Contact the mayor.  Alternatively, if you know of a city councilor with a particular interest in environmental issues, go directly to that person.  If you can find the city website, you will be able to look up your mayor and all of your city councilors, and probably contact information for each of them.  Email or fax them about your concerns, or call them on the phone at your city hall.  Let them know you are a concerned citizen who would like to see the city join the hundreds of other communities nation-wide that have made a commitment to curbing greenhouse emissions at a local level.  Ask if you can meet with mayor or a city councilor to discuss this issue.

Clearly define your goals.  You do not want your city government to make a token statement that describes a goal of reducing greenhouse emissions, but includes no assurance that the city will actually follow through with that goal or make any real changes to current practices.  What the city needs to do is to take into account greenhouse emissions from every sector of the city, formulate a realistic goal for reducing the overall contribution to global warming, set a timeline for achieving the goal, and decide what measures are going to be taken to meet it.  Words accomplish nothing unless they are accompanied by action.

Be persistent.  If your first message is not answered, then try again.  If you emailed the first time, try a fax or a telephone call - you are sometimes more likely to get an answer this way then by emailing.  Keep trying, and someone will eventually answer your request.

At your meeting with the mayor or councilor: Explain why it is important to you that the city do something about its contributions to global warming.  Why do you care, personally?  If you have friends, neighbors, or family members in the community with the same concerns, bring that up at the meeting.  Local officials will want to know why this issue is so important to the people who elected them.  You will also want to show that you have some knowledge of what you are talking about; before your meeting, find out about organizations which help local governments get started on reducing greenhouse emissions.  Be ready to point to other cities that have already moving forward; be prepared to give examples of what other communities are doing.

Offer to communicate your message to the rest of the city council.  Ask if you can give a presentation to the city council about your issue.  This is a great way to publicly ask the city government to take you up on your challenge.  Though giving a presentation to the council might sound intimidating, there will be people to show you what to do.  If you want to put together a short power-point, that can be very effective, and computer experts at the city hall will probably load the presentation for you before the meeting, and show you how the equipment works.

Make sure to follow up!  This is extremely important - if you give your presentation and then disappear, your project is likely to die quietly.  At the end of your presentation, you may want to ask how you can be of further help to the city council.  Perhaps a committee in the city government will take up your issue; ask if this is going to happen, and if you can be allowed to attend committee meetings.  Even if you can not get directly involved in a committee, make sure the city council considers your proposal seriously.  A few days after your presentation, call the city hall to ask what progress is being made.  Continue to do this frequently until you are sure that the project is moving forward. 

Congratulate the city council on its good work.  Once the city is finally at the point where it is taking real steps to cut overall greenhouse emissions, let the mayor, the city council, and anyone else who has helped you know how much you appreciate their work.  They deserve credit for whatever real action they take.  And, when you're a city councilor, voter enthusiasm for what you are doing is the best possible thing to make you want to keep on doing it.

Post your thoughts and questions, or report progress you have made on our home blog