Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for Government Operations
When a 2005 report projected that emissions from the City of Phoenix would increase by 14 percent if the city did not take appropriate action, the Phoenix City Council adopted a mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from city operations to 5 percent below the 2005 level by 2015. A 2012 City of Phoenix greenhouse gas emissions inventory and assessment by the Global Sustainability Solutions Services provided findings that helped the city reduce municipal emissions by 7.2 percent by 2012, well ahead of its 2015 goal. In addition, the study proposed five measures to further lower emissions. To track its progress, the City of Phoenix engaged Global Services to conduct an update of its findings to see how the city met its 2015 goal. This update determined that Phoenix exceeded its goal with a total reduction of GHG emissions by 15.6% between 2005 and 2015, for a total of 206,095 metric tons of CO2e avoided.