Burlington’s Climate Action Plan sets a target for the year 2005 of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Burlington by 10 percent below 1990 levels. After careful assessment of emissions and opportunities to reach the 10 percent goal, the task force suggested that this action plan propose an emissions reduction goal of 156,000 tons per year. Reaching this goal requires that emissions in the year 2005 be reduced to 561,000 tons per year. This is 10 percent below the 1997 level of 619,000 tons. Reaching the 90 percent level of 1990 emissions would require annual emissions reductions of 257,000 tons. Reductions of this magnitude are possible, but are likely to take more time. Even with a lower progress goal, the task force considers this an aggressive plan. The following summarizes these five recommended strategies and their respective reductions.
- Implement climate action plans for municipal buildings and operations: 6,000 tons
- Support the full implementation of planned (2000-2005) efficiency programs to maximize the capture of lost opportunity efficiency potentials: 20,000 tons
- Develop and lead a public education campaign, demonstrate civic commitment to climate protection activities and implement a TEN PERCENT CHALLENGE CAMPAIGN: 70,000 tons
- Support biomass district energy and other alternative fuel supply options: 35,000 tons for Phase I
- Implement transportation demand management (TDM) projects and support climate friendly transportation policy at the local, state, and federal levels: 25,000 tons
Agriculture and Forestry Sector
Expanding and Maintaining Street Trees and Shrubs
Trees play an important role in our community that goes well beyond aesthetics. Their shade helps to offset air conditioning use in the summer, and they can reduce heating costs by blocking cold winds in the winter. Storm water absorbed by city trees can lock up pollutants that would otherwise end up in Lake Champlain. And because of their ability to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, trees have aptly been called the “lungs of the planet.”
For these reasons, it is important that the city and the community support the parks and recreation department in its development of a comprehensive urban forestry master plan.
The first stage of this plan is to plant 4,500 new trees in the city’s green belts, the areas between curbs and sidewalks. The plan would begin by replacing the trees that were destroyed in the 1998 ice storm, and would continue planting with a goal of 11,500 green-belt trees (there are currently around 6,600).
A key component of this plan is maintaining the new trees. Green belt conditions are not ideal for growth, so it is crucial that these trees are watered and well cared-for, especially in the first three years. Sufficient additional resources for planting and the ongoing care of new trees must be identified to make this measure feasible.
The annual emissions reductions estimate for 4,500 trees is 45 tons of CO2 per year.
Climate Neutral Products
Some visionary companies are starting to take their climate protection efforts to a new level by working on “climate neutral” products. Climate neutral status comes from eliminating or offsetting all greenhouse gas emission associated with a product’s life-cycle. Businesses usually achieve this through a combination of on-site activities (energy efficiency, waste reduction) and off-site activities (such as sponsoring reforestation projects).
In Vermont, for example, Stonyfield Farm is developing “climate neutral” yogurt, and Ben & Jerry’s is working with Sunoco Oil and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation on a “Climate Neutral Fuel Association Card.” By supporting and promoting the sales of products like this, local businesses can encourage climate protection while increasing their customers’ awareness and improving their image as environmentally responsible.
Cross-Sectoral or Other Sector
Public Outreach and Education
Beyond investing and implementing their own climate protection activities, institutions can play an important role in encouraging and or influencing their constituents, employees and the general public. Examples include:
- Sponsoring or participating in general and/or professional events and activities that raise awareness of global warming and opportunities for climate protection;
- The use of newsletters, web-sites or other media to inform and motivate;
- The development, distribution and use of global warming and climate protection curricula and training materials;
- Sponsoring or participating in public participation campaigns (e.g. the 10% emissions reduction challenge);
- Sponsoring or participating in public forums, and regulatory or legislative debates, that relate to climate protection (transportation & land use planning, taxation reform, energy system planning); and
- Publicizing successful climate protection activities.
Amending the Municipal Code and Ordinances
Burlington has residential new construction codes and a minimum rental housing time-of-sale standards. The former helps prevent lost opportunities for energy efficiencies in new construction, while the latter addresses the split incentive that often exists between renter and landlord for energy efficiency improvements in rental housing.
The time-of-sale ordinance takes advantage of the transaction of a property to minimize inconvenience for property owners, and to take maximum advantage of available financing mechanisms. The municipal development plan encourages developers to go beyond minimum efficiency standards, and it encourages the use of best practices, including energy efficiency design criteria.
The potential for emissions reductions from these two standards, and the best practice guidelines, are very conservatively estimated to exceed 100 tons per year.
Municipal street lighting is another area where city ordinances influence potential climate protection opportunities. Reducing annual electric consumption by 5 percent from 1998 levels through modifications to lighting levels and/or more efficient technologies would reduce emissions by 100 tons per year.
Promoting Voluntary Programs and Providing Incentives for City Employees to Reduce Emissions
To supplement the actions outlined above, the city encourages municipal employees to help identify further emissions reduction opportunities. This request can be incorporated into the city’s broader promotion and adoption of the 10 percent reduction goal.
Although this is difficult to quantify, it is not unreasonable to project that the additional ideas and opportunities adopted due to this type of effort could prevent at least 100 tons of annual emissions by the year 2005.
The Climate Wise Program
In June 1997, the city, in partnership with the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, was awarded a $35,000 grant under the EPA Climate Wise Program.
Designed to forge a local government-industry partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency, the grant called for:
- The recruitment of 12 area companies to EPA’s Climate Wise Program;
- The preparation of six action plans for greenhouse gas emissions for these Climate Wise Program partners; and
- The preparation of the Municipal Buildings Energy Action Plan.
In 1998 the city was awarded a second grant $28,000 for the recruitment of two more companies and the preparation of eight more action plans. To date, this program has recorded 16 industrial companies recruited, nine energy assessments performed and six action plans filed.
The Legacy Project
Another example of the city’s commitment to sustainability is the Burlington Legacy Project, currently being developed by the City of Burlington and the Institute for Sustainable Communities, a nonprofit organization in Montpelier.
This project aims to develop a broad-based, community-driven vision of sustainability for Burlington, strengthen existing programs that connect students to and educate them on community activities, and document the lessons learned to provide a model for other cities. These objectives incorporate the mutually supportive goals of promoting energy efficiency, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and economic development.
This Climate Protection Action plan and its targets can be incorporated into the Legacy Project’s process of identifying and articulating a common vision of sustainability.
Making a Household Action Plan
The Burlington Climate Protection Task Force is encouraging households, businesses and institutions throughout the city to develop individual climate protection action plans. There are three basic steps to creating such a plan:
- Use energy bills and other information on household activities to estimate your annual emissions of greenhouse gases.
- Identify changes or investments that you can make over the next year to reduce emissions.
- Track your progress.
If you have access to the Worldwide Web (one computer is available at the Fletcher Free Library for public use), you can use the personal CO2 calculator provided by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives at www.iclei.org/iclei/co2calc.htm.
The calculator is easy to use, but to answer its questions you will need to have information ready about your utility bills and your yearly gasoline consumption.
After calculating your household's current emissions, you can set a greenhouse gas reduction target. The city’s goal is to reduce emissions by 10 percent by 2005, but you may decide to choose a higher or lower figure.
Industrial Sector
The Climate Neutral Network
Some visionary companies nationwide are starting to take their climate protection efforts to a new level by working on “climate neutral” products, processes or facilities. Stonyfield Farm Inc. of New Hampshire is one example of a New England firm that has made an early commitment to energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Starting with a facility assessment in 1996, Stonyfield Farm has reduced the amount of energy required to produce a pound of yogurt by 9 percent, and subsequent CO2 emissions by 15 percent.
The company has also supported a reforestation project in Oregon, in an effort to fully offset 100 percent of the Stonyfield production facility’s carbon emissions. When fully implemented, this investment in off-site reductions will result in the production of climate neutral yogurt.
To facilitate this type of activity, the U.S. EPA has established a Climate Neutral Network under the Climate Wise program. The network is a group of industrial companies dedicated to examining a growing number of ways to develop, support and market climate neutral products.
Close to home, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation and Ben & Jerry’s are developing and plan to pilot-test a Climate Neutral Association fuel card with Sunoco Oil Company. When consumers use this card to buy Sunoco gasoline, they will receive a small direct rebate from Sunoco. Sunoco will also make a monthly contribution to a statewide Climate Neutral fund, based on the association’s total monthly purchases. All proceeds will be invested in emission reduction projects in Vermont.
The pilot project is first being implemented for the Ben & Jerry’s sales force and senior management. If it succeeds, the concept will be offered to other Vermont companies and organizations, and Ben & Jerry’s will expand its program to both their fleets and employees nationwide.
Procurement and Office Equipment
Office equipment, paper supplies and appliances used in staff rooms all provide further opportunities for firms to make purchasing decisions that will reduce climate change impacts. Firms can make it a regular practice to purchase office equipment and appliances that meet Energy Star labeling requirements. Office equipment included in the Energy Star program includes computers and monitors, copiers, fax machines, printers and scanners.
Extended Product Responsibility
Remanufacturing is the process of disassembly, component refurbishing and reassembly of products to meet original performance specifications. Compared with production based on the extraction, processing and manufacture of new raw materials, the remanufacturing process has tremendous potential benefits—economic, environmental and social. Consider, for example, the extremely low concentration of some elements in nature, such as mercury, versus their concentration in finished products, such as energy-efficient fluorescent lighting. In many cases, it makes sense to “mine” and reuse resources from the manufactured product base as an alternative to the virgin-material-to finished-product chain. Significant levels of remanufacturing have already been achieved by a number of industries—including those that make automobiles, compressors, electrical appliances, industrial valves, copiers and personal computers. Extended product responsibility is the principle by which manufacturers take into account the environmental impacts of a product’s entire lifecycle, from material suppliers to manufacturers to consumers. Profit or regulatory forces can drive closer associations between each stage of a product’s lifecycle with the product’s environmental impacts.
Solid Waste
There are two main impacts on climate change from the generation of solid waste, one direct and one indirect. The direct impact is due to the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste, which produces the greenhouse gas methane. Businesses that produce significant amounts of organic waste, such as food and paper waste, can help reduce this by composting (in the case of food waste) and simple waste reduction measures such as printing double-sided copies.3
The indirect link to climate change has to do with embodied energy, which is the energy (and subsequent CO2) needed to produce the raw materials required to manufacture a product. By recycling, and by purchasing products with high recycled content, a business can cut down on this embodied energy.
Recycled products can reduce by as much as 75 percent the amount of energy required to produce a product. One conservative estimate is that every ton of recycled waste prevents 1,000 pounds of CO2.
Adopting management policies that require green or climate friendly purchasing wherever possible, encourage the conscientious use of office supplies, and promote waste reduction in the lunchroom (providing recycling bins and reusable dishware), can also lead to significant reductions.
A recent study performed by Tellus Institute for the Environmental Protection Agency identifies several categories for manufacturer extended product responsibility in the United States. The concepts of remanufacturing and extended product responsibility provide new models for business managers, consumers and policy makers who seek to maintain economic vitality while moving toward patterns of production and consumption that reduce global warming and other environmental impacts. These concepts can help forward-thinking companies to generate new business strategies to develop products and markets with long-lasting value.
Power Generation Sector
Biomass District Energy
The development of a biomass-fueled district energy system is the single largest measure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that is identified in Burlington’s Climate Protection Action Plan. The estimated annual reduction in CO2 emissions of a biomass district system, compared to natural gas heat systems in individual buildings, ranges from 32,000-50,000 tons, depending on the extent of the distribution system.
The proposed district energy system reduces emissions through two mechanisms. First, the central plant, in this case the McNeil generating station, would be retrofitted to take advantage of cogeneration—also referred to as combined heat and power (CHP).
This significantly improves the overall efficiency of fuel use. When operating in an electric generating mode only, conventional thermal power plants are typically 30-40 percent efficient. Capturing waste heat and using it to supply heating loads can raise their overall efficiency to more than 70 percent.
Second, the proposed system will rely primarily on renewable biomass fuels. The McNeil plant consumed approximately 220,000 green tons of low-quality wood fuels in 1996. Implementing the district energy system is estimated to increase this consumption by an additional 200,000 green tons per year. In the first year, this is projected to offset roughly 394,000 million BTUs of fossil fuel combustion, resulting in 32,000 tons of estimated CO2 reductions.
The projected increase in biomass fuel consumption falls within state projections for the amount of biomass energy that is easily and readily available for new sustainable wood-to-energy projects.
The two largest potential consumers for thermal energy from the proposed system are the University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care. Other institutions, including the Red Cross and Champlain and Trinity Colleges, become important under a potential second phase of development, in which the distribution system is expanded.
The project’s economic feasibility depends, in part, on the ability of these and other institutional consumers with significant thermal energy loads to make facility modifications and energy purchasing commitments. For this reason, institutional decision makers are critical to the further development and implementation of a district energy system.
A number of issues will continue to receive attention during efforts to develop a viable implementation plan for the district energy system. These issues include:
- the community’s acceptance of the increased McNeil plant operations and required fuel transport and
- the negotiation of contracts and financial arrangements acceptable to all major parties and sufficient to provide the foundation for project finance.
Buildings and Operations
The climate protection opportunities in institutional buildings and operations are similar in many ways to those described in the commercial and industrial sections of this plan. Many institutions have undertaken significant energy efficiency projects, most frequently in lighting, motors, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Along with preventing thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, these projects bring economic savings, comfort and productivity improvements, and significant environmental benefits.
By continuing and strengthening their commitments to identify and capture all economically achievable energy efficiency savings, institutions directly benefit their constituents while freeing resources for investments in other critical activities. As in the past, efficiency measures can be undertaken independently, with assistance from utility-sponsored efficiency programs, and/or in collaboration other partners such as Climate Wise.
Plans for new construction, facility renovation or expansion, and the replacement of failed equipment present important opportunities for investment in energy-efficient and environmentally-sound structures and equipment. These are often prime opportunities for comprehensive investments that would be less attractive under retrofit conditions.
Helping customers capture opportunities for cost-effective investments that would otherwise be lost is a fundamental component of Vermont’s plan for a statewide energy efficiency utility.
Institutional administrators and facility managers who aggressively seek these opportunities before they are lost are making an important contribution to the community’s overall climate protection objectives.
Combined Heat and Power; Fuel Switching
Large industrial operations often have big-enough thermal and electric energy loads to justify investments in combined heat and power (CHP or cogeneration) systems. The overall system efficiencies attainable with CHP—up to 80 percent—can reduce emissions by up to two-thirds, compared with conventional power supplies. CHP technologies can be implemented at the facility, or can be community-scale. Section C, Institutional Opportunities, gives more detail on the potential for district heating based on CHP.
Switching to lower-carbon or renewable fuels is another strategy that can help industrial firms reduce emissions. Transpired air collectors for ventilation air preheating is one example of a simple, cost-effective renewable energy technology that is suitable to Burlington’s climate and can help reduce heating costs for buildings with large ventilation requirements, such as vehicle maintenance barns or ventilated warehouses. These systems rely on a dark-colored, south-facing wall with small perforations. Air passing through the perforations is preheated by as much as 40 degrees in a simple, low maintenance means of reducing both emissions and heating costs.
Solar water heating, the sustainable use of biomass energy, and solar photovoltaics are other renewable energy technology options for companies seeking cleaner energy solutions. Information and resource contacts for these technologies are provided in the residential and commercial sections of this plan.
Light-Emitting Diode Traffic Indicators
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are highly efficient alternatives to the bulbs that have been used in traffic signals over the years. A 20-watt LED lamp has the same light output as a 135-watt incandescent bulb, resulting in energy savings of 115 watts. LED lights have also been estimated to last 6 to 10 times longer than incandescent lamps.
LED technology for traffic signals is ready for use on a large scale. The Burlington Public Works Department installed its first LED signals in 1995 at Plattsburg Avenue and Sunset Drive. These indicators proved successful, and Public Works targeted 28 intersections with a total of 118 red indicator signals to be replaced with LED lamps. Energy savings from replacing these signals are estimated at 77,268 kWh a year, or around $11,590.
The Burlington Electric Department is financing this project through its energy savings program, and the payback period is around two and a half years. Carbon dioxide reductions from these initial 118 red-signal replacements are above 34 tons per year.
The first signal in the city (and in Vermont) to have been converted totally to LED, with all colors outfitted, is at the corner of Pine Street and Flynn Avenue. With just this one signal, the city is saving around 8,000 kWh a year and about $1,200. Each signal thus retrofitted will prevent almost four tons of emissions per year. Since installation the intersection traffic signal has been virtually maintenance free.
Energy Star Procurement and Bulk Purchase Program
Recent years have seen a significant increase in the number and quality of environmentally sensitive office products and office equipment. Establishing standards for purchasing these types of products, and making sure that energy saving and climate-friendly shutdown procedures for office equipment are established and followed, can reduce the city’s emissions of CO2 by an estimated 50 tons per year.
Investigating the opportunity to acquire efficient office products through bulk purchases is also recommended.
Energy Efficiency Improvements for Municipal Building
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Systems for Municipal Buildings
Bring all systems up to a minimum operating efficiency level, perform building and system seal-up, install efficient control systems, analyze cost-effectiveness of heat recovery ventilation, establish a comprehensive maintenance protocol and train/inform building employees on energy efficiency strategies.
Water Heating Systems for Municipal Buildings
Analyze systems for cost-effective efficiency improvements and fuel conversions, insulate piping and tanks, reduce temperature set-points where appropriate and install low-flow fixtures.
Lighting for Municipal Buildings
Perform lighting assessment and implement alternate lighting strategies where appropriate, improve task lighting, install occupancy sensors and lighting controls where appropriate.
Motors for Municipal Buildings
Implement protocol to install premium efficiency motors at time of replacement, and analyze motors larger than 1HP for proper sizing and efficiency, replace where cost-effective.
Office Equipment for Municipal Buildings
Implement buying strategy of Energy Star equipment and Products and environmentally sensitive office products, and implement awareness campaigns to encourage “thoughtful” consumption of equipment and products.
New Technologies for Municipal Buildings
Investigate and support cost effective heat recovery, renewable fuel and cogeneration opportunities, while providing leadership for the development of a municipal energy system.
“Energy Star” Office Equipment
Purchasing office equipment that has received the Energy Star designation is an easy way to lower your bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Energy Star office equipment listed in the following table includes power-down features that allow a device to “sleep” during extended periods of inactivity, thereby reducing energy consumption by 25 to 60 percent. If a typical office, including 10 computers, one fax machine, two printers and one medium-sized copier, were to replace its office equipment with Energy Star models, it would reduce its CO2 emissions by 5,000 pounds per year. If 50 Burlington offices this size were to upgrade their equipment to Energy Star models, the total annual CO2 reductions would equal 125 tons.
Renewable Energy Supplies
Renewable energy systems are a great way to demonstrate your commitment to environmental protection, help to educate the public about solar technologies, reduce your emissions of greenhouse gases, and cut your spending on conventional fuels. Systems can also be designed to provide you with backup power—and can provide an important degree of risk management for critical loads in case of temporary grid power outages.
In Burlington, solar hot water and photovoltaic (PV) technologies are the most commonly feasible options for customer-sited renewable energy systems. Investing in a renewable energy system can provide your business with clean, reliable, affordable energy for years to come.
Solar hot water heaters for commercial applications can often provide better customer economics than residential-sized systems, due to economies of scale. Depending upon your type of business, water heating may represent a significant share of your annual energy bills. Solar collectors use the sun’s free energy to heat your water, reduce your energy bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Most systems use a conventional fuel for backup, to guarantee your hot water supply.
Depending on site conditions and hot water consumption patterns, a new solar hot water heating system in Burlington can meet up to 70 percent of your business’s annual hot water needs.
Photovoltaic systems produce electricity directly from sunlight. They can be tied directly to the existing utility grid, and can power regular electronic loads. They can also be used to charge battery banks, or to feed your business directly in case of a utility power outage.
By reducing consumption of conventionally produced electric power, each kilowatt of PV power installed in Burlington prevents roughly 24 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 20 years.
Transportation Sector
Municipal Fleet Emissions
Transportation is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Actions the city can take to reduce fleet emissions include:
- Improving vehicle maintenance,
- Establishing minimum fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles purchased,
- Establishing an early retirement program for the least efficient vehicles, and
- Examining opportunities for the use of alternative fuel vehicles.
By taking actions such as these, the city will demonstrate clean fleet technologies and bring in resources and experience from which other sectors can benefit.
Green Fleets
For many institutions, another potentially significant emissions reduction strategy is to develop and operate climate-friendly transportation fleets. A wide variety of “green” fleet development measures are available to suit particular priorities and circumstances. These include:
- Procurement guidelines specifying minimum fuel-efficiency standards for traditionally fueled vehicles;
- Operational guidelines specifying minimum efficiency standards for an existing fleet;
- Procurement and operation of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), including electric, hybrid, fuel cell, bio-diesel or compressed natural gas;
- Development of AFV maintenance and support infrastructure (charging stations, rapid fill CNG); and
- Development and operation of green fleet vehicles that encourage higher-density vehicle occupancy (shuttles, park -and- ride).
Generally, running a fleet of green vehicles—such as those operated by several area institutions—has significant advantages over individual operations. These include bulk procurement, lower fixed costs per vehicle for any special refueling or maintenance equipment, more predictable operations schedules, and a higher level of public visibility. Also, institutions are in a better position to work with government or non-governmental partners in promoting green fleet technologies.
The actual greenhouse gas reductions that are achieved through specific green fleet strategies will depend on the amount and type of total fossil-fuel use that is replaced. Along with reducing emissions, green fleet investments commonly bring several other environmental and economic benefits—including reduced local air pollution, reduced congestion and potentially lower operating costs.
Transportation Actions for Businesses:
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging the management of company fleets to increase vehicle efficiency.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging the management of company fleets to modify vehicle procurement specifications.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging the management of company fleets to downsize vehicle fleets.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging the movement of inventory to optimize routing.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging the movement of inventory to reduce truck idling.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging the movement of inventory to create financial incentives for efficient fleet operation.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to subsidize employee transit passes.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to start a guaranteed ride home program.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to match up employees interested in ride-sharing.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to provide preferential parking for car-pools.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to provide financial incentives for car-pooling.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to initiate parking fees.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to use information technologies to allow telecommuting options.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to use information technologies to establish satellite offices.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to use information technologies to conduct business by teleconferencing.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to designate an employee transportation coordinator.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to stagger work hours.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to allow flex time.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to build transit amenities.
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to provide bicycle amenities (e.g., secured bike lockers and showers).
Increase business transportation efficiency by encouraging management to locate new business facilities in areas near housing and transit centers.
Municipal Transportation Actions
Shift funding for transit from the property tax to new funding sources.
Develop tax incentives to further encourage vanpools, carpools and public transportation.
Establish carbon-based or transportation fuel sales taxes. Carbon tax or the removal of sales tax exemptions for transportation fuels can be designed to be revenue-neutral, with the revenues generated returned to taxpayers in the form of reductions in other tax burdens (e.g., income, property or social security).
Develop a revenue-neutral sales tax structure for new vehicle sales. Vehicles significantly more efficient than the fleet average receive a rebate, those with average efficiencies are not
impacted, and those significantly worse than average pay an extra sales tax—which offsets the rebates paid for the more efficient vehicles.
Adopt higher density mixed use planning to encourage transportation efficiency.
Shift hidden transportation costs to motor fuel taxes to encourage transportation efficiency.
Shift fixed-cost fees for transportation to variable-costs fuel taxes to encourage transportation efficiency.
Implement pay-at-the-pump insurance to encourage transportation efficiency.
Work with Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA) to shorten headways of existing routes—especially the New North End. Increase the frequency of buses and add more free shuttles.
Explore the establishment of a multi-modal transportation district in the vicinity of Battery Street.
Expand bicycle infrastructure including a connected bike path system for the county, bike amenities, and share the road initiatives (e.g., clean shoulders).
Pursue connections to Colchester for the Burlington Bike Path; complete Northern Connector bike path; plan and develop an east-west bike path across the New North End; and develop a bike path along the eastern boundary of the City making linkages to neighboring communities.
Improve incentives to use the Parking and Mass-Transit Capital Fund as an alternative to on-site parking.
Implement the Waterfront Transportation Center at Union Station.
Initiate Riverside Avenue improvements for multi-use traffic.
Complete way-finding signage system.
Waste Sector
Waste Reduction
Process redesign and operational management changes, ranging from simple to complex, can reduce the amount of material a firm uses per unit of final product. Embodied energy describes the energy needed to process the raw materials and equipment required to manufacture a product. In many companies the CO2 emitted in the processing of raw materials used in their products greatly exceeds the CO2 released by their total in-house energy consumption.
This is why recycling and reuse are important parts of a waste reduction plan. One conservative estimate is that every ton of waste recycled prevents 1,000 pounds of CO2 emissions. This is because it requires so much less energy to produce a recycled product than one made from raw materials—for instance, recycling aluminum takes only one-quarter of the energy required to make aluminum.
Companies can also cut down on the amount of waste produced at their facilities. Relatively straightforward actions such as two-sided copying, reducing product and transport packaging, and reusing office supplies can add up to millions of dollars in annual cost savings.
The federal “Waste Wi$e” program works with private firms to identify and implement innovative solid waste reduction and reuse strategies. More than 390 companies, from large Fortune 1000 firms to smaller businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations nationwide have signed on to be “Waste Wi$e.”
Encouraging Recycling and Solid Waste Reduction Strategies
Within the next 10 years, methane recovery is in place, or will be in place, in all landfills where Burlington sends waste. There may, however, be more opportunities to generate power with the methane that is currently being flared (burned off) at landfills. This possibility should be investigated further and implemented where cost-effective.
The Chittenden County Solid Waste District has been working diligently to divert waste from landfill disposal whenever possible. The amount of waste diverted has increased from 42.3 percent in 1993 to 48.2 percent in 1997. Increasing the percentage diverted to 55 percent by 2005 would prevent approximately 3,300 tons of waste from being landfilled each year. This diversion, combined with methane recovery, will prevent approximate annual methane emissions equivalent to 2,200 tons of CO2.
Innovative projects such as Intervale Compost, which began in 1987 with leaf composting and evolved to become the largest commercial composting project in Vermont, are crucial steps in addressing the issue of waste disposal in Burlington.
Efforts to promote waste reduction in city operations should also be explored. Purchasing guidelines that promote resource conservation and source reduction, particularly for office supplies, should be aggressively pursued. In addition, the City of Burlington should promote policies that make recycling as simple as possible for residents—for instance, convenient drop-off locations (which will also reduce emissions from driving).
Solid Waste
There are two main impacts on climate change from the generation of solid waste, one direct and one indirect. The direct impact is due to the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste, which produces the greenhouse gas methane. Businesses that produce significant amounts of organic waste, such as food and paper waste, can help reduce this by composting (in the case of food waste) and simple waste reduction measures such as printing double-sided copies.
The indirect link to climate change has to do with embodied energy, which is the energy (and subsequent CO2) needed to produce the raw materials required to manufacture a product. By recycling, and by purchasing products with high recycled content, a business can cut down on this embodied energy.
Recycled products can reduce by as much as 75 percent the amount of energy required to produce a product. One conservative estimate is that every ton of recycled waste prevents 1,000 pounds of CO2.
Adopting management policies that require green or climate friendly purchasing wherever possible, encourage the conscientious use of office supplies, and promote waste reduction in the lunchroom (providing recycling bins and reusable dishware), can also lead to significant reductions.