Taking Stock of Emissions - Greenhouse Gas Tally

How much greenhouse gas are you emitting?

The city of Vancouver is about to collect its first inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, both for the city government and for the community as a whole.

It marks the city's latest effort to address climate change, an effort that dates back to the city signing on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement almost two years ago.

"I've never been a tree-hugger," Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard said, "but I felt something was wrong with our planet."

In taking the inventory of current greenhouse gas emissions, the city is hoping to lead the way - and stay a step ahead of - a slew of new initiatives to curtail heat-trapping carbon emissions building in the atmosphere. The mayors' agreement, now signed by more than 700 mayors across the country, including those in Battle Ground, Camas and Washougal, calls for rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2012.

Vancouver is spending $35,000 to evaluate its current level of greenhouse gas emissions as a first step toward reducing it.

"It's a spotlight for our community - where we're good and where we're bad," Pollard said. "The city's going to be held up here as a shining example of the good, the bad and the ugly."

Good Company, a consulting firm based in Eugene, Ore., will conduct the survey.

Pollard and Mike Piper, the city's recently hired sustainability coordinator, are hoping the study identifies the city's total carbon footprint as a way of prioritizing the most sensible actions to reduce it. Pollard believes some of those actions will save money, such as by reducing fuel usage.

The company will build the inventory by applying assumptions for carbon-equivalent emissions to a wide variety of activities. Electricity usage, natural gas emissions, transportation, waste and composting, and wood-burning are among those activities that transfer earthbound chemicals into the atmosphere.

Watching transportation

Transportation is likely to be a major source of Vancouver's emissions.

A recent statewide assessment of greenhouse gas emissions revealed that transportation accounts for almost half of Washington's carbon footprint.

Unlike other areas of the country, where coal and other fossil fuels account for a bigger proportion of electricity generation, Washington relies heavily on carbon-free hydroelectricity. That leaves transportation as the biggest source of environmental concern in the Evergreen State.

Futurewise, a statewide environmental group based in Seattle, is backing state legislation requiring large and medium-size cities and counties to consider how new comprehensive land-use plans will affect carbon emissions. It's important for planners to consider how far people must drive to work, recreate and shop, said Aisling Kerins, the organization's acting executive director.

"The land-use decisions we're making now lock us into development patterns for decades," Kerins said.

Besides the Futurewise-backed bill, Washington lawmakers will consider new legislation expected to build upon a climate-related law signed into law earlier this year. That law set broad limits on heat-trapping carbon emissions from electric power plants while also building greenhouse gas emission reduction goals into state statute.

"There's a lot of momentum and a lot of interest," Kerins said.

'Tectonic economic shift'

Climate Solutions, an Olympia-based nonprofit organization focused on global warming, will push a new law requiring the state to follow through on its commitment to participating in a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions. It will also push for the state to encourage training and development of "clean-energy" jobs improving energy efficiency in buildings, manufacturing solar panels, or developing plug-in technology for hybrid automobiles.

"We're talking about a tectonic economic shift away from old fossil-fuel technologies," said K.C. Golden, policy director for Climate Solutions.

Golden endorsed Vancouver's effort to start by cataloging greenhouse gas emissions, noting that the city of Portland did the same thing almost two decades ago. In trying to reduce carbon emissions, he said, Portland has furthered its reputation as a walkable, transit-oriented city where people can live and work close to where they shop and play.

"The things they've done are exactly the kinds of things that make Portland such an attractive and livable place," Golden said.

Mayor Pollard, who often makes a point of differentiating Vancouver from its big-city neighbor to the south, believes there are plenty of sensible options Vancouver can take without turning the city into a carbon copy of Portland.

"Portland is one of the more expensive communities in the nation to live in, let's be clear," he said. "This is not Portland, and we will pick the things that make sense to us."

Pollard suggested simple, cost-effective actions such as reducing unnecessary idling of city automobiles, or waiving downtown parking fees for alternate-fuel vehicles. At the same time, the mayor wants Vancouver to tie into Portland's light-rail transit system with a replacement for the Interstate 5 Bridge across the Columbia River.

Pollard envisions a broader sustainability initiative, beginning with the greenhouse gas inventory of city operations.

"We have to set the example, and that's what we're going to do," he said. "In most cases, we can point out to our citizens that it will save you money in the long run."