The city of Concord is searching for ways to "go green."

A new energy and environment advisory committee, chaired by Councilor Rob Werner, will begin meeting this month. The committee will eventually make recommendations to the city council and work with the public to make the city more environmentally friendly.

"We're looking for ways Concord can be more energy efficient, in government, business and the private sector," Werner said.

The committee was the brainchild of Mayor Jim Bouley. Last year, Bouley began researching a mayors' climate change initiative, which recruited mayors from across the country to sign an agreement committing them to reducing their city's carbon footprint. The goal of the program is to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to global warming. In October, the city council approved joining seven New Hampshire communities in the nonbinding Cool Cities program.

Bouley said the city has already taken several steps to become more energy efficient. It performed an energy audit of city buildings, improved heating and cooling systems, and in some buildings, installed lighting that turns off automatically if a room is vacant.

The new committee plans to hold its first meeting at the end of this month. It is made up of four city councilors and 11 private citizens, with expertise in areas like the environment and energy efficiency. Committee members include state Consumer Advocate Meredith Hatfield, Democratic state Rep. Don Brueggemann of Concord and Alex Lee, who runs Project Laundry List, which encourages people to air-dry their clothes to reduce energy dependence.

One member, Meredith Gonzales, owns Your Home, Your World - a Concord store that sells eco-friendly home products. Gonzales said she was excited at the opportunity to help the city use less energy. "It's something that's really important, to start making all aspects of our lives and our government use less energy and try to lighten our footprint any way we can," she said.

Werner said some things the committee could look at are figuring out how to measure the city's carbon footprint and finding things that can be done on a local level to decrease it. Bouley said the committee might look at city policies to make them more environmentally friendly - for example, making roads biker friendly, reducing the amount of solid waste while promoting recycling, or suggesting building regulations that promote using energy-efficient water collection systems and lighting.

"As the capital city, we should be a leader in the state at energy efficiency," Bouley said. "We should be setting an example."

Ultimately, the committee also plans to involve the public. There could be public forums and outreach efforts to help schools and businesses become more energy efficient.

"We don't want this to be a city-centric committee," Werner said. "We need to really involve folks."

Nancy Berliner, executive director of Groundwork Concord, said she hopes that her organization can work closely with both the energy and environment committee and the city's new transportation committee. Currently, Groundwork Concord plants trees in the city and runs a summer youth program that mixes environmental education, community leadership and hands-on projects.

"City people are really talking about green infrastructure; it's almost getting competitive," Berliner said. "I think there will be a lot of opportunities to work with the city's new committees."