Northern New Mexico Group of the Sierra Club
Environmental protection, conservation and hiking in Santa Fe area

Cool Cities Campaign

February, 2009

David Van Winkle, Cool Cities Committee Chair

The Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Campaign works with cities that have joined the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement to accelerate their implementation of effective programs.

To date, 902 mayors nationwide have signed the agreement. In New Mexico, seven cities are participating in the program: Alamagordo, Albuquerque, Capitan, Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Santa Fe, and Taos. Under the agreement, participating cities commit to take the following three actions:

• Strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities, through actions ranging from anti-sprawl land-use policies to urban forest restoration projects to public information campaigns
• Urge their state governments and the federal government to enact policies and programs to meet or beat the greenhouse-gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol – 7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012
• Urge the U.S. Congress to pass bipartisan greenhouse-gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system

Currently, the Santa Fe Cool Cities Campaign includes the following activities.

1. The City of Santa Fe will adopt a new leadership performance-based residential building code in early 2009. Brendan Miller is leading this activity, which can reduce energy consumption of new construction by 50% compared to existing homes.
2. We are working with the City to implement clean energy alternatives and energy efficiency measures. The City has a full-time energy specialist who is leading this effort. The program includes energy audits of municipal buildings, as well as proposals for large solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on-site for the water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities totaling 10 million kilowatt-hours per year (5M kWh/year). Also, the city council recently adopted a resolution to use clean renewable energy for the long-range water plan, which includes the large increase in power required to support the Buckman Direct Diversion project.
3. The public needs education about climate change, its causes, and potential solutions. Teresa Seamster is leading our effort to communicate these issues to schools. In conjunction with Teresa’s work, we have distributed 15,000 compact fluorescent lights (CFL) in 2008 and plan to offer another 20,000 CFLs in 2009 (all provided by PNM). This program will continue in and expand to the schools and other venues.
4. Cool Biz, led by Mark Walztoni, is a program that targets local businesses with the goal of educating them about and involving them in campaign objectives. This program highlights energy audits for businesses.
5. The city council recently adopted the Sustainable Santa Fe Plan. This plan includes green building, development and zoning, clean alternative energy, transportation, water conservation, solid waste reduction, food systems, and education/outreach. Our campaign will provide significant leadership to the implementation of this plan.

Resources for Businesses

Businesses can provide significan leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emission and finding the associated competitive advantages and cost savings. Major business leaders, such as General Electric and DuPont have made strong committments to clean energy and emissions reductions.

There are no cost, low cost, and long-term investment solutions for every business. Go to the CoolBiz Santa Fe website for in-depth guidance on how to reduce carbon emissions and protect Santa Fe’s natural and business climate.

Sign Up for CoolBiz Santa Fe Now!

Because businesses vary significantly across the sector, so will the straegies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The following is a sampling of available resources: