Milwaukee County reports 48% operational emissions reduction, unveils plan for public dashboard

Grant Helley, director of Milwaukee County's Office of Sustainability, told the advisory board July 6 that Milwaukee County reported a 48% reduction in operational greenhouse-gas emissions for 2024 compared with the county's 2005 baseline. "That puts Milwaukee County within 2 percentage points of our 2030 target, which is a 50% reduction," Helley said. He gave figures of roughly 209,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent in 2005 and about 108,000 metric tons in the 2024 report, which Helley said marks the county's lowest operational emissions on record.

Helley said the county is developing a locally hosted Climate Action 2050 public dashboard using Power BI that will publish emissions-reduction progress, implementation status on specific strategies and co-benefits. He said the county is finalizing KPIs, visuals and accessibility work before launch and is coordinating with departmental leadership and the sustainability task force to determine the dashboard's contents and data flows.