Local Climate Protection Initiatives: Raising Awareness, Accomplishing Reductions, Kim Lundgren (ICLEI)

ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability is a worldwide movement of local governments dedicated to achieving tangible changes in climate. (Note: ICLEI is no longer an acronym that stands for anything.)

We were initially very coastal in our representation, but hopefully within a year, we will have a member in each state in the U.S.

Cities for Climate Protection campaign is the most popular of our campaigns.

We work with almost 800 governments worldwide and have about 240 U.S. local governments in the program.

The Northeast Regional Capacity Center is located in Boston and supports 9 states.

Once a municipality makes a commitment to get engaged in the program they go through the following steps.

1. Conduct an emissions inventory.This creates an energy profile as your community as a whole. This is critical first step since it is the only way that you can measure progress moving forward.
2. Set a Target and a Goal for your EmissionsIt is up to the municipality to set this target. Most municipalities are targeting around 20% reductions over their baseline.
3. Establish a Local Action PlanHow are you going to get to this target?
4. Implement a Local Action Plan
5. Monitor and Evaluate Your Progress

The benefits of being a member of ICLEI include:

• Tools and Methodology for doing audits
• Greenhouse gas quantification software
• Technical assistance
• Training sessionsWe have software training, training w/ the EPA tool, green buildings, renewables.
• Access to our network
• Competitive grants
• Publications
• Annual Site Visits

Annual Results from CCP Participants (2005)

• 23 M tons of CO2 reduced
• $535M saved in fuel costs
• 4 MWh of electricity savings

San Francisco

• Established Zero Waste Policy
• 75% landfill diversion by 2010
• Zero waste by 2020
• Expect this to reduce CO2 emissions by 179,000 tons
• Using hybrid trash collection vehicles

Boulder, CO

• Residents voted for a user fee to support climate action plan
• $1.33 / month for residential users
• $3.80 / month for commercial users

California Climate Action Registry

• Towns can use this to help integrate your municipal climate protection activities.
• You do not have to live in California to participate

Northampton, MA (9/30/2006)

• Promoting Green Power purchases through utility bills
• About 5% of households were purchasing green energy.

Huntington, NY

• Free parking passes to all residents driving hybrids or alternative fuel vehicles
• Provide 3 hybrid buses for the town (through grant)

Cambridge, MA

• Climate Leaders Program to get businesses to go through the same five step process as the town to inventory and reduce emissions

Boston, MA

• School buses retrofitted w/ pollution control
• Green building action plan
• Amended zoning code to require LEED certifiable construction for all large buildings.

Setting Goals and Implementing Solutions: What’s Working in New England, Dan Sosland (Environment Northeast).
Implementing the Climate Action Plan in Connecticut

• In 2004, passed legislation adopting targets and a planning process.
• 2005: Adopted CA emissions standard, adopted a renewable portfolio standard requiring purchases of efficienciey and renewable power.
• Green power choice offered to all customers

Driving forces for getting things adopted:

• Rising volatile energy costs
• Health, quality of life impacts

A lot of progress is happening at the state level. There are currently 120 bills pending in MA related to climate.

Priority Solutions for State Policy Makers

1. Energy Efficiency Resources
2. Buildings, Get our building codes up to speed and get advanced codes
3. Appliances, Energy efficiency requirements for things like set-top boxes
4. Large Stationary Emitters (power plants)
5. Clean Energy Supplies
6. Light Vehicles
7. Heavy Vehicles
8. Carbon Sinks on the Land
9. Geological CO2 Storage

Corporate Commitment to Change, Mark Buckley (Staples)

Sustainable practices cover four major areas:

• Environmentally Preferable Products20% of the products that we sell have our own brand. This means we control the supply chain and can have a big impact on how things are built.
• RecyclingWhat can we do to make it easy for our customers to recycle and generate less waste?
• Energy and Climate
• Environmental EducationWe have a good opportunity to become our customers “environmental partner”.

Given that paper is one of our main products, we have a focus on improving the environmental impact here through the following mechanisms:

• Reduce the requirement for virgin wood fiber by increasing the post-consumer recycled content and using alternative fiber.
• Protecting endangered forests
• Protect well-managed forests

We are focusing on “environmentally preferable” products. This means looking for products based on:

• Their energy or carbon intensity
• Sustainably managed raw materials for products and packaging

We have been looking at several options for alternative fibers to help reduce the need for virgin wood in paper:

• Mix denim surplus w/ post-consumer recycled paper to create environmentally friendly paper with higher strength and low cost.
• Sugar cane waste. Previously this was burned off by farmers, but we can incorporat this into paper production.

Education:

• Launched “www.earth911business.com” to provide businesses with nformation about where to get environmentally friendly services.

Energy Reduction

• Set a target of reducing our emissions by 7% over the 2010 baseline.This is an absolute target which means that we need to reduce our emissions while growing our business.
• Purchasing Green-e certified renewable energy.20% of our purchased energy comes from green-e sources.
• Energy efficient lighting, reflective roof membranes, efficient HVAC.
• For our distribution centers, 5% of roof is skylighting. Then the rest of the lighting is controlled through light and motion centers

All of this has resulted in 14% energy savings since 2001.

In addition, we are adding in local renewable sources

• 433kW solar array in CT. This is the largest solar array in New England.

We were able to do this in partnership with Sun Edison; we buy the solar power from them and claim the environmental benefits. This has many benefits, including

• There is no up-front capital expenditure for us
• There are no maintenance costs for us
• This allows us to reduces our peak energy demand
• It provides a hedge value against fuel surcharges

Have 9 solar projects going from 80kw - a 500kw planned

• Have identified 150 possible locations for additional solar installations.
• Also looking at wind. Have a 600kW wind turbine under consideration for Framingham.

We are also working to use hybrid (diesel/electric) vehicles for our delivery trucks.We think this is good, smart business. It increases efficiency, reduces costs, and increases profitabilty.

Investments in Renewables by States and the Private Sector, Lew Milford (Clean Enegy States Alliance)
The gap between where we are at and where we need to get to presents a technological challenge of the sort that we have never faced before.

From 1890-1920, we were dealing with the first social effects of the industrial revolution. And, one-by-one, state-by-state, regulations were put into effect for things like labor laws, wage laws, etc.

It happened at the state level rather than at the national level. It was a classic fedeal, decentralized policy making process. Ultimately, this all became the New Deal.

We are about at the same time when you consider the environmental effects of that same industrial revolution.

We are entering a “new progressive era” among energy.

We now have about 18-20 states that have started to figure out how to address these effects from an environmental perspective. You are starting to see renewable portfolio standards, fuel regulations, etc., all happening at the state level.

We are probably going to be at this point for the next 2-3 decades, working this issue at the state level. The challenges are so great and we don’t know how to achieve the results that we need to achieve. There is going to be a lot of experimentation here to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

One of the implications of this for federal behavior is that we want to encourage this kind of diversity and encourage state level decisions. The federal government should be looking to create block grant programs or matching programs to support this activity at the state level.

I think there is a great danger of early federal action that will result in “dumbing down” of that is happening at the state level. It could be that federal action could actually freeze some of the progress that is happening at the state level.

The conventional wisdom around a cap-and-trade strategy is that the price will induce technological change. We need to be careful about this. Neoclassical economics has its limits. If that price is not consistent and high, you will not necessarily get the incentives that you think you will get.

If you look at Europe, there has been a lot of volatility in the price of carbon (from 1.5 EUR to 32 EUR). This does not create the technological pressure that we want.

Once we pass cap-and-trade in the US, we will likely see a return to technology focused strategies. We will need significant technology breakthroughs to help us.

There are many changes happening that will likely force this technological innovation:

• Australia is looking to ban incandescent light bulbs
• Spain will require solar in new commercial and residential buildings
• The EU is considering a universal mandate of universal carbon sequestration for all new coal powered energy

Every one of these things creates a market opportunity.

“Technology is not chosen, because it is efficient. Technology is efficient, because it is chosen.”

Q&A Session

• How do we get a sea change on energy efficiency if we leave it up to the states and local governments?We are already start to see this action from the states. Energy decisions are ultimately local. States regulate energy generation, and will continue to do so. Because of this, the supply-side questions will largely be dealt with at the state level.
• What do people think of the economic problem being caused by corn-based ethanol?One of the things we need to look at are the impact of moving to corn-derived ethanol are and understand the overall impacts of this are, including the impact on feedstock before we start shifting dollars and technology.For example, IKEA is having a hard time getting wood chips for their products because of the push for biofuels in Europe.
• What about a campaign to cut subsidies on coal, oil, and nuclear and pass that down to the states to help fund the states?I think it is very important to consider this. The nuclear power couldn’t exist w/o the federal exception for insurance. We are cutting money to renewables, but those cuts are dwarfed by the existing subsidies to coal and oil.
• What about the obstacle of permitting?This is one of the best practices we try to enforce through our network. If towns and cities can put in place streamlined permitting processes, it sends the right message to businesses.
• What sorts of tax policies should be put in place to encourage the right behavior?There are some environmental groups working on some tax shifting alternatives, but it is a very tough slog; taxes are toxic.
• How much energy goes into the costs of producing solar or wind technologies?The solar industry has done some of these life-cycle net carbon analysis and has seen that this is a positive thing.