Lawrence advisory board narrows work plan, votes to prioritize greenhouse-gas KPI

The Lawrence Sustainability Advisory Board voted to focus its near-term work on a community greenhouse-gas (GHG) metric after reviewing three proposed key performance indicators (KPIs) for the board’s 2025–26 work plan.

The board chose the citywide GHG KPI — per-capita greenhouse-gas emissions measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalents — as the priority to develop policy recommendations and potential ordinance language. Board members discussed two other KPIs: pounds per person per day of municipal solid waste disposed and the percent of city electricity consumption met by on-site renewable generation for city facilities.

Board staff member Kathy Richardson, the city’s sustainability director, said the solid-waste KPI had been reworded to be more relatable to residents: “pounds per person per day of municipal solid waste, waste disposed.” Richardson provided a 2024 baseline of 3.12 pounds per person per day for Lawrence and said staff had tentatively set a target of about 3.0 pounds per person per day. She told the board that the city selected consultant Burns & McDonnell to lead a solid-waste master-plan effort and that the consultant-led process is an 18-month data-gathering and recommendations project.

Richardson summarized the GHG KPI background and data sources: the city’s membership in ICLEI supplies software and technical assistance for greenhouse-gas inventories; the board was using a verified 2012 published inventory as a baseline (14.16 tons of CO2e per capita in that inventory) while a 2017 inventory is still under verification with ICLEI. She said the GHG metric is broad and will require the board to narrow scope and identify the top interventions that would have measurable impact.

On the city-facilities KPI, Richardson explained why the board’s reported renewable-energy numbers differ: Lawrence has a purchased-power agreement that offsets much of the city’s electricity use with wind credits, but on-site renewable generation across city facilities accounts for about 1% of the city’s electricity consumption in 2024. “We’ve been reporting about every year that we’ve covered our electricity use with these credits. It is considered an offset. We don't ... we're not powered by 24/7 renewable energy,” Richardson said. Board members discussed how that metric can disincentivize energy-efficiency measures if the percentage is met by purchasing offsets rather than reducing consumption or adding on-site renewables.

After discussion about timing and where the board could add the most value, a motion to focus the board’s near-term work on the greenhouse-gas KPI carried in board votes. Board members who spoke during the motion exchange emphasized that the solid-waste KPI should be revisited after Burns & McDonnell’s 18-month work and that facility-level renewables remain an important but separate priority.

The board discussed next steps for its work plan: staff will circulate materials and past proposals (including earlier rental-property energy-efficiency proposals that board members said could be resurrected) and the board will make greenhouse-gas policy brainstorming the major agenda item at an upcoming meeting. Richardson said staff and project engineers will continue to develop scenarios and policy options (including possible updates to ordinance 97-44) for board review.

Why it matters: the board’s chosen focus determines where volunteer time and staff support will be invested, and the GHG KPI work could yield policy proposals for the city commission that affect building efficiency, rental housing, and municipal operations.

What’s next: the board directed staff to prepare materials and asked members to review a prior proposal on rental properties ahead of the next meeting, where greenhouse-gas reduction strategies will be the primary agenda item.