About Dr. Missy Stults
Dr. Missy Stults works with all city operations, residents, businesses, the University of Michigan, nonprofits, and others to make Ann Arbor one of the most sustainable and equitable cities in America. Prior to joining the City, Missy worked with local governments and indigenous communities around the nation to advance their climate and sustainability goals, including during her time as the Climate Director at ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and as a consultant to philanthropic organizations. Missy has a PhD in urban resilience from the University of Michigan, a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and undergraduate degrees in Marine Biology and Environmental Science from the University of New England.
Resources
Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability & Innovations
2022 Community Climate Action Millage
Ann Arbor Comprehensive Land Use Plan
Ann Arbor Home Energy Rating Disclosure
Transcription
Rebekah Warren: Ann Arbor has set one of Michigan's most ambitious local climate goals, reaching community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030. And over the past several years, that goal has moved well beyond a plan on paper. The city has invested in energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric vehicles, composting, building energy disclosure, and new approaches to how residents heat and power their homes. And now, one of the most visible celebrations of that work is just around the corner. The A2ZERO Green Fair returns to downtown Ann Arbor on Friday, September 18th, bringing together nearly 90 exhibitors and turning Main Street into a showcase for climate solutions that residents can actually use in their everyday life. So, how much progress is Ann Arbor making toward that 2030 goal? And what will it take to get the community across the finish line? This is 89.1 WEMU, and this is Issues of the Environment. I'm Rebekah Warren, and my guest today is Missy Stults, Sustainability and Innovations Director for the City of Ann Arbor. Missy, welcome back to Issues of the Environment!
Missy Stults: Oh, Rebekah, it's so great to be with you! Thanks for the opportunity!
Rebekah Warren: Missy, let's start with the Green Fair. This event has been around for a very long time. Many of us recall it used to be called the Mayor's Green Fair, but this year, it's officially the A2ZERO Green Fair. Why was it important to make the connection to the city's A2ZERO carbon neutrality framework?
Missy Stults: Yeah, Rebekah, you're right! This Green Fair has been running for over 25 years, so it is a mainstay in the community. And a few years ago, we actually made the transition, at the direction of the Mayor, to be the A2ZERO Green Fair. And that's because the Green Fair is bigger than any one person or one office. It represents our community and our shared commitment to climate action. And, of course, A2ZERO is just the brand, the name, under which that work sort of identifies. So, we felt like it was important to really center that this fair is about all of us.
Rebekah Warren: Well, in this event, this year, it's designed around some different areas I read, including Resilience Road, Nature Boulevard, Circularity Street, Kids' Corner, and Electric Avenue. For somebody who comes down to the Green Fair and thinks, "I'm interested in climate issues, but I'm not sure what I can actually just personally do to make an impact," are they going to see some immediate practical things that you hope they can take away to put into practice in their daily lives?
Missy Stults: Yeah, they sure are! So, this is really a celebration and an invitation into the movement or the next journey in the movement. If you've already sort of been here and maybe you're really, really strong at composting and food waste reduction, but you are curious around energy, this is an opportunity for you to go into Electric Avenue where we would have energy information available in lots of organizations. So, you can learn about opportunities to save some money in your home by doing things like installation, or explore renewable energy generation, or perhaps make the jump to a bike for some transit. Maybe that's an e-bike, maybe that is a regular bike, or maybe because of where you're traveling to, you might be thinking about an electric vehicle. There will be people that are going to talk to you about their lived experience and opportunities to engage in these different topics. Family-friendly opportunities for everyone to come out, learn something, engage, and have fun in doing it.
Rebekah Warren: As I understand, there will also be an opening bike parade, electric vehicles, a community clothing swap, and the debut of The Arbor, the city's mobile resilience unit. Missy, what does this mix of activities tell us about Ann Arbor is thinking about sustainability?
Missy Stults: Right. Sustainability is for everyone, and everyone can do something in this movement, whether that is how you move about the community in a more sustainable way, whether that's really questioning what we buy, where we buy it, how we repair it, and who's behind the scenes doing that repair work, right? There is no "away." When we talk about I'm going to throw something away, that's a very familiar vernacular for us, but it doesn't go away. It goes someplace, and it has an impact when it goes to that place. So, how do we kind of change the way we think about materials and what we use and how we use it? And so, there's movement everywhere for folks to engage in this topic. There will be a lot of non-profits. So, for those who are already kind of at the vanguard of sustainability, there'll be opportunities to talk about how they can engage and continue their incredible work. For those who are sustainability curious, welcome! We will have opportunities to invite you into the movement however you want to come into this movement.
Rebekah Warren: We're talking about Ann Arbor's efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 and the upcoming A2ZERO Green Fair with Missy Stults, Sustainability and Innovations Director for the City of Ann Arbor. I'm Rebekah Warren, and this is Issues of the Environment on 89.1 WEMU. Now, Missy, Ann Arbor has made some pretty significant investments in climate action. The 2022 Climate Millage created a much larger and more stable funding stream for things like residential energy rebates, solar projects, and curbside composting. But here's the difficult part. A city government can change its own operations, but reaching carbon neutrality across the entire community means getting thousands of households, businesses, and institutions involved. How do you measure whether those programs are actually leading to the behavior change that will get us to this goal together?
Missy Stults: Yeah, that is an outstanding question! And the answer is a little bit diffused because depending on what the program is, the measurement that we're looking at, there's almost always never one indicator of success. So, we're obviously looking at greenhouse gas emissions. What is the profile in our community and how is that tracking? The good news is it's tracking down. The bad news is, of course, it's not zero. So, we still have work to do, and we sort of call this our mother metrics that we track. But we're also looking at systems change. It's not enough for Missy Stults to decarbonize her house, right? That's not going to show up in the city's greenhouse gas inventory. What shows up in inventory is when we change the entire way we power our electric grid, when we switch our land use patterns, so that people can walk and bike and cycle and scoot to places instead of having to drive to those places. When we do those things and the system changes, we start seeing true demonstrative impact. And so, we use individual behavior change as a theory in our office to lead to collective change--system change. So, that's why it's really critical that we're all involved in this movement, but there's not a shame in this moment, right? I'm not going to ever judge you for choosing to travel to see an elderly grandparent on an airplane. That's not productive in this conversation. So, we have metrics. You can check our dashboard and see how we're tracking, and you'll see quantitative metrics. But you'll also see qualitative metrics like the story of people's lives that have been impacted by this programming and what it means day-to-day for them.
Rebekah Warren: Missy, I want to talk about another piece of the climate puzzle that doesn't always get discussed as environmental policy but plays a really critical role. And that is how our community grows. Ann Arbor's new Comprehensive Land Use approach puts more emphasis on housing density, including duplexes and triplexes and additional development along transit corridors. What's the climate argument for the kind of missing middle housing? And how can you help us learn more about that?
Missy Stults: Yeah. What people may not know is that the original A2ZERO plan actually had, by right, duplexes, triplexes and up to quads as a climate strategy because having housing in the city means that people have access to the accouterments that they need without having to drive. What I mean by that is when you have a denser community, you can do the things we talked about, like walking, spiking, taking public transit. Parallel that with the fact that we are working so hard to make sure the buildings that are built in Ann Arbor are far more sustainable than the national average. That means that someone moving into Ann Arbor has a lower carbon footprint than someone that doesn't have that option available to them. So, we want people in Ann Arbor for lots of reasons. That increases our quality of life. We have more neighbors. We have greater interaction. And actually, from a global perspective, we have a lower carbon footprint than our surrounding areas. And so, people have to live somewhere. And I think that it is a climate strategy to have them live in denser places.
Rebekah Warren: So, if we look ahead to 2030 and this ambitious goal that the city has set, are there areas where you anticipate the city's environmental priorities evolving? Like, what's the biggest thing or a couple of things that Ann Arbor really needs to accomplish that we haven't quite gotten there yet if we're gonna achieve these goals by 2030?
Missy Stults: So, maybe I'll answer it through a story of something that wasn't working that we've changed, just to kind of show the continual evaluation that happened. So, we have a Home Energy Rating Disclosure Ordinance that when you sell a home, you get a home energy score. And that's a very effective ordinance. It's a consumer protection ordinance for the new buyers coming in. But of course, the person that's selling the home is leaving, so there's no real incentive for them to make an improvement. And the new home buyer is going to get that score and not probably have a lot of ideas what to do about it. So, we created this program. We saw no impact in home sales. Everything was moving in the market, so this is good news, right? Homes are still selling. Realtors were worried about this. We didn't experience any impact. And so, we said it's time now to to see impact, to see emissions drop because of this ordinance. So, what we put in place this year is we do a note to every new homeowner in Ann Arbor, and we say I'm so glad you're here. By the way, your home scored a three in the home energy score. And we identified these three things as opportunities for you to save money, improve comfort in your home. And by the way, we have programs to help you do that. And so, we give them actionable steps as a new homeowner that they can take right now with city resources and programs to make their home more comfortable for them, right, and, of course, save money and advance our climate goals. So, that's kind of an evolution of a program where we knew we didn't want to stop. And here's a score. Now do something with that. Like, that can be confusing. We wanted to take it to the next step of we're going to help you make an improvement. So, next time that home goes for sale, it's not a three, it is a nine. That's the kind of work that our office is focusing on.
Rebekah Warren: Missy, thank you for joining us and helping us understand both where Ann Arbor is making progress and what still needs to happen on the road to 2030!
Missy Stults: Thanks, Rebekah!
Rebekah Warren: Missy Stults is Sustainability and Innovations Director for the City of Ann Arbor. And, listeners, the A2ZERO Green Fair takes over downtown Ann Arbor's Main Street on Friday, September 18th, from 5 to 8 PM. And it's a chance to see how citywide climate strategy translates into things we can actually do in our homes, our neighborhoods, and our community. For more information on our conversation today, please visit our website at WEMU.org. Issues of the Environment is produced in partnership with the Office of the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner, and you hear it here every Wednesday. I'm Rebekah Warren, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
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