Measuring and Reducing Greenhouse Gasses in NYC’s Communities

Since the release of New York City’s path breaking PlaNYC2030 in 2007, New York has been involved in developing methods of both mitigating and adapting to climate change. The Mayor’s Office has worked with universities, businesses and units of city government to increase energy efficiency and reduce the city’s carbon footprint. As a result of these efforts and actions beyond the City’s control, citywide Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are 12% lower than their 2005 levels and City government emissions have been cut by 1% from its FY 2006 base year – putting the City on track to meet its GHG reduction goals. In the 2011 update to PlaNYC, the City committed to expand its GHG inventory to include neighborhood slevel analysis and reporting. The purpose of this project is to suggest alternative methods for engaging communities in the process. The workshop team would provide options for addressing specific issues like defining the boundaries for the city’s communities as well as how greenhouse gas emissions should be measured so that a baseline is established and improvements can be measured and verified.