ACAT is a grassroots organization formed by climate-conscious Ames residents in 2018. Our vision is to help create a resilient, inclusive, equitable, and vibrant future for all people in the Ames, ISU, and Story County communities.
The ACAT mission is supporting action centered in social justice at the city, county, state, and national levels to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Recently, our focus has shifted to helping support the city's climate action planning efforts in the coming years.
Brief history:
Ames selected an ambitious emissions reduction target at its council meeting on December 21, 2021. This aspirational target has Ames achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, and an 83 percent reduction in emissions from 2016 levels by 2030. This goal initiated the founding of the city's Climate Action Plan. Sustainable Solutions Group (SSG), a climate consulting firm, was hired by the city to develop a plan to explore the feasibility of this goal. To achieve this goal, the city will need broad support from the community. Any climate solution for Ames will be a collaborative process, bringing together the strengths of various community stakeholders from ISU, to the business sectors, to residents. ACAT will put its full strength in the coming years to support the city's climate effort through advocacy and partnership building.
