New York City, with a history of demonstrating local leadership on climate change, has proposed a 30-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2017—one of 10 citywide goals to make New York the most sustainable city. The New York Power Authority (NYPA), the electric utility serving New York City and funding energy efficiency projects for its largest customers, has agreed to use this funding mechanism to assist the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) with the development of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission management plan.
For the plan's first phase, CDM conducted a greenhouse gas management feasibility study of the department's 400 facilities and fleet of more than 3,000 vehicles. The 5-month study focused on the source, quality, and availability of all existing greenhouse gas emission data, and identified objectives, processes, and structures for creating an emissions inventory and facility-specific plans. Building upon a previous inventory assessment done by the department, CDM reviewed existing data sources and catalogued sources of emissions, evaluated tracking systems for GHG inventories and reporting, developed design standards and specifications for energy-efficient and low-GHG-emitting equipment to incorporate into capital plans for new facilities and facility retrofits, and outlined the structure of facility-specific GHG management plans.
The second phase will be preparation of the facility-specific greenhouse gas management plans and setting up of systems and protocols for GHG emissions reductions tracking, reporting, and possible sale on the Eastern Climate Registry.