Mayor John Hickenlooper today formally adopted Denver’s Climate Action Plan, a series of steps intended to reduce the city’s per capita greenhouse emissions 10 percent by 2012.
The plan is the result of more than a year’s work by a 33-member Greenprint Advisory Council, which studied best practices from across the country to determine the top 10 opportunities to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“With adoption of the Climate Action Plan, our real work as a community begins,” Hickenlooper said. “If there is only a 3 percent chance that 95 percent of the world’s top scientists are right about the consequences of climate change, we all have a responsibility to act now. Denver remains committed to leading by example.”
Included among the 10 recommendations are:
The mayor also signed Executive Order 123, which contains Denver’s first municipal “green” building policy.
The green building policy requires all city facilities to be constructed and maintained according to sustainable principles.
Hickenlooper, to underscore the commitment, unveiled a plaque commemorating certification of the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building under the “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings” (LEED-EB) gold standard.
LEED-EB is a high-performance building rating system developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council that provides guidance on operations and maintenance for existing buildings.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
