6.1 EWEB Internal Operations Introduction and Policy Language from SD15
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15: Internal Operations Section
The Board further authorizes, delegates, and directs the General Manager to continue efforts to minimize and/or mitigate GHG emissions from EWEB’s operations that contribute to climate change. As initially established in 2010, EWEB adopted a goal to reduce the Scope 1 and 2 (direct GHG emissions and energy) greenhouse gas emissions associated with its operations and facility management activities.
Accordingly, and as formally established by this directive, EWEB plans to reduce our net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from operations relative to 2010 levels by:
- 25% by 2020,
- 50% by 2030,
- Achieve carbon neutrality from our operations by 2050.
EWEB seeks to lead by example. By developing and implementing strategies for reducing internal emissions, EWEB can share lessons learned with customers that seek to decarbonize, take advantage of federal or state incentive programs, and/or add resiliency measures and best practices to internal operations.
EWEB has been measuring and reducing its internal GHG emissions since 2009. Included here are the results of EWEB’s internal GHG inventory from calendar year 2023.
Content currently included in v2.0:
- Greenhouse gas emissions inventory results for calendar year 2023
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- Internal Climate Action Plan and Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality by 2050
- Additional Scope 3 GHG emissions reporting
Explore this webpage: 6.2.1 Inventory Protocols, Boundaries, and Scopes | 6.2.2 EWEB’s Progress towards SD15 GHG Reduction Goals | 6.2.3 EWEB’s Scope 1 Emissions: Fleet fuels, Natural Gas, and Refrigerants and SF6 | 6.2.4 EWEB’s Scope 2 Emissions: Electricity and Steam | 6.2.5 Next Steps for EWEB’s Carbon Emissions Reporting
6.2 EWEB’s Internal Greenhouse Gas Inventory, 2023
EWEB has been tracking our internal greenhouse gas emissions annually since 2009, in accordance with industry standards. EWEB’s Climate Change Policy (SD15) set specific GHG reduction goals for EWEB’s internal operations (see box). EWEB’s goals are in alignment with goals set by the State of Oregon and the City of Eugene (see Chapter 2) and in line with the science-based targets to keep warming below 1.5 degrees C as outlined as part of the Paris Accord and recommendations from climate scientists. EWEB seeks to be an active partner in these efforts to decarbonize our operations and our community.
6.2.1 Inventory Protocols, Boundaries, and Scopes
In conducting our annual internal GHG inventory, EWEB follows the guidance outlined in the World Resources Institute’s GHG Protocol as well as The Climate Registry’s General Reporting Protocol. Emissions factors come from The Climate Registry’s 2022 Default Emissions Factors, EPA eGRID emissions factors for the Northwest Power Pool, and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s GHG Reporting Program’s utility-specific emissions factors. EWEB uses a financial control approach, meaning that we report emissions for assets that we financially own. These protocols define 3 scopes of emissions coming from different types of business activities as follows:
- Scope 1 emissions: Direct emissions from organizationally-owned assets. Scope 1 emissions included in EWEB’s inventory include fuels used in owned fleet vehicles, natural gas used for building heat in owned facilities, and industrial gases including HFCs in owned facility HVAC systems and owned vehicles, as well as SF6 used in owned electrical substation equipment.
- Scope 2 emissions: Indirect emissions from electricity purchased from a utility provider and consumed in owned equipment. Scope 2 emissions in this inventory include emissions from purchased electricity (and formerly steam) used in EWEB owned facilities, equipment, and vehicles. Scope 2 also addresses owned electricity generation from the 74.62 kW solar photovoltaic system operating at EWEB’s Roosevelt Operations Center and from EWEB’s purchase and retirement of renewable energy certificates via EWEB’s participation as a customer in the GreenPower program.
- Scope 3 emissions: All other indirect emissions from sources or equipment that an organization does not own or manage, but where it has some shared responsibility. Examples of Scope 3 emissions can include: business travel in rental vehicles, or other non-owned vehicles such as trains, buses, or airplanes; emissions associated with commute travel in employee-owned vehicle; organizationally generated solid waste disposed of at landfills owned and operated by other entities; or purchased goods and services manufactured at vendor locations around the world.
While EWEB has calculated Scope 3 emissions in the past and will begin to do so again in the future, the focus of this report is on emissions sources included under EWEB’s voluntary GHG reduction goals outlined in SD15. The focus of that policy is on Scope 1 and 2 emissions only as those are the sources that EWEB has more direct control over.
Emissions exclusions: This GHG inventory does not include Scope 1 emissions from owned electricity generation sources, as those emissions are reported annually to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality under their Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and turned into an annual utility-specific emissions factor for EWEB customers to use in their GHG inventories for emissions from purchased electricity. As explained in Chapter 3, EWEB seeks to meet the SD15 goal for getting to 95% carbon-free resources on a planning basis by 2030. Emissions from Scope 1 owned electricity generation equipment will be managed under the 95% carbon-free goal under SD15 and so are reported separately. See Appendix E about EWEB’s Carbon Intensity Guidance.
6.2.2 EWEB’s Progress towards SD15 GHG Reduction Goals
SD15 outlines emissions reduction targets for EWEB’s Scope 1 (owned) and Scope 2 (shared from electricity and steam consumption) emissions. While there has been annual variation in emissions over time due to several factors, EWEB has met its 2020 goal of 25% reduction over 2010 baseline emissions consistently since 2014. In 2020, emissions dipped below the 2030 goal of 50% reduction compared to our 2010 baseline, but some of those reductions were temporary due to the COVID-19 pandemic and work-from-home orders. In 2023, EWEB is pleased to report our emissions once again fell below the 2030 50% emissions reduction goal. In 2023, EWEB is reporting aggregate emissions reductions of 54% compared to 2010 baseline performance. The decrease in emissions between 2022 and 2023 is due to lower fleet emissions due to utilization of renewable fuels, lower natural gas emissions due to the sale of the headquarters building in June 2023, no recorded refrigerant or industrial gas recharge in 2023, and a lower electricity emissions factor, as calculated by Oregon DEQ for EWEB in 2022.
Progress towards EWEB’s internal GHG goals is calculated using a market-based approach to electricity emissions that uses the EWEB-specific emissions factor for purchased electricity as calculated by Oregon DEQ’s GHG reporting program.
6.2.3 EWEB’s Scope 1 Emissions: Fleet fuels, Natural Gas, and Refrigerants and SF6
Fleet
Much of EWEB’s overall operational GHG reduction success has been due to emissions reductions from our owned fleet vehicles. Emissions from EWEB’s fleet vehicles have dropped 66% since 2010.
EWEB’s fleet is comprised of 419 active (in-service) units, including 233 vehicles, 69 units of power-operated equipment, and 117 trailers. The size of EWEB’s fleet has grown 18.5% since 2020. Despite this growth in fleet size, total gallons of fuel consumed has only grown by 6% since our 2010 emissions baseline.
What has changed significantly are the types of fuel consumed. Since 2010, and especially since 2016, EWEB has invested heavily in new renewable fuels including Ethanol, Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel, and more recently Electric Vehicles (EVs). These biomass-based fuels reduce the carbon intensity of the fuel being consumed.
In 2023, EWEB was excited to receive two all-electric Ford Lightning pick-up trucks to complement its small fleet of passenger plug-in hybrid EVs. Due to supply chain challenges, these two trucks took over 26 months to receive from the date of order. Moving forward, EWEB will need to augment the electric vehicle charging infrastructure at EWEB’s ROC facility in order to continue to grow our EV fleet.
Natural Gas
Historically, natural gas has been used for space heating in three EWEB-owned facilities: EWEB’s headquarters building in downtown Eugene, EWEB’s Roosevelt Operations Center in west Eugene, and a facility EWEB owned for just two years in 2013 and 2014 on W 3rd Ave in Eugene. The increase in emissions from natural gas in 2013 and 2014 can be attributed to W. 3rd facility for those two years. Once that facility was sold, the higher natural gas emissions in 2015 compared to 2010 and 2011 come from the fact that EWEB phased out steam consumption (a Scope 2 emissions source) for space heating at the headquarters building and began using natural gas at that facility instead. In June 2023, EWEB vacated and sold its headquarters facility. Due to guidance from GHG Inventory Protocols and EWEB’s financial control approach to our inventory boundaries, natural gas consumption from this facility was only included for 2023 through the date of our facility sale.
Refrigerants and Industrial Gases
The final category of Scope 1 emissions includes industrial gases used in various equipment that can leak into the atmosphere and have an impact on the climate. EWEB tracks four types of industrial gases and refrigerants that are used in fleet vehicles and building HVAC equipment (for air conditioning) as well as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) which is used as an insulator in electrical switchgear at substations.
Leaks of these gases can happen slowly over time yet are captured in our inventory during the year in which the equipment was recharged. Similar to 2010, there were no industrial gas recharges for EWEB in 2023.
6.2.4 EWEB’s Scope 2 Emissions: Electricity and Steam
In 2010-2013, EWEB consumed steam for heating at its headquarters building before the steam plant was decommissioned and the building transitioned to natural gas for space heating instead.
Emissions from electricity consumption have two components – how much electricity an organization is consuming, and the carbon intensity of the electricity being consumed. The carbon intensity of EWEB’s electricity varies from year to year depending on real customer demand (driven by local weather patterns and customer behavior) and EWEB’s changing need to rely on market purchases to balance customer demand and resources continuously. The high emissions factor in 2019 was reflected throughout the west due to decreased water availability in the western hydropower system.
Please note: EWEB utility-specific emissions factors are calculated by Oregon DEQ and there is a lag in data reporting so 2022 is the latest emissions factor available. It was used to calculate EWEB’s 2023 emissions in this inventory. When the 2023 emissions factor becomes available, these calculations will be updated accordingly.
EWEB’s electricity consumption in MWh has declined by 11% between 2010 and 2023.
Water operations facilities includes both EWEB’s Hayden Bridge drinking water filtration facility in Springfield and the electricity for water pumping and reservoir storage within the water distribution system. EWEB’s Headquarters building is in downtown Eugene on East 4th Ave. EWEB began moving into the Roosevelt Operations Center in 2009 and operated out of both the Headquarters facility and the ROC until June 2023 when operations were consolidated at ROC and Headquarters was sold to the City of Eugene. The Other Facilities category includes buildings that support operations at the Carmen Smith and Leaburg hydroelectric dams along the McKenzie River, and other smaller facilities in Eugene.
EWEB’s annual electricity consumption is dominated by EWEB’s Hayden Bridge water treatment facility that produces finished drinking water for a community of more than 200,000 residents.
6.2.5 Next Steps for EWEB’s Carbon Emissions Reporting
EWEB sees an opportunity to lay out a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by (and potentially sooner than) mid-century and pilot various technologies and opportunities within our own operations so that we gain firsthand knowledge that can be helpful as we support customers in their decarbonization efforts. Additionally, as EWEB’s internal electricity consumption is at a scale to make it one of the largest electric utility customers in our community, EWEB also has an opportunity to apply any new rates, programs, policies to our own bills first, so we can gain insights from a customer perspective.
EWEB also seeks to stay aware of all relevant grant, tax, and incentive programs available from state and federal programs to maximize GHG reduction opportunities and simultaneously improve resilience and climate adaptation for key resources and infrastructure.
In 2024, EWEB plans to pilot reporting its emissions according to The Climate Registry’s Electric Power Sector Protocol. This would allow us to report all Scope 1 emissions from both owned electricity generating resources that are currently report to Oregon DEQ and the Scope 1 emissions from our owned fleet, buildings, and equipment into one centralized location.
Links and Relevant Resources:
