Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo says the city is working towards cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This includes things like retrofitting government-owned buildings to be more energy efficient and installing LED lighting.
Back in 2009 – the city adopted a resolution in support of the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The city has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 58% by 2050.
Mayor Bill Saffo:
"One of the concerns that we have when we sign any kind of agreement or any kind of pledge like that is – we want to make sure that we have some sort of a goal, some sort of a process in place to start enacting things that will help us in the reduction of those greenhouse emissions."
Saffo says one thing that might help is a software program called Clear Path, purchased by the city this year that tracks greenhouse gas emissions annually. The next goal the city hopes to achieve is in 2020 – reducing emissions by 17%.
In the state, there are cities and counties who have pledged a 100% renewable future by 2050. Saffo acknowledges this will be difficult:
"I don’t know if we can achieve 100%; it would be nice to be able to achieve 100%, but I think we need to take a look at that model to see what it would take to get to 100%."
Among his other environmental goals: planting more trees, eliminating plastic bags in the city’s recycling system, and increasing the number of bike trails.