Austin, labor leaders announce new jobs and climate plan with aim to ‘decarbonize’ city buildings

This segment originally appeared on the KXAN News on September 18, 2025.

By Eric Henrikson

AUSTIN (KXAN) — City and labor leaders are coming together Thursday morning to announce a new report that could “create hundreds of local jobs” and save the city “2.8 million dollars annually.”

Sandra Bustillos with the Texas Climate Jobs Project, a coalition of Texas labor unions “united to fight climate change and reverse income inequality”, announces a new report at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 520’s apprenticeship center.

The report, Powering Public Progress: Decarbonizing Austin’s Municipal Buildings for a Resilient Future, lays out how the city can reduce carbon pollution and create new jobs by retrofitting city buildings with solar panels and other green materials to reduce costs, carbon emissions and create jobs.

“These buildings collectively emitted approximately 10.5 7 million kilograms of carbon dioxide,” Bustillos said.

Over one hundred building were studied, using data from 2023.

The report found by installing solar panels on 104 City of Austin buildings, including fire stations and libraries, the city would:

• Generate $4.42 million in annual savings on utility bills.

• Prevent up to 9.34 million kilograms of CO2 emissions each year.

• Create 303 jobs.

“They’re temporary jobs, except for the maintenance jobs, but they’re absolutely critical to the future of our city,” said Jeremy Hendricks with the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

These jobs consist of construction and electrical jobs. The event, held at a training facility for electricians, was attended by Ben Brenneman with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

“With projects like this, (the plan) they put forward has the ability to support both the workers and the environment,” Brenneman said.

The City of Austin’s Bills

Council member Ryan Alter said the City of Austin is the second biggest electricity consumer in the area.

“We will, in 2026, have as many buildings as we can get these panels on,” Alter said.

Getting the benefits requires some spending. “This will be millions of dollars of investments in the actual panels themselves, and we’re talking 10s of millions of dollars, but that will be fully recouped within six or seven years in cost savings,” Alter said.

However, paying for these upgrades might be a problem. The city is currently dealing with a tight budget. In the Fall, voters will decide on a property tax increase to close the gap.

Other speakers at the event included City Council members Vanessa Fuentes and Mike Siegel.

Climate Change in Central Texas

The city has multiple plans in place to address climate change. One of which, the Austin Climate Equity Plan, was approved by the city in 2021.

That plan pushed for 74 ways to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 while also prioritizing communities that may be disproportionately impacted by climate change, including low-income and communities of color.

In March, a report by the city auditor’s office found that many of these plans lack measurable goals.

“We could do a little bit better with building some measurable goals, allocating funding to support those goals, and coordination across departments throughout the city,” said Deputy City Auditor Jason Hadavi in March.