Note:  The attached list of potential GHG reduction strategies is intended to highlight various priority strategies identified by the Great Falls Group for consideration.  However, this list is not intended to be comprehensive.  It is intended to facilitate input when the CECAP contractor presents alternative GHG reduction strategies for consideration by the CECAP Task Force.  It may also be used as a resource for people who are responding to the County’s CECAP public survey that will open on Thursday, August 27, and remain open until Sunday, September 13.

Overall:

The Plan should include:

• Specific actionable steps to reduce GHG emissions (should not be limited to broad goals) and identify the highest priority action items;

• A requirement (and deadline) for the evaluation and report by the Chief Financial Officer of the necessary staff, budgetary, and contract resources to implement the Plan;

• A requirement for periodic reporting to the Board of Supervisors and public on progress in meeting the final plan goals and actions; and

• Provisions that ensure equity for all population groups in the Plan’s development and implementation.

State Advocacy:

• Prioritize advocacy by the county government, local businesses, local organizations, local residents, and regional partners to achieve major changes in state energy legislation and regulations.  Examples include legislation or regulations that:

• Remove legal barriers to the use of renewable energy by the county, organizations, and business and residential consumers and assures the ability of these entities to purchase renewable energy at competitive prices and terms;

•   Dramatically reduce GHG emissions on the grid from utility-generated electricity; 

• Adopt the most stringent and recent model building energy codes with in 18 months of their release or allow local jurisdictions to implement more stringent codes than the state code;

• Authorize new financing programs to facilitate energy efficiency and renewable energy measures for residents and businesses (e.g., State green bank, on-bill financing, revolving loan programs);

• Authorize mandatory benchmarking of energy consumption by commercial buildings and public reporting of selected data;

• Remove legal barriers to the development of microgrids and combined heat and power; and

• Increase delegation of authority to local governments to pursue GHG reduction initiatives;

• Work with regional and state partners to develop energy and climate proposals with a high GHG reduction impact but which require additional state legislative or regulatory authority; and

• The county should assure that sufficient resources (staff and/or contract resources) are available to it to effectively pursue state advocacy goals.  Regional partnerships should be considered to leverage county resources.  

Buildings:

• Strengthen building energy codes and improve enforcement of such codes;

• Planning and development process

• Adopt local policy in the planning and development process that promotes net zero energy ready (deep efficiency without on-site renewable energy) and net zero energy status for new buildings. 

§  Identify actions that can be taken under existing law;

§  Identify more aggressive actions (e.g., requirements for building owners) that would necessitate new legal authority at the local or state level and the specific legislation required.  

•  Leverage availability of new C-PACE financing authority to spur implementation of aggressive green building measures by the commercial and non-profit sectors.

•  Explore potential to initiate R-PACE financing authority that ensures protections to the residential customer sector as they install aggressive green building measures to their homes.

• Develop program for voluntary benchmarking of energy consumption for commercial buildings (until state authority is enacted for mandatory benchmarking) and facilitate challenge programs for energy efficiency in buildings (e.g., DOE’s Green Buildings Challenge);

• Promote Federal, state, and utility incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy

• Provide a special focus on low-income communities;

• Leverage existing organizations (e.g., Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP)) to facilitate access to Federal weatherization assistance and utility energy efficiency programs.

• Expand programs that implement energy efficiency improvements for affordable housing;

• Educate private sector on alternatives for energy efficiency and renewable energy procurement.

Transportation:

• Include specific goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and GHG emissions from transportation and outline major strategies to reach these goals.

• The plan should set forth a specific schedule for monitoring and reporting progress against these goals. To the extent that reductions fall short, additional strategies should be implemented to meet the transportation-related goals.

• Implement changes in the land development process (e.g., zoning, permitting, Comprehensive Plan) to reduce GHG emissions in the transportation sector. Action is needed by the county and developers to address the disconnect between the sound multi-modal transportation policy in the Comprehensive Plan and Environmental Vision with the actual implementation in the land use development process, which often reinforces dependence on single occupancy vehicle trips.  In other words, integration of transportation and land use planning needs to be strengthened substantially.  Some examples of potential action include:

• Requiring explicit consideration of mitigation of GHG impacts in the planning process;

• Increasing requirements for reductions in vehicle miles traveled in the Transportation Demand Management Plans submitted by developers;

• Seeking changes in the transportation analyses (e.g., Level of Service analysis) required by the Virginia Department of Transportation to analyses that promote more multi-modal solutions;

• Providing incentives to focus development near rail and transit stations;

• Siting affordable housing in areas accessible to transit.

• Improve speed, frequency, reliability and user experience of the bus system with a particular focus on areas with strong ridership potential.  Improved coordination with public transit systems and dedicated bus lanes are examples;[1]

• Evaluate and pursue options to reduce the use of single-occupancy vehicles to and from Metro stations, including alternative and emerging options (e.g., smaller circulator buses, on-demand shuttle, shared e-bike programs);  

• Increase accessibility and transit options to low-income populations;

• Fleet electrification

• Expand the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure by directly installing charging stations and incentivizing the private sector to do so;

• Identify any additional legislation (county or state) necessary to require EV charging readiness or installation requirements for new buildings.

• Challenge owners of delivery fleets (e.g., Amazon, Fed Ex) to deploy electric vehicles in the county.[2]

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[1] See Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge Climate Action Playbook for more information, p. 27.  See file:///C:/Users/debra/OneDrive/Organization/Fairfax%20County/Community%20Climate%20and%20Energy%20Strategy/Best%20Practices/10-19-%20Bloomberg%20-American-Cities-Climate-Challenge-Climate-Action-Playbook.pdf

[2] For example, work to assure that Amazon’s Sept. 2019 commitment to deploy 100,000 electric vehicles vans leads to substantial deployment in Fairfax County.  See discussion of commitment at

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873947/amazon-electric-delivery-van-rivian-jeff-bezos-order

County Operations:

• Buildings:

• Substantially increase the energy efficiency goal for county buildings, which is specified in the 2018 County Operational Energy Strategy as target of a reduction of “kBtu[s] per square foot by 20% from 2019 to 2029, equivalent to a reduction of about 2% per year over the 10-year period.”[3]

§  The new goal should be an absolute reduction (rather than only a reduction of energy use per square foot)

• Implement the higher goal by performing deep energy retrofits on existing county buildings to make such facilities ultra-efficient and net zero energy ready. Such buildings will achieve net zero energy when equipped with on-site renewable energy (e.g. solar, geothermal).   

• Vehicles:

• Establish a transition plan (with target dates) for replacement of fossil fuel-fired vehicles with electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles

Note:  This list will need to be expanded if the CECAP process encompasses both community-wide GHG reductions and county operations.

Natural Resources and Agriculture:

• Well-designed urban forests can create powerful carbon sinks to remove this pollutant from the atmosphere and offset emissions. They also can reduce the urban heat-island effect, and therefore reduce energy use for cooling loads.

• Develop action items with input from the Fairfax County Tree Commission.  Potential actions include:

• Using public-private partnerships to accomplish plantings and maintenance;

•  Connecting landowners with technical, funding, and assistance programs; and

• Supporting policies and practices that guide development to designated development areas, thereby reducing conversion of farmland, forests, wetlands, and open spaces.   

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[3] See p. 6, https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/energy/sites/energy/files/assets/documents/fairfax-county-operational-energy-strategy.pdf

Miscellaneous:

• Promote energy efficiency in water distribution and sewer systems

• Major energy savings and GHG emission reductions possible

•  Example – Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority (PA)

• Reduce GHG emissions resulting from the waste management process;

• Establish or expand urban heat island mitigation programs; and

Rapidly transition away from any hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants and work to develop programs to assure proper disposal of refrigerants already in circulation.  

Education and Outreach:

• These actions are relevant to all sectors.

• Some examples include:

• Implementing aggressive outreach and education on the county’s new C-PACE ordinance to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, water savings and resiliency.  This outreach should involve the county and the private sector, including Task Force participants.

•  Implementing challenge and awards programs with residents, businesses, and institutions to encourage GHG reduction actions. Examples include:

§  Challenging major institutions, such as hospitals (e.g. Inova) and universities (e.g., George Mason, Northern VA Community College), to develop and implement aggressive climate action plans;

§  Developing a recognition program for architects, developers, and builders who show leadership in net zero energy design and construction.

o   Creating partnerships with key organizations, such as the Federation of Citizen Associations.

Some Resources (including strategies that may or may not require additional State legislation):

• Rocky Mountain Institute – The Carbon-Free City Handbook, 2017.[4]  Have included some of these recommendations (#1, #2, #6, #9) in list above;

• Bloomberg Philanthropies and American Cities Climate Challenge, Climate Action Playbook Brief:  A Strategic Brief to Accelerate and Deepen Climate Action in Cities, Oct. 2019;[5]

• American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy, 2019 City Clean Energy Scorecard, July 2019;[6] and

• Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Regional Climate and Energy Action Plan, 2017 to 2020.[7]

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[4] See https://rmi.org/insight/the-carbon-free-city-handbook/

[5] See https://data.bloomberglp.com/dotorg/sites/2/2019/10/American-Cities-Climate-Challenge-Climate-Action-Playbook.pdf

[6] See www.aceee.org/sites/default/files/publications/researchreports/u1904.pdf

[7] See https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/boards-commissions-and-committees/COE/Reports/Adopted-Regional-Climate-and-Energy-Action-Plan_3-22-2017.pdf