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Elk River GHG Baseline Inventory
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<br />Potential Next Steps for the City of Elk River
<br />We recommend City leadership implement the following:
<br />1) Engage a consultant to work with City Leadership to develop a GHG Reduction goal and action
<br />plan.
<br />2) Engage a consultant for a detailed Facility Assessment, Energy Audit, and energy efficiency action
<br />plan for the Public Safety, Ice Arena, and Waste Water facilities.
<br />3) Explore the feasibility of installation of renewable energy generation on one or more City facility
<br />4) Conduct a detailed waste sort study to span a minimum of one full week of collection
<br />5)Develop a long-range vehicle replacement plan to migrate to electric and hybrid vehicles.
<br />6)Explore Efficiency Programs focused on diesel engine retrofits, installation of auxiliary power units
<br />7)Implement Public Transit Commuter Campaign building awareness among City staff by
<br />communicating public transit routes, establish carpool groups, and communicate reimbursement
<br />potentials available under December 2015 US Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR 2029)
<br />Summary of Inventory Results
<br />This report summarizes the Greenhouse Gas emissions inventory for both the City of Elk
<br />River municipal operations as well as the Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU) operations.
<br />Those emissions are primarily reported separately, however, as a traditional function of
<br />municipal public works, the emissions associated with street lighting have been reported
<br />under the City of Elk River operations rather than ERMU.
<br />The City and ERMU operate a total of 16 facilities, numerous city vehicles, lift/pump
<br />stations, street lights, and street signals. Each of these components of the City’s
<br />operational infrastructure consume grid-based electricity, natural gas, gasoline, or diesel
<br />fuel. For the baseline 2015 year, the City of Elk River municipal operations totaled 5,922.33
<br />Metric Tonnes (13,056,487 pounds) CO2e while the ERMU operations totaled 1,532.77
<br />Metric Tonnes (3,379,175 pounds) CO2e. Together, these emissions represent over 146
<br />million cubic feet of man-made greenhouse atmosphere annually.
<br />The sections which follow detail the breakdown of these total operational emissions for the
<br />City as well as ERMU within the categories of Buildings and Grounds, Streetlights and
<br />Signals, Vehicles, Transportation and Travel, Water and Wastewater, and Solid Waste. The
<br />calculations and emissions factors used to arrive at these emission totals can be found in
<br />the appendix of this report.
<br />Community Comparisons
<br />The results of community GHG inventories vary somewhat due to the information
<br />collected, as well as the range of services provided by city entities directly, services
<br />contracted out on behalf of the subject city, or services which are provided by entirely
<br />separate governmental agencies or privatized. Consequently, a direct city-to-city
<br />comparison should not be viewed as a comprehensive comparison of Greenhouse Gas
<br />emission efficiencies. We believe, however, that as an emerging practice, municipalities
<br />should look towards building and sharing data in order to develop a stronger
<br />understanding of where each municipality can advance efficiencies and meet
<br />Greenhouse Gas reduction goals. The following is a brief comparison of City Operations
<br />Emissions between a few Twin City Metro communities:
<br />Opportunities for Reduction
<br />The sections in this report summarizing each GHG inventory category include
<br />identification of potential opportunities for reduction. Though not comprehensive, these
<br />strategies represent municipal best practices which the City may benefit from continuing,
<br />expanding, or implementing. We have selected a few we believe the City may benefit
<br />from the most and have included them in Potential Next Steps for The City of Elk River
<br />Volume Visualization
<br />The graphic above represents the volume of man-made GHG atmosphere produced
<br />annually by the City of Elk River operations (blue) and ERMU operations (green)
<br />emissions totals. The volume of atmosphere is equal to a cube 527 feet on each face,
<br />with a total volume of 146,277,466 cubic feet, roughly the volume of Orono3x
<br />Executive Summary
<br />City Operations Total
<br />5,922.33 Metric Tonnes
<br />79.44%
<br />ERMU Operations Total
<br />1,532.77 Metric Tonnes
<br />20.56%
<br />146,277,466
<br />Cubic Feet of
<br />Man-Made
<br />Atmosphere
<br />7,455.10
<br />Metric Tonnes
<br />Total City Emissions
<br />City Operations Metric Tonnes
<br />Elk River:5,922 Total 49 /FTE 43/Facility SF
<br />Maplewood:5,267 Total 32 /FTE 48/Facility sf
<br />Edina:24,939 Total 50 /FTE
<br />Bloomington:17,974 Total 58 /FTE
<br />Falcon Heights:397 Total 24 /FTE
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