Government Operations
Greenhouse Gas Inventory

With the help of the County Controller's office and other county government departments, Planning Department staff is currently assembling the data needed for a full inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from all county operations. This involves recording the energy use from all electric meters, natural gas meters, propane delivery truck meters, gasoline and diesel deliveries, and annual mileage for all county owned and leased vehicles. Columbia County has over 80 electric and gas meters and receives gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and propane deliveries at over a dozen locations.

It is essential to have a complete and accurate accounting of fossil fuel use in order to develop a meaningful Climate Action Plan. When done, the county will have detailed data on energy use and GHG emissions for all its major buildings for at least a five-year period, from 2020 through 2025. Other small, low-energy use buildings, communication towers, and lighting meters will have data for at least the full year of 2025.

A report on this data will be posted here when finished, and will be fed directly into the Government Operations portion of our Climate Action Plan. The data generated for this inventory will also support a update to the annual Benchmarking - Municipal Buildings action.