Hamilton County Climate Initiative encouraging Blue Ash to go green

Published June 16, 2009 at 12:00 a.m.
The city of Blue Ash is working on several efforts to "go green" aspart of Blue Ash's participation in Hamilton County's ClimateInitiative.

The Hamilton County Climate Initiative began in 2008as a way to develop a "user-friendly tool kit on how to save money byimplementing best practices in government regarding energy use andgreen policies."

The initiative looked into a variety of topicsthat included solid waste management/food production issues,transportation, energy and development.

The goal of the Hamilton County Climate Initiative is to create aCounty-wide action plan for reducing the impact of local governmentsand communities on the issue of global climate change.  The end resultwill be a County-wide plan for greenhouse gas reduction.

By coordinating efforts the County hopes to address the problemsimpacting individual communities while allowing the communities to "usethe talents and resources of a larger group to explore options andstrategies for the creation of a community specific plan to reducegreenhouse gas emissions."

BlueAsh has been involved from the beginning with several city leadersbeing actively involved in each of the Hamilton County ClimateInitiative meetings held so far.  The involvement has been a means ofsharing the innovative practices already in place in the northernCincinnati community and learning about new opportunities.

Sofar Blue Ash has come up with a variety of solutions that include theuse of LED traffic signals, recirculating hot water systems in cityfacilities, clean hazardous waste disposal, curbside and drop-offrecycling locations, the use of Geo-Melt for snow and ice removal andwhite roofs replacement on traditional black membrane roofs at cityfacilities.

Once communities around Hamilton County compiletheir list and submit their solutions back to the coordinated effort itwill create a Hamilton County Climate Action Plan of sorts that willhave been drawn up by individual communities for the larger County-widebenefit.

Writer: Randy Simes
Source: City of Blue Ash



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