(Credit: Pixabay)The City of Reno and Washoe County has expanded their partnership with nZero to reach the area’s climate goals. Last year, nZero began providing these municipalities access to their real-time, 24/7 emissions tracking data and introduced public emissions portals for the city and the county, setting new standards for transparent, accurate, and comprehensive monitoring of carbon footprints. Now, the City of Reno and Washoe County are expanding their commitments to climate action and are working to develop carbon reduction roadmaps.
Washoe County and Reno have aligned with the State of Nevada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28% from 2005 levels by the year 2025. While in the process of building out their own dedicated internal sustainability team, the County has relied on nZero to map their path towards a more sustainable future. 2021 data available through the public portal from the nearly 100 sites in the platform revealed that most emissions in the County were generated from fleet vehicles, wastewater, and detention facilities. These opportunities for decarbonization are proof points for several sustainability initiatives for the County and lay the groundwork for the informed carbon reduction plan.
nZero's data has allowed for a granular cost-benefit analysis of County vehicle fleets, streetlights, LED lights in facilities, as well as building square footage. This deeper understanding of carbon emissions from buildings per square foot informed carbon reduction recommendations, in turn driving more accurate building energy and cost efficiency. The county has subsequently begun vehicle fleet automation to have a better view of vehicle performance and emissions as well as on-site solar installations to increase renewable energy sources.
The City of Reno has used data to measure the effectiveness of their adopted Climate Plan. With more than 300 sites committed to submitting data to the public portal, nZero's data showed that the top three emissions sources for 2021 were vehicle fleets, streetlights, and the local police department.
Insights on fleets in the past year uncovered higher carbon-free energy usage in the summer and when charging electric vehicles during daytime hours, compared to the popular choice of overnight. Since these discoveries, the City's vehicle fleet is in the process of being fully automated to provide real time updates on its status and performance in order to align with the City's emissions goals. A cost-benefit analysis for streetlights also revealed they account for 23% of the city's emissions and that a transition to LED streetlights would reduce these emissions by 62% and save money each year. These learnings will help the City increase operational efficiencies, decrease outputs, and lower their carbon footprint. Leading by example, the City has also completed on-site solar installations to align with its goal of increasing renewable energy generation 15% by 2025.
T City of Reno will create a carbon reduction roadmap that helps the City implement their Sustainability and Climate Action Plan. The City's climate goals dovetail with high-level goals of financial sustainability, which are supported by cost-benefit analyses. Emissions data by square footage from all buildings will be normalized to create the most accurate recommendations based on efficiencies, and measurement of avoided emissions will be captured to visualize progress towards overall goals. In total, the City's greenhouse gas baseline will undergo analysis to determine progress towards the City's 2025 emissions reduction goals.
Like Reno's, Washoe County's goals for a carbon reduction roadmap are aggressive, and the County will work to determine aggressive emissions reduction numbers that have the potential to surpass the State of Nevada's emission targets.
