In 2011, the Town of Cary conducted an energy and greenhouse gas inventory in an effort to measure its emissions resulting from municipal operations. The purpose of the inventory was to measure and track energy use as a first step to developing energy reduction goals and developing a robust energy management program. 

The Town’s first Strategic Energy Action Plan was adopted by Council on June 14, 2012. This plan outlines a path forward for the Town of Cary to reduce operational energy use and includes an energy reduction goal with an associated energy management plan.

The Strategic Energy Action Plan is near term enough to be meaningful to staff, acknowledges the operational and service-driven nature of our organization, and addresses the key energy-using categories of Town operations: 1) water and wastewater, 2) fleet, and 3) buildings and streetlights.

The overall goal is a 13 percent reduction in energy use from the projected 2020 “business as usual” energy estimate for Town operations. Staff estimates that once this goal is attained in 2020, this reduction in energy use will result in a yearly avoided cost of approximately $1.5 million and a yearly reduction of 7,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

In December 2015 Council approved an update to the Strategic Energy Action Plan. Meaningfully, the key performance indicators were all trending in the direction of reduced energy use and more efficiency. The one-year estimated avoided energy cost for 2014 was over $590,000.