Pitkin County, CO | GHG Inventories and Regional Summaries
County and Municipal-level Community-Wide GHG Inventories and Regional Summaries
Lotus developed 2019 and 2020 community GHG emissions inventories for Pitkin County, the City of Aspen, Snowmass Village, the Town of Basalt, and Unincorporated Pitkin County. In 2024, Lotus worked with Pitkin County again to update the County-wide greenhouse gas inventory as well as the Aspen municipal inventory. Lotus worked with CLEER to write summary reports with findings from the updated inventory. Lotus also completed a 2024 municipal GHG emissions inventory for Pitkin County, following the Local Government Operations Protocol. Lotus managed the data collection and workbook creation for the inventory. An inventory management plan detailing methodology was also created for the client. Lotus and Pitkin County are collaborating with ICLEI to pilot ICLEI’s ClearPath 2.0 software to help train the County on the software and to provide process and technical improvement feedback to ICLEI.
City and County of Denver | Refrigerants Impact Study
Refrigerants Impact Study
Lotus conducted detailed policy and emissions impacts analyses to better understand the impacts of increased refrigerant use in residential settings as a result of replacing fossil-based heating and the replacement of existing cooling systems or installation of new cooling systems. Lotus worked with the CASR team to identify potential scenarios of changing fossil fuel and heat pump technology for both existing and future residential buildings. Deliverables included a final model that could be adjusted to account for future changes, documentation of methods and assumptions, and a final report. The project was completed on-time and within budget.
Boulder, Colorado | Open Space & Mountain Parks Department
Greenhouse gas inventories
Lotus worked with the OSMP department to create department-specific greenhouse gas emissions inventories, a business-as-usual GHG model, and a GHG reduction strategy model for 10 top strategies. In addition to the data work, Lotus also created a dashboard and storymap in ArcGIS online to communicate the results of the data work and to highlight the sustainability work that the department is undertaking. A final report was also written to provide more detail on results of the data work and to expand on the top GHG reduction strategies that were recommended to the department.
Trailhead Materials Embodied Carbon and Visitor Behavior Analysis
Lotus worked with the OSMP department to complete a two-phase analysis. The first phase analyzed the embodied carbon of frequently used materials at the department’s trailheads. Lotus also developed a matrix with metrics such as durability, resilience to fires and floods, and other qualities to help the department make well-informed decisions on material choices when doing maintenance and construction at trailheads. The second phase analyzed strategies that are available to help reduce the emissions associated with visitor travel and waste production. A matrix was developed that rates strategies on metrics including cost, greenhouse gas impact, success of implementation, etc. One strategy that OSMP implemented was to install cameras at high traffic trailheads in order to reduce the high amount of vehicular transportation emissions during trailhead commuting and prevent trail deterioration. Trailhead cameras allow the public to view parking space availability at trailheads ahead of time and plan accordingly.
The trailhead cameras are publicly available here.
“Lotus’ work was essential in creating an approach for Climate Ready Trailheads. Their work has helped us to reconsider how we design trailheads, how we get visitors to the trailhead, and how we maintain our trailheads and access points.”
Winter Park, Colorado | GHG Inventories and Climate Action Planning
Town of Winter Park, Colorado
Lotus worked with the Town of Winter Park to complete the first ever greenhouse gas emissions inventories for the town government and the community. In addition to creating these inventories, Lotus developed a business-as-usual emissions model and is modeling several emissions reductions strategies to aid in the Town’s development of its first Climate Action Plan. Due to the small size of the Town, many innovative methods were used to collect and manipulate data to make it relevant to the Town, such as working closely with Winter Park Resort and utilizing Streetlight vehicle miles traveled data.
Lotus also worked with the Town to complete its first ever Climate Action Plan. This will involve the development of a climate risk and vulnerability assessment, additional GHG emissions reduction strategy modeling, cost modeling, and strategy prioritization. Prioritization of the strategies will take into account factors such as cost to implement, GHG emissions impact, funding sources/availability, and equity impacts.
Urban Villages and APARIUM Hotel Group | Populus Hotel GHG Emissions Dashboard
Populus Hotel GHG Emissions Dashboard
Lotus worked with Urban Villages and the APARIUM Hotel Group to create a public greenhouse gas emissions tracking dashboard in Microsoft PowerBI for the Populus Hotel. The dashboard tracks real and predicted greenhouse gas emissions and offset activities from the construction and operations of the hotel over time. The dashboard includes functionality that allows for easy data updates, transparency for specific operations (waste diversion, water, energy, etc.), and tracks whether Populus has achieved their carbon positive goal. Lotus also developed back-end calculations for the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions and documenting methods and assumptions for all calculations in a user guide.
preview of the Populus Hotel GHG Emissions Dashboard
Blaine County, Idaho | County-Wide GHG Inventory
County-Wide GHG Inventory
Lotus worked with Blaine County, Idaho to complete a 2023 county-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory. The inventory includes breakout tabs for the following communities: Hailey, Ketchum, Sun Valley, and Bellevue. The project updated previous inventories for the multiple communities and aligned methods and data sources across each community. The workbook also included a tab with activity and emissions data to be imported into ArcGIS Online allowing for easy creation of an interactive online dashboard to show the results of the inventory.
City and County of Denver | 80 x 50 Climate Action Plan & Annual GHG Inventory
80 x 50 Climate Action Plan & Annual GHG Inventory
The City and County of Denver’s 80x50 Climate Goal: Stakeholder Report establishes a path to reduce community-wide GHG emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. Lotus led the development of Denver’s 80x50 Plan by conducting a review of processes and plans already established by the City; conducting a needs assessment; working with a diverse network of over 80 stakeholders and community experts in the fields of energy and transportation to identify the most relevant and impactful strategies for Denver to pursue; modeling the impacts of stakeholder-identified emissions reduction strategies; and drafting a CAP that will support the City in achieving its goals. Additionally, Lotus completed Denver’s community GHG inventories for calendar years 2018-2022.
City and County of Denver | Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan (Building Electrification)
Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan (Building Electrification)
Lotus led the development of the City and County of Denver’s Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan, a roadmap for beneficial electrification in existing buildings. As part of this process, Lotus convened stakeholders from across the metro area and the State to understand the impacts of electrification on the workforce, disproportionately impacted communities, building owners of all sizes, homeowners, equipment manufacturers, and other stakeholders.
Lotus managed a variety of engagement activities ranging from surveys and one-on-one interviews, to large focus groups and workshops. In addition to the public input that helped to shape the plan, Lotus worked with subcontractors to complete a building stock and technology transition analysis and a grid and cost impact analysis. The final plan includes not only details on the technical components of electrification, but also the various levers (i.e., policy, financial, incentive, programmatic, and communications) that can be triggered to support full electrification of Denver’s applicable building stock over the coming decades.
Lotus has been lucky enough to consistently work with the City and County of Denver since 2016. Other work Lotus has completed for the City and County of Denver includes:
-Completed GPC-compliant GHG emissions inventories every year since 2017, CDP Reporting, and developed Denver’s first municipal operations inventory (2020).
-Completed a life-cycle GHG analysis for waste.
-Completed an embodied carbon analysis for buildings. (see below)
Lotus developed the maps below to use data to inform Denver’s Electrification plan. The maps showed inequities and helped identify vulnerable populations.
“Lotus partnered with Denver to create our Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan. The plan was practical and achievable yet pushed the boundary of what is possible. They excelled at project management, keeping the project partners on task. They led fun, engaging discussions with a variety of stakeholders whose insight helped shape the plan. Once all the quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed, they synthesized the findings into a plan that could be understood by the public, and not just limited to those with an electrification background. We are thrilled with their work and would recommend them for future projects!”
“Lotus has been an exceptional partner in the development of a key technical roadmap that will lead to strong policy implementation. They are helping us address all the challenges and opportunities regarding building electrification in existing buildings.”
Adams 12 Five Star Schools | GHG Inventory And Related Work
GHG Inventory And Related Work
Lotus developed the first GHG emissions inventory for Adams 12 Five Star Schools for activities in 2017, which included a measurement of emissions generated from energy use, fleet activities, industrial product use (i.e., refrigerants), waste, wastewater treatment, and consumption-based sources (i.e., paper, food, and fertilizer). Lotus developed the tool to align with the Sustainability Indicator Management and Analysis Platform (SIMAP) so that the district could compare its emissions with other school districts using SIMAP. Along with the GHG inventory, Lotus provided a summary report and an Inventory Management Plan (IMP) so that Adams 12 staff could complete this work in-house in future years. Following the completion of the GHG inventory, Lotus assisted Adams 12 in auditing the district's 2018 inventory (completed in-house with the guidance set forth in the IMP) and also created a modeling tool to measure the impact of the district's sustainability goals on GHG emissions.
Albuquerque | Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Data Consultant
Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Data Consultant
Lotus is working with the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico to complete several data-related projects to support the City’s Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) as a part of Albuquerque’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG). Data related work for this CCAP includes the creation of a four county-wide community greenhouse gas and co-pollutant emissions inventory, a business as usual model, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions forecasting for all measures included in the City’s CCAP. Lotus will also support Albuquerque in developing several other deliverables necessary for the CCAP, including a workforce analysis and a cost analysis for the measures included in the CCAP.
Lafayette, Colorado | GHG Inventory
2019 GHG Inventory and infographic
Lotus developed Lafayette’s 2019 community GHG inventory, wrote a final report, and created an infographic to communicate the results of the inventory and highlight progress toward the City’s climate goals. Lotus also created an Inventory Management Plan (IMP) to document all data sources and methodology used in the inventory.
Dubuque, Iowa | GHG Inventory and BAU Project
GHG Inventory and BAU Project
Lotus worked with the City of Dubuque to estimate the city’s 2022 community-wide greenhouse gas emissions. The city was looking for a consultant to verify their inventory and methodology as it had been done previously by student volunteers at the University of Northern Iowa. Lotus compared previous inventories to the standard GPC protocol and was able to suggest new emissions sources that can be included in the inventory and also wrote an inventory management plan so city staff can update the inventory workbook in the future. Lotus also updated the City’s business-as-usual model with the latest emissions and projections. The project was capped off with a presentation to the Dubuque City Council and a final report.
City of Bozeman | GHG Inventory, Infographic, and Report
GHG Inventory, Infographic, and Report
Lotus developed Bozeman’s 2020 community GHG inventory and developed an inventory management plan for the City’s new Sustainability Associate. Lotus also presented the results of the inventory in person to the City’s Sustainability Board and trained the Bozeman team on how to update the inventory workbook in future years. Additionally, Lotus created a final report that described the results of the inventory, trends between the baseline year (2008) and the 2020 inventory, and results from an analysis of the average annual carbon sequestration of the city’s lands using the LEARN tool from ICLEI. Lotus also developed an infographic for the City to use when communicating the results of the inventory with residents and important stakeholders.
Park City, Utah | Community GHG Inventories
Community GHG Inventories
Lotus first worked with Park City in 2017 to create the City’s 2016 community-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Lotus later worked with the City again in 2022 to develop follow up inventories for calendar years 2020 and 2021. The Global Protocol for Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC) was utilized to complete all inventories.
Mission, Kansas | Community-Wide and Municipal GHG Emissions Inventories; Climate Action Task Force Facilitation
Community-Wide and Municipal GHG Emissions Inventories; Climate Action Task Force Facilitation
Lotus worked with the City of Mission, Kansas to complete the City’s 2022 community-wide and municipal operations greenhouse gas emissions inventories. Additionally, Lotus was tasked with creating inventory management plans for each inventory for the City to use in updating the inventories in future years. Lotus summarized the results of both inventories in a final report and developed a Storymap to communicate the results of the inventories to the wider community. Lotus also presented the results to the City Council and helped facilitate a community meeting aimed at gathering input from community members about sustainability efforts in the City and greater Kansas City region.
Additionally, Mission contracted with Lotus to help assist the newly hired City Administrator with updates to the greenhouse gas emissions inventories as well as to facilitate the City’s Climate Action Plan Task Force. The Task Force is charged with helping City officials to prioritize and implement actions within the City’s climate action plan. Lotus facilitated 4 meetings with the Task Force and assisted the Task Force in developing a Prioritization Matrix for the City’s climate action strategies.
Alpine Bank | Annual Sustainability Audit
Annual sustainability audit
Lotus has been collaborating with Alpine Bank since 2014 to help maintain and update Alpine Bank’s Utility Tracking Database on an annual basis, calculate emissions from facilities, and normalize energy use for the weather.
Lotus performs a quality check on Alpine Bank’s energy and water use tracking spreadsheet. The tracking spreadsheet has records of monthly electricity, natural gas, and water usage at all of Alpine Bank’s locations across the state of Colorado. Once a quality check is completed, Lotus reviews the results and errors found with the project team at Alpine Bank. Finally, Lotus writes a section reviewing the emissions and activity data trends across the organization to be included in the annual report.
“Hillary was tasked with creating a new Excel-based tool that empowered Alpine Bank’s energy managers to normalize energy data for weather from 2006 moving forward. The tool, which was designed to complement our internal energy tracking spreadsheet system, not only enables us to better understand our energy usage across our 38 locations but also helps us meet ISO 14001 goals, the results of which are published in our annual Environment Report. We continue to rely on Hillary as a key technical resource for various Alpine Bank sustainability initiatives. We highly recommend Lotus’s services for comparable projects.”
Alterra Mountain Company | GHG Inventory and Sustainability Strategies
GHG Inventory and Sustainability Strategies
Lotus developed greenhouse gas inventories for the 16 resorts owned by Alterra, Canadian Mountain Holidays, Alpine Aerotech, and Alterra’s Denver headquarters. Included in this was a detailed analysis of the emissions impact of visitor travel to the resorts. Lotus partnered with McKinstry to develop specific climate action strategies and an interactive Storymap detailing the results and recommendations. Lotus is currently updating the induced travel analysis for the latest fiscal year.
“Alterra Mountain Company is one company of many unique brands, and Lotus embraced the challenge of working effectively within our organizational structure. For each destination in the Alterra portfolio, the Lotus Team developed custom greenhouse gas inventories and inventory management plans using diverse data inputs. They synthesized complex data sets into manageable workflows that could be easily explained and replicated year over year. Guided by the incredible body of work from Lotus, we have been able to prioritize data-based actions that maintain the unique character of each destination and community, advance climate action policy, and aggressively reduce emissions. We are incredibly grateful to work with the Lotus Team and highly recommend them to other clients, especially those with complex operations.”
City of Louisville | Commercial Energy Code Review
The City of Louisville contracted with Lotus and Group14 Engineering to explore updates to the City’s current commercial energy code that would help the City reach its energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction goals. The City and consultant team examined commercial energy code policy options including higher efficiency requirements, all-electric requirements, and net zero requirements. The scope of work included:
Energy modeling of current code-compliant heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in commercial and industrial building types to evaluate upfront cost, operational cost, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The energy modeling also included an analysis of the total solar PV required to make code-compliant buildings (both mixed-fuel and all-electric) net zero. Finally, energy modeling was conducted to analyze the upfront cost, operational cost, and GHG emissions savings of buildings built to a higher efficiency performance standard.
Research on existing commercial energy code policies from around the country.
A public engagement process that solicited feedback on commercial code policy options via two City board meetings, two open-house style community meetings, and an online public engagement survey.
Final report summarizing the policy recommendations from the consultant team and staff for the City of Louisville’s commercial code update.
Lotus facilitated the public engagement process, developed the final policy recommendation report, and presented the final policy recommendation to City Council for adoption. We are well-versed in the analysis of various commercial code options that will allow a community to move easily to a net zero code standard.
City of Commerce City | Sustainability Action Plan
Lotus led the development of sustainability and community health recommendations that are woven into the first Sustainability Action Plan for Commerce City, Colorado. An environmental justice priority community, the City wished to ensure that recommendations were derived from community input and informed by data. Lotus facilitated a citizen-led Environmental Policy Advisory Committee to develop recommendations that will result in a healthier, more sustainable community. Additional community outreach occurred in the form of community meetings, civic engagement training, a community survey, and workshops with City staff and business and industry leaders. As part of the process, Lotus also completed the City’s first GHG inventory and business-as-usual forecast, modeling the GHG impact of strategies, identified the cost impacts of strategies and funding resources, and met with City staff to develop internal sustainability recommendations. Subcontractors on the project analyzed and made recommendations specific to air and water quality issues in Commerce City, which were woven into the full recommendations report.
In addition to completing the City’s first community-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory as a part of the Sustainability Action Plan development, Lotus developed the City’s first municipal operations greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Lotus utilized the Local Government Operations Protocol to complete the inventory. The development of this inventory will help the City government create and monitor sustainability actions outlined in the Sustainability Action Plan. Lotus continued supporting the Commerce City Department of Energy, Equity and the Environment with facilitation of the Environmental Policy Advisory Committee and designing program collateral for one year after the plan was finalized.
“Commerce City unanimously passed a Sustainability Action Plan which was the culmination of input from multiple community and business meetings. Lotus was instrumental in facilitating the process as well as preparing technical documents such as an Air Modeling Threshold Report; Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Stormwater Management Plan. The Sustainability Action Plan was translated into Spanish for increased stakeholder engagement. Lotus has provided outstanding service””
City of Las Cruces | GHG Inventories & Climate Action Plan
Lotus completed the City of Las Cruces’ 2018 GHG inventory and supported the development of GHG strategies to reduce emissions to 80 percent of 2018 levels by 2050. This work included the development of both a community and municipal inventory, in-person and remote stakeholder facilitation for two workshops to select GHG reduction strategies with a focus on equity and resilience, high-level modeling of strategy impacts, and drafting the final plan.
The inventory and strategies will help the City to understand its carbon footprint, identify and implement ways to reduce its carbon footprint, gain community buy-in, and inform future policy and programs.
In 2024, Las Cruces contracted with Lotus to update the City’s business-as-usual GHG emissions model as well as to complete calendar year 2023 greenhouse emissions inventories for the community and local government operations.
In addition to these updates, Lotus created several charts to help Las Cruces check in on their progress towards the emissions reduction goals outlined in their Climate Action Plan. These charts compared the business-as-usual emissions projection, current emissions trajectory, and emissions reduction goal for each sector. Lotus also created charts that highlighted standout trends in the inventory data; these charts helped communicate notable data trends to the public.
“The Council was so impressed with Lotus’ work - the report, the strength of the data, and the equity-centered approach. I will be putting forward the 9 strategies, targets, and co-benefits to adopt as a resolution. The actions in the CAP will be used as a foundation for deeper dives so I can get even more community involvement”