Carrboro creates new office of sustainability, to work with race and equity department

In December, the Town of Carrboro created a new office focused on environmental sustainability. The new office will oversee the Town’s climate action goals. 

Amy Armbruster, a Carrboro resident and former sustainability manager for the City of Durham, will head the new office as the chief sustainability officer. 

Armbruster said she is incredibly grateful to serve her home community. 

“Carrboro is an incredibly progressive, innovative town that cares deeply about sustainability, about race, equity,” she said. “Working not only in my own community, but in this community that cares so much about these issues — I couldn't pass it up.” 

Armbruster previously worked at the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) where she was involved in renewable energy work. 

She said her passion for sustainability came long before she started her career. Growing up in the Mid-Hudson Valley region of New York next to her uncle’s apple orchards, she cultivated a deep care for the environment.

“I spent a lot of my time as a child and a young adult outside exploring the forest and the streams," Armbruster said. “So that's really where my interest in this field was born.”

The new office will evaluate how different Town's departments are engaging in sustainability efforts, Town Manager Patrice Toney said. 

Armbruster said the Town intends to reduce its carbon footprint. Carrboro is aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent from their 2010 baseline by 2030, she said. 

To reach this goal, Armbruster said she and her team have multiple strategies in mind, like introducing more solar and renewable energy sources, making Town buildings more energy efficient and transitioning away from using natural gases. 

Before creating the new office, Toney said she wanted to find ways to elevate the Town’s approach to sustainability. 

“Two pillars of the town of Carrboro are race equity and climate action," Toney said. “While climate action is a huge priority for our Town Council, I thought it'd be important that we create an Office of Sustainability.”

Toney said the office’s founding is unrelated to Carrboro's lawsuit against Duke Energy. 

“It does coincide with the effort around climate action and our council's desire to be really progressive and make a dent in the climate action initiatives,” Toney said. 

The new office will report directly to the Town Manager, but will also work closely with the Race and Equity Department, Toney said. 

Chief Race and Equity Officer Anita Jones-McNair said that it makes sense for the two offices to work together. 

“It's providing a more sustainable, succinct, fair and equitable town for our community residents,” Jones-McNair said. “That's what we're tasked to do.” 

Toney also said that having these two groups work together was an important way for their efforts to stay true to Carrboro’s values. 

Toney said because of the departments’ partnership, Armbruster’s experience working with minority communities in Durham proved valuable.

Armbruster said being able to equitably assess sustainability and climate related issues is something that draws her to this career.

Long term, she said she hopes that her department can address climate burdens by prioritizing certain members of the community.

“Our disadvantaged, low income, minority communities, who are often more impacted by climate change, but the least able, in some ways, to help prepare their homes, their property, for these impacts,” Armbruster said.

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