Local Government Climate Planning

Since 2008, StopWaste has assisted local governments in Alameda County with their climate action planning.

For more information about StopWaste's work on local government climate planning efforts, download this brief report.  

Visit StopWaste.org/Climate for more on the materials-climate nexus.

Consumption-Based Emissions

Most recently, StopWaste has assisted local governments to understand and incorporate a "consumption-based emissions inventory" into their climate action planning. A consumption-based emissions inventory (CBEI) attributes all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the end user, typically households. This better reflects the full range of impacts and GHG reduction opportunities for residents within a community.

StopWaste created a brief explanation, template narrative and sample measures:

• Guidance for local government staff (PDF)
• Sample CBEI narrative for CAPs (PDF)
• Sample CBEI reduction strategies (PDF)

Additional resources to explore:

• Explore the Cool Climate Network for research and tools: coolclimate.berkeley.edu 
• Visit Cool Climate Network and explore the Bay Area inventory project and download the spreadsheet to pull your jurisdiction’s CBEI results: coolclimate.berkeley.edu/inventory 
• Instructions for how to include CBEI emissions and reduction strategies to ClearPath (coming soon)
• The West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum’s Climate Action Toolkit including case studies of CAPs that include materials management and upstream emissions: westcoastclimateforum.com/toolkit/homepage
  • Webinar of the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum on CBEI: westcoastclimateforum.com/resources/webinars (October 2018)

Embodied Carbon in Buildings

Within the built environment, significant emissions occur globally to product the materials that are used in construction. StopWaste works with networks such as the Embodied Carbon Network to advance policy options for local governments that decide to address embodied carbon. 

• Download two-page summary of a 2018 conference session moderated by StopWaste staff: Carbon Smart Building Day Embodied Carbon Policies (pdf)
• Watch recordings from BayREN's Energy and Material Efficiency in Carbon Smart Buildings forum (11/27/2018): bayrencodes.org/events

Healthy Soils and Climate Change Mitigation

Healthy soils have come to the forefront in the last few years as a means to address climate mitigation and adaptation. The Climate Change Adaptation Measures report from StopWaste proposes nearly 50 measures addressing how soils, compost, and mulch can be incorporated into climate adaptation plans.

Climate Action Planning History

Below is a brief timeline of StopWaste's work on climate action planning since 2008.