Lexington committee hears ‘Race to Net 0’ emissions plan; officials stress partnership with utilities and community

The Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee on June 10 heard a presentation on Lexington’s updated community and municipal emissions-reduction plan, titled “Race to Net 0,” aimed at guiding the city toward net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by midcentury.

The plan, presented by Jada Walker Griggs, program manager senior for sustainability, and Abby Terry of consultant Tetra Tech, lays out sector-by-sector reduction measures tied to the city’s Empower Lexington plan and a community emissions inventory. “It is our race to net 0,” Walker Griggs said during the presentation.

Why it matters: The plan shows municipal operations account for a small portion of total emissions — about 2% — while stationary energy (mostly buildings) and transportation make up the bulk. Committee members pressed staff on how the city will work with utilities, transit and the private sector to achieve targets that extend to 2030 and 2050.

Key details: Walker Griggs said the updated plan aligns Empower Lexington’s high-level strategies with a more detailed emissions inventory and vulnerability assessment. Staff contracted Tetra Tech to complete the greenhouse-gas inventory for both community-wide and LFUCG municipal operations. The inventory presents emissions in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and shows roughly 70% of community emissions come from stationary energy, followed by transportation.

Tetra Tech consultant Abby Terry defined the plan’s technical approach: “A reduction measure is a shift from a high emissions activity, such as using fossil fuels to generate electricity, to a lower emissions activity, such as using solar to generate electricity.” The consultants applied an analytical handbook to estimate reductions and concluded the proposed suite of measures could address roughly 80% of baseline emissions under current feasible assumptions; the remaining gap would require offsets or renewable energy purchases.

Measures and implementation: The plan groups actions by sector. For buildings (stationary energy) it recommends adopting updated building codes, weatherization and electrification of natural-gas systems; for transportation it prioritizes increased transit ridership, mode shift away from single-occupant vehicles, electrification where trips cannot be shifted, and development patterns that reduce travel demand. For waste, the plan emphasizes source reduction and composting. Forestry and land-use measures include urban tree canopy expansion and fertilizer optimization. The plan notes municipal operations follow the same sector priorities but represent a smaller share of total emissions.

Staff emphasized partnerships and limits of local authority. Walker Griggs said work with utilities is essential and noted the regional parent company for KU and LG&E has a stated net-zero goal by 2050; she added that “the work that is done with them will kinda decide how this actually moves when it comes to our stationary energy.” Committee members asked about LexTran coordination, EV infrastructure, grant funding and how the city will track progress.

Tracking and targets: The presenters said the emissions inventory uses vehicle miles traveled as the transportation metric and that each sector summary in the plan includes tracking metrics to measure progress at future inventories. Staff described sector-level targets as “based on what is currently feasible” and said targets may be raised over time as technology, markets and regulation evolve.

Questions from council members focused on: utility resource mix and how it influences building electrification benefits; whether LexTran has plans to transition its fleet; the availability of federal funding for EV infrastructure and strategies to ensure equitable access to charging; and how rising electricity demands (for example from data centers) might affect the grid and local emissions outcomes.

What committee members asked staff to do next: staff said they will continue community outreach, partner with public information staff on education, pursue grants where feasible, and work with transportation and commercial stakeholders on pilot initiatives and code updates that affect new buildings and municipal procurement. Walker Griggs said the interactive plan and supporting materials are posted on the sustainability website and encouraged council members to follow up with staff for technical detail.

Context and background: Empower Lexington is a community-wide sustainability plan the council approved earlier; Walker Griggs summarized the city’s sustainability timeline going back to a 2008 resolution and stakeholder planning around 2012. The presentation also cited FEMA’s risk index to frame local climate vulnerabilities including cold waves, tornadoes, strong winds, lightning and ice storms.

Looking ahead: Staff described the presentation as setting a framework and said implementation will require both internal LFUCG actions and broader community participation. Walker Griggs closed the presentation quoting Wendell Berry: “The Earth is what we all have in common.”