Chapter 8
Activities
Activity 8.1
Some cities and campuses provide greenhouse gas inventories in their sustainability plan or online through dashboards. Large cities may also report building level and total energy and emissions data through the EPA’s Energy Star benchmarking program. Here is a sample energy and emissions infographic for cities from the U.S. Department of Energy: Understanding Energy Use in Cities Infographic
Activity 8.2
Nearly every U.S. city has some kind of climate plan. Some have multiple plans that connect to climate (e.g. transportation plan, housing plan, water management plan, equity plan). Cities have aligned their goals and strategies with broader initiatives including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement, COP26 in Glasgow, or the Green New Deal (GND) for Cities.
Activity 8.5
Finding comprehensive green building data can be challenging. Some campuses will provide location information or maps, or even live energy consumption and emissions data (see the Cornell University Building Energy Dashboard or the Sustainable Stanford Campus Performance Dashboards, for example.) Cities may provide location and performance data for municipal green buildings, while other third party groups attempt to compile city-wide green building maps like the Green Building Map of New York City.
Cities may also provide building-level energy benchmarking through embedded mapping applications and visualization tools like the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data Visualization Tool through the City of Chicago Data Portal or the San Francisco Municipal Energy Benchmarking Tool.
Activity 8.7
Here are some water trackers, apps and calculators that may be useful for your assignment.
5 apps to help you save water (CNET.com)
How to Measure the GPM Flow Rate of a Faucet or Shower (The Spruce)
How much water do you use at home? (United State Geological Survey)
Water tracker spreadsheet (Alliance for the Great Lakes)
Water footprint calculator (GRACE)
Water footprint assessment tool (Water Footprint Network)
Your Home Water-Energy-Climate Calculator (Pacific Institute)
Home water works (Alliance for Water Efficiency)
Water footprint by food type (Water Footprint Network)
Average Daily Water Usage in the U.S.
Sidebars
Sidebar 8.1
”How is Chicago Doing on its Ambitious 2020 Climate Goals,” from Curious City, a program from WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio took a look into Chicago’s 2008 Climate Action Plan, which set 2020 targets for greenhouse gas emissions, tree planning, energy efficient buildings, green roofs, recycling and more.
Sidebar 8.4
StormStore is a new pilot marketplace for buying and selling of stormwater credits in the Chicago region, based on the lessons learned from the Washington, D.C. stormwater retention credit market.
Sidebar 8.5
What it’s Like to Live Through Cape Town’s Massive Water Crisis from Time Magazine is a personal glimpse into the life of a Capetonian as Day Zero approaches.