"As soon as we get the ICLEI survey results for a baseline year," says Paula Davis, Executive Director of Keep Akron Beautiful, which is heading-up Akron’s Greenprint effort, "the City can set reduction goals for emissions and energy use into the future."

Mayor Don Plusquellic announced the creation of a "greenprint" for Akron in August, 2007, and named Keep Akron Beautiful, a nonprofit agency serving the citizens of Akron in the areas of litter and graffiti control, environmental education and public land beautification, to lead the community’s planning effort.

"We know how to use blueprints for constructing buildings," the Mayor said. "We need to have a new plan on how Akron can compete effectively in a world that is increasingly concerned over environmental issues - a "greenprint, if you will."

Plusquellic, former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was an early-adopter of the USCM’s Climate Protection Agreement, which pledges to work on twelve areas over the long term to reduce government’s carbon footprint.

On March 31, Akron City Council approved a Resolution endorsing ICLEI’s   Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, which consists of five milestones:

• Conduct a local inventory and forecast greenhouse gas emissions
• Adopt an emissions reduction target
• Draft an Action Plan to achieve the target
• Implement the action plan
• Evaluate, report on progress and update plans

To implement these goals, Mayor Plusquellic appointed a "Green Ribbon" panel of City employees. It has drafted a mission and vision statement for the Greenprint for Akron, and is currently working in seven action areas to develop energy reduction goals and natural resource conservation practices for Akron’s Eco-Smart Campaign.

Greenprint Mission Statement:
Greenprint for Akron creates an environmental partnership to foster a sustainable, eco-friendly community through education and leadership.

Davis has been convening the Greenprint panel on a regular basis to develop momentum around the goals. City engineers are leading the effort to collect data. Akron has already marked some achievements: recycling of asphalt and oil; an award-winning urban forestry project; aggressively pursuing "brownfield" development; and announced plans to convert sludge into energy – the "biogas" project.

"I’m particularly proud of our residents," said the Mayor. "Forty-eight percent of Akron households are now recycling, an improvement of almost 30% in the first year of our automated sanitation program."

This summer, the City of Akron will also embark on a campaign to encourage more use of bicycles, and will install more bike racks and identify more bike-friendly streets.