Lake in the Hills pledges to go green

Lake in the Hills plans to join 710 communities around the country in the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Under the agreement, the village will strive to meet or beat climate disruption targets through anti-sprawl land-use policies and urban forest restoration projects and public information campaigns.

They will also urge state and federal governments to enact policies and programs that will enable greenhouse gasses to be reduced by 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2012, and ask Congress to establish a national emission trading system.

"This is really a pledge that reinforces and supports the green things we're already doing," said village administrator Gerald Sagona, who introduced the agreement at Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting.

"Just looking around, a substantial amount of our public works vehicles run on ethanol. Most of the lighting at village hall comes from compact florescent bulbs. We have timers on our heating and lights..." he said.

If there's a way to be environmentally friendly, Sagona said, "we're all about it."