Bernadette Pelissier on Orange County environmental initiatives

Bernadette Pelissier did a great job summing up the success of the Cool Cities program in Orange County. You can see an advance copy of her column running in the Chapel Hill papers here.

Here's an excerpt:

On June 5 at an event in Hillsborough, the Sierra Club honored all five of our major local government entities for their work to reduce the effects of global warming.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough were recognized as part of the ‘Cool Cities’ program, while UNC and Orange County earned the Cool College and Cool County labels respectively.

These designations are earned by the governments making formal commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. These words and goals are important, but more important are the actual actions that are taken to reach these targets.

That’s why the event last Tuesday, on a beautiful last spring morning at the Old Courthouse, was so heartening. Each and every one of those entities is stepping up to the plate!