DATE: September 10, 2015
TO: Council Sustainability Committee
FROM: Alex Ameri, Director of Utilities & Environmental Services
SUBJECT
Title
Sustainability Metrics
End
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the Committee reviews and comments on this report. Specifically, staff would like the Committee’s input on which sustainability metrics should be displayed to the public on the new website and the metrics for which the Committee would like regular reports.
Body
SUMMARY
As Hayward continues to implement programs and best practices to meet the goals of the Climate Action Plan and other sustainability objectives, identifying metrics to measure the progress against each goal is increasingly important. This report focuses on the metrics that are central indicators of overall progress toward the City’s sustainability goals. Metrics are broken down into Community Metrics and Green Government Metrics (i.e. municipal). In each category, primary metrics indicate key performance indicators while secondary metrics will provide program-specific performance indicators and informational material. Metrics will allow the City to monitor and display progress toward our sustainability goals on the upcoming renovated website.
BACKGROUND
The City monitors and reports on community and municipal water usage, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, electricity use, and solid waste diversion from landfills. Community and municipal energy use is based on PG&E data and is reported annually to the Council Sustainability Committee. Hayward’s solid waste diversion rate is reported annually to CalRecycle and Hayward’s water usage is reported monthly to the State Water Resources Control Board.
A complete GHG inventory is completed every five years. This inventory includes PG&E data as well as emissions from transportation, solid waste and wastewater treatment. Hayward has completed GHG inventories for 2005 and 2010 and staff anticipates that the 2015 inventory will be available in late 2016.
The City’s original Climate Action Plan (CAP) was adopted by Council in July 2009. In July 2014 Council adopted the City’s new General Plan and re-affirmed the City’s commitment to sustainability by updating and incorporating the CAP into the General Plan. Following is a list of some of the General Plan policies with goals to achieve a more sustainable community and government:
Policy NR-2.4 Community Greenhouse Gas Reduction - The City shall work with the community to reduce community-based GHG emissions by 20 percent below 2005 baseline levels by 2020, and strive to reduce community emissions by 61.7 percent and 82.5 percent by 2040 and 2050 respectively.
Policy NR 2.5 Municipal Greenhouse Gas Reduction - The City shall reduce municipal greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 2005 baseline levels by 2020, and strive to reduce community emissions by 61.7 percent and 82.5 percent by 2040 and 2050 respectively.
Policy NR-4.6 Renewable Energy - The City shall encourage and support the generation, transmission, use, and storage of locally-distributed renewable energy in order to promote energy independence, efficiency, and sustainability. The City shall consider various incentives to encourage the installation of renewable energy projects (i.e. reduce permit fees and permit streamlining).
Policy NR-4.10 Public Renewable Energy Generation - The city shall ensure that all new City-owned facilities are built with renewable energy, as appropriate to their functions, and shall install renewable energy systems at existing facilities where feasible.
Policy NR- 6.9 Water Conservation - The City shall require water customers to actively conserve water year-round and especially during drought years.
Policy PFS-2.3 Sustainable Practices -The City shall serve as a role model to business and institutions regarding purchasing decisions that minimize the generation of waste, recycling programs that reduce waste, energy efficiency and conservation practices that reduce water, electricity and natural gas use, and fleet operations that reduce gasoline consumption.
Policy PFS-2.7 Energy Efficient Buildings and Infrastructure - The City shall continue to improve the energy efficiency of City buildings and infrastructure through implementation of the Municipal Green Building Ordinance, efficiency improvements, equipment upgrades, and installation of clean, renewable energy systems.
Policy PFS-7.4 Solid Waste Diversion - The City shall comply with Sate goals regarding diversion from landfill, and strive to comply with the provisions approved by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority.
Policy PFS-7.13 Residential Recycling - The City shall encourage increased participation in residential recycling programs and strive to comply with the recycling provisions approved by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority Board. The City shall work with StopWaste.org to monitor participation in residential recycling programs and educate the community regarding actual composition of waste sent to landfills.
The above list is just a snapshot of the many sustainability policies and implementation programs in the General Plan. In total, there are 99 policies and 34 implementation programs that are associated with the CAP and sustainability goals.
Finally, in July 2015, Council adopted the FY 2016 Operating Budget, which includes several performance measures or metrics that will be used to measure progress on Council priorities.
DISCUSSION
The renovated website will prominently display sustainability metrics on an “online dashboard.” Many governments and organizations now use dashboards to visually display their goals and their performance. Examples from different sectors are provided in Attachment I. Some dashboards also display historical data and comparisons to the performance of similar organizations.
The goal of the online sustainability dashboard is to increase transparency and showcase the City’s concerted efforts to achieve its sustainability goals. As indicated previously, the City is already measuring and reporting on several key metrics, and it makes sense to include these on the new website. However, there are numerous additional metrics that could be included.
Staff is suggesting the metrics that appear in the tables of Attachment II. These are broken up into two categories - community metrics (Table 1) and green government or municipal metrics (Table 2). Within each category, staff has identified primary metrics, which will be prominently displayed on the sustainability dashboard, and secondary metrics, which will be displayed on program-specific webpages and in informational material. Each metric is displayed with its associated data source, frequency of measurement, and the goal that Council has set in policy documents, regulations, or directives. The green performance measures that were adopted by Council as part of the FY 2016 Operating Budget are included in the list.
The City’s new website will include an open data platform called Socrata, which is being used by the cities of Los Angles, New York, San Francisco, and others. Socrata The intent is that the open data platform will allows staff to upload datasets and create charts and maps and will allows web users to sort data by category and download datasets to use in academic reports or in the creation of apps. A screenshot of the Los Angles Open Data website is included in Attachment I.
Once entered in Socratathe open data platform, data will automatically populate the online dashboard and website. Staff’s goal is to update the datasets as frequently as is possible to show the most up-to-date progress toward the Council’s priorities and the City’s sustainability goals. As indicated in the tables below, some metrics can be updated monthly, while others can only be updated annually. The gold standard is real-time data. Staff is currently exploring platforms to measure and report real-time energy and water use for City Hall.
The datasets in Socrata will be easily accessible to support local reporting and applications for regional recognition programs. Tracking the City’s progress in various sustainability measures against other local agencies will place Hayward at the forefront of sustainability reporting.
As noted in Attachment II, data exist for many of the secondary metrics, but few of them have formal goals. Staff would like the Committee’s direction regarding the process for establishing goals. For example:
• Would the Committee like to recommend specific goals to Council, or to provide feedback once goals are proposed by staff?
• The Committee may also choose to establish goals once staff has begun data collection and has some baseline measurements and short term identified.
• The Committee might also provide guidance on the timeframes in which metrics should be measured, such as setting the baseline date and the date by which a goal should reasonably be met.
Most of the secondary metrics are rooted in General Plan policies. There are additional policies and implementation programs for many of the metrics that were not listed for sake of brevity.
Staff has not identified data sources for all the sustainability metrics. For those metrics that do not currently have data, staff is creating a “Data Wish List.” The wish list will be distributed to teachers and college students who are interested in completing service learning projects for the City. Staff will work with teachers and students to determine a valid data collection methodology.
Staff welcomes input from the Committee regarding additional metrics not listed in this report. Furthermore, because there is a long list of secondary metrics, the Committee is asked to provide feedback on which metrics are a priority.
NEXT STEPS
Based on feedback from the Committee, staff will incorporate primary sustainability metrics into the online dashboard and secondary metrics throughout the new website. In addition, staff will provide regular reports on a subset of metrics to the Committee.
Prepared by: Jennifer Yee, Sustainability Technician
Staff contact
Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director of Utilities & Environmental Services
end
Approved by:
Fran David, City Manager
Attachments:
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Attachment I |
Examples of Dashboard from Different Sectors |
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Attachment II |
Sustainability Metrics |