LAKEWOOD, Colo. — The City of Lakewood is earning recognition for its efforts to fight climate change, recently earning recognition from the international non-profit CDP for the fourth time and second year in a row. CDP tracks progress when it comes to climate change.
Denver7 sat down with Jeff Wong, with the City of Lakewood, who highlighted some of their successful program like the Sustainable Neighborhood Program.
“It’s a really unique program across the country, where we have residents really empowered to drive sustainability projects within their neighborhoods,” Wong said. “It's a certification program, and it's really the residents that drive the priorities of the projects that they want to work on whether that's waste reduction, water efficiency, things like that.”
It’s so popular, the city knows more neighborhoods want to join in and are actively looking to expand their resources and staff to accommodate more people for projects like waste management, building out tree canopies and community gardens.
Wong said other cities, along with the State of Colorado were recognized. Submitting is a rigorous process, involving a lot of data, but Wong said it’s worth it to offer people transparency.
“I think the data really informs how we can prioritize our programs and policies. For example, here in Lakewood, we know that the majority of our missions comes from buildings and transportation. So, we're trying to think of unique strategies to address reducing those emissions related to the building and transportation sector,” Wong said.
Other priorities also include building out electric vehicle infrastructure, wildfire preparedness and resiliency, reducing water use and increasing energy efficiency.
“We are really excited. I think climate change is really hard work addressing that, and we're really always focused on our projects and policy,” Wong said. “So, to take a break and be recognized for all our hard work was really rewarding.”
