BOWLING GREEN, Ohio —
Bowling Green City Council is reviewing a Climate Action and Resiliency Improvement Plan to look at making the city more sustainable.
The more than 250-page plan was developed after a two-year study done by internal and external stakeholders for the city and details Bowling Green's power supply, wastewater facilities and greenspaces.
"We can all get behind clean air. We can all get behind clean water. We can all get behind the city being prepared for natural disasters or high heat events," said Bowling Green's communications director Amanda Gamby, who used to be the city's sustainability coordinator when the plan started.
Gamby said over the past two years, those involved have been pulling information, doing greenhouse gas inventories and seeing what sustainability efforts the city is already doing. She said the city has had sustainability initiatives for a long time, but the plan provides intermediate and long-term goals for the city.
The study found there are "significant risks of climate-related, environmental hazards to this community due to the intensification of natural processes such as floods, droughts, tornadoes, winter storms, and heat waves according to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency."
One of the suggestions is for the city to be prepared to have resiliency centers that can serve as cooling centers, warming centers and evacuation centers.
The study also looked at carbon emissions, finding it would "not be possible to achieve net zero carbon emissions solely through changes in energy sources (e.g., replacing fossil fuel power supplies with renewable energy sources)."
Four wind turbines in the city are going to be decommissioned in 2025. This was already planned, but the study suggested the city look for another energy source to replace them.
Gamby said the study also put an emphasis on traffic and the emissions that are released.
"What can we encourage residents to do?" Gamby said. "Can we install more fast chargers to encourage electric vehicles?"
Greenspaces were another subject, and Gamby said there are plans to look at how to build up the tree canopy in the city.
Gamby said another important part of the plan is to increase community engagement and education of what people can do in their own lives to help the environment.
She said there has been some negative feedback as climate change is a polarizing topic, but she reminds people that the goal is clean water and clean air.
Gamby said nothing will be implemented until city council approves the plan. Council's next meeting is on Monday and she said there should be more discussion about the plan then.