Launch of Long Island Carbon Footprint Project

 

A new initiative was launched to measure the carbon footprint of Long Island, helping to grow the climate protection efforts which have already taken root in the region. With the assistance of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), the Long Island Carbon Footprint Project will determine energy use and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions for each community on Long Island, providing local governments with the information needed to determine where they can focus their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

With support from the Rauch Foundation, Long Island Power Authority and Nassau and Suffolk Counties, ICLEI will conduct a comprehensive regional greenhouse gas inventory for Long Island in 2009 utilizing their Clean Air and Climate Protection (CACP) software. ICLEI will conduct the regional inventory by leveraging the existing climate protection efforts on Long Island to collect critical baseline data on energy use and emissions for the residential, commercial, industrial, transportation and waste sectors in each local government on Long Island.

Kevin Law, president, CEO, LIPA; Angela Vincent, Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regional director, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability; Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy; Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president, Rauch Foundation and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi

In addition to developing a regional inventory for Long Island, ICLEI will also inventory the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for the government operations in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Nassau County completed an emissions inventory in 2005 and has implemented many climate protection measures since that date.

Local governments on Long Island are also taking action to measure their emissions. The Town of Babylon, which has been an active climate protection leader and ICLEI member since 2006, completed their inventory in May 2008. The inventory measures greenhouse gas emissions and energy use from government operations and the community as a whole.
While there are many other climate protection and sustainability efforts on Long Island, their collective efforts have yet to be harnessed. The Long Island Carbon Footprint Project will bring those efforts together to both assess the results of the regional inventory and to collectively develop solutions to address how to reduce their overall footprint.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” says Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation. “If Long Island is going to get serious about reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, we need to know where they’re coming from. The Foundation hopes this project will ground these efforts in reality and serve as a catalyst for a meaningful reduction in emissions.”

By incorporating existing efforts into the development of a regional greenhouse gas emissions inventory for Long Island, ICLEI will work with stakeholders to establish a regional framework by which all local governments on Long Island can be engaged and empowered to take individual action.

With more than 500 local government members across the United States, ICLEI provides the tools, technical expertise and membership network to drive emissions reductions and sustainability at the local level.