Few issues in recent decades have presented local government with a magnitude of challenge and the potential of significant opportunities
to willfully create more sustainable communities than those related to energy management. Author Thomas Friedman in the recently published work “Hot, Flat and Crowded” has termed the time we are living in as the Energy/Climate Era.

We are confronted daily, both as individuals and communities, with the impacts of climate change, global competition for resources and an erratic but continually upward trend in energy prices. The issue of peak oil is real. Resource scarcity, inequities in distribution, disruption of distribution systems and the higher costs of oil appear to be the realities of our energy future.

This reality is a clarion call for the development of a more locally secure and lower cost energy future based upon more efficient building designs, transportation alternatives, and energy sources and fuels that can create an energy resilient and sustainable community. This is not simply an environmental issue or simply the important effort to reduce our carbon footprint as a community, but provides a more secure future for our people and the quality of life the local community may provide.

As County Manager, I am therefore pleased to introduce and publish the Executive Summary and Final Report of the Alachua County Energy Conservation Strategies Committee (ECSC). The report is an analysis of how Alachua County can be made a more energy resilient and sustainable community. It is written in such a manner to both raise awareness of the problems facing our communities as well as propose solution and implementation strategies. It was researched and prepared by a dedicated group of citizens, academics and professionals who made up the ECSC.

This Committee, which was chaired by former County Commissioner Penny Wheat, has produced a comprehensive report that outlines an alternative future for energy use, conservation, and distribution of alternative energy sources in our community. The highly skilled citizens involved in the preparation of this report inventoried existing practices within the County and utilized the talents and knowledge of existing County personnel and community partners to develop both an organization and community strategy for meeting the needs for energy in our County.

This effort resulted in a report that is on the leading edge of those reports prepared by local government agencies that I have read from across the Country. Its recommendations will assist both residents and the community to reduce our carbon footprint. More importantly, the sustainable solutions outlined within the report will foster revitalization of our economy, improve our environment, and increase the wellbeing of our citizens through the provision of lower costs and
locally derived energy sources.

An implementation of this report will require funding and a multi-year commitment by County elected officials and staff in a prioritized manner that recognizes that, in these times of economic scarcity, each expenditure, or investment in conservation or technology, must provide the maximum return on investment possible. In some cases this will require the use of life cycle cost estimating to determine the real cost of our expenditures. The improvements implemented as a result of the report in the form of new energy sources, greater conservation efforts and better building design will provide long term savings to our organization and community.

The committee has already embarked on a large scale community awareness and civic education program through presentations to community groups and through the publication of this report. I salute the committee’s effort and applaud the huge civic footprint the members of the ECSC have left on the energy future of our community.