How Should Decatur Focus On Our Carbon Footprint?
The mission of All In for Decatur 100 is to help lower our city’s carbon footprint through clean energy and acting on climate injustice. This means reducing the amount of energy we use, replacing it with clean energy, and making sure that those most affected by climate are included in a just transition.
There are three questions we must answer to help focus our efforts. The first is, “What are the major economic sectors contributing to our city’s carbon footprint?” The second is, “Whch segments of our city do emissions come from?” The third is who is most affected by climate?
A simple graph from the Environmental Protection Agency helps answer the first question. There are three major sectors that account for at least two-thirds (67%) of our carbon emissions: Electricity generation, Transportation, and Commercial & Residential. The percentage of these for Decatur may be slightly higher since we don’t have a lot of agriculture or medium to heavy industry.
As a result, All In for Decatur 100 has four initiatives:
- Move our electricity to clean energy
- Improve our energy efficiency and
- Transition our transportation to electric
There’s one more, but let’s defer it for a moment.
The second question is where does this carbon come from? What segments of our city are generating carbon? There are at least four areas” Municipal (city owned buildings), Commercial, Residential and the Other.
Our City of Decatur is actively pursuing a clean energy plan. We’ve allocated budgets, hired consultants and work is beginning. One segment of the plan will help us generate an equity map of those whose energy burden is higher than the average for our city. The numbers above are estimates based on other cities and will be refined as the study is complete.
But here is the overall point to our second question. Municipal buildings, efficiency and transportation account for a very small percentage of our overall city carbon footprint. The two other sectors, Residential and Commercial account for the biggest shares.
This is where the City comes in. The City reflects the will of the residents. It has the ability to set just policies for Residential and Commercial. For example, just look at all the new construction in Decatur. Do you see any solar rooftops on commercial or multi-family residential buildings yet? Or EV charging stations? Do we have programs to help insulate and weatherize the homes of economically disadvantaged? There are dozens of smart policies Decatur can implement for Commercial and Residential, and we can be a leader in Georgia.
Finally, we must lead individually within our own homes and families. The average household in our Decatur Zip codes generates 40 tons of carbon per year! Imagine if that were manure? The typical carbon sources for residential look like this.
We all can help make a contribution. And All In for Decatur 100 is launching a new initiative called the Decatur Cares for Climate Challenge.
Join us in this effort and each month you’ll receive a "Learn, Act, and Advocate" tip for reducing your carbon footprint, saving money and joining your neighbors to help assure a clean, healthy future for all of us. In an age when state and federal governments are slow, it's time for communities and individuals to step up.
To learn more about this initiative visit the Take The Challenge link below.
Thanks for taking action and helping make Decatur a great place to live and a leader for the future.