Four years ago, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz proposed a challenge: reduce Madison’s carbon footprint by 100,000 tons by April, 2011. The Mpower Campaign hoped to achieve its goal by buying renewable wind and solar power; increasing the efficiency of current energy use; installing solar systems. Planet Bike was one of the first to sign on with the campaign, installing solar panels to power our offices.

The latest numbers have been tallied at a decrease of about 128,000 tons of carbon dioxide…four months ahead of schedule! The University of Wisconsin also took up the challenge and reduced its cumulative carbon dioxide emissions by 183,000 tons since 2007. And in addition to businesses that purchased green power, the MPower ChaMpion Businesses also accounted for a reduction of about 13,000 tons. In total, that’s a reduction of about 324,000 tons!

What did Mayor Dave have to say about this? “So, now that we’ve met and exceeded our initial challenge, what’s next? Well, it’s time to up the ante. A new, revised Madison Sustainability Plan is about to make its way through city committees. The thing about meeting a goal is that it just whets the appetite to meet another one.”

We welcome the next challenge!