It's not just automakers who are being pressed to wipe out carbon trails (a rough doubling of average fuel economy to 56 mpg by 2025 is the latest standard being bandied about), but also local governments that are tightening their energy belts. As part of the UniverCities Connection intern program sponsored by the
Michigan Suburbs Alliance, college students are working on programming to raise the region's environmental standards and green up city governments.
The predecessor to their work was the establishment of an energy protocol by the
Millennial Mayors Congress. This collaboration between young residents and metro Detroit elected officials seeks solutions to regional problems, and pledged to reach a 25% drop in municipal energy use by 2015.
The protocol "committed participating cities to increasing energy conservation, saving them money, and starting to build up the new green economy across metro Detroit," says Joel Batterman, a communications fellow at the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. "What the interns are doing this summer is preparing ways to implement that protocol and help cities achieve these goals and become more sustainable to save them money at a time when they're facing pretty tight budgets all around."
One of the interns is focusing on assembling a library of climate change reduction strategies for the city of Ypsilanti. The work should be complete by summer's end, with an action plan to be carried out over the following year.
"We hope that [UniverCities] will keep growing and become a real draw for young people looking to help out the whole Detroit region at a time when we could really use it," Batterman says.
Source: Joel Batterman, communications fellow at the Michigan Suburbs Alliance
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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