How the city's new sustainability director plans to make Knoxville greener

Vasu Primlani is new to Knoxville, and her job here is to make sure the city meets its green goals with a focus on reducing carbon emissions.

She's also committed to making Knoxville's sidewalks more walkable.

She brings with her quite a resume. The 50-year-old Primlani, who is from India, speaks at least three languages and can greet people in another few. She's had a career in comedy, recently wrote a graphic novel about her childhood, competes in triathlons, knits, climbs rocks and most recently worked as Nashville's decarbonization manager.

But her main gig now is as Knoxville's new sustainability director, and the only true challenge she sees ahead of her is a fight against time.

"All that we need to do should have been done 50 years ago," Primlani said. "We're in the 11th hour now."

She sees Knoxville as a place ripe with possibility. It reminds her of New York City, she said.

"The culture of Knoxville, even though the city is much smaller than Nashville, it feels more like New York City. It feels like a true metropolitan," she said.

To get started here, she wants to help lower- and middle-income families install solar panels on their rooftops.

"That's our commitment to equity," Primlani said.

How will she get the message across to everyone?

No matter how someone feels about actions needed to slow climate change, Primlani said, everyone understands the economics of saving money through conservation.

"We want you to make as much money as possible, for as long as possible," she said. "Even a hunter will not hunt the entire herd in one season. ... It's just sustainability."

"It's our commitment to keep you and your families healthy," Primlani said. "We don't want severe climate events like flooding or tornadoes and we want to make as much money as possible, for as long as we can because the difference between economics and sustainability is only time."

She is committed to making data about the city's sustainability initiative open and easily available, she said.

What is her philosophy and approach to the job?

Sustainability isn't a one-department initiative, Primlani said.

The city has two sustainability goals: to reduce emissions in government operations by 50% by 2030, and to reduce the entire city's emissions by 80% by 2050, Primlani told Knox News.

To get there, everyone needs to be on board, she said.

"The sustainability division in Knoxville doesn't live in a silo," she said. The ownership of sustainability is with all city departments.

The goals are "ambitious and achievable," Primlani said, and the city has already made significant progress.

Changing the city's streetlights to LED bulbs helped to bring emissions down, she said. Now, moving forward, her focus will be on transportation and equity to ensure a greener Knoxville for everyone.

City-wide, transportation accounts for 59% of the total emissions, according to data shared by Primlani. The move to using electric buses for Knoxville Area Transit is helping to cut emissions "tremendously," she said.

The city's tree canopy, Primlani said, has disparities by neighborhoods - something she's looking to address.

She wants to bring in the city's largest energy consumers, which include the city of Knoxville, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the Knoxville Utility Board and Tennessee Valley Authority, to work together and reduce emissions by 90%.

"That is going to bring the average down for the entire city," she said.

What are her priorities for Knoxville?

Increasing walkability in the city is on the top of Primlani's list. She even wants workers to find it convenient to commute on greenways.

The city also has a micromobility sector - which means small, light-weight vehicles such as bikes and scooters to go short distances - with an e-scooter rental program she hopes to expand. And she wants to use the network to collaborate with the Knoxville Area Transit to ensure "last-mile" connectivity from bus stops to jobs and homes all over the city.

Send in your ideas to her office at sustainability@knoxvilletn.gov, or via phone at 865-215-2141.

"I would welcome anyone with a good idea," she said - big, small and scalable. "We're interested in it all."

Areena Arora, data and investigative reporter for Knox News, can be reached by email at areena.arora@knoxnews.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @AreenaArora.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Meet Knoxville's new sustainability director