Kathy Kuntz
In April Dane County issued an ambitious economy-wide climate action plan (CAP) that aims to reduce all emissions in Dane County by 50% by 2030. The CAP encompasses everything from building energy use and renewables to agricultural practices and recycling.
In short, the CAP includes you and everyone else in Dane County.
The County cannot reduce all emissions unless all stakeholders—businesses, nonprofits, farms, individuals—are part of the solution. So engagement is an important part of our strategy.
Indeed, we are hosting a virtual meeting on August 20, 2020 to engage one really important set of stakeholders—the people who are part of green teams at their workplaces.
Workplace green teams are vital to our efforts. Inside numerous of local organizations is a small group of people working hard to make sustainability happen inside that organization. Green teams often lead corporate efforts to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These are the folks who develop strategies to encourage recycling, who look at energy usage to identify savings opportunities, and who encourage their peers to bike and carpool to work. We have some tremendous sustainability success stories here in Dane County, thanks to the work of Sustain Dane and other partners.
It is only natural, then, that the Office of Energy & Climate Change would consider local green teams to be natural allies in our climate action efforts.
On August 20th we will strengthen that alliance when Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and I host an online meeting for members of area workplace green teams. County Exec Parisi and I will share a bit about the climate action plan, including ways that green teams will be able to leverage the plan to accelerate their internal efforts. And we will listen—there will be plenty of time for green team members to share their thoughts and ideas.
It has become trite to say that these are unprecedented times and that we are facing once-in-a-lifetime challenges. Trite or not, we know everyone is struggling to navigate a pandemic coupled with a deep recession coupled with a national reckoning around racial injustices.
At Dane County we remain confident that the green path is the right path. We are confident that reducing emissions can deliver health benefits, accelerate our economic recovery and increase our resilience. More, we are determined to pursue climate action in ways that address historic inequities and that build bridges between our urban and rural stakeholders.
Because we know that climate action can deliver a better tomorrow for everyone in Dane County, we look forward to collaborating with local green teams to go from plan to reality.
If you are part of a green team, please register now to join the conversation on August 20th. The meeting is free and open to green team members and staff tasked with sustainability at businesses and nonprofits across Dane County.
If you have questions about the event, drop us a line. And thanks for all you are doing to help Dane County realize its ambitious climate action goals. I am excited to see what we can accomplish, together.
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Kathy is the Acting Director in the Dane County’s Office of Energy and Climate Change. In that role she's leading efforts to implement the Climate Action Plan. Prior to coming to Dane County, Kathy led Cool Choices and, prior to that, she led Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program.
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