CITY OF VANCOUVER
POLICY REPORT
ENVIRONMENT
Date: |
November 18, 2003 | |
Author: |
S. Pander M. Holland | |
Phone No.: |
6677 | |
RTS No.: |
03662 | |
CC File No.: |
3501 | |
Meeting Date: |
December 2, 2003 |
| TO: | Vancouver City Council |
FROM: |
General Manager of Engineering Services;
Director of CityPlans; and General Manager, Park Board, in Consultation with the Cool Vancouver Task Force |
SUBJECT: |
The Corporate Climate Change Action Plan for the City of Vancouver |
A. THAT City Council receive and accept, subject to the recommendations within this Council Report, the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan (Appendix A) from the Cool Vancouver Task Force and thank the Cool Vancouver Task Force for their significant contributions to Vancouver's work on climate change to date;
B. THAT Council affirm and approve the 2010 target of a 20% reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) from 1990 for the City as a corporation and that the Sustainability Support Group report back annually on implementation progress and report back periodically on progress to meeting the target;
C. That City Council request that the Board of Parks and Recreation, the Police Board, and the Library Board endorse the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan and the recommendations within this report;
D. That City Council forward the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan to the School Board to assist them in responding to the issues of climate change;
E. THAT Council approve the following recommendations for corporate facilities based on the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan:
i. That the City hire an Energy Projects Coordinator, subject to classification by the General Manager of Human Resources, at an annual cost of $71,500 plus a one-time cost of $5,000 for computer and set-up and that starting in 2004, funding for the $71,500 should be added to the annual operating budget without offset;
ii. That Corporate Services and Engineering report back by January 2004 on the opportunities that Energy Performance Contracts may offer the City to reduce emissions for the majority of its buildings and facilities;
iii. That an Inter-Departmental Energy Committee be established to assist and advise the Energy Coordinator;
iv. That opportunities for establishing an energy savings sharing fund be explored in the City to develop incentives for City staff to pursue energy efficiency in their facilities and operations;
v. That the City review existing lease agreements for opportunities to increase energy efficiency, both for buildings the City owns and for ones it leases;
vi. That staff report back on opportunities to establish an Energy Efficient Purchasing Policy by September 2004, and in the interim purchase Energy Star rated equipment and appliances where applicable;
vii. That, beginning in 2004, the City purchase Green Power Certificates for 10% of the electricity used at City Hall at an annual cost not to exceed $10,000 with source of funds to be the Operating Budget and further, that the Energy Coordinator reports back on additional opportunities to generate "green" energy in civic facilities and infrastructure;
viii. That the City advocate for more aggressive implementation and broader accessibility to green power with the GVRD, BC Hydro, and the Provincial Government;
ix. That Council address the application of the LEED rating system or comparable alternate system to City facilities when it is reported back to Council and further, that Council requests that the report specifically address energy reduction requirements.
F. THAT Council approve the following recommendations for the corporate fleet based on the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan:
i. That the Corporate Management Team develop policies for downsizing all vehicles in a manner appropriate to their tasks at the next point of replacement;
ii. That common standards be established City-wide for vehicle specifications for similar applications throughout the City;
iii. That the City evaluate and report back on opportunities to purchase "clean diesel" units as replacements for light duty gasoline vehicles once diesels conforming to new 2007 standards are available;
iv. That the City evaluate the possibility of postponing scheduled replacement of applicable vehicles for two years prior to the new cleaner standards taking effect to increase the number of vehicles replaced with clean diesels;
v. That the City make a one-time allocation of $90,000 to Equipment Services' budget to take part in a biodiesel demonstration project to determine the suitability of using biodiesel in the fleet, with the funding source to be the Operating Budget;
vi. That if biodiesel is found suitable, the City work with the region's Fuel Purchasing Cooperative to include biodiesel in future contracts;
vii. That the City advocate that the provincial and federal governments reduce taxes on biodiesel and biodiesel blends;
viii. That the City request that the GVRD study the environmental impacts of biodiesel use in the region;
ix. That the City work with the petroleum industry, the GVRD and the Vancouver Economic Development Commission to encourage the development of biodiesel manufacturing facilities within the GVRD;
x. That the City make a one-time allocation of $30,000 to provide consulting services to assist staff in developing and conducting a fuel-efficiency driver training program trial and reporting back on the feasibility of its expansion throughout City departments, with source of funds to be the 2004 Operating Budget;
xi. That staff evaluate and report back on opportunities to reduce corporate vehicle use;
xii. That the City continue to evaluate the use of hybrid technology in the fleet;
xiii. That staff continue to evaluate and report back on feasibility of using alternative fuels in the fleet, including ethanol blended gasoline, natural gas, propane and high-pressure direct injection natural gas technology;
xiv. That the City evaluate and continue to monitor the changes in technology and opportunities for use of low speed electric vehicles in the City's fleet;
xv. That the City work with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to lobby for the importation or production of small, fuel-efficient urban micro-compact cars in Canada; and
xvi. That beginning in 2004, the City make an annual allocation of $20,000 from the Operating Budget to fund consulting to assist in monitoring emerging technologies and fuels with possible application to the City's fleet.
G. THAT Council approve the following recommendations for street and park lighting and traffic control signals based on the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan:
H. THAT Council approve the following recommendations for corporate waste reduction and landfill operations based on the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan:
I. THAT Council approve the following recommendations for corporate demand side management based on the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan:
i. That the City hire a Corporate Sustainability Coordinator, subject to classification by the General Manager of Human Resources, to undertake a full scope of activity to increase the sustainability performance of all City operations and activities, including energy usage, employee trip reductions, green purchasing and others. Funding for this position of $68,000 should be added to the annual operating budget without offset plus a one-time cost of $5,000 for computer and set-up, with both costs starting in 2004;
J. THAT Council approve a one-time expenditure of $10,000 from the 2004 Operating Budget to support a communications strategy designed to share information about what the City is doing to reduce its Corporate GHG emissions and to build awareness and support for the next phase of work: the Community Climate Change Action Plan.
K. THAT Council approve a one-time expenditure of $50,000 from the 2004
Operating Budget without offset, to supplement the $25,000 the City has received from the GVRD's Sustainability Enterprise Fund for the project, to support a comprehensive consultation process with the public and stakeholders on the Draft Community Climate Change Action Plan, including the hiring of a consultation team to lead the process in early 2004.
L. THAT Council approve a one-time expenditure of $25,000 from the 2004 Operating Budget to support the hiring of consulting expertise to address technical greenhouse gas issues that will arise during the community consultation process on the Community Climate Change Action Plan.
The City Manager recommends approval of the foregoing.
On October 16, 1990, Council approved in principle Clouds of Change Recommendation #1 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% as part of the actions to address global climate change issues, subject to future reports on costs and trade-offs involved in achieving the objectives and targets.
In 1995, Vancouver joined the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' "20% Club", which became the Partners for Climate Protection Program in 1998.
On April 23, 2002, Council adopted a Definition and Principles of Sustainability to guide, prioritize, and improve the sustainability of City actions and operations.
On May 2, 2002, Council unanimously carried the motion, proposed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, to support the Canadian Government's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
On March 25, 2003, Council approved an emissions reduction target of 20% from 1990 levels for the corporation of the City of Vancouver, subject to evaluation of the implications of the target to ensure it is realistic. On this same date, Council created the Cool Vancouver Task Force and requested that it report back with a report on the components of a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Action Plan for both the corporation and the community.
On June 24th, 2003, Council received the Cool Vancouver Task Force's Discussion Paper on Greenhouse Gas Reduction Planning and approved a target of 6% below 1990 emissions levels for the city (community) as a whole. Council also approved a process to develop GHG Reduction Plans for both the City (Corporate) and the Community and approved $30,000 for technical support for the development of these plans.
This report is submitted to Council to convey the Cool Vancouver Task Force's recommended Corporate Climate Change Action Plan for the City of Vancouver, and to request authorization and funds to begin the implementation of the Action Plan.
The Corporate Climate Change Action Plan for the City of Vancouver, summarized in Appendix B, is the product of several months of work by both the Cool Vancouver Task Force and city staff, with additional input from technical experts at the Sheltair Group. The Plan was created in response to direction from Council - to create the Cool Vancouver Task Force, to report back on the components of an Action Plan, and subsequently to develop drafts of both Corporate and Community Climate Change Action Plans. This report conveys the "Corporate Action Plan", and the Draft Community Action Plan is expected to be tabled in early 2004 for Council's consideration.
Several areas were identified as priorities for reducing GHG emissions in the City's corporate interests, including:
· Civic buildings and facilities;
· The City's fleet;
· Street & park lighting and traffic control signals;
· Corporate waste reduction and landfill operations; and
· Corporate demand side management.
The Corporate Climate Change Action Plan makes a range of recommendations in each of these areas for the City to undertake to meet the Council-approved GHG reduction target of 20% below 1990 emissions levels by 2010. Effective implementation of these recommendations will require broad consultation within the Organisation.
This report also examines some of the financial implications to the City of reducing GHG emissions, particularly regarding the staffing required to implement the Action Plan.
The Corporate Climate Change Action Plan that has been recommended by the Cool Vancouver Task Force for the City of Vancouver outlines how the City can reduce its GHG emissions.
Scientists throughout the world are in general agreement that the earth's climate is warming and that one of the primary causes of that warming is human activity, particularly that which increases the concentrations of gases that are known as "greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere." Greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere by inhibiting the out-radiation of solar energy that hits the earth's surface, thereby trapping extra heat and warming the earth's atmosphere. The impacts of global warming are believed to be significant and potentially catastrophic in many cases.
The City of Vancouver has shown leadership on this issue in the past 15 years, both in many City initiatives as well as advocating and organizing at the provincial and federal level.
Following Council's support of the federal government's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the City has moved forward with new plans to directly address the City's Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions through a number of venues, including:
· Working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) through their Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) process which offers a 5 step process with support from FCM to develop and implement a GHG reduction plan;
· Setting targets for emissions reductions in the City, currently including a Council-approved target of a 20% reduction in GHG emissions below 1990 levels for the corporation of the City of Vancouver, and 6% below 1990 emissions levels for the city (community) as a whole;
· Establishing the Cool Vancouver Task Force to advise staff on the components of a GHG Action Plan and its range of issues and priorities;
· Requesting the development of both a Corporate and a Community Climate Change Action Plan; and
· Approving $30,000 for technical expertise to support the Task Force and staff in the development of corporate and community GHG emission reduction action plans.
The Cool Vancouver Task Force was created by Council in March 2003 to assist the City in the development of GHG Reduction Action Plans - for both the City as a corporation (Corporate Action Plan) and for the city as a whole community (Community Action Plan). The Task Force members were chosen by Council to represent a very wide range of interests and groups. The co-chairs are Councillor Cadman and the General Manager of Engineering Services.
During its first three months of operation, the Task Force created a Discussion Paper on GHG Reduction Planning, and presented this to Council on June 24th, 2003. Council received the Discussion Paper and thanked the Task Force for its work. It then asked the Task Force to continue its work and bring forward a Corporate and Community Climate Change Action Plan for the City. Council then approved $30,000 in funds to hire expertise in technical issues to support the Task Force and staff in the creation of these plans.
During the months of July - October 2003, the Task Force, staff, and the Sheltair Group, who were hired for technical expertise and support, created a Corporate Climate Change Action Plan and began work on a Community Climate Change Action Plan. The Task Force, in light of the scope of work required in these Plans, recommended the Corporate Plan be brought to Council at the earliest possible date and that a draft Community Plan be brought to Council early in 2004.
Currently the City's sustainability staff team is overseeing the administration of the Task Force and the development of the Climate Change Action Plans and associated consultation process. This process is thereby being integrated into a larger sustainability direction emerging in the City.
More importantly, staff from many City departments have put this process at the top of their priority lists and undertaken a significant amount of work in a very short time to establish energy consumption baselines for the City's buildings and fleets over the past 15 years. Staff groups that have been centrally involved in this process have included Corporate Services Facilities group, Solid Waste Management, Equipment Services (fleets), and Finance amongst many others.
The Corporate Climate Change Action Plan focuses on five specific areas, including:
· Civic buildings and facilities;
· The City's fleet;
· Street & park lighting and traffic control signals;
· Corporate waste reduction and landfill operations; and
· Corporate demand side management.
The GHG Action Plan makes a range of recommendations in each of these areas for the City to undertake to meet the Council-approved GHG reduction target of 20% below 1990 emissions levels by 2010.
The City's corporate GHG emissions in 1990 are estimated to have been 46,000 tonnes as calculated in accordance with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' (FCM) protocols. Council has established a target of a 20% reduction by 2010 and thereby, a target of total emissions from the City's corporate interests and activities not to exceed 37,000 tonnes by 2010. This is a net reduction of just over 9,000 tonnes. Actual emission reductions, or emissions avoided, must greatly exceed this amount to compensate for the expected growth in Corporate operations as well as the increasing carbon intensity of electricity resulting from a growing dependence on natural gas fired generation.
The 2010 business-as-usual (BAU) case incorporates a simplistic growth estimate of 12.6% from 1999 based on population forecasts and also includes BC Hydro's projected increases in the carbon intensity of electricity.
Civic buildings and facilities included in this plan include both buildings that the City owns and occupies, as well as those that the City occupies but does not own. Over 50% of the City's corporate emissions come from the energy used in the operation of its facilities (22,500 tonnes in 1999). The corporate plan targets a net reduction from civic facilities of 4,650 tonnes from 1990 levels through the following measures. Each is discussed in more detail in the Corporate Plan (Appendix A).
· Energy Performance Contracts - targeted net reduction 4,400 tonnes
The Energy Performance Contract (EPC) approach is one where an Energy Service Company (ESCO) undertakes a turnkey (design/build) retrofit project and in turn receives compensation from the energy savings. This form of implementation eliminates the need for the City to provide upfront capital funding. This approach minimizes City staffing requirements to manage the project, facilitates cost control, creates a single source of project accountability, and transfers most of the risk of project performance to the ESCO while maintaining City control of the project objectives.
· Energy efficient purchasing policy - targeted reduction - 250 tonnes
· Supporting alternative energy and purchasing Green Power Certificates - demonstrates leadership and explore opportunities
· Green Designs for New and Replacement Civic Facilities - reduces the impacts of Corporate growth
Implications of these measures worth discussing here include:
· An Energy Projects Coordinator needs to be hired as soon as possible to assist in the complex process of establishing an Energy Performance Contract (EPC).
· The EPC process should include an exploration of operational issues that can arise in retrofitting facilities and granting some operational control to Energy Service Company. While these issues are significant, they can be incorporated and fully addressed in the terms of the EPC.
· Development of the EPC itself starts with auditing and developing a business case for building retrofits where energy savings pay off the cost of the retrofits. The City is not committed to having an Energy Service Company (or Companies) perform the building retrofits until it has had a chance to evaluate the results of the audit, assess potential operational implications, develop the business case details, and negotiate the terms of the contract itself.
· Purchasing Green Power Certificates is not a highly cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions (from a cost per tonne reduction point of view), however it both demonstrates commitment and leadership toward supporting alternative energy and supports Hydro's commitment to bring greener energy sources on line. While staff support the Task Force's recommendation to purchase Green Power Certificates in order to act immediately in this regard, they qualify this by recommending that Certificates representing a maximum of 10% of City Hall's electricity consumption are purchased while other opportunities and potentially more cost effective ways to support alternative energy are explored.
· The Cool Vancouver Task Force's Corporate Climate Change Action Plan for the City of Vancouver recommends the City adopt the use of a LEED Silver standard for the construction of new and replacement civic facilities as a way to ensure that they are more energy efficient as well as more sustainable in a broader sense. While this recommendation is very relevant and significant in addressing climate change, no specific recommendations are included in this Council Report as the implications and details of adopting the LEED standard are expected in a separate report soon.
The corporate fleet (including Police, Fire, Parks and all City operations) consists of approximately 2000 vehicles, and accounts for over 35% of the City GHG emissions, or 15,500 tonnes (in 1999). The corporate plan targets a net GHG emission reduction from fleet operations of 5,500 tonnes from 1990 levels through the following measures. Each is discussed in more detail in the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan (Appendix A).
· Vehicle Right-Sizing - targeted net reduction = 600 tonnes
· Shift to Diesel Vehicles - targeted net reduction = 700 tonnes
· Shift to Biodiesel Fuel - targeted net reduction = 2,700 tonnes
· Driver Training Program - targeted net reduction = 1,500 tonnes
· Fleet Demand Management - explores additional reduction opportunities such as creating more centralised vehicle pools
· Other Technologies and Fuels for Consideration - explores additional reduction opportunities such as the use of hybrid electric vehicles, ethanol blended fuels, natural gas and propane vehicles, fuel cells, and micro-compact cars
Implications of these measures worth discussing here include:
· While diesel vehicles are intrinsically more fuel-efficient and therefore emit less greenhouse gas than gasoline engines, they have historically resulted in more common air contaminant (smog forming) emissions. In 2007, new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) diesel emission standards will take effect to reduce common air contaminant emissions from diesel vehicles to roughly the same as those from gasoline engines. The City will delay switching additional vehicles to the more efficient diesel engines until after the impact of these new emission standards have been evaluated.
· The biodiesel demonstration project and the City's commitment to pursuing the use of this fuel look promising to spur local production that might result (or contribute to) the reduction in the cost of biodiesel blended fuels to par with conventional diesel fuel thereby revolutionizing the entire regional diesel fuel market and its associated GHG emissions.
· There are numerous additional promising vehicle technologies and fuels that the City will continue to evaluate but will not substantially commit to until they are proven and reasonably cost-effective. A large scale shift to hybrid electric vehicles has not been suggested here as the compact vehicles these would replace account for only a small portion of the fleet emissions and changing to hybrids would result in considerable additional capital costs. If City vehicle pools become more centralised, resulting in these vehicles having greater annual per unit mileages, hybrids would be more cost effective.
Street and Park Lighting and Traffic Controls
The City's street/park lighting and traffic control signals account for 2% of the City's corporate GHG emissions, or 1,000 tonnes (in 1999). This Plan targets a net electricity consumption reduction of 55% from 1990 levels by 2010 but because of the increasing carbon intensity of electricity, the final implications for GHG emissions are a 100 tonne increase. This increase underscores the reality that while historically electricity consumption has not been a major contributor to GHG emissions in Vancouver, it will continue to play an increasingly significant role as we come to rely increasingly on natural gas fired electricity.
The City will continue monitoring, testing, and implementing new lighting technologies to reduce its lighting electricity consumption.
Corporate Waste Reduction and Landfill Operations
The City's corporate waste production and share of landfill emissions account for 10% of the City's corporate GHG emissions (4,000 tonnes). The corporate plan targets a net GHG emission reduction from waste of 2,000 tonnes from 1990 levels by expanding its waste reduction and landfill gas recovery programs.
Corporate Demand Side Management
The behaviour of City employees and others in civic facilities can greatly affect the energy use and emissions associated with the City's corporate activities. The Corporate Action Plan targets a reduction of emissions through behaviour change via demand side management programs of 700 tonnes. Often programs of this nature include elements of informing staff of the historic energy use in their facility, common behavioural changes that could be considered without impacting the quality of their environment (such as lights off in unused rooms, configuring equipment to go into "sleep" mode when inactive, etc), and creating some form of feedback loop with rewards for improved energy behaviours.
The financial implications of implementing the first steps of the Corporate Climate Change Action Plan are summarized in Appendix C.
If Council approves all the recommendations in this current Council report, the incremental annual cost to the City will be approximately $169,500 and incremental one-time costs to the City will total approximately $215,000.
While additional costs of completely implementing Corporate Climate Change Action Plan will be detailed in later reports back to Council, it is expected that most of these initiatives will realize sufficient savings to make them close to cost neutral.
The Corporate Climate Change Action Plan developed by the Cool Vancouver Task Force is a strong plan with a diversity of approaches to address GHG reductions throughout the City organization. By pursuing the actions proposed in this plan, the City of Vancouver will not only meet Council's GHG reduction target in a cost-effective manner, but also establish itself in a position of leadership in the Region and across Canada. This plan also positions the City as a potential "model" for other corporations and institutions within the City of Vancouver and beyond, in anticipation of the Draft Community Climate Change Action Plan that will be circulated in a consultation process in early 2004.
This current Corporate plan focuses on Council's target for emissions reductions of 20% below 1990 levels achieved by 2010. It also positions the City for achieving further savings in the years following 2010.
The financial implications of this Plan have been analyzed and are considered feasible. Longer-term savings are also possible as the reduction in the use of energy typically brings long-term savings. This is particularly true in the case of the recommendation to use Energy Performance Contracts, where the City can potentially achieve significant building retrofits for little or no capital cost, subject to the negotiation of the appropriate contracts. Furthermore, with the widespread introduction of biodiesel in the City's fleet, economic development may be stimulated in addition to a reduction of emissions such that over time, biodiesel may become cost-neutral.
A communications and education plan will be undertaken to share the information about what the City is doing and to build awareness and support for the next phase of work: community GHG reduction. Citizens and businesses will need to understand how the City has taken a leadership role in reducing its own greenhouse gases, as we turn our attention to encouraging our communities to make their own contribution towards GHG reduction.
The development of this Action Plan has been an important experience for the City and one that positions it well to meet the challenges of addressing climate change and claiming many opportunities that await such initiatives that will bring many benefits to the City.
