Detroit sustainability director highlights solar initiative, building benchmarking and compost pilot in 2024 annual report

Safira Rushton, director of the City of Detroit Office of Sustainability, told a council committee on April 21 that the office’s 2024 annual report centers on an array of efforts — from a Solar Initiative to a pilot community composting network — aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and improving public health.

"This is actually the perfect place to talk about sustainability, because it is a public health issue," Rushton said, adding that the office tracks emissions from both municipal operations and the community.

The nut graf: Rushton said the Detroit Solar Initiative, expanded benchmarking of building energy use and new resilience hubs are intended to help the city meet targets the council approved in city code. She told council members the Solar Initiative alone is expected to push the city past a 35% greenhouse-gas reduction target set for 2024.

Rushton described four priority areas the office uses to guide work: transition to clean energy, expand sustainable mobility, accelerate energy efficiency and waste reduction, and prioritize vulnerable residents exposed to flooding, poor air quality and extreme heat. The Solar Initiative is intended to reduce the citywide inventory roughly 36% relative to the adopted target, Rushton said. She also said 62% of Detroit’s reported emissions come from the building sector.

On benchmarking, Rushton said the council-passed ordinance requiring building owners to report energy and water use was adopted in November 2023. At the time the annual report was prepared, compliance was about 26%; Rushton told members compliance has since risen to about 31 percent as the office reaches out to building owners and provides assistance. "You can't change what you can't measure," she said.

The office is working with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) on the city’s next greenhouse-gas inventory, using 2023 data; Rushton said that work is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. She said the office also supports expansion of electric-vehicle infrastructure and noted there are currently "over 20" public EV charging stations citywide.

Rushton outlined a new, decentralized community composting plan intended to reduce the roughly 20% of landfill-bound waste that is food. She said the program will start with a single public drop-off this spring, include education about backyard composting and link residents to urban farms that already produce compost. "We'll announce the drop-off location this spring," Rushton said.

On resilience hubs, Rushton said earlier work focused on the East Side but the office has secured a small grant to study feasibility for hubs on the West Side. She said partners such as EcoWorks and Wayne County are building a coordinated network and that the goal is consistent standards so hubs can operate during extreme-weather events.

Council members asked for operational details. Member Mary Waters confirmed the office’s senior energy analyst is leading the benchmarking outreach and said she was encouraged by the composting pilot’s plan to pair drop-off sites with existing urban farms. Rushton said the office has added staff since she arrived, including a deputy director, an urban-agriculture lead and resilience staff.

The presentation and discussion were recorded on the committee agenda and the committee received the 2024 annual report for further review.

Ending: Council members did not take an immediate formal vote on new sustainability ordinances during the meeting; Rushton said staff would follow up with additional details and the office would remain available to answer further questions.