City of Boulder Operations Sustainability Management Planning

Alison Schwabe, Sustainability Program Manager, McKinstry Joe Castro, Facilities & Fleet Manager, City of Boulder

Colorado Climate Network Workshop, 30 April 2013

Inventory Process

Step 1 – Make Inventory Decisions

Step 2 - Gather Data for Base Year

Use master data workbook (ICLEI)

Keep detailed notes and sources!

Step 3 - Calculate Emissions

CACP software (ICLEI) Consumption x GHG emissions factor x GWP = GHG emissions

Step 4 – Forecast and Report Emissions (optional)

Forecast to target year

Report by scopes to avoid double counting

COB Inventory Decisions Made[Reference Document: Local Government

Operations Protocol v 1.1, May 2010] http://www.theclimateregistry.org/downloads/2010/05/2010-05-06-LGO-1.1.pdf

Base year: 2008

Boundary: Operational control (owns and operates-measure what you manage)

Electricity emissions factor: eGRID1.2% increase from 2005-20071,883 lbs CO2/MWh to 1,906 lbs CO2/MWh

Scope 3: employee commute, business travel, wells-to-pump, materials, solid waste

Electricity Emissions Factor

Local (Xcel) 2007: 0.75 kg-CO2/kWh

Regional (eGRID) 2007: 0.86 kg-CO2/kWh

State average

Stationary SourcesBuildings and FacilitiesPublic Lighting-streetlights, traffic signals

Water Treatment & Transport-pumps, irrigationRefrigerants

Solid Waste from Government Operations

Wastewater Treatment Facility

COB Sources of Emissions

Mobile EmissionsVehicle FleetMobile EquipmentRefrigerantsWells-to-Pump (Scope 3)

Employee CommuteBusiness Travel

Materials Production Asphalt & Cement Copy Paper Computers & Hardware Fertilizer Food

Inventory Boundary: All facilities, vehicles, etc. operatedNot including facilities leased to othersNot including jointly owned facilities not operated

COB 2008 Baseline Inventoried Emissions by Sector

Buildings and Facilities

26%

Wastewater Treatment

Plant24%

Materials19%

Water Treatment &

Transport9%

Employee Commute

8%

Public Lighting

6%

Vehicle Fleet6%

Government-Generated Solid Waste

2%

Business Travel0.1%

COB Inventoried Emissions by Sector

30.4 mt-CO2e/employee, 0.64 mt-CO2e/capita

Commerce City=38 (2008) and Westminster=25 (2006)

Sector metric tons CO2eBuildings and Facilities 15,895 Wastewater Treatment Plant 14,276 Materials 11,383 Water Treatment & Transport 5,693 Employee Commute 4,673 Public Lighting 3,964 Vehicle Fleet 3,486 Government-Generated Solid Waste 1,023 Business Travel 43 Totals 60,436

COB 2008 Baseline Inventoried Emissions by Source

Electricity48%

Materials19%

Gasoline11%

Wastewater Treatment

9%

Natural Gas7%

Diesel3%

Solid Waste2%

Propane0.5%

Note: Refrigerants and jet fuel were less than 1%

2008 & 2011 GHG Emissions by Sector

ReductionsBuildings – 20%Materials – 62%Wastewater – 19%Water – 32%Public Lights – 6%Fleet – 5%

Overall: 26% decrease from 2008 to 2011

Data Collection Challenges

Overall Guidance – collect the least amount of information that will be used

Questions about why the City needs the data

Methodology – what data to collect?

Baseline data harder to collect – older

Accuracy – are the data good?

Timeliness – staff are busy Keeping data organized (very important!)