Aug Chron: GA Tech devises tracker to find how climate friendly each GA County may be
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Which Georgia county is the most climate friendly? New tracker from Georgia Tech keeps count.
Augusta Chronicle
- Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have launched a new tool to help tackle climate change at the local level.
- The Drawdown Georgia Solutions Tracker is an interactive dashboard designed to help cut the state's carbon footprint.
- This tool breaks down 16 different strategies for reducing emissions across Georgia's 159 counties.
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers recently launched a tracker that offers tips on how to tackle climate change at the local level.
Marilyn Brown, a professor at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, said the dashboard is part of a larger initiative to cut Georgia’s carbon footprint by 57% in the next five years.
“We’ve been working on a program we call Drawdown Georgia, which is dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Brown. “We all want to do a better job at tackling climate change. We felt that with the knowledge of what your current condition is relative to what others are doing was a great place to start.”
The Drawdown Georgia Solutions Tracker is an interactive dashboard developed by the Climate and Energy Policy Lab in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, with funding from The Ray C. Anderson Foundation. The tracker offers data from multiple authoritative sources, including federal and state-level datasets from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the United States Department of Agriculture.
The tool breaks down 16 strategies and shows how each one can reduce emissions in specific Georgia counties. The strategies include:
- Cogeneration
- Demand response
- Rooftop solar
- Large-scale solar
- Landfill methane
- Retrofitting
- Composting
- Climate-smart agriculture
- Plant-based diet
- Planting trees
- Forest Management
- Wetlands Protection
- Alternative transportation
- Electric vehicles
- Electric school buses
- Mass transit
Brown said the tool allows users to look at other counties for comparison.
“You can see, perhaps, what they're excelling at, or maybe they're falling behind,” she said. “So we're trying to create a kind of competitiveness in the process, and identify leaders that could bring others up to speed.”
At 159 counties, Brown said Georgia ranks second as the most of any state in the U.S. The tracker identifies "different solutions, how far along each county is in using it, and adopting it.”
The tracker can also be used to:
- Track progress over time to meet emissions goals and report successes to residents.
- Support equitable action with data that helps ensure all communities benefit from climate progress.
- Make informed decisions about which solutions to prioritize in a county.
- Spot proven strategies by identifying where and how peer counties are succeeding.
- Spot business opportunities in underserved regions where solutions like solar, EVs, or composting are just beginning to scale.
- Target strategic investments by mapping infrastructure readiness and local momentum.
- Benchmark sustainability work against state and local trends.
Brown said the fact that there are communities that have elected to stand up strong indicates that there's a possible path forward for others to take.
“I think many people are confused,” she said. “They don't know what would make the biggest difference in their community. We’ve identified what solutions make sense in Georgia. The motivation was to show how some communities have excelled by taking up important climate solutions that we've identified can make a big difference here in the Southeast.”
For directions on how to navigate the Solutions Tracker, visit www.drawdownga.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Solutions-Tracker-Instructions.pdf.
To check out the Solutions Tracker, visit www.drawdownga.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Solutions-Tracker-Instructions.pdf
This reporting content is supported by a partnership with several funders and Journalism Funding Partners.
Erica Van Buren is the climate change reporter for The Augusta Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network. Connect with her at EVan...@gannett.com or on X: @EricaVanBuren32.