In front of a large group of high school students and numerous citizens, City Council members last Monday unanimously approved a resolution directing city staff to reduce the amount of energy used in city operations and its vehicle fleet to affect the global climate crisis. The resolution also asks city staff to increase education about energy conservation.

City staff, primarily department heads, will look for ways to reduce the city’s impact on global climate change and global warming. Some measures may include promoting bicycling and walking by building new pathways, converting the city fleet to hybrid or biofuel vehicles, increasing recycling and maintaining healthy urban forests throughout the Island.

According to deputy city manager Londi Lindell, some departments have already began implementing new methods, some of which will be very simple and save operating costs. One example is installing motion sensors on light switches in city buildings to save electricity.

“Pete [Mayer] came up with some [IT staff] to have a central system to turn off all their computers at night and for the weekend,” Lindell said. “To my surprise, it actually saved more energy than I thought it would. It looks like we’ll save about $8,000 a year by doing this.”

While the council did not direct staff to purchase any new hybrid or electric vehicles, the resolution will require the city to cut back its carbon emissions by purchasing fuel efficient vehicles in the future. The city recently made a step toward that goal by buying a Ford Focus that gets about 25 miles per gallon, to replace a Ford Ranger that got about 12 mpg. Other vehicles purchased in the future may be hybrids, electric powered or use cleaner fuels. Councilmember Mike Grady said the city could potentially install a biodiesel pumping station on the Island to fuel both city and private vehicles, generating revenue for the city.

The declaration signed by the mayor is a part of a new city focus on promoting sustainability in accordance with the International Mayors’ Council’s push to get local governments to join the Kyoto Protocol. But it stopped short of doing just that.

“I’ve tried to read the Kyoto Protocol,” Councilmember Steve Litzow said, “and much of it is confusing. I think what we have here accomplishes what we want and it doesn’t matter where we start but that we start and continue moving. These are issues that will be facing our society for the next 50 years, until we die.”

While the resolution is not the complete Kyoto, it is consistent with the protocol and offers realistic measures the city government can achieve. As part of the resolution, the city set a goal to reduce the amount of its carbon emissions, or “carbon footprint,” by 80 percent by the year 2050. That goal may be modified in the future, depending on what the city’s carbon footprint looks like once established. The carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

Lindell said the city will get help determining its current carbon footprint from an organization called Local Governments for Sustainability, or ICLEI. The group is an international association of local governments, national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable communities. More than 550 cities, towns, counties and associations belong worldwide, according to city documents.

ICLEI membership supplies software to gauge a carbon footprint; since membership is based on population size, it will cost the city about $600 per year.

Mayor Bryan Cairns also added that staff should consider locations to install solar heating panels to reduce city electricity use. The measure formally states the city will preserve its open spaces, promote energy and water saving measures and use clean fuels when possible.

“We can use our limited resources in the most sustainable way possible,” Councilmember Mike Grady said. “The big thing is to get this information out to the public. We want to work with the School Board to get someone, who would be like a D.A.R.E. officer, to go to the schools and inundate the kids to use less energy and less water.”