Overview
The Department of Sustainability and Environment is the City of AI's climate office. It coordinates greenhouse gas inventory and reduction, urban forestry, watershed protection, and resilience planning across the city's coastal exposure.
Climate goals
- 50% reduction in citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (against 2017 baseline)
- Net zero in municipal operations by 2035
- Net zero citywide by 2045, ahead of Maine's 2050 statutory target
- 30% tree canopy cover citywide by 2040 (current: 24%)
Resilience projects
- Saltgrass Flats Living Shoreline — 1.8 miles of nature-based coastal protection (construction 2026–2028)
- Knuth Aquifer Recharge Basin — restoring 60 acres of pre-development hydrology in Granite Ridge
- Lantern Wharf Microgrid — solar + battery resilience hub at Lantern Wharf serving 1,200 households during outages
- Heat Refuge Network — twelve permanent cooling stations across all council districts by 2027
Tree canopy and urban forestry
The annual citywide tree canopy is measured by lidar each March. Results are published on the data portal. Residents may request a free street tree planting in the public right-of-way by calling (207) 555-5158 or by email. The city plants up to 1,800 trees per year through this program.
Water quality
Watershed monitoring data — Pemaquid Reach Reservoir, Knuth Aquifer, Liskov River, Heron Bay — is updated weekly on the data portal. Beach advisories at Heron Bay and Saltgrass Flats are issued in coordination with the Maine CDC.
Emissions data
The City of AI publishes a Citywide Greenhouse Gas Inventory each summer. The most recent report shows 1,840,000 metric tons CO₂e (2024), down 18% from the 2017 baseline.