Environmental leaders and activists spoke Saturday about different initiatives by community members to reduce Evanston’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustain Evanston, a network of organizations and people working to improve sustainability in the city, held a meeting at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., to discuss multiple different programs organized to improve sustainability.

Catherine Hurley, the city’s sustainable programs coordinator who organizes the Sustain Evanston network, plans the meetings a couple of times a year, said Eleanor Revelle,  president of Citizens’ Greener Evanston.

“It’s an opportunity for people to share ideas about what they’re working on individually and then to talk about what we’re doing collectively, like working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Revelle said.

Revelle began the meeting discussing how Evanston hopes to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2016, which is one of the goals of Sustain Evanston. The initiatives that were presented dealt with reducing transportation and building emissions.

A number of presenters also spoke about bike initiatives. Natalie Watson, founder and chair of Evanston’s Streets Alive!, talked about a plan to encourage more residents to ride bikes.

“We’d like to see a much higher mode-share of biking compared to driving, and we’d like to see safer behavior for both drivers and bicyclists to share the road,” Watson said.

Stefano Jean-Jacques spoke at the meeting about Bicycle Benefits, a nationwide initiative that includes Evanston. The program promotes bicycling and helmet use and recruits businesses to sell $5 Bicycle Benefits stickers for people to wear on their helmets. With the stickers, bikers can receive discounts at member locations, including five Evanston places such as Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Sketchbook Brewing Company.

In addition, Evanston resident Susan Munro spoke about a public awareness video project to promote coexistence between bicyclists, cars and pedestrians, which she hopes to start in Evanston. She said she’s looking to involve students from Evanston Township High School and Northwestern in her project, saying their input can help make the videos more engaging to viewers.

Other initiatives mentioned included the Walking School Bus, in which a network of parents walks a group of kids to school each day instead of using cars.

Sharon Feigon, a founder of the Shared-Use Mobility Center, which looks to improve transportation policies, presented a pilot program for peer-to-peer carsharing. The program would allow private car owners in Evanston to rent out their cars to others.

A weatherizing initiative for homes and businesses in Evanston was also presented by resident Leslie Shad, who discussed efficiency in buildings and decreasing energy consumption.

A breakout session followed each presentation, where speakers could gather ideas on how to move forward with their initiatives and recruit more people to their projects.

Revelle said many of the ideas presented were good, but she wasn’t happy with the amount of people at the meeting.

“We were hoping for more people who aren’t already a part of the effort,” she said.

Watson agreed and said that despite having a committed group of environmentalists, it was disappointing to see the lack of community participation.

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