Hamilton County Climate Initiative encouraging Blue Ash to go green

The city of Blue Ash is working on several efforts to "go green" as part of Blue Ash's participation in Hamilton County's Climate Initiative.

The Hamilton County Climate Initiative began in 2008 as a way to develop a "user-friendly tool kit on how to save money by implementing best practices in government regarding energy use and green policies."

The initiative looked into a variety of topics that included solid waste management/food production issues, transportation, energy and development.

The goal of the Hamilton County Climate Initiative is to create a County-wide action plan for reducing the impact of local governments and communities on the issue of global climate change.  The end result will be a County-wide plan for greenhouse gas reduction.

By coordinating efforts the County hopes to address the problems impacting individual communities while allowing the communities to "use the talents and resources of a larger group to explore options and strategies for the creation of a community specific plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Blue Ash has been involved from the beginning with several city leaders being actively involved in each of the Hamilton County Climate Initiative meetings held so far.  The involvement has been a means of sharing the innovative practices already in place in the northern Cincinnati community and learning about new opportunities.

So far Blue Ash has come up with a variety of solutions that include the use of LED traffic signals, recirculating hot water systems in city facilities, clean hazardous waste disposal, curbside and drop-off recycling locations, the use of Geo-Melt for snow and ice removal and white roofs replacement on traditional black membrane roofs at city facilities.

Once communities around Hamilton County compile their list and submit their solutions back to the coordinated effort it will create a Hamilton County Climate Action Plan of sorts that will have been drawn up by individual communities for the larger County-wide benefit.

Writer: Randy Simes
Source: City of Blue Ash