County Operations Climate Action Plan - DRAFT
Draft, October 2024
This County Operations CAP is part of the larger Washoe County Climate Action Plan, which has the following sections:
- Climate Action Plan Introduction
- County Operations Climate Action Plan (this page)
- Community GHG Inventory
- Community Climate Action Plan
You can also review a summary list of recommended actions to reduce County Operations emissions.
To provide feedback on the County Operations CAP or any part of the Washoe County CAP document, use this feedback form.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Washoe County’s services, the impacts of climate change, and the need for action
- Benefits of Climate Action and alignment with Washoe County’s mission, vision, values and strategic priorities
- Washoe County Operations Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory
- Scope 1 – Direct Emissions
- Scope 2 – Indirect Emissions from Purchased Electricity
- Scope 3 – Indirect Emissions from Travel, Community, Purchased Goods & Service, and Waste
- Strategy 1: County Adopts Net Zero Goals across Departments
- Toward Net Zero: 5 Strategies and 48 Actions to Reduce Emissions
- Inform, Educate and Engage Staff Around Net Zero Goals
- Strategy 2: Reduce Emissions from Land Use
- Implement GHG-reducing Envision Washoe 2040 elements
- Launch a Community Forestry Program
- Update Natural Resource/Lands Conservation Plan
- Sequester carbon through land-use
- Strategy 3: Reduce Emissions from Fleets
- Strategy 4: Reduce Emissions from Facilities & Operations
- Reduce Water Waste
- Reduce Scope 3 Emissions: Commuting, Travel, Waste, Goods & Services
- Strategy 5: Expand Renewable Energy Generation on County Lands & facilities
- Implementation: How we will get there
- Financial Strategies
- Teamwork
Acknowledgements
This Washoe County Operations Climate Action Plan was developed by the Office of the County Manager, Sustainability Program, with support from a Fuse Corps Executive Fellow. The strategies and actions in this plan are informed by the intelligence and collaboration of numerous County departments and efforts, particularly Facilities, Operations, Tech Services, the Green Team and many individual staff, as well as regional jurisdictions, agencies, and community members. Thank you, everyone, for informing the County’s path to sustainability.
Introduction
Founded in 1861, the Washoe County government consists of 24 departments that provide a range of services to nearly 500,000 residents. These services include administering and enforcing state and local laws and the county code; collecting taxes, assessing property; maintaining, recording and providing public records; conducting elections; issuing licenses; providing parks, libraries, emergency management, human and animal services, public assistance, public health, public safety, and judicial process; wastewater treatment; planning and permitting for development; and more.
Climate change is increasing the cost and disrupting the delivery of these services. Extreme heat, wildfires (and the smoke that chokes our communities), decreasing snowpack, atmospheric rivers, poor air quality and associated public health impacts, droughts, floods and weather-related black outs challenge our region’s quality of life, economy and the County’s ability to serve our residents (see Appendix 3 for a detailed discussion of local and regional climate impacts and costs).
In 2022, the County adopted a strategic goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with an interim 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 45% from 2021 baseline levels. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. The County’s net zero goal aligns with federal government and State of Nevada goals (see Appendix 4 – regional climate commitments and plans). County leadership included this goal in its Fiscal Year 2024 Strategic Priorities under Goal 2: “Economic Impacts: Support a Thriving Community:” Plan interim steps to Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. (See Figure 2 below).
The County has started working toward this goal in two ways. First, by creating a Community-Wide Climate Action Plan to reduce GHG emissions from the following sectors:
• The transportation we use to get around,
• The energy we use to power our lights and appliances in our buildings,
• The energy used to produce drinkable water and process wastewater, and
• The waste we throw in our trash and recycling bins.
Second, the County is leading by example by implementing this County Operations Climate Action Plan (COCAP) to reduce County operations emissions. The County operations roughly 400 different facilities and a fleet of roughly 650 vehicles, which cumulatively produced 23,867 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gases (mtCO2e) in 2021.