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.
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”
New Mexico State University | GHG Emissions Inventory
Lotus completed the first greenhouse gas emissions analysis for New Mexico State University's (NMSU) main campus in Las Cruces for the 2018-2019 school year. This inventory included several scope 3 emissions sources, including employee commuting, business travel, waste, and wastewater treatment. The 2019 fiscal year inventory covered all sources of emissions generated on campus, including through the cogeneration systems within the campus facilities. NMSU was also interested in understanding what the campus' emissions were in the 2005 fiscal year. To analyze this, Lotus collected historic data from the university on energy use, campus population, and changes in buildings over the year to estimate emissions back to the 2005 fiscal year. Based on the data, NMSU has significantly reduced its emissions since 2005. The 2019 inventory and 2005 backcast put NMSU on a path of identifying the major sources of emissions and developing programs and policies to help reduce those emissions over the coming years.