Climate change looms ominously in many people’s minds these days, but few know how they can make a difference in combating this huge issue. Piedmont is helping its residents find a place to start.
The Piedmont Climate Challenge is a city-sponsored effort to provide residents with tools and incentives to reduce their carbon emissions.
Using the Piedmont Climate Challenge website, each Piedmont household can make an account, estimate its current yearly carbon emissions, and take steps to decrease emissions in the future, said Piedmont’s CivicSpark Climate Fellow Justin Szasz. He works with the city to increase Piedmont’s resistance to climate change and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
“Residents can enter their current consumption habits, see what sort of emissions their household currently has, see the breakdown of those emissions, and get ideas on how to reduce their emissions,” Szasz said.
One group spearheading the Piedmont Climate Challenge is Piedmont Connect, Szasz said.
“It’s designed to be a very user-friendly interface, where residents can create an account,” said Piedmont Connect steering committee member Susan Miller-Davis. “When you first create your account, you fill out an energy profile.”
The energy profile only takes about 15 minutes to complete, Miller-Davis said. The profile asks about aspects of residents’ homes, like heating systems and square footage.
“These are all tied to known metrics about national averages about what your carbon footprint would look like,” Miller-Davis said. “What’s cool about it is the platform helps you see where you compare to the average.”
Szasz said the website also shows residents the breakdown of their emissions, such as how much carbon dioxide they generate from various sources. From there they can look at a page of ideas on how to reduce their current emissions.
The program is designed to motivate residents to join the challenge and to reduce their emissions with a competition, Miller-Davis said.
“The idea is just to get people engaged in a sort of fun competition that will be more motivating than just replacing your lightbulbs,” Miller-Davis said.
Each household that signs up is automatically placed in one of six neighborhoods, Miller-Davis said. There are also teams and community groups, which are not automatic or required.
“When you earn points, you get them not only for yourself, but also for your neighborhood, for your team, and for your community group,” Miller-Davis said.
The city has a goal to reduce carbon emissions by ten million pounds in the next ten years, Miller-Davis said. The overall goal of the Piedmont Climate Challenge is to reduce Piedmont’s emissions by one million pounds within six months. To do this, Miller-Davis said the Climate Challenge hopes to have 200 households, about five percent of Piedmont, each reduced by 5,000 pounds.
“There is a broader goal, which is just to educate people more about climate change,” Szasz said. “I hope that beyond just this challenge, we’re also helping people really think more about climate change every day and think more about what they can do, so they can get involved in other ways.”
Szasz said he has been working with students in Green Club and in the AP Environmental Science class.
“There are some ideas on the website that students can get directly involved in, reducing your trash consumption, for example,” Szasz said.
Freshman Anne-Marie Gibbs said she does not think many students know about the Piedmont Climate Challenge. She said that if more people know about it, it will be more successful.
“It’ll get people in the habit of reducing their carbon emissions,” Gibbs said.
According to the Climate Challenge website, Piedmont has exceeded its 200-household goal. Miller-Davis said the Piedmont Climate Challenge is on track to reach its emission reduction goal.
“I think going forward, we’re still thinking about what the best ways [are] to keep reminding people and keep trying to get more people involved,” Szasz said.
People can sign up for the Piedmont Climate Challenge or find more information at the website piedmontclimatechallenge.org.
