About the Energy Committee

Our Vision

In 2025 and beyond, the Town of Durham, along with commercial property owners and homeowners, will continue to realize cost savings while reducing carbon emissions, thereby increasing the community’s resiliency and sustainability relative to energy use. All new construction will be built to high energy efficiency standards that follow current best construction and management practices.

A large proportion of existing buildings, including an aging housing stock, will have been retrofitted to minimize heat loss. In this vision of the future, land use planners will develop recommendations for high density or compactness of new and existing neighborhoods; carefully sited and designed development near the core of the community; and the mixing of uses specifically as a means to reduce energy use for our daily needs.

Community and municipal facilities will be centrally located and linked both to each other and to nearby neighborhoods by a comprehensive network of sidewalks and bicycle paths, separated from roadways where possible. Residents will have easy access to safe, fresh, local food that is relatively secure from a disrupted supply of energy or energy-intensive transportation.

(From the Energy Chapter of the Durham Master Plan)

DEC Members (as of 2025)