Large-scale sustainability goals are achievable when cities and counties support themLarge-scale sustainability goals are achievable when cities and counties support them

Local agencies have multiple ways to become more sustainable, says Auden Schendler, former commissioner of Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission. There, Schendler developed the state’s climate policies.

“Counties and municipalities can intervene on climate (which is sustainability) in meaningful, large-scale ways by tackling three huge pieces of the climate problem: electricity supply, the built environment and transportation.” 

Schendler says local governments wield substantial power with energy providers. “Because they are large customers, cities and counties can pressure their electric utilities to provide more real clean power, meaning that the utility converts over time to renewable sources and storage, versus buying false solutions like renewable energy certificates. This shift to renewables enables a move to the next step on the built environment.”

The second step, says Schendler, is for cities and counties to pass new building codes that specifically emphasize electrification and battery storage and de-emphasize old-school “green building” approaches like rooftop solar panels. “That’s because an all-electric building on a clean grid is, by definition, ‘net zero.’ And utilities need storage, they don’t need rooftop solar, which costs homeowners a lot of money and pulls capital away from needed electrification, efficiency and storage. That doesn’t mean solar is bad, it just means that utilities can access it more cheaply, at larger scale, elsewhere.” Schendler explains that a part of this process is for local governments to refuse to extend gas lines into new development, thus requiring electrification of the new structures.

Regarding transportation solutions as a sustainability tool, Schendler believes cities and counties can play a key role. “They can reduce sprawl, traffic and vehicle pollution by changing zoning to allow for deed-restricted (rent- or price-controlled) density in the urban core so that people can live where they work instead of having to commute.” Some potential zoning changes he envisions are higher buildings, smaller units, mother-in-law additions and the elimination of minimum house-size requirements. He notes that these fixes will also aid in addressing the affordable housing shortage in the U.S.

Schendler notes that all his sustainability approaches are to some extent being applied locally across the U.S. “All these measures, very doable at the local level, then become models for larger, national policy.”

Schendler served on Basalt, Colo.’s town council from 2016-2020. He currently is senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen One. There, he works on solutions to climate change, including clean-energy development, policy, advocacy and activism. His new book is “Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul.”

Cities that are environmentally green—Latest ranking
WalletHub has released its current “Greenest Cities in America (2025)” ranking. The top finisher is San Diego, followed by Washington, D.C., and Honolulu. Six of the top 10 cities are in California. To identify the greenest areas of the country, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 28 key “green” indicators. The criteria covered in the ranking included greenhouse-gas emissions per capita, a community’s water quality and green job opportunities available in each city.

According to a recent Gallup survey, U.S. residents remain concerned about the environment. “Green” living means adopting cleaner, more sustainable habits to preserve the globe as much as possible for future generations. The latest Gallup poll shows about 52 percent of Americans believe protecting the environment should be prioritized above and beyond economic growth. The survey summary notes: “Clean energy and other ‘green’ practices, such as recycling programs and urban agriculture, help create jobs and benefit both the environment and public health, all of which contribute to America’s bottom line. Recognizing those advantages, cities across the U.S. have increased their sustainability efforts and benefited economically.”

OMNIA Partners, who sponsors this page, offers a robust portfolio of cooperative contracts in the public procurement space. The firm lists a number of cooperative contracts under the keyword “sustainability.”