Reducing to zero the amount of fossil fuels that local buildings use by 2050 is an ambitious goal, one of the leaders of the La Plata County Climate & Energy Action Plan said Wednesday.
“Across the United States, one-half of all greenhouse gases come from buildings,” Heather Erb told a Green Business Roundtable lunch crowd. She knows of 200 green homes in La Plata County that exceed Energy Star or Green-Built specifications, “so I know it’s doable.”
Erb, whose day job is president of the Durango Area Association of Realtors, was vice chairwoman of the steering committee that kept development of the Climate & Energy Action Plan (the acronym CEAP is pronounced “keep”) on track for two years.
Josh Joswick, the energy-issues coordinator at the San Juan Citizens Alliance, and chairman of the steering committee, recapped what led to CEAP and the adoption of target reductions of greenhouse gases, commonly called GHG.
La Plata County and Durango in 2006 signed the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement established the year before by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.
The work on CEAP started in 2008. The town of Ignacio joined the effort in 2009. The action plan was released last fall.
The proposed plan, which would reduce overall GHG emissions in La Plata County to 80 percent of 2005 levels – 6.91 million metric tons – by 2050 contains 51 proposals.
The implementation of these proposals – which could lead to green-building codes, water conservation ordinances and automobile emissions testing – requires political will, Joswick said.
“It is up to you to determine whether these are valid premises and a valid objective, something for our community to be involved in, to be proactive in,” Joswick told the estimated 70 people gathered for the monthly roundtable.
“Our local governments decided to enter into this agreement because of the realization that our activities have an impact on the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and because they foresaw that inaction and not being prepared could be costly to our community.
“There may be opinions voiced that this entire exercise is nonsense and the result should be scrapped,” Joswick said. “I hope you agree with me that it should not be scrapped and that our elected officials need to complete their part of the agreement and implement proposed policies, monitor them and verify results.”
Erb led the committee that focused on reducing GHG in residential, commercial and industrial buildings.
“Our committee had representatives from many fields, such as architecture, business and energy auditing,” Erb said. “We wanted experts, but if they couldn’t make the meetings we used them as sources of information.”
Erb said green building codes and energy audits or retrofitting of homes before sale are the most efficient ways to cut GHG.
Erb said Santa Fe is a model for energy-efficient building that her committee studied. Santa Fe has instituted requirements similar to what La Plata County is considering.
The goal of reaching zero use of fossil fuels by 2050 would apply to all new construction and major renovations, Erb said. The goal for existing buildings is to reach a 70 percent reduction in GHG by 2050.
Goals would be reached through a combination of incentives and penalties, Erb said.
“What’s so cool is that the plan is totally of our community,” Erb said. “We’re not setting precedent because these plans are being used all over the world. We just need to find what works in La Plata County.”
