Whether luring tourists to the convention center or planning the next generation of light rail lines, Metro employees should estimate the greenhouse gas emissions their projects generate.
That's the point of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis Toolkit recently developed by an interdisciplinary team at Metro. The toolkit will help employees figure out how best to calculate a project's emissions, mainly by directing them to the right software product or analytical tool.
About 50 employees attended a three-hour training session on the toolkit Monday, the first opportunity for staff to learn how to use it.
Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder introduced the session by saying all seven councilors pushed for staff to come up with a way to calculate emissions across the wide ranging agency.
"Make it rigorous, defensible and practical," he said.
Mike Hoglund, director of the Metro research center, which sponsored the project, said carbon emissions are too difficult for one tool to calculate emissions across every department. The questions raised by looking at the electricity used to operate a new zoo building, for example, are far different from a road widening project. Even among transportation projects, some are regional in scale while others are local – and most tools are designed for use at a single geographic scale, not multiple.
"We realized we needed a different tool for almost anything we do here," Hoglund said.
Monday's training introduced examples that illustrate how a single act can have a range of impacts, from production of goods, to distribution and use by consumers. For example, downloading music rather than buying a compact disc reduces the carbon emissions involved in making the disc itself. But the benefits of downloading a disc are quickly lost when consumers revert to old habits and burn a copy of the digital album.
The toolkit asks project managers to look at the scope and scale of a project, to select the right tool for the analysis. And it calls for Metro to count emissions from raw materials production and eventual disposal – known as the "life cycle" – whenever possible.
"This is a very challenging recommendation we've made because there are a lot of data limitations," said Nuin-Tara Key, principal author of the toolkit.
The toolkit also includes information on the limits of emissions analysis. For example, the EPA's modeling tool, called MOVES, calculates GHG emissions from tailpipe emissions from regional scale transportation system investments, but not emissions from individual projects.
But Metro encourages users of the toolkit to help identify such areas for further research.
The toolkit is ready for staff to use immediately. The Metro Council will be briefed on it Sept. 28. Hoglund said he hopes to eventually share the toolkit with other agencies in the region as well.