Green ACES, the City of Greenbelt Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability matters, briefed the Greenbelt City Council on February 7 on its latest recommendations to help steer Greenbelt toward a future more reliant on renewable energy and with lowered carbon emissions. Council was eager to begin implementing and incorporating these ideas as soon as possible, with some potentially being voted on at the second council meeting on February 28. Green ACES was represented by Chair John Lippert, Staff Liaison Luisa Robles and members Lore Rosenthal and Steve Skolnik.
The meeting began with recommendations concerning greenhouse gas reductions, with the ultimate goal of achieving 100 percent carbon neutrality by 2050. An interim goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent of levels set in 2005 was set as a closer benchmark, with the suggestion made for the city to hire a consultant who would provide the best strategy.
At present, the city’s electricity usage is completely derived from wind, thus achieving one of Green ACE’s goals. The challenge now is to transition from the use of fuels and natural gas to renewables. It was stressed several times that these goals do not deal with reducing the use of electricity, but rather the emissions that are the result of its production, such as from coal plants. Lippert said that a nearby solar farm is approaching completion and would be, if not a complete replacement of non-renewable energy, a huge step in the right direction.
Skolnik stressed that some of these ambitious goals, while important to set, are realistically not completely achievable. As an example, he said that converting the Community Center from its existing use of natural gas to only electricity would be a huge and very expensive project.
A chart was presented that showed the city’s CO2 emissions from 2019. The city’s fleet of vehicles capped the list at 60 percent, followed by the Aquatic & Fitness Center at 15 percent, the Community Center at 14 percent, Public Works at 4 percent and the Youth Center at 3 percent.
Increasing the city’s use of electric vehicles and charging station infrastructure was another major recommendation. Robles indicated that the Public Works Department is committed to this and is purchasing electric equipment if feasible, as the existing technology is not conducive to certain tools, such as large lawn mowers or heavy cutting saws.
The future of the city’s composting process was a major point of discussion. In addition to the Backyard Composting organization and community composting at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center, Aquatic Center, the New Deal Café and the Greenbelt Co-op, the city has a contract with Compost Crew, whose collection site is Buddy Attick Park. Food scraps from this site are hauled to the county’s Western Branch facility near Upper Marlboro.
Green ACES is recommending that the city consider entering into an agreement with the Four Cities Coalition “to explore possibilities for establishing a collaborative composting facility serving, and in close proximity to, member jurisdictions,” including nearby communities like University Park and New Carrollton.
A strong contender that was debated for such a move would be making Trinity Assembly of God church, off Good Luck Road, a drop-off and processing site, using Compost Crew and its Compost Outpost system that would have collection bins and also create the actual compost. Trinity has just signed an agreement with Compost Crew to do just that. Both council and Green ACES were keen on looking into having the city be part of this. Mayor Emmett Jordan said it would be “closing the loop” by keeping it all within city limits.
The goal is to have more drop-off sites throughout the city, thus increasing the number of households involved.
Jordan said that any resolution put forward to the Four Cities Coalition should be “focused on a clear outcome” for any meaningful results.
Jordan pledged to sign on again to the ongoing Monarch Joint Venture (monarchjointventure.org), a nonprofit organization committed to the conservation of the monarch butterfly and related pollinators. Robles said that Sustainable MD is involved, with a large local consensus focused on creating a pollinator corridor in the area.
Acting City Manager Timothy George said that a letter was sent to Governor Larry Hogan expressing the city’s support of the Transportation and Climate Initiative.
Green ACES asked the city to send a letter to the county council requesting the adoption and implementing of the Prince George’s County Climate Action Plan. The council hoped that a draft with additional comments from Green ACES can be provided as soon as possible, because, as Jordan said, “time is of the essence,” with action to be taken on Thursday, February 17.