February 17, 2008 - 10:32PM
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of three parts on
efforts to make communities more environmentally friendly by
reducing carbon emissions.
ALTON — It takes green to go green.
Switching to energy-efficient lighting and converting city fleets
to hybrid cars — moves suggested as part of the Sierra Club’s
Cool Cities initiative — costs money that some cities simply
do not have, including Alton. But Illinois is trying to help
municipalities with incentives, rebates and grants.
The Green Governments Illinois Act enacted Oct. 17 established
the Illinois Green Governments Coordinating Council, chaired by
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. The council works with agencies to come up
with new ways for Illinois governments to become environmentally
aware and make changes that support sustainability and bring
agencies together.
The council “makes it possible to call one place instead of
15, and that’s an enormous benefit,” said Elizabeth
Austin, spokeswoman for the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.
The purpose of the Green Governments Illinois Act is to
demonstrate the state’s commitment to reducing negative
environmental impacts, reducing greenhouse gases, and preserving
resources for current and future generations.
“We have a diverse group of people with one significant
priority in common,” Quinn has said. “We know that
sustainability begins with us, right here in our own communities.
We must all adopt a green way of thinking that inspires society
to pursue a cleaner and greener environment.”
The council is responsible for the development and dissemination
of programs, plans and policies to reduce the environmental
footprint of state government and for improving the
implementation of greening the government initiatives in other
institutions, thereby reducing costs to taxpayers and improving
efficiency in operations.
The main arguments of the Sierra Club are the economics of
greening and how it helps taxpayers, but payback on some green
practices could take several years.
“The cost transference takes more out of pocket up front,
but every year thereafter, you’re saving money,” said
Christine Favilla, Three Rivers Project coordinator with the
Piasa Palisades Group of the Sierra Club.
The First Unitarian Church of Alton, one of five churches of the
United Congregations of Metro East Alton Cluster, switched to low-emission
diode lighting and used 18 percent fewer kilowatt-hours of
electricity in the past few months compared to the same time last
year. The Alton YWCA also switched to energy-efficient lighting
and has saved energy, said Executive Director Mary Cox.
The Alton Cluster churches are partnering with the Sierra Club in
asking Alton Mayor Don Sandidge to sign the Cool Cities’ U.S.
Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, which makes a
commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in municipal
government, independent of a federal plan.
The churches’ leaders spoke at the Caring For Creation by
Going Green Workshop, held Feb. 9 at the National Great Rivers
Museum at the Melvin Price Locks and Dam 26. The workshop was
attended by two Alton aldermen, the superintendent of Alton’s
Wastewater Treatment Plant and state Sen. William Haine, D-Alton.
“It’s easy for us (to go green). It costs more, and I’m
able to pay, but there are plenty of people not able but willing,”
said the Rev. William Veith, with Alton Cluster member church
Trinity Lutheran Church, at the workshop. “Green should not
be an issue of the comfortable class. It’s the poor in our
society who are disproportionately affected by our negative
environment.”
Dennis O’Neal, who was not at the workshop but is a very
involved Godfrey taxpayer who attends nearly every meeting of
municipal government in his community, takes issue with the costs
associated with greening to taxpayers and low-income citizens.
“I think the objective of the Sierra Club is admirable,”
he said. “Everyone should be concerned about the environment.
But I’m concerned about the cost-effectiveness of it. The
question arose in my mind of who is going to pay for it.”
O’Neal, a lifelong River Bend resident who had his own
heating and cooling business for 17 years, said he has witnessed
the effect of switching to high-efficiency equipment. He said
this type of high-end equipment has a shorter life span, higher
maintenance costs and higher up-front costs.
“You reach a point of diminishing returns when you go into
extremely high-efficiency equipment,” he said. “The
payback period becomes very long. You have more conservation,
undoubtedly, but you’re not saving money.”
He said in a market-driven economy, when families are struggling
to buy gasoline and food, if there is something that will save
them energy and save money, the free market would take over.
“This year, after reading notice after notice in your paper
of substantial tax increases in almost every government unit,
with the notable exception of Godfrey, the wage-earner around
here is going to have a harder time paying for his obligations
with higher taxes and bills,” O’Neal said.
But there are no fees for cities to sign the Cool Cities’
mayoral agreement, which is a commitment only to do what it can
to change its environmental footprint.
The Sierra Club does offer to connect municipalities with an
organization to help with energy audits, which does ask for fees
for certain consultations and sells audit software, but it is
only an option for those cities that choose not to do their own
audits, said Cool Cities Campaign Coordinator Colleen Sarna from
her Chicago-based office.
The city of Alton has conducted its own energy cost audit because
of energy cost increases by $750,000 since last year’s
Ameren electric rate increase.
“A year ago, energy efficiency was just not on the radar,”
Favilla said. “A year-and-a-half ago, local organizations
didn’t see it as a major issue. Now, it seems it has come to
the forefront. Now, there is momentum.”
For more information or to join a Cool Cities committee, call the
Sierra Club at (618) 462-6802. For more information about the
Illinois Green Governments Coordinating Council, visit www.standingupforillinois.org.