Renewable Energy 101-Pasadena's green city action plan

October 31, 11:41 AMLA Renewable Energy ExaminerDiane Tegarden

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Pasadena City Hall

By Diane Tegarden

The City of Pasadena is committed to becoming a green city as per the 2006 United Nations Green Cities Declaration and Urban Environmental Accord. A green city is one that is willing to acknowledge their problems with urban growth, waste reduction, environmental health, water and air pollution, habitat loss, and energy generation/consumption.

As part of a comprehensive plan, Pasadena has already adopted: an environmental charter, a green city action plan, ordinance creating an environmental advisory commission, a green building program and the resolution in support of the Green Cities California program.

The Green City Action Plan was approved by the city council on September 18th, 2006 which included initiatives such as developing a green fleet of city vehicles, buying environmentally responsible goods from local vendors and using only environmentally friendly cleaning products to clean city buildings.

Check out the 2008 Green City Report to see how well Pasadena has been meeting the expectations of the Green City Action Plan.

Then in February 2008 the City Council made a commitment to take the following five actions as a member of the Green Cities California program:

• Purchase 100% post-consumer recycled paper for municipal operations
• Prohibit the purchase of bottled water for municipal operations and government sponsored events.
• Adopt a carbon offset plan for municipal employee air travel.
• Adopt municipal fuel efficiency standards.
• Purchase California food for municipal events and operations.

The ten other California cities that are currently participating in the Green Cities California program are Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and the County of Marin, which will impact approximately 8 million California residents.

To see how Pasadena stacks up against other U.S. cities as a generator of renewable energy, read the full report at the SustainLane Government website.
 

To read more about Pasadena's Green City, see: Where can I find LEED buildings in Pasadena?,

Where can I go to buy green building materials in Pasadena? and Pasadena's mini-fleet of EVs.