Abstract

The City of Dover recognizes the many challenges that a changing climate presents and acknowledges that municipalities have a responsibility to lead adaptation and greenhouse gas reduction efforts at the local level. Through a University of New Hampshire Sustainability Fellowship undertaken by UNH doctoral student Jackson Kaspari, the City of Dover has become the first municipality in North America to complete a baseline footprint for both greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen impacts of local government operations. This inventory informs Dover’s policymakers, residents, property owners, and business owners on how to best introduce mitigation measures, helping Dover contribute to a global effort. Conducting a GHG and nitrogen inventory serves the following purposes: allows for the development of a baseline to which further GHG and nitrogen analyses can be compared, leads to the identification of opportunities to improve energy efficiency, leads to the identification of opportunities to reduce nitrogen releases to the environment, demonstrates climate change leadership through the development of reduction targets, and increases the general transparency and consistency of GHG and nitrogen accounting and reporting among institutions. This carbon and nitrogen footprint baseline was compiled through the utilization of two online tools: the Environmental Protection Agency’s Portfolio Manager and the University of New Hampshire’s Sustainability Indicator Management and Analysis Platform (SIMAP). The inventory is organized into categories, or sectors, which represent the major sources of carbon and nitrogen emissions. Most sectors contribute to both types of emissions. The sectors analyzed in this report include: stationary fuels, purchased electricity, the municipal fleet, employee commuting, employee travel, fertilizer and animals, school cafeteria food, solid waste, paper use, transmission and distribution losses, and wastewater treatment. In addition to analyzing the energy use and GHG impacts for each sector, the City’s energy costs have also been calculated for both 2016 and 2017. Overall, municipal operations generated 9,896 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT of C02e) in 2016 and 9,560 MT of C02e in 2017, representing a 3.4% reduction from year to year. Reactive nitrogen released to the environment was 40 MT and 42.3 MT in 2016 and 2017, respectively, a 5.4% increase. Figures for each sector and each year are included, and the likely causes of increases or reductions are presented. This inventory concludes with models of the impact of projects that are already underway as well as reduction scenarios that the City and schools may opt to pursue. It also includes recommendations for improving upon data collection in future years and appendices detailing energy use at each facility.

Publication Date

1-4-2019

Document Type

Report

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