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CAO study finds city's supply-chain emissions dwarf council-controlled operations; recommends green procurement steps
Summary
The City Administrative Officer's climate impact team told the Energy & Environment Committee that a spend-based analysis found about 1.7 million metric tons of supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions linked to city purchases; the report recommended supplier-specific analysis and procurement actions. The committee noted and filed the study.
Don Tran of the Office of the City Administrative Officer's climate impact team presented a supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions study to the Energy & Environment Committee on May 19, 2026, reporting a headline estimate of about 1,700,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases associated with city purchases and recommending procurement-focused actions.
Tran said the climate impact team used publicly available LA Checkbook spending records, sorted purchases by NAICS industry codes and applied the EPA's environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO) model to estimate emissions intensity per dollar. "We identified 1,700,000 metric tons of emissions associated with our supply chain," Tran told the committee, and he said that total is nearly twice the emissions associated with council-controlled departmental operations and roughly half of in-basin power generation, as presented to the committee.
The CAO team emphasized that the analysis is a spend-based, high-level screening tool and that results are sensitive to price changes and classification inconsistencies in the Checkbook data; Tran said the team plans to pursue supplier-specific analysis to refine the estimates and to inform targeted policies such as green procurement, vendor take-back policies and the use of environmental product declarations.
Council members asked whether the study will feed into the climate action and adaptation plan (Tran said yes) and whether the market can supply low-carbon materials; Tran pointed to existing state-level Buy Clean California rules and said availability varies by material and sector. Members also pressed the CAO on data consistency in LA Checkbook descriptions; Tran acknowledged labeling inconsistencies across years and said the team manually reconciled many items for the analysis.
The committee moved, seconded and recorded a vote to note and file the CAO study. The clerk recorded the item as noted and filed; recorded yes votes included Chair Nazarian and two other members (a recorded "yes" from the speaker who answered as "Yes" during roll calls and Padilla); Grama was listed as absent. The CAO team said next steps include supplier-specific analysis and coordination with CAP development.
(Report read and discussed at the Energy & Environment Committee meeting May 19, 2026; action: noted and filed.)
