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A Bounty for Decreasing Onondaga County’s Facility A Bounty for Decreasing Onondaga County’s Facility GHG EmissionsGHG Emissions

ResultsResults

AbstractAbstract

ReferencesReferences Energy and climate. Tompkins County. Website. Retrieved 4/6/2010, 2010, from http://www.tompkins-co.org/planning/energyclimate/index.htm US EPA. Website. Retrieved 4/6/2010, 2010, from http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/how-clean.html New York State Governor David A. Paterson:E Executive Order 24. Website. Retrieved 4/6/2010, 2010, from http://www.state.ny.us/governor/executive_orders/exeorders/eo_24.html

Onondaga County (OC) has become increasingly concerned with the impact of their activities on climate change. In order to understand the county's impact on climate change, an accurate measurement of their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) (CO2, CH4, N2O, HCFC, etc) emissions is necessary. In assisting OC, 2008 data was established as the base year for energy and electricity consumption for all county facilities and buildings. This data was inputted into the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) software to compute the GHG emissions. The results show that the county emitted 51,598 Mt of CO2e emissions for facilities and maintenance in 2008. It was recommended that simple conservation practices and investment in renewable and cleaner energy sources could reduce their GHG emissions.

DiscussionDiscussion

• Note: In 2004, the county expanded WEP operations, explaining the spike in GHG emissions in Figure 4• Based on the NYS climate action plan, the county is expected to reduce their emissions by 80% by 2050. • Based on 1990 base year including WEP emissions the county’s CO2e will need to be approximately 14,000 Mt of CO2e in 2050. (see fig. 5)• Since purchased electricity accounts for 66% of emissions, county’s plan for energy reduction should focus on electricity.• The results show a greater amount of natural gas is used in the colder months while electricity purchased spikes in the warmer months (see Fig. 2 & 3).

RecommendationsRecommendations

1. Implement simple efficiency measures and conservation practices

2. Invest in renewable and cleaner energy sources3. Establish a systematic approach to inventory energy use

and record scope 3 emissions in order to more accurately measure their GHG emissions

4. Develop an action plan and an emission reduction strategy

MethodsMethods

Natural Gas

Total natural gas purchased by the county in 2008 was 404,055.8 MMBtu. WEP accounted for 74,938.9 MMBtu, or 18.5% of all natural gas purchased. Natural gas purchased accounted for 21,494.2 Mt of CO2e with WEP and 17,507.7 Mt of CO2e without WEP . (See Fig. 2)

Figure 3: Purchased Electricity in 2008

Figure 1: Project Methods Circular Flow Chart

Figure 2: Purchased Natural Gas in 2008

Figure 5: CO2e trend line from 1996 used for projections

ConclusionConclusion• Onondaga County has undertaken the task of taking inventory of their energy and electricity usage for all their facilities and operations to help mitigate their GHG emissions• We recommend the county establish a uniform data entry process for collecting information pertaining to annual GHG emissions as outlined in this report • The county needs to develop a strategy to accurately record scope 3 emissions• The county must begin to immediately cut it’s GHG emissions from facilities and maintenance of 51,598 Mt of CO2e to meet the 80% reduction by 2050

ObjectivesObjectives To collect data on energy and electricity usage in all county facilities including landscape maintenance, traffic lights and signals To establish a system for data collection to streamline future inventories To make basic recommendations to assist Onondaga County in reducing their carbon footprint

Electricity

Onondaga county total electricity purchased for the base year 2008 was 143,919 MWh, with Waste Water Treatment Facilities (WEP) using 47% of all electricity with 67,137 MWh. Traffic lights and signals only used 372 MWh, a mere 0.25% of the total. Considering GHG emissions, we used the EPA’s local emission factors for Onondaga County to calculate CO2e for purchased electricity to be 63,897 Mt, with WEP contributing 29,807 Mt of CO2e, obviously 47% of the county’s CO2e from electricity. (See Fig. 3)

Figure 4: Contributions to GHG emissions