Dean continues Green streak

Mayor launches two new environmental initiatives

Email | Print By Nate Rau

Mayor Karl Dean announced two new green initiatives Thursday when he spoke at the Second Annual Summit for Sustainable Tennessee at Lipscomb University.

For starters, work on a greenhouse gas inventory began this week and will continue into next year, Dean announced. According to a press release from his office, the inventory will measure greenhouse gas emissions in all of Davidson County and is the first comprehensive study of its type to be done in Nashville.

A Brookings Institute study from last year said Nashville had one of the largest per-capita carbon imprints in the country. But that study only factored in auto emissions, whereas the new study will be more comprehensive.

The mayorally-appointed Green Ribbon Committee, in partnership with Nashville Electric Service, commissioned Gresham Smith & Partners to complete the inventory.

“This inventory will provide us with a baseline for the level of pollutants we, as a city, are putting into the air,” Dean said. “This is the only way to know whether we’re making progress as we implement the recommendations of the Green Ribbon Committee in years to come, and it will help the committee determine where our resources need to be focused.”

Dean also commissioned the natural resources subcommittee of the Green Ribbon Committee to make specific recommendations on how to implement a community park plan in Nashville. The plan would favor smaller parks in more communities.

“We have great parks, but we need more of them. Every neighborhood and community in Nashville should have green space to enjoy,” Dean said.

Dean formed the Green Ribbon Committee earlier this year and charged the advisory board with a large task; Come up with initiatives to make Nashville the greenest city in the Southeast.

It’s the latest in a series of environmentally friendly initiatives out of Dean’s office. Last month, he launched a pilot program to offer curbside recycling to Bellevue.