, Charlotte’s city council adopted and signed the Strategic Energy Action Plan. The SHEEP’s intended purpose is to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the foreseeable future. Their main goal is stated as “to become a low carbon city by 2050 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to below 2 tons of CO2 equivalent per person annually.” By 2030, Charlotte is striving to have 100% carbon-free sources fuel its fleet and facilities. In terms of transportation, last year the city made significant environmental strives. For example, they purchased new electric vehicles to serve in transportation around the city and airport, created and made improved decisions about vehicle life-cycle costs, and installed over 630 automatic vehicle locators across city department vehicles. An employee of the office sustainability stated, “Integrating electric cars into our fleet saves us time in fuel and maintenance and promotes a cleaner, healthier city.” When making strides to transform the governmental facilities, Charlotte attempted to reduce the production of greenhouse among as many buildings as they could within the budget. They revised the city’s former policy for Sustainable Facilities, increased the energy audits in order to prioritize energy efficiency retrofits, and constructed multiple new police and fire stations that rely on solar energy. The multiple energy-efficient changes that Charlotte has made just in the first year with their involvement in the Strategic Energy Action Plan makes the future seem bright.
To add to Charlotte’s attempt to make its city greener, the office of sustainability organized a program called Freshlist. Fresh list is a pilot program that was constructed to bring natural, locally-sourced fresh produce to its markets and grocery stores in order to make them more accessible for city employees. As described in Charlotte’s one year record, “Freshlist is a small, Charlotte business that works with over 21 local, family farms and food artisans.” It aims to provide steady cash flow for farms that are implementing sustainable practices into their agriculture.
The city of Charlotte plans to continue its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future. In 2020, the city plans to implement a number of energy-efficient changes from analyzing and installing solar energy sources to power government buildings to advancing the installation of Automatic Vehicle Locators across the city’s entire vehicle fleet. For one of the bigger cities in the eastern part of the United States, I think that Charlotte looks towards a hopeful green future.
I found researching my city’s emissions and the strides that it is taking to reduce them very interesting. At first I had trouble finding information concerning the specific ways that Charlotte is doing to reduce greenhouse gases, however I hit gold when I simply looked at the government site. It was right in front of me the whole time. I attempted calling Charlotte’s office of sustainability; however, I was cut short when I was put on a never ended hold. Other than the implementation of the electric scooters that scattered across downtown, I didn’t know that the city was doing so much to go green. It surprised me that they set such high goals for the future; however, I believe this will end up benefits the city and the planet in the long run.
Billy's Blog 