The leaders of nearly 300 U.S. cities overwhelmingly ranked energy efficient lighting as the “most promising” technology for reducing municipal energy use and carbon emissions, with roughly 82% endorsing the technology and 29% naming it as a top priority for implementation within two years.
Retrofitting public buildings also ranked highly on the priority list, according to Philips, which conducted the survey at the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting. Notably, most mayors expected to use their own local resources to implement efficient technologies – namely city capital, operating, and utility/enterprise funds.
Thanks to recent extreme weather events, results also indicated that three-fourths of the cities have developed plans to maintain city services during sustained power outages. Nearly 90% of respondents expected to have such plans in place within the next three years.
