CC Minutes - 10/08/08 Work Session

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Mr. Bruce said the second recommendation recognized that the City could only do so much on this issue and sought to set up a mechanism for the City to engage as a leader in developing partnerships in order to formulate a commu- nity climate action plan that would allow them to collectively move forward on reducing carbon emissions in Eugene. Mayor Piercy asked them to discuss the carbon emissions work and inventories that had been done for the City and for the community as a whole. Ms. Fahy responded that a couple of years earlier the facilities division developed a partnership group that conducted an inventory of community greenhouse gas emissions. They gathered the informa- tion from a variety of sources and were able to collate emissions from 2005 and then the levels from 1999 in order to analyze how they had changed and to provide a baseline. She related that this year the facilities staff had conducted a greenhouse gas inventory for City operations, and the final report was being written up. She noted that the summary of the internal City greenhouse gas report was contained in the council agenda packets. Ms. Ortiz thanked the commissioners for the work they had done. She appreciated the work that City staff had done on this as well. Mr. Clark also thanked everyone who served on the Sustainability Commission and the staff who worked on the inventory and materials. He agreed with the goal of moving the City’s operations to a more sustainable way of doing business. He noted that the first motion indicated that all of the City-owned facilities and vehicles were to be carbon- neutral by 2020. He asked if any cost analysis of this had been conducted. He wanted to know the cost of the procedural in-house staff changes necessary for the City to get closer to carbon-neutrality and what the cost of offsetting credits would be. Mr. Bruce replied that “a lot of the answer depends.” He averred that it was important to understand that the approach they took would be instrumental in terms of what they would face in cost implica- tions over time. Mr. Clark pointed out that they were talking about ten City budget years. He said in that amount of time there would be “some very heavy lifting” in the budget. He preferred to have a stronger sense of cost prior to making such a firm commitment. Ms. Fahy stated that an internal team had been formed to develop a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020. The priority would be to further reduce emissions first. She said the energy management work undertaken had saved approximately $1.7 million and had decreased emissions. She thought there would be some actions, which would cost more up front but would save money later. She noted that it would cost approximately $300,000 annually to offset current emissions if the City did nothing else to change its behavior and decrease emissions. Mr. Clark asked if she could provide a little more data in regard to the specifics of that number and what it was based on. Ms. Fahy replied that it was based on buying offsets from a quality offset provider. She said they planned to work with a reputable dealer with measurable results, which would cost approximately $25 to $30 per ton of carbon to offset. Glen Svendsen, division manager for the Facility Management Division, stated that currently the City’s emissions in Scope 1, comprised of emissions directly put into the environment, and Scope 2, which while used by the City directly, came from elsewhere (e.g. electricity), added up to 8,940 metric tons per year. He said staff used the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) environmental fund, which was a seller of offsets, as a benchmark for costs. Mr. Clark asked if the funds that would be utilized to purchase local offsets had been identified. Mr. Bruce replied that they had not been specifically identified. He thought adopting the goal first would help to establish the “playing field for how we will get there.” MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 8, 2008 Page 2 Work Session