The American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy (ACEEE) released its second edition of the City Energy Efficiency Scorecard today.
The Scorecard ranks cities based on progress w/ policies & programs that save energy while benefiting the environment and promoting economic development. Progress is tracked in 5 areas: local government operations, community-wide initiatives, buildings, energy and water utilities and transportation.
Last edition, Jacksonville ranked last out of 31 major cities. This year Jacksonville ranked 40 out of 51 major cities (see image below).
A summary .pdf of Jacksonville's performance is located here: http://aceee.org/sites/default/files/pdf/score-sheet/jacksonville.pdf (http://aceee.org/sites/default/files/pdf/score-sheet/jacksonville.pdf). It lists 2030 Mobility Plan as among the City's best practices, while citing lack of government operations and community wide goals and insufficient investment in electric and natural gas utility programs as areas for improvement.
The full report is located here: http://aceee.org/research-report/u1502 (http://aceee.org/research-report/u1502)
(http://aceee.org/sites/default/files/image/2015-city-scorecard-map-lgweb-01.png)
Excerpts from the ACEEE press release:
Biennial Energy Efficiency Scorecard Ranks 51 Large US Cities; Balance of Top 10 US Cities: Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Austin, and Denver; Los Angeles One of the Most Improved Cities
Washington, DC—Mayors and local lawmakers in America's largest cities continue to take innovative steps to lower energy costs for consumers and businesses, increase their resilience, and reduce pollution through increased energy efficiency, according to the 2nd edition of the City Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
Available online at http://aceee.org/local-policy/city-scorecard, the ACEEE report finds that Boston continues to be the most energy-efficient city in the nation, receiving 82 out of a possible 100 points, an improvement of more than five points from that city's 2013 score. Trailing Boston, the top 10 US cities for energy efficiency are: New York City (#2), Washington, DC (#3), San Francisco (#4), Seattle (#5), Chicago (#6), Minneapolis (#7), Portland (#8), Austin (#9), and Denver (#10). With 9 of the top 10 cities improving their scores from 2013, Boston faced increased competition for the top spot.
Key findings in the 2015 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard include the following:
· Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle are the most improved cities compared to the 2013 City Scorecard, with many showing double-digit improvements in their scores. Los Angeles, for example, established a strong energy savings goal, and Chicago enacted a new commercial building benchmarking ordinance.
· Other cities have also improved their scores since the last edition, including several in the Southeast United States. Atlanta, the leading city in the Southeast, saw an improvement of 5 points, earning new points for local government operations, buildings policies, energy and water utilities, and transportation policies. Charlotte made a strong showing as well, improving by nearly 8 points. Jacksonville, the lowest scoring city in the 2013 edition, saw a 50 percent increase in its score.
· All of the ranked cities, even the highest scorers, have significant room for improvement. Boston was the only city to earn over 80 points, and only 13 cities earned more than half of the possible points.
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In the five key areas covered by the report, the key findings are:
Government operations . Leaders in efficiency in local government operations are Denver, New York City, and Phoenix, all of which have set policies to increase efficiency in city government, procurement, and asset management.
Community initiatives . The top-scoring cities in community-wide initiatives are New York City and Boston. They both have systems to track progress toward efficiency-related goals for the whole community, and strategies to mitigate urban heat islands. They also have efficient distributed-energy systems, such as district energy and combined heat and power, and policies or programs to plan for future ones.
Buildings . Leading cities in buildings policies include Boston, New York City, and Washington. These cities have adopted or advocated for stringent building energy codes, devoted resources to building code compliance, established requirements and incentives for efficient buildings, and increased the availability of information on energy use in buildings through benchmarking and transparency policies. Residents and business owners can also access programs that take a systemic, building-wide approach to retrofits and upgrades.
Utilities . The leading cities in the energy utilities area are Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, and Chicago. Their energy efficiency programs offer high levels of savings. These cities also have productive relationships with their utilities in program implementation and access to energy data. Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, Fort Worth, and El Paso are the leading cities in tackling efficiency in their water systems.
Transportation . Cities with the top transportation policy scores include Portland, Washington, Boston, and Seattle. Their initiatives include location-efficiency strategies, shifts to efficient modes of transportation, transit investments, efficient vehicles and vehicle infrastructure, and energy-efficient freight transport.[/li][/list]
METHODOLOGY:
ACEEE's 2015 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard documents and compares actions cities can take to enable or improve energy efficiency. The report's metrics are based on policy actions local governments can implement or influence and attempt to reflect the policy activity cities are taking. For the purposes of the Scorecard, ACEEE defines cities as the area within the political borders where a local government has direct policy authority. ACEEE included 51 cities in this edition of the Scorecard, up 17 from the 2013 edition of the report.
The report's metrics measure policies and programs that achieve one or more of the following: directly reduce end-use energy consumption; accelerate the adoption of the most energy-efficient technologies; provide funding for energy efficiency programs; set long-term commitments to energy efficiency; establish or enforce building performance codes or standards; reduce market, regulatory, and information barriers to energy efficiency. All policy metrics analyzed are related to one of five policy areas identified above.
ABOUT ACEEE:
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit http://aceee.org.