NEWS
Mayor Announces Sustainable Sumter Initiative
Sumter SC
Mayor Joseph McElveen today announced plans for the Sustainable Sumter Initiative, a long-term strategy focused on community-wide energy conservation, reduced carbon emissions, climate change remediation, and smarter, “greener” development.
Mayor McElveen noted that “ ‘Sustainability’ means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It can also mean savings on many items which are destroying government budgets everywhere.
The announcement comes as the Sumter Community celebrates Earth Day 2008, a worldwide call to action on the environmental issues facing us in the 21st century.
Highlights of the Sustainable Sumter Initiative include the creation of the Mayor's Advisory Council on Sustainability; the development of a Sustainability Action Plan for all of the City of Sumter's operations; and a performance energy audit of all municipal energy use.
The Initiative will help to jump start a community-wide discussion on energy use and global climate change.
Under Mayor McElveen's leadership, the City of Sumter has been a leader in municipal climate change initiatives. Among other things, Mayor McElveen signed the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement and has led efforts to become involved in ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, an international organization of local governments. The Sumter City Council has endorsed the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement by resolution and has committed to reduce the City's carbon emissions by 2012.
From the Mayor
In 1970 a grassroots event took place in the name of protecting our rivers, our lakes, and our air. Someone called it Earth Day and the name stuck. Remarkably, that was thirty-eight years ago.
Now Earth Day 2008 is upon us, and the energy and climate issues facing our community are more complex and more controversial than ever before. We cannot leave these issues for our children and grandchildren to solve. So, as a starting point, I signed the U.S. Mayors' Climate
Protection Agreement several years ago, pledging to work for reduction of the City's carbon emissions through energy conservation, vehicle fleet management, and old-fashioned common sense.
As Sumter celebrates Earth Day on April 22, 2008, we have an excellent opportunity for Sumter to take meaningful steps toward living in a truly sustainable community. This just means that we will meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs. I am therefore announcing the Sustainable Sumter Initiative, a community-wide strategy designed to lower carbon emissions, reduce energy usage, and generate cost savings for the City and citizens. There are countless steps the City can take to achieve these things, but
let's start with three simple action steps:
1. Creation of a Mayor's Advisory Council on Sustainability. This Council will consist of a group of citizens representing industry, business, government, Shaw Air Force Base, and the environment which will lead the community discussion.
2. Perform a Citywide Energy Audit. The City will develop an energy baseline before it finalizes energy reduction steps. This audit will review City energy use, electric, gas, water, and solid waste/recycling.
3. Plan and Host a Sustainable Sumter Summit. This event would bring together the community to discuss the basics of energy conservation, "green" building and practice, and opportunities for carbon emission reduction.
We are at a crossroads globally, nationally, and locally. This is not a question of whether we believe a majority of the scientific community when they say the climate is changing and human activity has a significant impact on that change. This is not a partisan political issue. Instead, reducing our collective carbon footprint, conserving energy, and building "greener" is just the right thing to do. It is good for the environment. That is certain. But more directly, we can reduce the costs of government. Businesses and households; increase the profitability of our industry and commerce; and improve the quality of our community by taking simple, common-sense steps to lowering our energy costs and reducing wasteful practices.
Earth Day 2008 is our opening day; but it's just the beginning. Let's all start by changing some old light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescents (CFLs) or calling the Public Works Department for a residential recycling bin. Green is Good, and Green means "Green." Let that be our motto until we meet our goals. And while we're at it, we'll save some money!
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