Nashville Mayor John Cooper Releases His 2022 Action Plan for City-Wide Sustainability

As Nashville grows, sustainability and how we react to climate change have become important topics. Nashville Mayor John Cooper has set forth an action plan to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 80% with the use of solar-powered energy and planting more trees. Plus, take a look at his legislation on environmentally equitable development and how Nashville is positioned to be a sustainable leader for years to come.

Nashville has a goal to plant 500,000 trees by 2050. Photo via @centennialpark

Nashville’s number one priority to reach sustainability, according to Mayor John Cooper, is to reduce our community’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. He plans to do this by powering more metro government buildings with solar energy, and planting half a million trees by 2050. In partnership with Root Nashville, the city will start planting 9,500 trees this year and another 12,000 in 2023.

“America’s cities are on the front lines of combatting climate change and increasing our resilience to natural disasters,” according to Mayor Cooper. “Nashville has brought a sense of urgency and a practical, collaborative approach to getting this work done. We made strong gains in 2021, and I’m committed to doing more.”

Not only is Nashville committed to protecting the well-being of its citizens with sustainable programs, the initiative itself will create meaningful jobs in the clean energy sector and, “advance environmental equity," said Linda Breggin, co-chair of Mayor Cooper’s sustainability advisory committee and a senior attorney at the Environmental Law Institute.

“Furthermore, by committing to carbon reductions and increasing the city’s renewable energy capacity, Nashville will become even more attractive to the multitude of companies with their own greenhouse gas reduction commitments that are looking to expand, relocate, or site new facilities,” she added.

Equitable redevelopment is another strategy for Mayor Cooper’s sustainable action plan, “Nashville lost a total of 918 acres’ worth of trees in the last 14 years – primarily on parcels undergoing development from 2008 until 2016.”

In December, metro council approved legislation to invest about 1% of revenues from the city’s construction activities into restoring, caring for and growing Nashville’s tree canopy.

To read more about Mayor Cooper’s 2022 sustainability action plan, visit here.

Plant a tree and protect the canopy. Sign up for your free tree at rootnashville.org.