Greening Austin Daily

City Efforts to have Carbon Neutrality by 2020 Slowed

23rd September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Austin Chronicle has a few articles  this week about updates on the Austin Climate Protection Program. The article notes that the Director of ACPP, Ester Matthews, had hoped to accomplish more this year toward reaching the 2020 goal, but the department lost some employees and also didn’t have as big of a response to its new carbon footprint calculator as expected.  However, the article notes the following accomplishments for the 2009-2010 year:

• Municipal Plan: About 23% of city energy use now comes from renewable sources, primarily through Austin Energy’s GreenChoice program.
• Utility Plan: Pending AE generation plan puts city on track to reach 30-35% renewable energy by 2020.
• Homes and Buildings Plan: The city adopted stricter efficiency building codes for new construction
• Community Plan: Community outreach began; plans for summit in spring 2011 are in progress.
• “Go Neutral” Plan: The city introduced the carbon footprint calculator

Check out the Austin Chronicle for more details