By Sheila Calderon

I recently reached out to my County Commissioner, Melissa McKinlay, and asked her to stand up for Palm Beach County to reach the goal of reducing our carbon footprint. This goal can be realized by ensuring that all new construction meet the Green Building and LEED Certification Standards and all new home building be mandated, at minimum, to accommodate solar energy. I provided an article detailing the plan that President Biden has put forth to move our country forward by reducing our carbon footprint 50% by 2035.

I was pleased to receive a positive reply and was assured that our county is making some headway in this area. I encourage you to reach out to your local officials to keep their “feet to the fire.”

Here is some of the work the county is doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

• Recently achieved SolSmart Gold status for Palm Beach County as a community. This means that the county has made it easier for businesses and residents to install solar photovoltaic systems on their property by reducing permitting time and other ways.
• Achieved LEED Gold for Cities and Communities certification. Part of why they scored enough to get Gold status is because the county is working on reducing per-person greenhouse gas emissions, which is already roughly half the national average.
• The county is also working on installing electric vehicle (EV) chargers at its Governmental Center, requiring EV infrastructure at certain new developments, and acquiring EV buses for Palm Tran.
• Finally, the county recently received an $800,000 grant from the State Department of Economic Opportunity to conduct a climate change vulnerability assessment for unincorporated and western Palm Beach County that will inform a countywide resilience action plan. This is expected to take several years to finalize. The county will be seeking community input along the way.

Contact your Palm Beach County Commissioner about local environmental issues today!