Click to Skip Navigation
Skip Navigation LinksHome > Government > Public Services > Systems Planning > Environment > State of Our Environment > Our Environmental Goals


Go Search
Skip navigation links
State of Our Environment
Welcome from the Commission
Our Environmental Goals
Quick Guide to Indicators
Our Next Steps
Your Next Steps
Recognition and Achievements
Acknowledgments and History
Site Map













 Our Environmental Goals 
 
In July 2007, the Ann Arbor City Council passed Resolution R-330-7-07 that adopted the Environmental Action Plan Guiding Principles and Goals.  The Environmental Commission developed these goals over the past few years and recommended City Council review and adopt these goals.

Environmental Action Plan Principles

  • Needs can be met while maintaining environmental quality, public health, and the availability of natural resources for future generations.
  • Environmental quality, economic vitality, and social equity are interdependent.
  • Conservation, protection, and restoration of the natural environment are highly valued and quantifiable.
  • Our city is part of larger regional and global communities; our actions impact their environmental, economic, and social equity conditions; and we intend that those impacts be positive.
  • Public awareness is vital to ensuring environmental quality.
  • Policymakers need to be informed with the best available information.
  • Precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.
  • Meeting our environmental goals requires a combination of incremental and wholesale behavior changes and technology adoption.
  • Collaboration is necessary in order to achieve our environmental goals.
  • City government is an important partner with residents and businesses in our community with regard to our environmental goals
  • The City of Ann Arbor strives to be at the forefront of sustainable living through its daily operations, capital improvements, and purchase of products.

Environmental Action Plan Goals

CLEAN AIR - Eliminate air toxics, criteria pollutants, and persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBT)
CLEAN WATER - Ensure safe water for drinking, recreation, other uses, and other species
EFFICIENT MOBILITY - Provide infrastructure and policies for efficient modes of transportation
HEALTH-PROMOTING URBAN ENVIRONMENT - Ensure that the built environment promotes public health and improvements to the natural environment
LOCAL FOOD SUFFICIENCY - Conserve, protect, and restore local agriculture and aquaculture resources
RESPONSIBLE RESOURCE USE - Produce zero waste
SAFE COMMUNITY - Eliminate damage to public health and property from natural and other hazards
STABLE CLIMATE - Eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions and other destabilizing climate impacts
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY - Use 100% renewable energy
VIABLE ECOSYSTEMS - Conserve, protect, and restore aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems