How a community in Salt Lake Metropolis is bringing consultants collectively to deal with local weather change points in Utah

• Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, is going through climate-related challenges like droughts and worsening air high quality.
• The Utah Local weather Motion Community is bringing folks collectively to hunt options to those issues.
• Efforts inside the community embrace monitoring water consumption and increasing electric vehicle utilization.
• This text is a part of a collection targeted on American cities constructing a greater tomorrow referred to as “Advancing Cities.”

Utah is experiencing a variety of climate-related challenges, together with the shrinking and drying up of the Great Salt Lake, diminishing water supplies, extreme temperatures, and worsening air quality attributable to wildfires. This has impressed metropolis officers and different stakeholders to return collectively to hunt options. 

“Necessity spurs innovation, and I believe we’re undoubtedly at that time,” Josh Craft, authorities and company relations supervisor at
Utah Clean Energy, a Salt Lake Metropolis nonprofit working to speed up clear power and local weather options within the state, informed Insider.

To encourage climate-centric innovation, the group helps facilitate the Utah Climate Action Network. The partnership was based in 2016 between Salt Lake Metropolis, the College of Utah, the enterprise neighborhood, religion organizations, and different teams, to foster a collaborative response to climate change. “We help these companions in bringing collectively doers and consultants from throughout disciplines to work on questions round local weather and the way it impacts our communities,” Craft mentioned.

The community ensures that nobody is “reinventing the wheel,” Craft mentioned. “We’re studying and in a position to copy one another’s greatest practices.” Companions, together with native governments, nonprofits, and better training establishments, are engaged on improvements and expertise, like tracking water consumption and sharing the information on utilization to drive conservation efforts.

Here is a take a look at how the community is fostering partnerships to deal with local weather change in Utah.

Salt Lake Metropolis works with the community to teach local weather leaders

Salt Lake Metropolis’s Climate Positive 2040 plan outlines long-term local weather and power targets, together with attaining 100% renewable power for neighborhood electrical energy provide by 2032 and lowering greenhouse fuel emissions by 80% by 2040. 

To make progress towards these targets, the town accepted a large-scale renewable project to meet its electricity needs in 2020. It additionally broke ground on the Elektron Solar Project, a brand new 80-megawatt photo voltaic farm that is the town’s largest renewable power mission so far.

Final yr, Salt Lake Metropolis adopted the Electrified Transportation Resolution to broaden electrical car use among the many metropolis’s fleet, develop charging infrastructure, and work with neighborhood companions to impress public transit and rideshare automobiles. An update to city regulations requiring charging infrastructure on new multifamily constructing developments was additionally proposed however hasn’t but been adopted.

To unfold the phrase about sustainability plans, Salt Lake Metropolis additionally partnered with Path to Positive Utah, Utah Clear Vitality, and the Utah Local weather Motion Community on a training program to teach and empower local weather leaders throughout sectors within the metropolis.

The community helps metropolis leaders and local weather consultants “incubate and share data shortly,” Craft mentioned. “We’re going through some fairly vital local weather adjustments. We’ll need to develop methods and deploy expertise to do issues higher than now we have prior to now.”

Collaboration and partnerships carry innovation to local weather change 

To deal with local weather points in Utah and assist municipalities like Salt Lake Metropolis obtain sustainability targets, Craft mentioned collaboration between state and native governments, the personal sector, faith-based organizations, nonprofits, and better training is a should.

The Utah Local weather Motion Community hosts quarterly conferences for teams engaged on local weather points — like renewable power and electrical automobiles — to debate concepts and initiatives and discover new methods to collaborate.

“Having someplace you possibly can go to ask for concepts, get experience, and get responses has been useful to maintain progressive concepts alive,” Craft mentioned.

One other mission hosted by the community is the annual Utah Climate Week, a collection of occasions across the state that carry collectively dozens of communities throughout Utah which have adopted local weather commitments, researchers, nonprofits, and faith-based teams. This yr’s occasion will probably be held from September 25 to October 1.

Because the community’s founding, Craft mentioned he is seen native climate-related experience develop and extra teams are prepared to debate sustainability points.

“It is a multidisciplinary effort that requires all palms on deck,” he mentioned. “Understanding that there is a secure house to speak about local weather considerations in a nonpolitical setting is admittedly necessary, and it is helped construct consciousness and belief round these points.”

Serving to communities use Inflation Discount Act funds to broaden local weather initiatives

Utah Clear Vitality additionally helped facilitate the Climate and Clean Air Compact, a directive created in 2020 and signed by almost 200 of the state’s most prominent leaders expressing their dedication to local weather and clear air actions.

“We’re attempting to attach with enterprise neighborhood leaders to have good religion, optimistic discussions round local weather change, environmental stewardship, and options,” Craft mentioned. “The mission is to make sure Utah turns into one of many main states, no less than amongst conservative states, on local weather options.”

The group additionally labored intently with Salt Lake Metropolis on implementing the Utah Community Renewable Energy Act, a 2019 invoice that created a path for the communities served by the electrical utility firm Rocky Mountain Energy to collaborate on a renewable power program. As of Might 2022, 18 communities and counties joined collectively to launch a net-100% renewable power possibility of their communities, which contains round 25% of Rocky Mountain Energy’s gross sales in Utah.

The brand new Inflation Reduction Act will present billions of {dollars} in tax credit, rebates, grants, and loans for initiatives that may cut back emissions. The Utah Local weather Motion Community will probably be a “guiding useful resource” on the brand new nationwide investments to make sure native governments, nonprofits, universities, and different organizations reap the benefits of the funding obtainable to implement clean energy projects, Craft mentioned.

“That is what you may have a community for — to construct capability,” he mentioned. “We see ourselves as people who can perceive these legal guidelines and alternatives, determine them, and discover companions with good concepts to go and do.”