In emissions battle, US cities vie to be 'greenest'

Cities often compete against one another: in the World Series, the right to host the Olympics, the battle to attract employers.

Now, some urban areas are starting a new race: to lead the nation in reducing greenhouse gases. In Massachusetts, the mayors of Salem and Worcester are competing to see who can sign up more customers for green power.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he wants to make his city the greenest in America, and to back that up, the Windy City is planting trees, creating more rooftop gardens, and fast-tracking green buildings.

Wait a New York minute, Chicago. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced intentions to make the Big Apple the leader in reducing greenhouse gases.

The concept is relatively simple: act locally to reduce global warming. This means city councils from Cambridge, Mass., to Seattle are changing building codes, beginning to encourage nonautomobile transport, and setting targets for carbon-dioxide reduction. The potential for greenhouse-gas reductions could eventually become significant, since cities are some of the major producers of greenhouse gases.

In all, some 319 mayors representing more than 51.4 million Americans have pledged they will attain the goals of the 1997 Kyoto agreement in their cities, even though the United States has not ratified the protocol. "The cities can do a lot to lead by example," says Andrew Shapiro, founder of GreenOrder, a sustainability strategy and marketing firm in New York. "Cities are where the majority of influencers are, such as the press, financiers, big company headquarters."

One organization that green-conscious cities can join is ICLEI, an international sustainable-development clearinghouse. Last year, half of the 212 member cities reported reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by a total of 23 million tons. (Cities are not obligated to report reductions.) This resulted in a savings of $550 million, due largely to increased energy efficiency.

ICLEI is providing members with computer software to help identify potential improvements. "It shows them how to start with the lowest hanging fruit and then move on to the more substantial changes," says Michelle Wyman, the Oakland, Calif.-based executive director.

Some cities have been actively involved in the process of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions for some time. That's the case with Seattle, which last month announced a plan by 2012 to reduce emissions by 7 percent, enough to meet the goal of the Kyoto Protocol.

Some solutions in Seattle involve shifting the entire municipal fleet to biodiesel, getting cruise ships to plug into the electrical system instead of running their engines when in port, and passing a green building code.

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