Duke Energy has awarded $25,000 to the Orange County Sustainability Team with the purpose of supporting the county’s Climate Action Plan. 

Specifically, the money will go toward an initiative focused on heat mapping analysis and tree planting. With the initiative, the county aims to partner with residents of heat-stressed areas to address the issue of heat islands. These are areas where a lack of tree cover exacerbates the heating effects of concrete and pavement.

The overall Climate Action Plan includes the goal of planting 10,000 trees over the course of 10 years, while also educating residents about the ability of trees to mitigate the effects of climate change and rising temperatures.

(Left to right) Orange County Sustainability Program Manager Amy Eckberg, Duke Energy’s District Manager for Government & Community Relations Ray Trapp, Sustainability Specialist Karina Nabors, and Sustainability Projects Analyst Mel Gilles. (Photo via Orange County Government)

Karina Nabors, sustainability specialist at the county manager’s office, said that in North Carolina, these grants usually tend to go toward areas that experience more flagrant climate disasters, such as hurricanes. She said it’s important to realize that the Piedmont still has its own problems to address, even if they’re not in the news as much.

“We have climate issues here too, right? We certainly have heat, and so that’s what our application was basically alluding to,” she said. “It’s not just the typical hurricane-hit areas that people see in the news that are the ones being affected by climate.”

Nabors said that while some of the most severe causes of climate change must be addressed by large entities like governments or corporations, tree-planting is one of the ways that individual people can meaningfully contribute.

“There are so many things that people can do that are smaller and that individuals can do, and I think trees are a great example of something that is a cumulative effect,” she said. “They have an impact on both the shade and reducing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, so they have a two-pronged approach, and it’s something that we can do across many areas. Not everyone can get an electric vehicle, but probably more people can have a tree.”

In fact, she said that a key aspect of the plan overall is to strengthen community outreach and education efforts.

“It serves more than just the purpose of planting trees; it helps educate,” she said. “These projects have an education component, and this one definitely does because an appreciation for trees and what their role is, and how much they can help us in this heat and these hot summers, is part of this.”

Mel Gilles, sustainability projects analyst for the county, said the county worked with community focus groups in the development of the Climate Action Plan, and that the tree canopy and heat mitigation were both issues the community was keen to address.

“In the Piedmont, we’re really seeing the heat index increase in the last few years dramatically. Last summer, we hit our high-temperature weeks in June, as opposed to late July or August. It was weeks in advance,” she said. “We’re working with the North Carolina Office of Resilience and Recovery to work on a heat mitigation strategy, and trees are very much a part of that.”

Gilles also said that the county is continuing to apply for more climate-related grants.

“Several in the pipeline, we have plenty of opportunities. We are working with our other sustainability directors and experts and staff people in the Town of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, also regionally with Durham and Durham County, Granville County,” she said. “We work together to apply for larger federal grants, sometimes across municipalities. Yes, grant funding is very important to all the things that we do.”

Duke Energy spokesperson Garrett Poorman said the Duke Energy Foundation provides more than $30 million annually in philanthropic support to communities. 

“We’re proud to support communities like Orange County through grants that enhance climate resilience and improve quality of life,” he said. “This grant highlights our commitment to fostering sustainable and resilient environments.”

Orange County also administers a Community Climate Action Grant Program that small businesses and nonprofits with sustainability projects can apply for. The funding for that grant program totaled over $250,000 for the current cycle. Applications for the next round will open on June 16.

 


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