The Town of Saint Andrews plans to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2034. Mayor Brad Henderson says council unanimously agreed to this ambitious target at a recent council meeting.

"We recently looked at our greenhouse gas emissions," says Henderson. "We partnered with Eastern Charlotte Waterways to look at what the town exerts. We got some positive news. From 2008 to 2020, the Town of Saint Andrews lowered its emissions by 22 per cent. That's a solid movement on the needle." 

Henderson said while its reassuring to see Saint Andrews moving in a positive direction, town council wants to consciously make efforts to move even further in the direction of becoming an environmentally proactive community. 

"What we are doing now is setting another target as we look ahead," says Henderson. "Council is unified in wanting to continue to lower emissions, but what we wanted to do was decide what the target would be and what the timeline would be. What we ended up setting on was this: Our original target was 30 per cent by 2030, but we changed that goal to 2034 to make sure we give enough time for council and town staff to put this into action. It's one thing to set targets, but it's another thing to come up with an action plan and actually do it. We've had a lot of healthy conversation on the topic, and we know we are going to have to spend money to do it."

Henderson says that while Saint Andrews might be a small contributor and, on a global scale, not a major contributor, the town still has a responsibility to make a positive change and be conscious of its own carbon footprint no matter how small. 

"Someone asked me why Saint Andrews is concerned about this because we're not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions," says Henderson. "It's a fair comment, but in the same sense, we can still do better. If you think of Saint Andrews and the rising sea levels, no one has more at stake than we do."