One City at a Time

A program of Sierra Club, Cool Cities is making a splash after the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which convened in October 2007 in Seattle complete with a commitment from Bill Clinton’s foundation to help retrofit cities to be more energy efficient. Begun in 2005, the Cool Cities campaign empowers city residents and local leaders to join and encourage their cities to implement smart energy solutions to save money and build a cleaner, safer future. Cool Cities brings solutions to local levels and showcases solutions for others to model and builds leadership to ensure solutions are implemented at state levels and nation-wide. Hybrid cars, energy efficient buildings, and renewable energy are just a few of the many ways to make this real. For example, Evanston, IL passed a resolution for 20% renewable energy - 5.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity - enough to power more than 500 U.S. homes annually by adding wind farms to their electrical grid. Warwick, RI has replaced all 113 traffic lights and 59 crosswalk signals with LED lights resulting in a 1200 ton reduction in carbon emissions. The city estimates that it will recoup its costs in about two years and save tens of thousands of dollars every year after that. So far there are 766

http://coolcities.us/.