History
In May 2007 five Kennedy Junior High School students gave a presentation to the Naperville City Council and asked them to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (USMCPA).
In June 2007, the USMCPA was officially on the Council’s Agenda, however it was not voted on (many council members indicated they were “not ready” to vote). A motion was made to conduct a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, rather than sign onto the full agreement, but the motion lost 5-4. “Yes” votes came from council members Furstenau, Senger, Krause and Fieseler.
Councilmember Furstenau subsequently encouraged NCEC to contact one of the members who voted against the inventory in order to persuade him to change his vote. Richard Furstenau has been very supportive of conducting an emissions inventory and has provided much insight into the city process.
Pursuant to a meeting with Councilmember Rosanova in August 2007, he agreed to support an emissions inventory should the item return to the agenda.
During the Public Forum component of the October 17, 2007 council meeting, four NCEC volunteers made a presentation to the council summarizing what a GHG emissions inventory is and why it is important. Following the presentation, Councilmember Rosanova made a motion to add the topic to the November 6th City Council meeting agenda. The motion passed.
On November 6th, NCEC again spoke to the council urging them to conduct a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. The Naperville City Council voted to conduct the inventory and the item passed. “Yes” votes came from council members Furstenau, Senger, Krause, Rosanova and Mayor Pradel.
A RFP for the inventory was released mid-December and proposals were due back to the city by 1/15/08. NCEC hopes to work together with city staff to utilize the findings from the inventory by setting reduction goals and help educate the Naperville community about the findings and what can be done to reduce our local GHG emissions.
April 2008 Update
The GHG emissions inventory bid process is nearly complete, and city staff will soon present the city council with a recommended contract to award. However, it seems the staff may recommend the council approve a contract solely for the municipal portion of the inventory. This means the inventory would collect data only on emissions produced by city government activities in Naperville, and not calculate residential and business emissions. Unfortunately, this is not the inventory we feel the council voted to conduct, and we’d like to remind them of this!
Please contact the city council (either call or email), in advance of the April 15th meeting, to:
1. Thank them for voting in November to conduct an inventory
2. Ask them to approve a contract for a community-wide inventory, not just a municipal one, when the item appears on the agenda. City staff stated that community emissions information could be culled from the Chicago inventory data (when it is released). However, we believe having the selected vendor conduct a full community-wide inventory will be the most cost-efficient and methodical approach to the study. Cost-efficient because NCEC assumes the incremental cost for the additional data would be less than the indirect costs of a city staff member accumulating the data. The contract vendor is further up the learning curve for collecting this type of data so it will take less time. Most methodical because data will all be in one place, in the same format, which will make it easier for the city to use it as a tool to measure the impact (economic and environmental) of any actions taken to reduce emissions. In addition, there is no guarantee that city staff will actually gather the information from the Chicago inventory, or use it to assess emissions reductions.
Municipal operations are a small component of our community’s overall emissions. NCEC is asking the city to LEAD the community, not just by example, but by developing programs and incentives that will reduce Naperville’s total contribution to climate change. Conducting the community portion of the inventory will provide data the city can turn to in order to assess the financial and environmental effectiveness of efficiency programs. Furthermore, the less we all spend on energy (vehicle fuel, electricity, and natural gas), the more we can all put back into the local economy. Reducing consumption of fossil fuels helps everyone.
June 2009 Update
The final Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report was presented to city council during the June 2nd City Council Meeting. It can be found in the June 2 City Council Agenda Packet on the city’s web site www.naperville.il.us