The problem of global warming typically is tackled at the level of national governments.
But now, city officials in Nashua are putting together a plan that they hope will make a measurable dent in this world-wide phenomenon.
Recently, they signed on with a program that takes on climate change city by city.
An energy fair over this past weekend kicked off the campaign.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Sheryl Rich Kern reports.
I’m standing in Greely Park on Concord Street, at Nashua’s first annual energy fair.
People are walking around talking to the various alternative fuel exhibitors.
There’s someone looking under the hood of a restaurant’s delivery truck that runs on leftover vegetable oil.
Earlier this year, Nashua joined about 150 other U-S cities and signed on to the international Cities for Climate Protection Campaign.
The program focuses on helping local governments trim their use of energy and their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Kim Lundgren heads the project in the northeast. Lundgren says city operations don’t create the problems, but they represent a very manageable scale to show people that progress is possible.
Lundgren: For most average size communities, the municipal operations are maybe only three to five percent of the total greenhouse emissions for the entire community. It’s really the other folks, the stakeholders that are creating more of the emissions. Our programs allow the municipalities to lead by example.
Nashua has put together a Green Team of business leaders, community activists, and city employees.
Angela Vincent is the Green Team’s coordinator.
She says several small efforts have already produced noticeable savings.
Vincent:[Just this past spring, we put brand new windows and frames in the city clerk’s office. We had a bad problem in that area because it was all steel frames and they tended to be conductors of heat and cold. So they’re actually realizing a thirty percent energy savings.
Another department reduced its expenses by forty-two thousand dollars when it installed more efficient light bulbs.
Thanks to rebates from the local utility company, PSNH, these moves saved money without costing taxpayers a dime.
Now the city has more ambitious plans.
Last week, a group from Nashua went to Keene.
That city was the first municipality in the state to join the Cities for Climate Protection campaign.
Nashua, as the second city to sign up, wanted to know more about Keene’s use of alternative fuels.
Steven Russell, Keene’s fleet superintendent, began pumping biodiesel into 70 of his vehicles about five years ago.
RussellFuel.wav We’re finding we’re getting better fuel mileage and the engines are running better. We’ve had no failures, which is wonderful. The soot levels in the engines are reduced to almost zero.
In addition to reducing emissions levels with city vehicles, Nashua officials want citizens to monitor their own actions.
Green Team coordinator Angela Vincent says the city is about to launch an anti-idling campaign.
VincentNoIdle.wav There’s a subcommittee of us on the Green Team that are identifying locations throughout Nashua that we’d like to install anti-idling signs to encourage people to turn off their engines while they’re running errands, whether they’re at a CVS, in front of a school, in front of a grocery store.
CameronWake2: It’s exactly what we need to be doing.
That’s Cameron Wake, a University of New Hampshire researcher for earth, oceans and space.
CameronWake3.wav: You’re not only emitting carbon dioxide at the tail pipe, but you’re also emitting a lot of particles. And we know those fine particles are harmful to human health. The other reason it’s beneficial, is that it will save you fuel, and save you money.
Reducing cost is often the catalyst for conserving energy.
That motivation can produce a creative outcome, sometimes in unlikely places.
[Sounds from the fryolator]
The fryolator bubbles away at Chicken ‘n Chips, a small eatery tucked behind Nashua’s Main Street.
Seven days a week, the restaurant cooks fried foods using large vats of vegetable oil.
Owner Ken Ngoon (NOON) learned that with a conversion kit, he could run his diesel delivery vehicles on the wasted cooking oil.
KenNgoonFreeFuel.wav My own feeling is that other restaurants that have fryolators should consider doing this because, to me, that’s like, free fuel.
The city is betting that more people will follow Noon's lead. City staff are about to take a key step in the overall project.
They are going to calculate the city's total greenhouse gas emissions.
This will be their starting point.
Then they will set a date to reduce those emissions by a certain amount.
People with the international campaign will monitor how well Nashua does.
At the same time, city officials will look for progress on another measure: the amount of money they save by conserving energy.
For NHPR News, I’m Sheryl Rich-Kern.
