How is Asheville doing in terms of being a ‘Cool City’?

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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The video above shows Margie Meares of Mathis Consulting talking to a group about working with Asheville to sign the city up on the N.C. Sierra Club’s Cool Cities program. Meares presentation has me wondering — how is the city doing in terms of living up to its promises?

A couple of years ago, as Meares notes, the city agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over 40 years. That’s 2 percent a year. Is the city meeting that annual goal? Meares notes that the city has adopted some changes, such as buying cars that run on something other than gas. She says some city employees have moved to four-day work weeks to cut the energy expense associated with having city-owned buildings “turned on” all the time. She notes also that the city promised that all new city buildings would be LEED Gold certified.

So, how many city employees now work four-day work weeks? How much did the city pay this consultant? How is the city going to continue to meet the reduction goals once it picks all the “low-hanging fruit”?

Meares says the next step for Asheville is to make existing buildings much more energy efficient through certain modifications, such as in HVAC systems. She says the city is also looking at “performance contracts” that guarantee cost savings through energy savings.

Anybody have any other details on how the city of Asheville is doing in terms of its green promises?