The Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE) will hold a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 28. The City of Asheville declared a climate emergency when City Council approved and adopted Resolution 20-25 on Jan. 29, as endorsed by SACEE. In declaring this emergency, the City has recognized not only the importance of taking action to reduce the impacts of climate change but also the importance of incorporating social justice into those actions.
As stated by the NAACP: “Environmental injustice, including the proliferation of climate change, has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and low-income communities in the United States and around the world.”
In Asheville’s Climate Emergency Resolution, SACEE committed to organizing a public input session to engage the community and gather information for establishment of a Climate Justice Plan, explicitly focusing not only on the specific strategies to mitigate climate change but also on the social impacts those actions may have in our city. Because of COVID-19 and the uncertainty as to when in-person public meetings can again be conducted, the SACEE-moderated public input session on this topic is scheduled to be a virtual meeting.
Join the City of Asheville and SACEE for the live input session via the City’s Public Input Hub. The session includes professionals on the intersectional topics of housing, energy, tree canopy protection, and transit, including:
- Jeff Staudinger, Community Development Director for the City of Asheville, Retired
- Sophie Mullinax, Blue Horizons Project Manager
- Amy Smith, Urban Forestry Commission, Professor, Purdue University Global
- Eunice Lovie, Transit Planning Manager
Interactive ways to participate include polls and a chat function in which participants can add insights beyond the polls. Please also see the additional questions available on the Public Input Hub. This work is ongoing and taking multiple pathways for input, including the City’s Climate Justice Initiative.