NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As part of his early 2022 sustainability agenda, Mayor John Cooper is pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Davidson County by 80%.
The mayor’s office will work across Metro departments and with community partners on a draft implementation plan for targeting Metro’s biggest sources of emissions and its best opportunities to reduce them.
Metro Council on February 1, approved a resolution of a goal to reduce Metro’s emissions by 80%, relative to its 2014 levels, by 2050.
The mayor’s office is working on a solar feasibility assessment for 600-plus city-owned sites as the mayor also pledged his support for a much-needed tree-planting effort.
The city hopes to begin installations as early as next year. Metro Council in January 2022 approved funding for this feasibility research as a latest step in efforts to power more of Metro government with renewable energy.
Metro government will also plant half a million trees in Davidson County by 2050 through its private-public partnership Root Nashville.
The plan is to plant 9,500 trees this year and another 12,000 in 2023, to place Nashville closer to its half-a-million goal by 2050.
The mayor’s office says trees are essential to public health because they allow cities to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the harmful effects of heat in the urban core and manage stormwater runoff.
Nashville lost a total of 918 acres worth of trees in the last 14 years primarily on parcels undergoing development from 2008 until 2016, according to 2018 GIS layers maintained by Metro.
Metro Council in December 2021 approved legislation to invest about one percent of revenues from the city’s construction activities into restoring, caring for and growing Nashville’s tree canopy.
