Environment
Mayor's Conference President Says 2030 Challenge Is Realizable
(archrecord.construction.com - 07/25/2006)
By Alex
Ulam
In May the U.S. Conference of Mayors
unanimously adopted the 2030 Challenge, one of most ambitious
programs involving curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the
building sector [RECORD, July 2006, page 158]. The resolution
calls for an immediate 50-percent reduction in fossil fuel
energy consumption in new and renovated buildings, and it
seeks to eliminate fossil fuels from new construction by the
year 2030. In other words, within 25 years, cities that manage
to meet the 2030 Challenge will not use oil, natural gas,
or coal in the heating, cooling, lighting, or construction
of new buildings.
The president of the U. S. Mayor’s
Conference, Dearborn, Michigan, Mayor Michael Guido, says
soaring energy prices and global warming research impelled
the mayors to adopt the 2030 Challenge. “If we don’t
meet the greenhouse gas reduction targets that the scientific
community has put forward in order for the world to avoid
dangerous climate change—[then] there will be catastrophic
climate change.”
The country’s mayors have powerful
tools at their disposal through which they can change the
nation’s energy policy, Guido adds. “Cities build
buildings—whether there is the local schoolhouse or the
courthouse or the local fire station. We are consumers of
building materials so we can have an influence,” he says.
“And with zoning and building codes and other tools we
can have an additional influence on the general public’s
concept of what constitutes a good building.”
Guido says that Chicago, San Francisco,
Salt Lake City, and Seattle have already taken significant
steps towards mandating a greener built environment. But for
the most part, the mayors are just getting started on tackling
climate change, “We are going to take up the 2030 Challenge
in October at our energy summit in Atlanta, which is where
our resolutions come to life, and from there we are going
to take the show on the road.”
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