Greening Your Operations

Greening Your Operations

Successful action on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions requires every part of society to do its part, including municipal governments. For municipal governments, the principle consideration is how you can manage your assets and operations in a manner that effectively delivers the required services, while also reducing your carbon footprint.

What can you do?

Reducing your carbon footprint means reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are generated as a result of your municipality's operations. This requires cutting back on the amount of waste being sent to landfill and the amount of energy used in government buildings and fleets. Our Municipal Government Carbon Calculator can help you estimate the greenhouse gas emissions from your operations and below is a list of actions you can take to green your operations.

Buildings

• Construct environmentally sustainable buildings
• Renovate existing buildings to save energy
• Improve energy management practices (e.g. optimize HVAC systems; programmable thermostats)
• Complete waste audits to understand the amount and type of waste being generated
• Take actions to increase recycling or composting

Fleets

• Purchase fuel-efficient vehicles that are right-sized for your operations
• Train drivers to operate vehicles in an efficient way
• Complete regular maintenance of vehicles
• Carpool, where possible

Procurement

• Purchase environmentally preferable products (e.g. paper with recycled content)
• Select environmentally friendly service providers when available (e.g. couriers with fuel-efficient vehicles)
• Engage employees on the benefits of green procurement
• Green your meetings, events and conferences.