On Sept. 2, 2008, Roanoke City Council signed onto ICLEI/ Local Governments for Sustainability and adopted greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets for the city and community. Council committed by resolution to reduce GHG emissions from municipal operations by a total of 12.5% over a five-year period between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2014. Council also established a goal to reduce community-wide GHG emissions by 10% over a five-year period during the same time frame. At the end of CY 2014 the city had surpassed the municipal goal by achieving a 25% GHG reduction and an impressive 13% for the community.

In June 2016, council adopted new targets of an additional 12.5% for the municipal operations and an additional 10% for the community by the end of CY 2019.

With these emission reduction targets in mind, City staff was charged with developing a Climate Action Plan for the Roanoke community and implementing the programs, initiatives and best practices to the extent practical and achievable within available funding and resources.

ICLEI

Roanoke has completed the community inventory every year since 2008. The municipal footprint is now on a biannual basis with the last completed GHG measurement in 2014. ICLEI provides the city with a reporting software ClearPath which is used by a large number of cities across the world. ClearPath provides consistency in data collection and analytics.

Better Building Challenge

In 2012 Roanoke joined the Better Building Challenge as an early adopter, the city committed to a 20% energy reduction on  over a million square feet by 2022. In 2018, Roanoke achieved a 23% reduction becoming a U.S. Department of Energy - Better Buildings Challenge GOAL ACHIEVER!

Compact of Mayors 

Roanoke signed on to the Compact of Mayors, the first global coalition of local government committed to reducing and track the greenhouse gas emissions. Last year  the Compact of Mayors merged with the Covenant of Mayors, to form the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.