Details:
The City of Roeland Park has recently approved the purchase of Dynamhex to measure and track the City's greenhouse gas emissions. That assessment determined that in 2019 city-wide, Roeland Park's emissions are 55,117 metric tons of greenhouse gasses from the following sources:
- 54% Residential Buildings
- 23% Transportation
- 22% Commercial Buildings
- 2% Industrial Facilities
To comply with the Paris Climate Agreement recommendations, we would reduce our total emissions by 28% by 2025. Half of the emissions come from the consumption of electricity. One key method to reduce our footprint is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel combustion which can be achieved in part by the implementation of more renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. The City of Roeland Park is taking steps to assess the opportunity to employ solar energy production at City Hall, the Aquatic Center and Community Center, which will help to reduce emissions from City-owned facilities as well as save energy costs. Evergy estimates that over the life of the solar panels, 10,000 tons of carbon emissions could be eliminated from our footprint. Approximately 13% of our reduction could come from the solar panel installation project the City is already planning. In addition, as Evergy's electric grid gets cleaner with more renewables, this will have a positive impact on Roeland Park's carbon footprint.
We will also extend the use of the Dynamehex tool to our residents so they can review their personal footprint and get recommendations on how they too can contribute to the reduction of emissions in Roeland Park. Some additional recommendations can be found in the attached info sheet. Also attached is a presentation with further ideas on how to reduce carbon emissions in Roeland Park for the City and the community as a whole.