Tosa mayor floats shared sustainability role idea by Milwaukee County municipality leaders
“Pollution and climate change do not respect boundaries, and we’ve got to work together if we can.”
That was Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride’s message to a room full of leaders from 19 Milwaukee County municipalities Jan. 8 as he asked for those interested to join his city’s effort to bring a shared sustainability manager to their communities.
A sustainability manager would plan, develop, manage and promote programs and initiatives related to environmental protection and sustainability in Wauwatosa and other municipalities interested in participating.
Erick Shambarger, director of the City of Milwaukee’s Environmental Collaboration Office, accompanied McBride to the meeting and shared information about two separate federal grants that could help make the shared position happen.
Here’s what to know:
Why does Wauwatosa want a sustainability manager?
Wauwatosa ― like Wisconsin and the U.S. ― has set goals to drastically reduce its carbon emissions by 2050. Carbon emissions from fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal are the largest contributors to global climate change, scientists agree.
Wauwatosa’s Common Council adopted a resolution of its own goals in 2020 including:
Reducing municipal emissions to 50% of 2010 levels by 2030.
Sourcing at least 25% of all energy from local renewable sources by 2025.
Achieving municipal and community carbon neutrality by 2050.
The city also pledged to track progress by collecting and publishing basic data annually on the city's and community's energy use.
More: Wauwatosa wants to reduce its carbon footprint over the next five years. Here's how.
Progress made on sustainability, but room to grow
Wauwatosa has made progress in reducing emissions at the city level with solar panel and LED light installation, McBride said. The city is on track to reach at least one of its goals of operations emissions being 50% below 2010 levels by 2030, according to the Wauwatosa Sustainability Committee’s Annual Report for 2022.
But there’s room to grow on the city’s efforts to guide and help residents be sustainable, McBride and Rob Zimmerman, a member of Wauwatosa's Sustainability Committee agreed.
Having someone whose job is to focus on Wauwatosa, and possibly surrounding communities’ sustainability, would move the needle on already existing efforts, Zimmerman said.
“We have the means in our community for the most part to take action as long as there’s some direction on what we’re going to do,” Zimmerman said.
City committee currently handles sustainability efforts
Right now, the city's sustainability efforts are mainly led by the Sustainability Committee, which is made up of volunteer residents appointed by the mayor and one alderperson. A sustainability manager would be a point person that could take what the city has learned in its own operations and apply those lessons to the residential and commercial sectors of the city, giving direction to the goals for 2050, Zimmerman said.
Community outreach that educates and informs residents about energy efficient ways to save money on utility bills, for example, would be a big part of the sustainability manager's job, according to Zimmerman.
Tax credits and other incentives are available for homeowners and renters who make energy-efficient improvements to their homes or apartments between 2023 and 2032 through the federal government's Inflation Reduction Act. Energy efficient residential changes can save households money on utility bills, according to We Energies.
Sustainability position not a new idea
While the idea for municipalities to collaborate to fund and create a staff position is new, the effort to bring a sustainability manager to Wauwatosa isn’t.
There was an effort to fund a sustainability manager position in the city's 2024 budget, but it, along with other department requests for new positions, were not approved. The city would not authorize new staff positions unless departments could secure permanent funding, due to budget constraints McBride attributed to the state legislature's rules on municipality property tax levy limits.
So members of Wauwatosa’s Sustainability Committee, McBride and other city officials met to discuss how else they could fund the position.
“It isn't that we don't want a sustainability manager in Wauwatosa, it is that we have to figure out a different way to provide a sustainability manager,” McBride said.
Since bringing a shared position idea to the ICC meeting Monday, McBride has heard the Village of Shorewood express interest, according to McBride.
Grants could fund a shared position, or Wauwatosa could contract with the City of Milwaukee
McBride estimates Wauwatosa would need $110,000 annually to cover the salary and benefits of an individual in a sustainability manager position. There’s a variety of ways a role could be funded or created, he said.
"Everybody's under budget constraints, so we're all trying to figure this out," McBride said.
If multiple municipalities are interested in working together for the position, they could apply for federal grants, and there may be state money available too, according to the mayor.
Wisconsin was awarded more than $2 million through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the Department of Energy to establish a sub-granting program to local governments for energy planning, audits and renewable resource planning. Through that grant, some communities could get up to $76,000, Shambarger said Monday.
“If you pooled (the grants) together, it could be enough for a position” and remaining money could be used for other projects, Shambarger said.
The second idea is to apply for a Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, a competitive $2 million to $500 million grant given to local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Leaders will have to act fast if they want a shot at the funding. The CPR grant has a Feb. 1 deadline for a letter of intent, and the full application is due April 31.
If municipalities themselves don't apply for the grants, Shambarger said there could be a chance for those communities to contract with the City of Milwaukee, which plans to apply for its own share of the grant money. McBride said it's a possibility Wauwatosa would contract with the City of Milwaukee for sustainability services.
The efforts follow trends around the state for municipalities invested in sustainability.
Allison Carlson, the executive director of the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition, said the shared position is one of the more creative ways she’s seen local government invest in sustainability leadership roles.
Carlson's organization is made up of 22 leaders from municipalities across Wisconsin, ten of which are in a climate resiliency or sustainability staff role, according to the website. A Wauwatosa Sustainability Committee member and staff members from the Villages of Shorewood and Whitefish Bay are a part of the coalition.
"It is a challenge certainly for local governments across the state to be able to get these efforts funded, and then get the staff time dedicated" to do the work, Carlson said.
More communities dedicating someone to sustainability efforts could help communities better understand and track their energy use, she said.
Contact Bridget Fogarty at bfogarty@gannett.com.
Editor's note: This story was corrected on Jan. 16 to clarify that the Wauwatosa Sustainability Committee includes one alderperson.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wauwatosa shares idea for sustainability manager in Milwaukee suburbs
