Sustain Charlotte joined with Southern Environmental Law Center, the NC Conservation Network, Clean Air Carolina, and WakeUP Wake County to submit a letter outlining our suggestions with regard to how the Department of Environmental Quality should best allocate funding from the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust. The suggestions are outlined below, while the entire letter can be found here.

EV charging station in Raleigh (Photo Credit: Rural Electric Magazine)

At the June 10 Environment Committee meeting of Charlotte City Council, Rob Phocas from Neighborhood & Business Services explained a variety of innovative environmental programs that the City is planning for both its own operations and the entire community. The committee's approved Environment Focus Area Plan includes "very aggressive and aspirational goals", according to Mr. Phocas. He showed the diagram below to illustrate how the five environmental initiatives (water, waste, air, energy, and Smart City) will each be supported by goals, metrics, a baseline, mid-term goals, and long-term goals. 

The Environment Focus Area Plan sets goals for both City operations and the entire community. 

The Energy Secure Cities Coalition (ESCC) is a project to move city fleets toward electric and hybrid technology in order to reduce fuel dependence and protect the environment. The ESCC is looking for 10 pilot cities to transition their municipal fleet. Council Member David Howard asked if this effort would include all city vehicles. Mr. Phocas replied that this program would cover light duty vehicles, and there are other programs in place to reduce emissions from heavy equipment and CATS vehicles. 

Air quality in our region has improved, but coming changes will likely put Mecklenburg County out of compliance with more stringent standards. At the April 2 Technical Coordinating Committee of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, Megan Green of Mecklenburg County Air Quality presented information about a proposal by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone to a value between 65-70 parts per billion (ppb). The current standard, set in 2008, is 75 ppb. The new standard would be approved by October 1.

 Yikes! Mecklenburg County has the highest ground-level ozone in the state.

Source: http://daq.state.nc.us/planning/ozone/

How did a partnership between Sustain Charlotte and Charlotte-based printing company Boingo Graphics help to keep 30,000 picture frames out of the landfill? Boingo's Executive Vice President Linda Kirby ended her presentation to last night's mixer attendees by telling that story.

Boingo's Executive VP, Linda Kirby, spoke to over 50 mixer attendees.