These days everyone is talking about the current environment problems and how to solve them. Everyone is advised to behave in an earth friendly way. Actually you can find a “Combating Global Warming Mind Map” which outlines approaches to solving Global Warming. The focus is on doing something.

But what if we go a little further and consider cities and their way to be sustainable, earth friendly and energy-efficient. Being energy efficient means using less energy through better technology to power buildings, light streets, and industry. One of the most cost-effective and fastest ways to save energy and reduce global warming pollution is reducing energy use.

By putting policies in place to promote efficient technologies and integrating those into planning decisions every city can make substantial energy efficiency improvements. The following represents some of the most effective steps currently taken on a city and local level:

• Making new buildings more energy efficient
  Incorporating energy efficiency requirements into municipal building codes increases the overall energy efficiency of new city buildings. Standards, that many cities have chosen to adopt, are provided by the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). These standards, created by the United States Green Building Council, provide energy efficient design guidelines for a variety of building types and developments.

• Energy efficiency retrofits to existing buildings
  In addition to improving the energy efficiency of new buildings, cities can make substantial energy efficiency improvements to existing buildings. By making improvements to lighting, heating, cooling, and other operations the energy requirements of existing buildings can be reduced in a cost-effective manner. In addition pollution can be reduced and energy costs might decrease. There are also LEED standards for existing buildings developed and provided by the U.S. Green Building Council. These standards provide guidance on improving the energy efficiency of building operations and other systems without making major changes to the interior and exterior of the building. Cities around the country have made major strides in improving the energy efficiency of existing city office buildings, schools, police and fire stations.

• Energy efficient street lighting
  A significant amount of energy is used by street lighting and traffic signals. Many cities have found that by replacing traditional light fixtures with super-efficient light emitting diode or LED bulbs, they are reaping energy and cost savings. For instance, the City of Santa Cruz, California continues to take the lead in the battle against climate change by replacing the old high pressure sodium fixtures in downtown parking garages with energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs. By conducting this light project it is estimated to reduce the electricity bills by $9,500 annually and keep 55 tons of the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere each year.

• Public benefit funds
  Cities with community-owned, local municipal utilities can integrate energy efficiency into the city’s overall energy plan. If your city has a municipal utility, it can set up a local public benefits fund (PBF), where a small surcharge on consumer energy bills is used to create a fund to finance energy efficiency projects in the utility service area, thus lowering the overall energy costs for consumers. In the U.S., Austin Energy and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District are examples of municipal utilities that have used public benefit funds to integrate energy efficiency to lower energy use and costs.

• Combined heat and power
  Cities and businesses can also benefit from energy efficient, combined heat and power (CHP) systems. These systems produce both electricity and steam for heating and cooling from a single power plant located near consumers. As a result, CHP systems recover heat that is normally wasted at power plants and funnel the heat into surrounding buildings. This reduces energy costs and lowers pollution by eliminating the need for separate fuel sources for electricity and heating. For instance, Aberdeen, Scotland’s third largest city, has planned to install new centralised boilers and a combined heat and power plant and distribution network to serve the whole university campus.

What do you think about these steps? Are these good to reduce the energy use of a city? Do you know other ways for a city becoming or being energy efficient?

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