Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP)

City of Ashland – Greenhouse Gas Inventory (2011 – 2015) 10 METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH Protocols and Tools This inventory follows ICLEI’s U.S. Community Protocol for Accounting and Reporting Greenhouse Gas Emissions in conjunction with the more recent Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories by World Resource Institute and ICLEI. The most notable deviation between these two protocols is the guidance on use of electricity emissions factors. This inventory follows the guidance of the Global Protocol and uses the regional emissions factor (i.e. location-based emissions factor) to represent the emissions from community adjusted by voluntary, community purchases of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). ICLEI’S web-based ClearPath Community-Scale Emissions Management Software was used to calculate or catalog all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the Ashland’s Community Inventory. All data and calculation files used in the inventory can be found in the Community Inventory Audit Trail 2011 – 2015. This audit trail is provided to clearly document data sources and methods for replication in future inventories. All community GHG emissions presented in this report are represented in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT CO2e). Quantities of individual GHGs are accounted for in the ICLEI’s ClearPath carbon calculator and include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), CFCs, PFCs, and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) per the Kyoto Protocol. All GHG calculations use the global warming potentials (GWP) as defined in the International Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Assessment Report (IPCC AR5). Inventory Boundaries There are a core group of emissions sources and activities required by ICLEI’s Protocol (see *items on Figure 7). ICLEI’s community protocol encourages communities to “report on all GHG emissions sources and activities over which they have significant influence, as well as community interest, and emissions associated with consumption activities of community households.” Ashland’s community inventory follows this guidance and goes beyond the basic requirements to include all emissions sources and activities that are under the community’s influence and interest that can be calculated or estimated with publically available data, models, and tools. Community Protocol asks the user to account for emissions from various emissions sources Emissions'TypeProtocol'Required'EmissionsScope'1Scope'2Scope'3Residential'EnergyElectricity!✔Stationary-Combustion!✔Comercial'EnergyElectricity!✔Stationary-Combustion!✔Industrial'EnergyElectricity!✔Stationary-Combustion✔Refrigerant'Leakage!TransportationOn4Road-Passenger-Vehicles!✔✔On4Road-Freight-Vehicles!✔✔On4Road-Transit-Vehicles✔Off4Road-Vehicles-and-Equipment✔Air-Travel✔✔Solid'Waste,'Potable'Water,'and'WastewaterSolid-Waste!✔Potable-Water-Use-Energy!✔Wastewater-Treadment!✔ConsumptionDBased'EmissionsHousehold-Consumption✔City-Government-Consumption✔Upstream-Energy✔ Figure 7: Crosswalk of emission and Scope categories.