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Capital Region Sustainability Plan Climate Change: Adaptation & Building Resiliency in our Communities Union College January 24, 2013

Cleaner Greener Communities Program

• Launched by New York State in 2011 • Two phase Regional Sustainability effort

– Phase I: Planning – Phase II: Implementation

• Funded by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) – Phase I: $10 million – Phase II: $90 million

• Capital Region • Sustainability Plan:

• Albany • Columbia • Greene

• Rensselaer • Saratoga

• Schenectady • Warren

• Washington

Plan Contents

• Baseline Assessment

• Greenhouse Gas Inventory

• Focus Areas – Solid Waste – Transportation – Energy – Water – Food Systems – Economic Development – Land Use & Livability – Climate Adaptation

• Priority Initiatives with Implementation Strategy

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Greenhouse Gas Inventory

Greene County had the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions Schenectady County had the lowest Transportation sector largest contributor of GHG

GHG: How do we compare?

• Capital Region: 16.3 MTCO₂e. • State: 9.8 MTCO₂e. • Nation: 19.0 MTCO₂e.

MMTCO₂e (metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent)

Climate Adaptation

1. Promote green infrastructure in new construction and major retrofits

2. Complete local climate vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning to asses impact of climate change

3. Develop a guidance document on how to integrate climate change impacts into existing plans and local government approval processes

Economic Development

1. Strengthen regional small business support programs to improve efficiency share resources and reduce regional redundancies

2. Support expansion of land banking through existing and new mechanisms

3. Expand green jobs training programs to include green infrastructure design and mainatennace

Energy

1. Establish Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Financing Districts (or PACE program).

2. Establish a revolving energy efficiency improvement fund for local businesses to undertake energy efficiency projects

3. Adopt a local energy-efficient building code that would exceeed the NYS Energy Construction Code to imrpove the efficiency of building in all sectors.

Food Systems

1. Create a food hub for regional food processing, storage, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products.

2. Create/reestablish a Regional Food and Agricultural Coalition to identify need, gaps and advocate for the Region’s agri-business

3. Establish an initiative to create/increase "local food" transactions, to encourage the region's grocery stores restaurants, resident and institutions to purchase local food

Transportation

1. Implement a bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure improvement program to create new connections and eliminate gaps.

2. Improve transit service through technology improvements including signal priority, signal optimization, off board far collections and smart card fare media.

3. Optimize transportation system through alternative street design and advanced signal technology to improve travel flow, reduce travel times and make communities more attractive walking, biking and transit.

Solid Waste

1. Improve and increase composting options through a combination of backyard composting, community scale composting and the expansion of leaf and yard waste composting facilities.

2. Adopt C&D waste reduction ordinances and policies at the local level.

3. Site and develop anaerobic digestion facilities that can accept food waste and other bio solids to generate energy.

Land Use and Livability

1. Modify local codes and regulations to encourage form based codes, provisions for walkable communities, green infrastructure, green buidlings and other sustainable strategies.

2. Repair and modernize existing infrastructure including water, sewer, parks, transportation and telecommunications in existing population centers

3. Develop a regional greenway connectivity plan to bring together existing trail and greenway plan and support their completion.

Water

1. Develop Asset Management Plans for water and sewer systems that includes an inventory, condition assessment, capital improvement plan and educational plans.

2. Create a small grant program for innovative water quality projects that can be implemented at the local level

3. Conduct a watershed assessment for stormwater management that includes inventory and assessment of existing drainage systems and identifies measures to improve water quality

Three initiatives that are key to implementation

• Regional Sustainability Coordinator – paid position to assist communities, ensure plan implementation

• Regional Green Alliance – consortium of business, non profits, education, public sector to promote and shepherd the plan

• Regional Sustainability Website – training, education, GIS based tools, indicator tracking, etc.

Targets and Indicators

Indicator Baseline Target

Annual Regional Energy Consumption Per Capita

225 MMBTu/Capita Reduce per capita energy consumption 20% by 2020

Annual Waste Disposal Per Capita

Total waste: 1.22 tons/capita/year MSW: 0.72 tons/capita/year

Reduce per capita disposal of MSW to 0.11 tons/capita/year

Annual Agriculture Farm Production (Dollars)

$31.6 million Increase by 30% by 2025

Annual Per Capita Land Consumption (Acres)

0.000276 miles2/capita Reduce by 5% by 2030

Total Annual Water Permit Notice of Violations (Number)

593+/- violations/year 40% reduction by 2020

Housing + Transportation Index

Household H&T >45% : 66.5% Reduce by 10% by 2030

Funding of Initiatives • Will be part of annual CFA Process • $30M in 2013, 2014 & 2015

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http://sustainablecapitalregion.org/