Energy Efficiency: Main Driver for Local Government Sustainability Programs

PTI Staff Contact: Ronda Mosley, 937-667-4142

PTI Surveys Member Governments on Tools to Manage Sustainability Efforts

Energy efficiency remains the primary driver for local government sustainability efforts. While many tools are available to local governments and there is much progress to report, local government officials believe that more can be done in this area. This is one finding from the Public Technology Institute (PTI) member survey Sustainability-Related Tools and Practices.

The survey provides a high-level view of the ways local governments are managing their sustainability programs. It examined tools and practices that address energy efficiency, smart growth, greenhouse gas emission reductions, transportation planning, recycling, renewable energy and water efficiency.

By conducting the survey PTI sought to identify:

• The sustainability tools now available to local governments,
• Which tools are considered useful by local governments, and
• Which tools are in need of updating or changing to make them more useful and relevant for local governments.

Through the survey of 36 member city and county governments, conducted from July through September 2009, followed by telephone and on-site interviews and subsequent analysis by PTI, a few key findings emerge regarding the current state of sustainability tools:

• Renewable energy tools are sparse, and generally, do not meet the needs of most local government respondents. They want more data, especially specific energy-related data, from utilities and/or the tools in use today.
• Voluntary tools such as EPA Energy Star and Portfolio Manager are held in high esteem by most local government respondents. They are increasingly interested in making EPA Energy Star-compliant construction mandatory for government, commercial and new residential construction.
• There is strong community support for sustainability in most cities and counties, with much improved public understanding of sustainability “basics” (for example, the interrelatedness of water, air and energy). However, in many cases the internal leadership and internal capacity of local governments lag behind the (stronger) public support for sustainability.
• A majority of respondents believed that there are no useful and available cross-cutting sustainability tools on the market that can help them measure their progress across multiple areas such as energy efficiency, smart growth, greenhouse gas emission reductions, transportation planning, recycling, renewable energy and water efficiency;
• Medium governments were much more likely to have had recycling programs in place longer than small or large governments, with 91% of medium governments reporting recycling programs that were at least 10 years old, versus 66% of the small and 47% of the large governments that reported the same;
• Local government respondents overwhelmingly voiced their support for more online tools, with most stating that Internet-based tools are preferable over other tools.

“The survey findings show that as local governments continue to address sustainability concerns, they are increasingly reliant on dependable tools to help make informed policy decisions regarding these programs that impact these areas. PTI is at the forefront of identifying useful tools and technologies that local governments can utilize to measure sustainability successes, said Alan Shark, Executive Director of PTI.

“We now have sufficient input as to what local governments want and need to support their sustainable communities planning activities,” said Laurie Park, Program Manager for the California Sustainability Alliance (CSA) program that interviewed 76 local governments in California in spring of this year. “The next step is to commence developing this next generation of sustainability planning tools.” The CSA and PTI intend to partner on this effort.

The Sustainability-Related Tools and Practices Used by PTI Local Government Members – 2009 Survey Results report is available in PDF format at this link.

12-03-2009     Send a link     Sustainability     Print version