Hall’s environmental sustainability manager sees plenty of reason for optimism
How does a rapidly growing community where natural resources impact the local economy find balance between responsible sustainability and economic growth? You take it one day at a time.
Providing a clean, sustainable quality of life for Parkites has been the focus of Luke Cartin, environmental sustainability manager for City Hall, as he helps guide Park City toward the ambitious climate goals of a net-zero carbon footprint and to use 100% renewable electricity communitywide by 2030.
The Park Record spoke with Cartin about the unique challenges Park City and other mountain resort towns face due to growth, labor shortages, the pandemic and more as they confront climate change. He discussed the “bold actions” City Hall is prepared to take to ensure Park City remains a leader in environmental innovation and economic sustainability.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Park Record: Tell us about the progress Park City has made with the solar farm project in Tooele County that will provide renewable energy for the Park City area.
Luke Cartin: That is done in partnership with the Summit County government, Salt Lake City government, Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley and Utah Valley University. We all got together and ended up selecting an 80 megawatt solar farm on the western side of the Great Salt Lake. It’s being built right now. So that’s a huge win for government operations.
Also in 2019, I helped author and also pass H.B. 0411, the Utah Community Renewable Energy Act, which created the Utah Community Renewable Energy Agency to administer the Utah Community Renewable Energy program. There are 15 jurisdictions that are currently all working towards 100% renewable electricity by 2030, including big players like Salt Lake City and Ogden to small towns like Alta and Springdale.
We’re working on a program that we’re going to jointly submit with Rocky Mountain Power to the Public Service Commission. If successful, people will be automatically enrolled into the 100% Renewable by 2030 Program, and you have the option opt out if you want.
TPR: How do you define sustainability as you move forward with these strategies?
LC: Sustainability is something to thrive with. The thought is, how can we use this to not only lessen our impacts but actually use it to help our communities thrive?
Right now, we’re trying to figure out how to get the entire historic downtown to being a zero-waste destination in the next few years. We think we can pull that off. We’re trying to figure out how we can make it better to move around this community. Also, I work with trails and the open space team to discuss how can we not only just have the lands with a couple of mountain biking trails, but how can we make them more resilient, so when a wildfire hits, it won’t decimate our town.
We are steering our economy from the traditional way to a more sustainable and truly regenerative way. That’s why we work with ranchers in water quality and soil sequestration, for example. And I get to work with other mountain communities on best practices because we’ve decided we’re going to step up and start trying to figure this out. As communities, we can figure out these problems better than waiting for federal legislation. We have a lot of different tools that haven’t been tapped on this, so let’s figure out how to bring them into the fray.
When you look at the electric buses in our transit system, for example, we’ve hosted everyone from, and including, the Department of Energy to major cities that have come to look. These things aren’t just a theoretical thing. Instead, other visiting cities see these ideas are in action in our cold, hilly climate.
There’s a lot of things ongoing here. We believe Park City can be the testbed to show how to do new things effectively, truthfully and cost effectively, as well. It includes just trying things out to understand what works for our small community in Utah — the second most conservative state in the country — to see how we can help affect national and international sustainability.
TPR: You work closely with local nonprofits like Recycle Utah and the Park City Community Foundation, but do you ever collaborate with other cities?
I co-founded something called Mountain Towns 2030, and the goal is simple. Mountain communities like ours share similar experiences and challenges. When you consider the Breckenridges, Aspens, Jacksons and Laramies of the world, between all these collective communities, we probably have the brainpower to figure out ideas and solutions faster than anyone else. For instance, there are other communities that are already trying new things like microtransit. We have it happening in Summit County. Well, it’s also happening in Jackson. Let’s talk about it.
There’s a food waste residential compost pilot program going on in Durango and Vail. Let’s go learn about it. We have access to someone who’s likely a subject matter expert, so we can talk to other mountain communities to figure out how they’ve solved issues.
Let’s use private jets, as an example. Park City doesn’t own an airport. But imagine if Aspen, Crested Butte, Telluride, Jackson and Bozeman all got together because they want to start figuring out how to electrify more things. By sharing ideas with thought experts, they can start setting up airport operations to draw in more of these electric jets, or whatever it is.
So that’s the other thing is sharing these ideas outside of our community, as well. Not only just say, hey, look how great we are, but literally learn from everyone else.
Also, within the community we have some big allies in both resorts that have environmental staff who are there to help solve stainability issues.
TPR: It sounds like you have many different roles when exploring ways to improve environmental sustainability in this community.
LC: I focus on everything from playing full-blown defense, to talking to legislators about bills that potentially could not only impact us but also benefit the greater movement, and I work with other cities in Utah and learn what they’ve done, then share what we’ve done. Just this morning, I was talking to another Utah community about our plastic bag ban.
It’s not just focusing what’s going on within your boundaries and how can you keep things going. It’s more like, how can we learn from others outside of our boundaries? How can we bring the best ideas here and then share our ideas?
The hope is that people who come to Park City understand what we’re trying to do. We can’t solve all the problems at once, but we’re going to continue learning, and we’re going to try.
For more information about Park City’s commitment to environmental sustainability, visit parkcity.org.