Going Green: Ames Climate Action team details methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The City of Ames is pushing forward with an initiative to reduce its environmental impact.

The Ames Climate Action Plan strives for an 83% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Ames City Council set the goals in December of 2021, and Ames officials created a plan to meet them shortly after. The city eventually approved the plan in June 2023.

Several strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are outlined, including areas for the city, residents and businesses to offer input.

"City of Ames efforts have focused both internally on city operations, programs and services, and externally on programs to encourage residents to conserve," Ames Public Relations Officer and member of the Ames Climate Action Team Susan Gwiasda said during a presentation at the Jan. 9 city council meeting.

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A community effort

A separate, volunteer-led climate action group of Ames residents was also formed. The grassroots Ames Climate Action team was initially created to help craft the city's plan for emissions reduction.

The group formed out of the Unitarian Church a year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and quickly expanded to include all of Ames.

"(The Climate Action Team) is people who are worried about climate change wanting to figure out what to do about it," member Lee Ann Wilson said. "We're not a non-profit; we don't have a bank account or phone number. We're just a bunch of people that get together and ask, 'What can we do?' and then try to do it."

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The history of sustainability in Ames

Ames has been committed to sustainability for several decades.

The city opened the first-in-the-nation waste-to-energy facility in 1975, which processed Story County's garbage to produce fuel for the Ames Power Plant.

Ames has continued to find innovative ways to stay sustainable in the years since, Gwiasda said, but increased community interest motivated the city to draft the climate action plan.

"Residents have encouraged the Ames City Council to consider a more comprehensive approach to carbon reduction," Gwiasda said. "Developing a community Climate Action Plan became an Ames City Council goal."

The city hired the Sustainability Solutions Group in 2021 to help flesh out the plan. The first step was to decide how much the city wanted to reduce its emissions and set that as a goal.

"The city council chose fairly aggressive goals, what we call the fair share option, which is to try to do what Ames owes the world in terms of emission reductions," Wilson said.

Six points of climate emphasis

The plan details six major areas where the city can make an impact: building retrofits, constructing net-zero buildings, renewable energy generation, reducing vehicle emissions, increasing active transportation, and reducing waste emissions.

A team effort − by the city and its residents −is required to help Ames reduce its carbon footprint, Wilson said.

"Some of these are things where the city can make a decision and do it, like on city buildings and city transportation," Wilson said. "Some are things where the city can require or encourage actions by citizens, and some are things where citizens have to make a decision and do their part."

Brandon Haug, a member of the citizen's Ames Climate Action Team, reiterates the need for teamwork today, tomorrow, and several years later. A simple give and take will help the city succeed and maintain an environmentally sound future. ,

"Actions are needed at the city level, and also actions by residents and businesses," Haug said. "We need to encourage actions in both those areas."

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City joins Federal clean energy program

Ames was the only Iowa city chosen to join the national Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Peer-Learning Cohorts program, meant to prioritize energy-efficient municipal buildings while investing in decarbonization.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the program regularly exchanges energy-reducing strategies in public facilities.

Ames Energy Services Coordinator Joel Zook said the city anticipates learning from Department of Energy experts and other participating programs. They hope to gleam new practices to help lower the government's local impact. The program isn't just a brainstorming session, either. Ames will have access to some of the most experienced professionals in the country.

"(The C2C program) will also provide access to the Department of Energy’s national laboratory experts," Zook said, who serves on the Ames climate action team as well. "We hope to consider proposals focused on building efficiency."

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What can Ames residents do to reduce their carbon footprint?

Ames is in a better position than other communities, according to Ames Electric Services Director Donald Kom, because its residents own the electric utility. This gives Ames more control over its energy portfolio, and the city can choose how it creates and purchases electricity for customers.The city took a big step eight years ago, converting the power plant to a cleaner, more environmentally conscious operation. They've made a big push to make use of renewable energy sources.

"In 2016, we converted our coal-burning power plant to natural gas and reduced our community carbon footprint by 40 percent," Kom said, who also serves on the city's climate action team. "Within our energy portfolio – the way we produce or purchase electricity for Ames residents – just under 20 percent of our total electric consumption comes from renewable sources."

Zook said the city is working to increase its renewable electric energy both as a power provider and through incentives, encouraging residents to convert to solar energy. However, he also said adding large-scale renewables is a challenge due to long lead times and regulatory hurdles for wind and solar energy.

The most challenging aspect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Ames is that at least half of the important decisions are made at the kitchen table, according to Wilson.

Families decide what appliances they use, which ultimately affects greenhouse gas emissions. When someone's furnace or air conditioner goes out, they can either replace it with either another gas-fired furnace or standard air conditioner, or a heat pump system.

They must weigh the advantages and disadvantages, the upfront costs and the long-term savings.

It's on the city and climate action team to help residents understand their green initiative while pushing them to attain a more responsible way of life.

"The first big challenge is how to reach everybody with some understanding of what is possible, what the benefits are to the individual and the community of doing things a little bit differently," Wilson said. "There's a lot of information that needs to get out so they can make the decisions that help the climate action plan move forward."

The Climate Action team encourages residents to buy electric vehicles or hybrids if motorists can afford it. They also suggest using a heat pump rather than a gas-fired appliance to save energy.

"Look at the new technologies and don't be afraid of the new technologies," Wilson said. "A heat pump sounds like a weird new technology, but your refrigerator is a heat pump; you've had one in your kitchen for years. It's not weird stuff, it's just a new, efficient way of doing things."

Haug added, "The Climate Action Plan is only going to work over the next few years if residents and businesses over the next few years convert from natural gas appliances to electric appliances. What we have to get residents to do is before (the appliance) fails is plan to replace them with a heat pump furnace and air conditioner."

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What climate action goals do Ames teams have for 2024?

Ames will continue to support and encourage electric vehicles in 2024 through an expanded offer of electric vehicle charging stations. Rebates will be offered to encourage the switch from natural gas to electricity for heat and other home activities.

The city also plans to encourage residential, commercial, and industrial customers to reduce their own carbon footprint and conserve natural resources.

"Reaching our CAP goals is a community effort," Kom said. "The challenge is to educate Ames residents, gain their support, and spur them into action. It’s important for the city to be a leader in the process, but we can’t do it alone."

The Climate Action Team will continue to help push the city forward, hopefully moving closer to that net-zero goal by 2050.

"The city's plan has to do with emissions that take place from inside city limits, but there's a lot of stuff where the decisions are made in Ames but the emissions take place elsewhere," Wilson said. "Almost everything to do with food, for example. We're also looking at places where the climate action plan doesn't include these things but maybe we can get some action going on independent of the city."

The Ames Climate Action team will routinely attend city council meetings, Haug said, encouraging council action on items benefiting the Climate Action Plan, which includes hiring a climate action coordinator.

"The difficulty is actually taking action," Haug said. "It's one thing to adopt a plan, but then you've got to actually do it."

Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: What is the Climate Action team how will they help the City of Ames?