Building a Green Capital City: The Natural Step to Madison’s Sustainable Design and Energy Future

The City of Madison, WI launched a program in 2004 to become a green capital city and a leader in sustainable design and energy. The city is leading by example and encouraging businesses and residents to follow suit. Madison adopted The Natural Step (TNS)--a scientific, systemwide approach, to create a common understanding of sustainability and is using the TNS framework to inform decisions and foster interdepartmental collaboration. The city began by greening its own operations. Programs include establishing a fleet fuel efficiency standard, implementing green purchasing and cleaning, installing solar systems on city properties, certifying new and existing buildings to LEED, purchasing electric hybrid buses, improving bus ridership among city employees, and creating baselines, measurement protocols and standards for energy use and CO2 emissions. Madison incorporated sustainability into the hiring and specifications for the zoning code rewrite and a low income housing development project. They are partnering with the County on developing light rail. Madison received a USDOE Solar City grant and is teaming with Focus on Energy and its local utility to facilitate solar installations by homeowners and businesses. The city launched a climate change program to reduce city wide emissions of CO2 100,000 tons by 2011. In partnering with 14 organizations, the Mpowering Madison campaign www.mpoweringmadison.com challenges businesses and residents to act and count their actions in 6 areas: purchase renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, install solar systems, reduce car emissions, plant trees and conserve water. Madison’s holistic approach toward becoming a sustainable city is noteworthy