The West Chester BLUER committee is an all-volunteer ad-hoc committee formed by West Chester Borough Council. BLUER’s mission is to help our entire community—including our municipal and County government operations, residents, businesses, and nonprofits—reduce greenhouse gas pollution 10% over 2005 levels by the year 2015. Through community education, advocacy, facilitation, and leadership, BLUER seeks to make West Chester a model “energy-smart” community that practices energy conservation and waste reduction and relies substantially on cleaner, renewable energy sources for its remaining energy needs.
The West Chester BLUER committee is an all-volunteer ad-hoc committee appointed by West Chester Borough Council. BLUER’s mission is to help our entire community—including our municipal and County government operations, residents, businesses, university, and nonprofits—reduce greenhouse gas pollution 10% over 2005 levels by the year 2015. This will help us break the trend toward rising greenhouse emissions and put West Chester on a track toward further greenhouse gas reductions, and toward a more sustainable economic and environmental future.
West Chester’s Borough Council committed to participate in the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, sponsored by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) through adoption of Resolution #3 of 2002. The resolution signaled that West Chester Borough would take a leadership role in promoting public awareness about the causes and impacts of climate change.
BLUER is following the Five Milestones of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection for reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gas pollutants, which includes
1) calculate emissions,
2) set a reduction goal,
3) create a climate action plan,
4) implement policies and measures,
5) monitor progress.
Using ICLEI emissions inventory software, BLUER calculated that in 2005, West Chester Borough emitted over 220,000 tons of CO2 in the air (or the equivalent of 2.5 bags of charcoal per Borough resident per day). The GGE Inventory allowed BLUER to target action items, as well as outreach and education efforts, in order to prioritize which community actions can have the most effect in achieving the 10% reduction goal. The GGE Inventory showed that almost 50% of the emissions come from electricity. The Inventory also showed that 54% come from the Commercial/Inventory sector.
BLUER has taken the Inventory results and is preparing a West Chester Borough Climate Action Plan (anticipated Draft, February 2009). The Climate Action Plan is phased (Phase I, II, and III) in order to guide BLUERs efforts at achieving measurable and realistic success.
One early action item undertaken by BLUER was the passage of an Energy Star Ordinance. Under West Chester’s zoning ordinance (2007), new buildings proposed to be higher than 45 feet must be designed to earn the Energy Star label and, once built, operate to Energy Star standards. The West Chester Borough Council approved the Energy Star requirement in December 2007 on recommendation of the BLUER committee, and became the first municipality in the United States to require Energy Star compliance for new private construction.
A second early action item undertaken by BLUER was the creation of the Business Awards Program, to recognize businesses who are taking positive, tangible steps toward emissions reduction, energy efficiency, and waste reduction. The business sector, which includes commercial and industrial businesses, is the source of 54% of the total Borough’s emissions in 2005.
With 42% of the Borough emissions allocated to the residential sector, conservation is one of the most important steps to achieve significant residential emissions reduction. To impact this sector, BLUER has partnered with the Elm Street Manager to apply for funding a Borough based low-income energy weatherization program. It is anticipated that this program will debut in the summer 2009. The first step in the program is to perform an energy audit, and provide the homeowner/renter with a targeted list of energy efficiency upgrades. These upgrades will include both short-term actions and long-term actions, and will be presented in terms of dollars saved and emissions reduced. After the energy audit results are provided, the homeowner/renter will receive seed grant funding to implement the short term upgrades in partnership with BLUER members and Elm Street Manager.
Through BLUER’s implementation items listed above, as well as those actions yet to come, West Chester Borough has become a sustainable community for locally-based climate change initiatives. BLUER is helping to ensure that the Borough community is aware of its own contribution to the cause-and-effect relationship between human-generated CO2 pollution and global climate change. BLUER is working to educate and advocate so that all sectors of the community take real measures to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions through energy conservation, waste reduction, and conversion to cleaner, renewable energy sources.
The impact of BLUER goes beyond the 1.2 square mile municipality. BLUER has forged successful partnerships with business, industrial, residential, schools, and nonprofits, and has become a model municipality for the region; members are often requested speakers at local climate change meetings across southeastern Pennsylvania. Working with a volunteer student from Henderson, BLUER has a website that serves as a tremendous educational resource. On In addition to reading about BLUER’s organization and mission, the website includes detailed information on BLUER’s Inventory, Climate Action Plan, as well as Top 5 Steps to reduce emissions. The website includes links to local and national organizations, and a discussion of alternative energy and tax incentives.
BLUER realizes that a 10% reduction a short-term goal and the realistic goal of many respected experts is an 80% reduction by 2050 in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. If BLUER is achieves the 10% Goal, the curve will bend in a downward direction and West Chester will be on a path toward a sustainable future. This is one of the most important things we can do together for the health of our residential, business and industrial communities.
