Lawrence advisory boards will reevaluate city’s goal to achieve fully renewable energy usage

Members of two Lawrence advisory boards will soon put their heads together to evaluate whether the city’s renewable energy goals are realistic, and how they line up with overarching sustainability plans for the county.

Members of the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Board and Connected City Advisory Board will meet jointly in January to discuss revisions or even a change of goal for Ordinance 9744, which is focused on renewable energy.

The ordinance, adopted in March 2020, declares the city’s goal to achieve 100% clean, renewable energy in municipal operations and citywide by 2035.

It defines clean energy as “including but not limited to, sources regarded as carbon-free and pollution-free energy collected sustainably and from renewable sources such as wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal.”

City commissioners, staff and ESAB members have questioned whether the ordinance’s timeline is feasible. 

For example, a sub-goal within the ordinance was to use “100% clean, renewable energy” for electricity in municipal operations by 2025.

“We are at 2025 and we were not able to go 100% clean renewable energy for all our city operations in terms of actually being powered by it,” Kathy Richardson said during Thursday’s ESAB meeting. Richardson is the city’s sustainability director and ESAB’s staff liaison.

Even then, Ordinance 9744 is but one stepping stone in a long train of varied sustainability goals that the city has agreed to. 

Most recently, on Oct. 8, 2024, Lawrence city commissioners agreed to the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which Douglas County had also adopted that March. The plan is intended to address the climate crisis, and one of its major tenets is to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Richardson went before the city commission the same night to suggest that Ordinance 9744 would need revisions in light of these new and somewhat divergent plans.

“One thing that is a missing piece of this puzzle is that we do not have a plan on the pathway to achieve this goal,” she said. “Originally, the conversation was that our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan would incorporate strategies and actions needed to achieve the city’s renewable energy goals. As you know, the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan became much larger in scope than was originally planned.”

That night, city commissioners assigned ESAB and CCAB to jointly review the ordinance and suggest necessary updates. 

Richardson and members of ESAB had a preliminary discussion of possible revisions during their Thursday meeting. They want to consider if the ordinance’s core aim is realistic, how they might tie it into the countywide plan and what a reasonable timeline would look like.

Richardson added that commissioners might have different expectations now than they did in October 2024 as Kristine Polian and Mike Courtney have joined the governing body.

The joint advisory board meeting is planned for 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22.

Other ESAB news

ESAB members sent a letter to the city commission about their work on an energy benchmarking policy that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save renters money.

The letter, which appeared on the Nov. 11 city commission consent agenda, asked commissioners to greenlight continued work on the project.

Commissioners did not pull the item from the consent agenda for further discussion, suggesting that they were not interested in exploring the proposal further at that time.

Richardson said it’s possible ESAB could revive discussion on energy benchmarking if the two new commissioners showed an interest.

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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