Cool Stuff!

Introduction

Thanks for coming to our Cool Stuff! page. We hope that you'll find the content listed below to be helpful to your mission of measuring, reducing, and monitoring your locality's greenhouse gas emissions. This page is structured as follows:

I - Getting it Done focuses on ICLEI's 5 Milestones and the resources you can use to help your locality accomplish each step.

II - Useful Cool Stuff provides access to Cool Stuff that can be used to better understand the process of containing GHG emissions. In this section we've also included materials that focus on climate change here in Hampton Roads.

III - HR3C Discussion Group explains the purpose of our discussion group and provides an opportunity to join. Also, you'll find a link to the HR3C Discussion Group!

These tools can help broaden and deepen your understanding of global warming, and the consequences of inaction. Remember - Hampton Roads is especially vulnerable to sea-level rise, more so than any other coastal area of the U.S. - with the exception of New Orleans.

BTW - We built this site for you, so if you have any suggestions on how we can improve the content or functionality of this page (or this site for that matter) please let us know. The best way to reach us is by e-mail, so head over to Contact Us and drop us a line!

I - Getting It Done

Resolutions

Once a community has buy-in from local government to measure, reduce, and then monitor greenhouse gas emissions, two things typically happen. First, local leaders pass a resolution committing the locality to taking action. Here are some sample resolutions:

Once the resolution passes, the leader of the locality reinforces the resolution by taking one or more of the following steps:

Baseline Emissions Reports

The first step toward the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the “Baseline Emissions Report”. This report details the GHG emissions produces by a locality both at the municpal and community levels, for a given year, i.e. 2000. The results of this report will be used as a benchmark when monitoring emissions and measuring progress. Sample reports from the Commonwealth of Virginia include:

Implementation Plans

Developing a greenhouse gas reduction plan can and should be performed as the Baseline Emissions Inventory is being developed. For this step, the following plans are fine examples:

Bellingham, WA Action Plan

II - Useful Cool Stuff

Webinar - Performing a GHG Baseline Inventory

On Sept. 1st Melissa Stults, Regional Program Manager for ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA hosted an informative webinar on the greenhouse gas inventory process, and tools for sustainability. Topics included:

Overview of Local Governments for Sustainability
Review of ICLEI's 5-milestones, tools, and resources to help local governments move through the milestones toward a more sustainable future
Discussion of GHG emissions software and resources needed to complete a GHG baseline inventory

This webinar has a running time of 1 hour and can be viewed here.

Local Climate Leadership Conference Materials

On June 25th HR3C held our first Local Climate Leadership Conference. Available materials from the workshop include:

III - HR3C Discussion Group

Note: Due to spamming issues, we have taken the HR3C Discussion Group offline for now. We are sorry to have to do so.

Learning and Helping

Saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases is more than most of us ever thought we'd have to contend with, and the idea of measuring, reducing, and monitoring our progress can give one pause. After all, most of us don't have certifications in energy management let alone advanced degrees in the earth sciences. So, where does one turn to when undertaking an emissions inventory or emissions reduction implementation plan for the first time?

The good news is you/we are not alone. Other comunity leaders in Hampton Roads (and around the Commonwealth) have either completed an emissions inventory and/or have begun the process of creating an Emissions Implementation Plan. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, why not learn ideas from others who have been down the same path and are willing to offer their expertise?

We invite you to join and participate in the HR3C Discussion Group. The purpose of our forum is to offer a means of working together so that we can more quickly and effectively reduce our emissions here in Hampton Roads. This forum is intended as a place where questions are asked, solutions are offered and ideas are exchanged.

So sign up, and make your voice heard. After all, this is about accomplishing these tasks more quickly, or offering your suggestions to help your colleagues do the same.

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