TUCSON, Ariz. — Pima County created a plan to help be more energy efficient and increase their use of solar energy.
This plan was approved by the board of supervisors in 2018 as the sustainable action plan, where the county can track its progress through a report card.
Since the start of the plan, the county said it's seen an improvement overall and that it's well on its way to its goal to reduce the greenhouse emissions by 50% in 2025.
It's a county focused plan to look at how their facilities can increase solar capacity, reduce the use of water, introduce green infrastructure projects and reduce the amount of waste the county produces.
"As a local government, we have always played a role in conservation of our open space land," Julie Robinson, Manager of Sustainability for Pima County, said. "This is an expansion of that effort to look at how we can improve our facilities and use what we do at the county as a model for our community."
Robinson said the county does want to set an example for the city, but understands the commitment already made by many people in the community to be environmentally friendly.
The three pillars to complete this plan are people, planet and profit, the county said.
People is the social well-being of our community, planet is having environmental protection and profit is economic development.
By being sustainable, the county said it is able to create local jobs for people and keep money in our community to help our economy.
"The sustainable action plan has resulted in millions of dollars of savings for Pima County taxpayers in terms of reducing the cost of out energy use and those are benefits that are pasted on to taxpayers," Robinson said.
This plan is a long term one that the county plans to stick to over the years.
