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Aspen homes largest emitters in greenhouse gas report

Creative Commons/Flickr/David Leo Veksler

The City of Aspen will target homes and neighborhoods in a push to reduce its carbon footprint. The latest inventory of pollutants shows Aspen is falling behind in meeting goals to reduce emissions. 

Since 2004, greenhouse gas emissions in Aspen have dropped by 7.4 percent. Ashley Perl is with the City’s Canary Initiative that tracks this data.

"That’s no small task for our town because we’ve been growing a lot and our economy has grown as well, and we’ve enjoyed a great quality of life while continuing to reduce emissions.”

Still, the numbers mean it’ll be difficult for Aspen to reach its goals of a 30 percent reduction of emissions by 2020, and an 80 percent drop by 2050.

City staff presented the latest data to council Monday. In it, the residential sector was the largest user of energy. This emitter saw an increase of 5-percent, rather than a decrease over the decade data was tracked. Aspen City Councilman Bert Myrin sought solutions.

"Are we pushing the envelope on every opportunity we have in the building department and in our codes to make this change?"

In the fall, the City will consider adopting a greener building code. Meanwhile, the Canary Initiative office intends to reach out to property managers and homeowners as part of an effort to win a prize. Aspen is competing against other U.S. cities to win 5 million dollars. The goal is to lower electricity and natural gas use in homes.