Seven years ago, Arlington County decided to go green and hasn’t looked back.
Since the county’s push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, environmental services officials say that Arlington has saved about $800,000 per year on energy and water from energy efficiency upgrades.
“Energy is something that we often take for granted,” said John Morrill the county’s Department of Environmental Services energy manager. “But when there’s a power outage or when it’s very, very cold outside, all of a sudden that energy we use and need is vital.”
Local county governments across the Washington, D.C. metro area have also come to together to implement plans to address climate change. And according to The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, 74 percent of the D.C. metro region’s population lives in jurisdictions that promote energy efficiency and renewable energy incentives.
Arlington County is one of the few jurisdictions that have been able to meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from county government operations alone. In 2007, the Arlington County board set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2012 and has since met and exceeded this goal with a reduction of over 11 percent.
Read the full story. (Connection Newspapers)
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