The 2018 Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) just took place in San Francisco. One key focus area was a commitment to “constructing and renovating buildings to be ‘net zero,’ which means they generate or purchase at least as much renewable energy each year as all the energy they consume in a year.” The net zero building standard entails designing an energy efficient building and addressing remaining energy needs with renewable energy sources such as solar.
The National Civic League is happy to contribute to the net zero goal through our partnership with SolSmart. SolSmart works with communities to make it faster, cheaper and easier to go solar; in recognition of their sustainability efforts, communities receive designations of gold, silver and bronze. The League’s role encompasses a wide range of activities including application reviews to ensure that designation requirements are met, interviews with key city staff to understand the issues they are facing and how going solar can promote economic growth. Currently there are 221 SolSmart designated communities and more will join the list in the coming year.
The National Civic League is proud to be supporting and participating in programs such as SolSmart and the results are encouraging: “Solar continues to decline in cost, coming down 32 percent in 2018 alone. Economists count five times more jobs in solar than in coal and project solar jobs will grow nine times faster.”
To read more about the commitments made at the Global Climate Action Summit, check out this four-part series by Michael Northtrop, Director of the Sustainable Development Program at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
To find out how your community can go solar, visit the SolSmart website or contact Usha Ramamurthy, National Civic League’s Sustainability Director.
