3/14/08- as seen in solares hill

How Green is Our Town

BY Mark Howell

At the commission meeting on March 4, the City of Key West resolved to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by the year 2015.

In presenting the resolution to the commissioners, the city’s eco-consultant, Jodi Smith Williams, gave an overview of Key West’s carbon footprint in the form of an inventory report on the island’s emissions. This report provides the beginnings of an answer to how green is Key West.

For example:

• A change of light bulbs in city streetlights has helped to reduce carbondioxide emissions by 62 tons a year (and saved $29,172 in Keys Energy Services bills).
  
• A change to light-emitting diodes in traffic lights has helped to reduce carbondioxide emissions by 55 tons a year (and saved $7,744 in Keys Energy Services bills).
  
• A recycling increase in the Lower Keys has helped to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 31 tons in four months (and saved $8,231 in disposal and hauling fees).
  
• A conversion to biodiesel fuel for city fleet vehicles will reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 338 tons per year.

Organizations behind the inventory report include a trifecta of acronyms: The nonprofit Green Living and Energy Education (GLEE), founded locally in 2003; the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI); and its governments-for-sustainability division, Cities for Climate Protection (CCP).

Overall purpose of the report, said Jodi Williams, was to address “climate change and Key West — where are we and where are we going?” Her presentation began with some basic science: Part of the Sun’s radiation is reflected by the Earth and the atmosphere, but about half is absorbed by the Earth’s surface and warms it. Infrared radiation is emitted from the Earth’s surface, some of it passing through the atmosphere but most of it absorbed and re-emitted in all directions by clouds and molecules of greenhouse gas. The effect is to warm the Earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere.

As a result of this process, the Earth is now the warmest it has been in the past 400 years. Eleven of the past 12 years have been the hottest on record since 1850.

Scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the burning of fossil fuel and other human activity in industry, farming and deforestation.

The primary greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. This is now concentrated in our atmosphere as much as 383 parts per million, a big peak above history’s previous peaks of 320 parts per million 350,000 years ago and 150,000 years ago, both eras of volcanic activity. (Just 50,000 years ago, the concentration was a mere 150 parts per million.)

The maximum carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere before the very direst changes to human life would occur are 450 parts per million, which at the present rate of increase will be reached in 42 years time. Hence the call for action. Our little town of Key West has already urged the Bush administration in Washington to sign the Kyoto Protocol (Resolution 160 of May 2007, calling for “immediate local action to develop a sustainability plan”) and has committed the city to the Cities for Climate Protection campaign (Resolution 273 of August 2007).

If we behave ourselves and follow the right protocols, say local experts, Key West could control the tonnage of its greenhouse gas emissions that are a result of its business and residential energy usage, stabilizing at an estimated 416,826 tons in 2015 compared to 399,593 tons in 2005. The municipal side of the community could stabilize its emissions during the same period at 17,596 tons a year.

The biggest creator of greenhouse gas emissions in the community sector is electricity, at 62 percent of the total. The community’s use of gasoline is the next highest, at 23 percent. Mount Trashmore contributes 2.2 percent to the community total, from its methane emissions.

Among municipal buildings and facilities, the police department has the highest energy use, resulting in 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted in 2007. Energy use by City Hall on Angela Street resulted in an emission of 300 tons in 2007. (That’s a 50-ton reduction from 2005 in both cases).

A five-point milestone process has been devised by Cities for Climate Protection aimed at continuing the good results. First milestone, an emissions inventory report, is now in hand. Also in hand is milestone two, setting targets and goals. (For both community and municipal emissions, the target is a reduction in carbon dioxide of 15 percent by 2015, aligning with an ultimate goal of 80 percent reduction by 2050 currently recommended by climate scientists).

Milestone three is the next step, establishing a local action plan. In Key West that means a climate action plan to be conducted by two teams, one representing the municipal sector, the other the community. The “city associates green team” will move to reduce vehicle fuel use by an increase in carpooling and public transportation, also an increase in the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel, an increase in recycling and a reduction in electricity utilized by facilities and streetlights.

The “climate action team” will look at initiatives such as installing a solar array on Mount Trashmore, plus increased pedestrian and bicycle incentives, increased public transportation and the conversion of vehicles to alternative fuels, also increased tree plantings, composting and more.

Milestone four is to implement the climate action plan. Milestone five is to monitor and evaluate its progress.

It was Mayor Morgan McPherson who placed the resolution on the March 4 city commission agenda to reduce Key West’s greenhouse gas emissions, which passed unanimously. It is Annalise Mannix, the city’s environmental programs manager working for the office of the city manager, who is taking the lead in its implementation. Of GLEE, which has pulled together the green program from the outset, McPherson said, “They’re a good partner and this is an improvement for the city.”

GLEE was started by a group of interested residents with the involvement of Monroe County Extension Service, the Florida Keys Electric Cooperative, Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, South Florida Water Management District and the Nature Conservancy, a group that grew to include the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, First State Bank and other local businesses.

These concerns came together to put on a Green Living & Energy Expo in 2005, then in 2007. (The next Expo will be held May 9-11 at Marathon High School.)

Companion to all this activity has been Chris Belland’s Love Your Island campaign, the mayor’s Coalition for a Green Key West and the Clean and Green Task Force.

A vital baseline for GLEE, say its organizers, is a comprehensive cultural shift, “an understanding of and support for the ethics behind these objectives from individuals, businesses and policy makers.” Key West “already has an out-of-thebox reputation. Why not put ourselves on the map as the city of Southernmost Sustainability?”

At last Wednesday’s Utility Board meeting in Key West, at the request of Green Key West, the board changed its policy about the price at which Keys Energy Services would buy back solar energy that the customer produces.

Now, if a customer is selling to rather than buying from Keys Energy Services, that customer’s electric meter will be traveling in the other direction. And that makes going solar more affordable for the customer.