County tackles greenhouse-gas issue

Snohomish County will work to lessen its impact on the environment with a new focus on greenhouse-gas reductions.

County Executive Aaron Reardon recently announced the initiative, urging the county to find ways to reduce carbon emissions — believed to be a leading factor in global warming — about 20 percent below year-2000 levels by 2020.

Under the executive order, Reardon will form a staff committee to review and analyze the county's emissions. The committee will make recommendations for reductions.

"We're starting with a group of pros to look at county-government operations and our carbon footprint," Reardon said. "We want to consider green building, improvements in our HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] systems, pervious concretes, utility savings, computer usage and energy consumption and vehicle-fleet improvements."

The county has slowly been switching some of its fleet to biodiesel fuel, with the hope that at some point biodiesel will be produced in Snohomish County. Local farmers have been testing crops that could be turned into biodiesel.

In addition, the county will form a panel of stakeholders to make recommendations for countywide proposals aimed at curbing carbon emissions and reducing waste.

Reardon hopes businesses also continue to make environmental efforts.

Finally, Snohomish County joins the U.S. Cool Counties climate-stabilization initiative, which urges the nation's more than 3,000 counties to reduce global warming.

The executive order follows the March request that the County Council's Democratic majority made to Reardon.

In it, council members Dave Gossett, Kirke Sievers and Dave Somers asked the executive to provide the council with ways to reduce the county's environmental footprint and to identify ways that growth can be maintained without increasing carbon emissions.

"Accounting for new growth will be very important," Gossett said.

While the county staff committee will make ongoing recommendations for change, the stakeholder group is expected to report back to the county in December.

Some of those ideas could make their way to the governor's climate-change advisory team, of which Reardon is a member.

Christopher Schwarzen: 425-783-0577 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com