The Cooper Administration has already taken numerous critical actions toward an environmentally secure Nashville
Today, in honor of Earth Day, Mayor John Cooper renewed his administration’s long-standing promise to support and execute initiatives that advance a carbon-free and environmentally secure future for Nashvillians.
“Stewardship of our environment is essential to creating thriving, livable communities and is inextricably linked to our city’s long-term economic success. Our actions to preserve and conserve natural resources and combat the urgent threat of climate change today will ensure that generations to come can live and succeed in Nashville,” said Mayor John Cooper.
During his time in office, Mayor Cooper has overseen a number of sustainability, resilience, and environmental priorities that are moving forward. Today, he is recognizing several recent initiatives, including:
Sustainability Dashboard
Today, Mayor Cooper launched a new, public, sustainability dashboard which highlights and tracks many environmental, sustainability and resilience accomplishments and datasets across Metro entities. The dashboard will support transparency and accountability relating to environmental stewardship and will support education of the public on Metro activities in this space.
Metro Facility Benchmarking
Earlier this month the Mayor’s Office, in partnership with the Department of General Services, launched a facility benchmarking initiative. As part of this effort Metro departments will closely monitor energy consumption and costs associated with all utilities, leading to identification of opportunities to pursue environmental and cost savings in facilities. Benchmarking will lead to greenhouse gas emissions reductions in alignment with the City’s adopted carbon reductions goals and supports stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Update
In February 2022 the Department of General Services kicked off preparation of Metro Government and the City’s 2019 greenhouse gas emissions inventories. The updated inventories, to be completed this summer, will allow Metro to understand trends in greenhouse gas emissions since 2014 and opportunities for targeting priority climate actions that will result in the most significant emissions reductions.
Korean Veterans and John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridges Upgrade
In 2021, the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure completed LED lighting upgrades to Korean Veterans and John Seigenthaler pedestrian bridges. The projects replaced 432 existing fixtures with new LED lights, retrofitted 172 existing fixtures to LED, and increased lighting levels for pedestrian foot traffic. These improvements will save $215,600 annually and cut bridge energy bills in half.
Climate Action Plan Survey
In February 2020, Mayor John Cooper established a Sustainability Advisory Committee (SAC) of over 50 community volunteers. In early 2021, the SAC presented its recommendations to address climate change. Mayor Cooper is asking the public for feedback on these climate action recommendations via survey through the end of May.