EAC Objectives

The EAC has developed an on-going process to refine energy goals for the city, to create and maintain lists of potential projects that can be implemented to reach those goals, and to provide advice and council to the Mayor and City Council on energy and greenhouse gas-related issues. 

Source: Newburyport 20% Energy Reduction Plan-11-32.doc

EAC Objectives

1. Conduct a baseline emissions inventory and forecast

  • Calculate greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and waste generation usage, along with associated fiscal costs in all schools and municipal buildings, and for all City-owned vehicles and boats, for a base year (2009) and a forecast year (2017). The inventory and forecast provides a benchmark against which the City can measure progress.
  • Consider sharing results with similar energy committees in other communities to quantify usage and impacts, and ascertain the benefits of cost-sharing measures such as regional procurement and competitive bidding.

2. Adopt an emissions reduction target for the forecast year

  • Establish goals for energy and waste reduction, determine financial savings, and suggest a resulting emission reduction target for the City. This target should be set at a minimum of 10% lower than the baseline emissions and will be used to meet the guidelines of the EPA’s Community Action Challenge, ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection campaign, and the ENERGY STAR program.
  • In the development of this target, seek the involvement of local organizations active in areas of energy conservation and sustainability, e.g. local conservation groups, business leaders, community and religious organizations, grassroots advocacy groups, schools and education groups, etc.

3. Develop a Local Action Plan

  • Through a multi-stakeholder process, the EAC will develop a Local Action Plan that describes the energy efficient policies and renewable energy measures that the City ought to take to reduce energy usage, energy costs, and greenhouse gas emissions to achieve emissions reduction target.
  • This plan may include, but is not limited to: a timeline, a description of financing mechanisms, a suggested assignment of responsibility to departments, and the incorporation of public awareness and education efforts. It will be provided to the Mayor either as a complete document or in parts.

4. Suggest Policies and measures to Implement

  • Based upon EAC recommendations in the Local Action Plan, the City would respond by best practice implementation in areas such as energy efficiency improvements to municipal buildings and both water and wastewater treatment facilities, streetlight retrofits, public transit improvements, the development of renewable energy resources as appropriate, e.g. methane recovery from waste, wind power, photovoltaic solar power, in-stream hydroelectric power, etc.
  • The EAC will also develop recommendations for businesses and residents of Newburyport on energy efficiency and waste reduction.

5. Monitor and verify results

  • Monitoring and verifying progress on the implementation of measures to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions is an ongoing process. Monitoring begins once measures are implemented and continues for the life of the measures, providing important feedback that can be used to improve the measures over time. While much of this objective would be beyond the life of the EAC, the committee should define steps to meet this requirement.