PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT REPORT: COMMUNITY CLIMATE ACTION STRATEGY – GHG CALCULATOR OPTIONS AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT UPDATE

PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT REPORT

TO: Committee of the Whole DATE: November 3, 2021 FROM: J. Chow, Senior Planner MEETING: November 9, 2021

COMMUNITY CLIMATE ACTION STRATEGY – GHG CALCULATOR OPTIONS AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the Committee recommend to Council that the development of a personal greenhouse gas calculator be removed from the scope of the Community Climate Action Strategy.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation. for KA

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES’ COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE

1. To discuss options for the greenhouse gas calculator
2. To provide an update on public engagement

DISCUSSION

1. Options for Greenhouse Gas Calculator

The project Terms of Reference includes the development of a personal greenhouse gas calculator with the ability to model scenarios so that households can see how their individual actions can affect their own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The project budget for this is $4,275 and is included in the overall Community Climate Action Strategy project.

1.1 Background

The District of Saanich has led the region with the development of a personal Carbon Calculator which estimates a household’s greenhouse gas emissions. It can be used with the Saanich Residents’ Climate Action Guidebook to develop a household’s own climate action plan.

The methodology is based on BCIT’s Ecocity Footprint Tool which includes both territorial and consumption-based emissions. Territorial emissions are emissions generated locally, primarily from transportation, buildings, and waste. Consumption based emissions are indirect GHG emissions from what individuals purchase; for example, there are emissions from food, clothing, electronics etc. that are produced and transported from elsewhere. The Town’s Community Climate Action Strategy is focussed on territorial emissions as those are sectors that local governments have influence over and must develop targets for. While the personal calculator incorporates a wider scope by including consumption-based emissions, it is more holistic because helps individuals understand how their personal actions and choices can impact global as well as local emissions.

The District of Saanich has shared the calculator with other municipalities in the region as the emission factors are essentially the same. District of Central Saanich provides a direct link to the District of Saanich website while District of Sooke has a custom interface.

Staff note that this type of calculator provides a high-level assessment of individual or household GHG emissions and that, unless it is updated on a regular basis, the background data sets become stale-dated. Keeping the data up to date and relevant is a challenge. Staff note that the web development skill sets to do this type of work are specialized and ongoing budget would be required to ensure a Town developed calculator remains current.

1.2 Options

A. Enhance the District of Saanich Carbon Calculator (original plan) The original intent was to make it easy for individuals to see the impact of lifestyle changes through side-by-side comparisons (e.g., what are the household GHG reductions from driving less?). However, the District of Saanich indicates that there were technical limitations for such a web interface at the time the Saanich Carbon Calculator was developed, and the Town’s website is hosted by the same provider.

B. Remove the personal greenhouse gas calculator from the scope of the project Instead of working on a personal greenhouse gas calculator, the proposed online resource guide could simply link directly to the District of Saanich’s Carbon Calculator. Output from the calculator would be valid for View Royal users because the emissions factors to calculate GHG emissions are the same for both communities.

C. Redirect the personal greenhouse gas calculator budget amount to online resource guide By directly linking to the District of Saanich Carbon Calculator, the $4,275 amount originally budgeted for the GHG calculator could be shifted instead to augment the proposed online resource guide. The guide, budgeted at $5,475, is intended to be an information resource tailored for View Royal citizens and businesses that would suggest individual actions and identify local opportunities to reduce GHG emissions. The Town does not currently have any such information available to assist citizens.

Staff recommends Option B to remove the personal greenhouse gas calculator from the scope of the project. The District of Saanich’s Carbon Calculator can already be used by View Royal citizens to estimate household greenhouse gas emissions. While the calculator interface cannot accommodate side-by-side comparisons to model the GHG impact of actions taken by a household, that is a mild inconvenience and the budgeted $4,275 could then be made available for other climate action initiatives.

2. Public Engagement update

The public engagement component to gather community input for plan preparation is comprised of two phases and is on schedule as illustrated in Figure 1. Two online workshops and one survey were conducted in October, with the final survey to run November 5 to 26.

Figure 1. Simplified Work Plan

A preliminary draft engagement summary is attached (Attachment 1) to present the initial information from the two workshops. The full version is anticipated within the next two months and it will include the community surveys once they are completed and tabulated. This information will help to inform the community vision and priorities for climate actions in the plan.

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the Committee recommend to Council that the development of a personal greenhouse gas calculator be removed from the scope of the Community Climate Action Strategy.

SUBMITTED BY: Jeff Chow, MCIP, RPP Senior Planner

REVIEWED BY: Lindsay Chase, MCIP, RPP Director of Development Services

ATTACHMENTS

1. Draft Engagement Summary, Community Energy Association (18 pages)