Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP)

City of Ashland – Greenhouse Gas Inventory (2011 – 2015) 36 APPENDIX C: OPERATIONS INVENTORY – SUMMARY OF DATA AND EMISSIONS FACTORS Emissions Category and SourceDescription of Emissions SourceDescription of Data and Emissions FactorsScope 1 Stationary CombustionNatural gas combustion by City-owned and leased facilities. Natrual gas data is only partially available for all inventory years. Data that is available is considered highly accurate. Emissions factors and methodlogy per protocol for stationary combustion are well understood and considered highly accurate. Mobile CombustionGasoline (E10) and diesel (B5) combustion by City-owned vehicles and equipment.Gasoline and diesel data was readily available by fuel type and by department. Emissions factors and methodlogy per protocol for mobile combustion are well understood and considered highly accurate. Fugitive EmissionsFugitive loss of refrigerants from building heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Fugitive nitrous oxide (N2O) process emissions are generated during wastewater treatment process. Refrigerant Fugitive Loss: Refrigerant recharge data is considered partially complete with reporting from 1 service vendor for all inventory years. It is possible that there are additional vendors that service the City’s building air conditioning units, but they could not be identified for this inventory. A better tracking system could be developed to support future inventories. Fugitive refrigerant loss from vehicles is considered a diminimus emissions source and therefore was excluded from the inventory. Emissions factors and methodlogy per protocol are considered highly accurate. Wastewater Treatment Process Emissions: Nitrogen quantities discharged in plant effluent are available for calendar year 2014. 2014 data was used as a proxy for all other inventory years. Ashland population data is readily available for all inventory years and is used to calculate nitrification/denitrification emissions, per methods dictated by GHG inventory protocol. Emissions factors and methodology per protocol are based on industry averages and therefore are considered moderately accurate. Scope 2 ElectricityIndirect emissions from grid electricity generation for electricity consumed by City operations. Data provided by City for purchased electricity is considered highly accurate for all inventory years. Emissions factors are readily available from EPA eGRID for 2011 and 2012. Note 2012 emissions factor is most recent avilable and used as a proxy for 2013 - 2015. Available emissions factors and methodlogy per protocol for electricity are well understood and considered highly accurate. The primary source of uncertainty is lack of emissions factors for 2013 - 2015. Scope 3 Employee CommuteGasoline (E10) combustion by employee-owned Emissions were estimated using survey data collected in 2015. The survey conducted by City of Ashland provided a modal split and average, one-way commute miles. The City only conducted the survey for a single year. The results of the 2015 survey are used as proxy data for all other inventory years, 2011-2014. The City provided the number of full-time equivalent City staff employed during each inventory year, which were used in conjunction with the survey results to estimate employee commute emissions for all inventory years. Commute methodolgy and emissions factors require some assumptions be made and is therefore considered moderately accurate. Business TravelThis category includes emissions from: 95,539 miles of air travel; 27,361 miles driven in employee-owned vehicles used for business travelAir Travel: Annual dollars ($) spent on air travel was available and used to estimate passenger-miles traveled using average cost per mile data from Air Travel Association. Air travel emissions factors and calculation methodology per protocol are considered accurate. Employee-Owned Reimbursed Mileage: Annual dollars ($) reimbursed to employees was available for all inventory years. This data was used to calculate vehicle miles traveled based on annual corporate per mile reimbursement rates. Fuel efficiency values from the commute survey were used to convert miles to gallons. This methdology is per protocol and considered to be moderately accurate. Once gallons have been calculated the emissions factors and methodlogy per protocol for mobile combustion are considered highly accurate. Solid WasteTypes / quantity of waste and destination landfill with methane management technique. Include how much waste was generated. Mixed Solid Waste: The City was able to provide a receptacle count; volume of each receptable; and frequency of pickup for all City facilities. Annual volume was converted to weight using solid waste density values. Based on available data, the operational inventory assumes that all inventory year’s (FY2011 – 215) MSW generation is equal. Dry Creek Landfill is a modern landfill with a landfill gas collection system and electricity generation. An average mixed solids waste (MSW) emissions factors was taken from the EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM) that represents local landfill management practices. In addition to MSW generation from operations, the City also landfills significant quantities of wastewater treatment biosolids. Biosolids: Annual spend data for landfill disposal was available, as were average, annual tip fees charged by Dry Creek Landfill for all inventory years (FY2011 – 15). These data were used to estimate annual wet biosolids disposal weights. An emissions factor for biosolids is not readily available as part of EPA’s WARM and therefore needed to be calculated using the Biosolids Emissions Assessment Model (BEAM). The biosolids were reported This calculation and the resulting values are documented in Operational Inventory Audit Trail and G3C. Supply ChainUpstream energy and process emissions for the production of goods purchased to support City Operations.Annual spend data was readily available and was moderately compatible with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s 2010 Purchaser Price Model. The ODEQ model provides a database of emisions factors for roughly 400 economic sectors for Oregon. The methodology used follows best practice.Its important to note that there is significnat general uncertainty in estimating supply chain emissions (ie. consumption-based) due to the reliance on a large, complecated economic models to estimate emissions using industry averages. See Supply Chain detailed results for more information. Upstream energy and process emissions