Imagine the city of Ames recognizing the threat of global warming and taking measures to eliminate emissions into the environment before even the U.S. government and executive administration. Given recent push by ActivUs, a student organization dedicated to political awareness and engagement, and recent exploration by the city of Ames, this ideology may soon be a reality.

ActivUs has been collecting signatures and presenting the facts for its program “Campus Climate Challenge,” a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, promote energy conservation and educate the public. Ultimately, the organization strives to advance Ames to the status of being a “Cool City,” meaning a city that has put its commitments to a healthier environment into action by signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which is essentially the Kyoto Protocol on a local level.

On March 8, the organization passed around a petition to be signed by supporters at The Boheme, 2900 West St., which sponsors club nights on Thursdays, and has already received about 400 signatures.

Paul Hinderaker, director of fleet services for the city of Ames, is steering the Clean Air and Climate Protection initiative, which he said is still “on the launch pad.”

“We just received the software to establish a baseline,” Hinderaker said. “We determine what year and percentage rate of improvement to use as our goal.”

The program is used to determine the amount of emissions the city of Ames is responsible for by measuring the quantity and class of the fuels and electricity used by city buildings, the vehicle fleet, employee commute, streetlights, water/sewage treatment, waste and other sources. The city can then begin to achieve its reduction goals by replacing fuel-burning vehicles with hybrid or ethanol vehicles, using solar or water energy, and by implementing other innovative energy solutions.

The inventory process, which includes hundreds of fleet vehicles, hundreds of employees who commute, thousands of streetlights and so on, is expected to take about a year.

Laura Bosworth, junior in animal ecology and member of ActivUs, said the organization has been working in an attempt to get the Ames City Council to enact the local Kyoto Protocol as part of the “Cool Cities” program.

Bosworth said a few of the energy and emission saving initiatives ActivUs is challenging the university to explore are “raising awareness about energy conservation and getting administration to purchase more energy from alternative resources, [and] getting computer labs to turn off computers at night.”

Hinderaker said the city is hesitant to adopt any program just yet, as it is still in the process of education and gathering data regarding the emissions and goals for improvement.

“Anything we can do to improve the environment is good for all of us,” Hinderaker said. “We are fortunate to have cleaner air than other cities, which kind of puts us in front of the curve.”

According to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that “climate disruption is a reality and that human activities are largely responsible for increasing concentrations of global-warming pollution. The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, is responsible for producing approximately 25 percent of the world’s global warming pollutants.”

Ames Mayor Ann Campbell said she is considering signing on with one of the programs, but reinforced that Ames has been making constant strides with environment improvement.

“It is something I am certainly aware of,” Campbell said of the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which is presently residing on her desk. “As a council we are still exploring the programs, but making individual efforts.”

Ames has a history of energy innovation as the first city to use waste as energy, and has done so since 1975. By collecting garbage from Ames and 13 other communities, the city is able to create electricity and decrease the use of landfills, Campbell said.

“Currently we are working with Iowa State University and Dr. Robert Brown [professor of the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technology] on bioenergy that would make the waste-energy system more efficient,” Campbell said.

Both Campbell and Hinderaker reiterated that the city is making progress – with waste to energy conversion, purchase of an electric car and wind energy – and seriously considering a program, but wants to explore all of its options to avoid setting itself up for unrealistic goals and expectations.

“We are doing things almost every week for the individual components, but want to make sure they are doable before moving under a program,” Campbell said.