How a Climate-conscious County Official Is Helping Arlington County

It's always nice when someone emerges from a movie inspired. Paul Ferguson, Arlington County, Virginia County Board Chairman, saw Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and knew there was more his county could do to combat global warming.

"Our climate is changing, and that change is causing harm," Ferguson said. "The question is, what can each of us do to slow the trend and eventually reverse it?"

What Paul Ferguson did was help launch the Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE).

The program aims to reduce Arlington County government's greenhouse gas emissions 10% from 2000 to 2012. To do this, the County has committed to reducing Arlington government emissions through energy-saving retrofits, the addition of hybrid and clean fuel vehicles to the County fleet, the installation of LED traffic lights, and tree planting.

The Arlington Central Library has already benefited greatly from an energy retrofit sponsored by AIRE. After making improvements to the building's insulation and replacing energy inefficient equipment, the library saw its electricity use fall by 25%, saving them over $30,000 a year.

As Ferguson said in a welcome address to the National Association of Counties, "Government and the private sector are realizing that being environmentally friendly makes good fiscal sense in additional to being the right thing to do. The voters which we serve and the customers that businesses serve are increasingly asking us to move toward greener practices."

This is just one example of how individuals, organizations, businesses and governments are helping to stop climate change. There are thousands more across the country and around the world – and it’s through these efforts that we’re going to be successful. We can’t afford not to succeed in this unprecedented challenge to our planet.

You can view more success stories or find out how you can get involved. If you have your own success story to add, please let us know.