NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville Mayor John Cooper heard recommendations from his 49-member sustainability advisory committee to discuss ways to achieve cleaner neighborhoods and to cut down on carbon emissions.
The city is working towards reducing its local carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.
Community emissions totaled roughly 11.4 million metric tons, with nearly half coming from transportation and the other half from energy use in commercial, residential, and industrial buildings.
In 2019, Mayor John Cooper joined 474 other U.S. mayors in the Global Covenant of Mayors Agreement for climate leadership.
“We are pleased to present these recommendations that provide a roadmap, as well as a range of options, that will enable Nashville to reduce its contributions to climate change,” said Linda Breggin, who co-chairs the mayor’s sustainability committee. “The menu of actions provided in the report could allow Nashville to not only reduce the negative impacts of climate change but also provide numerous other benefits, such as fostering economic development and improved health.”
One way to do reduce carbon emissions the group says is upgrading codes for greater energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings.
These upgrades could reduce energy use in newly constructed homes by up to 30 percent.
"Nashville homeowners are now poised to save a net lifetime utility savings of about 8,000 dollars because of the way mayor john cooper and the metro council worked to modernized building codes," said interim press secretary Andrea Fanta, "before these upgrades Nashville was relying on building codes more than a decade old."
The committee also talked about renewable solar energy. More than a third of the metro government's operations will be sourced with clean power.
"It's really important to mayor cooper that everyone in every neighborhood of our city has cleaner more breathable air," Fanta said.
To learn more about the recommendations and report, click here.
