ABC 4 News Features Salt Lake Climate Week

Yesterday, ABC 4 News stopped by Salt Lake City Green to get the scoop on Climate Week — what the City is doing to reduce its impact and what you can do to get started! It’s a fantastic story. Click on the video above to watch the story on Good4Utah.com.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – Salt Lake City officially kicked off its first ever Climate Week. The initiative is designed to increase awareness about the local realities of climate change, what the city is doing to prepare for the future and what residents can do to reduce their impact at home.

No matter your stance on climate change, it’s undeniable Utah is heating up.

Salt Lake City’s Sustainability Program Manager Tyler Poulson explained, “In Utah in recent decades temperatures have been increasing about twice the global average and its certainly something that’s not gone unnoticed in Salt Lake City.”

That’s why the city’s Sustainability Division created the group Salt Lake Climate Change Leaders.

“We’re having monthly workshops for about 26 employees from all departments so airport, fire, police, water and everything in between, and we’ve been learning about climate change, its impact locally and how to make a difference,” said Poulson.

Leaders in that group came up with Climate Week to share what they’ve learned with the community. They say there is five easy steps residents can take to reduce their carbon footprint by about 5,000 pounds of CO2 emissions a year, and even save some money about $500 a year.

One of the easiest steps you can take to save yourself about $100 a year and about a 1,000 pounds in CO2 emissions is to wash your clothes in cold water. Poulson said, “About 90% of the energy and emissions associated with washing your clothes is associated with heating the water.”

Some other actions Poulson suggests, “Keeping your tires fully inflated, or if you’re a Salt Lake City resident checking out the Hive pass for public transit. Some other actions include changing out your lightbulbs to LEDs, they’re really energy efficient and starting to look great, and then also downsizing your trash can and using renewables.”

Salt Lake City is practicing what it preaches. In 2008 the Mayor and City Council committed to reducing its municipal footprint 20% below the 2005 level by 2020, and 80% below that by 2050.

To read more on the city’s efforts to date log on to: slcgov.com/slcgreen/climateaction.
To learn more about climate week log on to: slcgov.com/slcgreen/climateweek.