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Cincinnati Inventories Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Help with Reduction Targets

Cincinnati Inventories Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Help with Reduction Targets

Project Summary

You cannot manage what you do not measure, and cities are finding that an important first step to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions is to complete an inventory. In 2008, Cincinnati set a goal for both municipal operations and the city as a whole to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 2% every year, based on an initial inventory of greenhouse gas emissions produced in 2006. Using ClearPath, an online platform provided by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, the City staff conducted a greenhouse gas inventory – which measured emissions produced by municipal activities and activities within the City (residential, commercial, industrial, etc). The 2015 inventories were compared to the results of inventories completed for 2006, allowing Cincinnati to better understand the effectiveness of projects completed since the release of the 2008 Green Cincinnati Plan.

Cincinnati Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Targets. Cincinnati set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 2% per year until 2050. The target lines shows a 2% decrease each year starting in 2008, and the bars show the 2006 and 2015 data. Cincinnati is on track to meet its annual reduction target. See Cincinnati's 2015 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Analysis. Chart provided in 2015 Cincinnati Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Analysis.

How did they do it?
Action	Applicable Resources
Identify a greenhouse gas inventory tool that best fits your jurisdictions' needs The City set a community-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal and a local government operations emissions reduction goal.	The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides standards and tools that help countries and cities track progress toward their climate goals. The Global Covenant of Mayors Online Training Course includes interactive exercises, infographics, maps, graphs, and resources for learning about GHG inventories, setting mitigation targets and developing climate action plans.
Obtain needed data from local contacts and partners The City collected and compiled data from all internal and external stakeholders. The City documented all assumptions made and steps taken to complete the inventories.	The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Contribution Analysis Toolkit assists communities in the application of analysis techniques.
Complete emissions calculations and compile report The City completed a community-wide inventory and a local government operations inventory. The City published the final report through the Office of Environment and Sustainability.	ClearPath for Greenhouse Gas Inventories is an online software platform for completing GHG inventories, forecasts, climate action plans, and monitoring.

Background

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley signed the Global Covenant of Mayors and the We Are Still In letter, reaffirming the City’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions initially outlined in the 2008 Green Cincinnati Plan. The City selected its 2% annual reduction target by considering the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, targets set by other cities and counties and the feasibility of implementing projects designed to reduce emissions. Indirect benefits that the City anticipated as a result of reducing greenhouse gas emissions included improved air quality, job creation and benefits to public health. Completing an inventory is a first and important step on the road to reducing energy use, saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. The inventory also provides an indication of the significance of each source.

What are Greenhouse Gases?

Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, are released during the combustion of fossil fuels, the breakdown of waste materials, some industrial processes, agricultural and forestry practices and other natural and human activities. Greenhouse gases trap and hold heat in the atmosphere, creating the greenhouse effect, which leads to global warming. "The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation." (USEPA Website).

Implementation

The processes for measuring city government and community-wide emissions are different. The steps for each method are clearly articulated in nationally and internationally developed protocols. The community calculator used in ClearPath is based on the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories, and the municipal calculator is based on the Local Government Operations Protocol.

The City of Cincinnati selected ClearPath to complete their inventories because of the tool’s reputation for being a leading greenhouse gas profile platform, because ICLEI offers technical assistance during the inventory process and because the tool is widely used by other municipalities, which makes comparing data between communities easier.

Cincinnati’s local government inventory included emissions generated from municipal operations, including fuels consumed by the vehicle fleet, aviation fuel use and energy used in water and waste water treatment, city building and facilities operations, streetlights and traffic signals.

Cincinnati’s community-wide inventory included emissions generated by electricity and natural gas consumption, motor vehicle transportation and solid waste decomposition from commercial, industrial and residential operations.

Cincinnati obtained the data necessary to complete each inventory from a variety of local contacts, including local utilities, city and county government departments, regional transit authorities, airport authorities, the water and sewer districts, the landfill and more. As with any data collection effort, following the initial data requests, staff spent a significant amount of time answering questions, issuing reminders and waiting for responses. Staff completed the calculations and analysis in ClearPath as the data were received.

A full review of methods is available in the 2015 Cincinnati Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Analysis report.

Timeline

The 2015 Cincinnati Greenhouse Gas Inventory took roughly six months to complete.

Funding Source

Using departmental discretionary funds, the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability purchased an annual ICLEI membership to gain access to ClearPath. ICLEI membership fees vary by population size. With a population of 300,000, Cincinnati’s membership cost $2,750. Since the inventory was completed in-house and not by an external consultant, the City also supported the project through the salary of one full-time staff member who worked on the inventory, along with other tasks, over a six month period.

Outcomes and Conclusions

The results of the 2015 greenhouse gas inventory indicate that Cincinnati met its goal to reduce emissions 2% per year. In 2015, Cincinnati government operations were responsible for approximately 275,736 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mt CO2e), reducing emissions 36.3% from 2006 to 2015. Community-wide, Cincinnati released approximately 7.3M mt CO2e in 2015, achieving a 17.6% reduction in emissions from 2006 to 2015. Taken together, there was a net reduction of 18.4% over that timeframe. The decreases were attributed to an initiative by Duke Energy to reduce the amount of coal used to produce energy (from 86% of the fuel mix in 2006 to 59% in 2015), a decrease in population and several programs designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as outlined in the Greening Cincinnati Plan. Municipal activities accounted for 3.6% of emissions community-wide.

Defining the Greenhouse Gas Metric

Each greenhouse gas contributes to the greenhouse effect at different levels. Metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent is a unit used to compare the emissions from greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential so that scientists and policy makers can easily compare how differing emission levels and greenhouse gas combinations contribute to global warming.

Lessons Learned

The Office of Environment and Sustainability reported that the top benefit of completing a greenhouse gas inventory was the ability to understand which carbon reduction projects were most successful. This knowledge provided insight on where to focus future efforts. The Office of Environment and Sustainability used the results of the inventory to estimate the carbon reduction potential of each strategy proposed to the City Council in the 2018 Green Cincinnati Plan. Additionally, the inventory helped garner support from other departments for reducing carbon emissions. Support and collaboration from other departments was vital to the project.

The Cincinnati Office of Environment and Sustainability recommends ClearPath, but notes that cities should expect to experience a learning curve. ClearPath is widely used and therefore useful for comparing data with other cities around the world. ICLEI provides numerous opportunities for members to connect with sustainability directors and other peers across the nation. According to greenhouse gas project inventory staff in Cincinnati, the decision of whether to conduct the inventory in-house or hire a consultant largely depends on staff capacity. It is valuable for someone at the City to conduct the inventory because they will have a better understanding of the data components.

Since the completion of the 2015 greenhouse gas inventory, the City has established a new goal to use 100% renewable energy for all municipal operations by 2035. The plan includes building a solar array covering 140 acres spread across City property.

Challenges

Completing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory is an estimate of the total emissions within the defined scope, and extrapolations, missing data and assumptions are common. At times, the Office of Environment and Sustainability struggled to find the best method for interpreting data using the framework in ClearPath. Each city can expect to encounter moments where a judgment call is necessary to complete an inventory.

In one example, the staff had to extrapolate and interpolate data from county-level data to determine what to include and exclude when confronting ambiguous or shared boundaries. Staff also had to determine their own methodologies for what to deem “within city limits.” Utility data providers often organize data by zip code, but many zip codes straddle city borders. The Office of Environment and Sustainability chose to include the zip codes that were more than 50% within the city boundary, and those estimated to be less than 50% were excluded. The analysis was completed using GIS.

Another challenge the Office of Environment and Sustainability experienced was interpreting the 2006 inventory results when most of the people involved in the project were no longer on staff. Because of this difficulty, clearly documenting procedures for the 2015 inventory became a priority.

Project manager Ollie Kroner gave this advice:

"If I had to do it all over again, I would utilize the ICLEI relationship anytime we faced a challenge. ICLEI has experience with this process on an international level, they have seen many of these issues before and they offer a lot of opportunities for support. Also, there is value in creating greenhouse gas inventory reports more frequently because staff stay sharp on the process and the people you are requesting information from recall how to pull the data.”

Project Resources

For more information about the greenhouse gas inventory in Cincinnati, contact:

Oliver Kroner
Green Cincinnati Plan and Sustainability Coordinator
City of Cincinnati Office of Environment and Sustainability
oliver.kroner@cincinnati-oh.gov
513-352-6992

Environmental Resilience Institute

Cincinnati Inventories Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Help with Reduction Targets