Reducing our Carbon Footprint

Rapidly increasing energy costs was identified by the Blue Ribbon Commission as one of the drivers of the structural deficit. With energy costs escalating and the globe’s fossil fuels being depleted, we will take the necessary steps to reduce our energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. We will also develop and implement a plan to generate significant amounts of green energy through installation of solar panels on municipal buildings and similar technologies, as they become cost-effective. Our goal is to cut the city’s energy usage and carbon footprint in half.

Summary of Proposed Solution

To reduce the amount of energy used to heat and cool our buildings, we propose to:

i) Conduct a citywide inventory of our capital assets and their energy use, develop a preventive maintenance plan for each building, and target inefficient systems for immediate upgrade or replacement;

ii) Track energy usage on a monthly basis and place building users in charge of reducing their energy consumption;

iii) Establish energy-efficiency as a core objective in all building renovation and construction projects, such that all new and renovated buildings require half the energy for heating and cooling than was consumed by the older structures they replaced;

iv) Take a bold step into the twenty-first century by making green energy generation an integral part of every City facility and an attractive option for private homes and businesses; and

v) Eliminate non-essential use of City vehicles through the development of a comprehensive fleet management policy.

Implementation Plan

i) Citywide Capital Asset Inventory

We propose to put systems in place to track all energy used by a given building, as well as the ages, maintenance status, and estimated efficiency of all heating, cooling, lighting, and other energy-consuming systems.

Systems requiring regular maintenance will be identified by May 1, 2010 and adequate resources to conduct needed maintenance will be included in the Fiscal Year 2011 operating budget.

ii) Tracking Energy Usage

Systems to track monthly energy usage on a building-by-building basis should be in place by January 1, 2011 and energy-inefficient systems should be prioritized for replacement starting in Fiscal Year 2012 of the Capital Improvement Plan (this tracking system will be part of NewtonStat; see Finance & Management section for more details). The relevant department head or other managing building user (e.g. Police Chief for the police station, principal for a school) will be empowered to work with the maintenance division to repair energy-inefficient systems and will be allowed to expend a portion of their energy savings on supplies and equipment the following fiscal year.

iii) Energy-Conscious Building Construction and Renovation

Each time a building is renovated or constructed, a core objective will be to make the new facility as energy efficient as possible, with a goal of reducing energy consumption by at least 50 percent. This goal should be an integral part of the process from building siting to design through construction and landscaping. For more discussion of our plan to improve these capital asset management practices, please see the Finance & Management Section.

These energy-efficiency principles will be included in all public facilities projects starting January 1, 2010.

iv) Green Energy for Newton

The technology is now available to generate significant amounts of clean energy in Newton. While we currently have photovoltaic solar panels on some city buildings, these panels only generate a small percentage of the energy our buildings consume. As part of our capital assets inventory (see Finance & Management section), we will identify buildings whose current energy consumption make them strong candidates for photovoltaic or hot water solar panels and aggressively pursue grants and other available funds to defray installation costs.

Any building where the return on investment of the net installation cost after discounts, grants and incentives for either photovoltaic or soar heat systems is five years or less should have appropriate solar panels in place by October 1, 2011 and other municipal buildings and schools should follow as technologies improve and energy costs increase with a goal of every public facility in Newton generating at least ten percent of the energy it consumes annually on site by the year 2015.

Initially, excess locally-generated electricity will be sold back to the NSTAR grid. Once Newton has established its own municipal power company (see Finance & Management section for details), it will be possible to further lower costs by redistributing generated electricity to other municipal facilities and to generate and to purchase green energy at much lower costs, all while improving customer service and reducing energy costs for Newton residents, businesses, and government.

Newton’s application to form a municipal electric utility should be completed by January 1, 2015.

In addition to municipally-generated green energy, we propose to partner with state agencies, private foundations, local businesses, and energy providers to make it simple and cost effective for Newton residents and businesses to install solar energy systems. For example, the cost of installing a photovoltaic system on a single family home in Newton today is approximately $15,000 after government incentives. By combining these incentives with available grants and low-interest loans, the payback period on the investment can be reduced significantly, making it an attractive option for Newton residents.

Towards this end, we should have a Green Energy Newton one-stop shopping residential and business solar panel program in place by June 1, 2011.

v) Comprehensive Vehicle Policy

As recommended in the Finance & Management Working Group Report in June, 2005, Newton should develop a comprehensive fleet management plan for municipal vehicles that limits the use of municipal vehicles and improves fleet maintenance:

We recommend that the City undertake a top-down review of its auto fleet and its personnel policies relating to auto use. Specifically, the City should identify which positions in City government merit use of vehicle on a 24/7 basis and which positions require access to a motor pool during working hours. For motor pool vehicles, the City should undertake a demand study based on the requirements of various departments and individuals utilizing the pool. Based on this survey, the City’s auto fleet should be sized and managed accordingly.

As part of this review, City officials should compare the ongoing maintenance cost of older vehicles to the amortized acquisition cost of newer vehicles. It is possible to reach a point of diminishing returns at which it is less costly to replace an older vehicle than it is to continue to repair it.

As part of this comprehensive vehicle policy, high priority should be given to purchasing low-emission, fuel-efficient vehicles. Our vehicle inventory survey should track usage patterns to determine what kinds of vehicles should be used as replacements. We need to know:

• How much a vehicle is driven per day, how much of that driving is local and how much is highway driving? and
• Do vehicles remain on City property when not in use?

Initially, the strategy will involve purchasing hybrid electrical vehicles whenever practical and cost-effective. Hybrids result in reduced pollution and reduced fuel consumption. Depending on usage patters, hybrid vehicles will likely have 50 percent less pollution and 50 percent less fuel consumption than conventional models they replace.

Garbage trucks and school busses and other large municipal vehicles are also excellent candidates for hybrid technology. To the extent that these services are currently being contracted to independent providers, the energy savings achieved by using more energy-efficient vehicles should be factored into our full-cost accounting analysis of the most cost-effective way of providing the service in question.

Each year’s vehicle replacement analysis should include a review of the available technologies to determine which are appropriate for Newton’s needs.

The analysis of which positions merit use of City vehicles will be completed in time for the submission of the Fiscal Year 2011 operating budget (approximately May 15, 2010) and the maintenance cost analysis, fleet management, and low-emission vehicle policies will be completed by January 1, 2011.