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Climate action manager: city down roughly 10% from 2019; buildings and transportation remain priorities
Summary
Climate action manager Bettina Miguez told the council the city is about 10% below 2019 emissions as of 2023, outlined sector priorities (building electrification, reduced vehicle miles traveled, municipal efficiency) and recommended stronger tracking and targeted implementation steps including Bartlett Bay projects and an implementation plan for buildings and thermal emissions.
Bettina Miguez, South Burlington's climate action manager, presented an annual report to the council detailing progress since the city adopted its Climate Action Plan in October 2022. She said the plan sets a citywide reduction goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2030 from 2019 levels and reported that, "as of 2023, the reduction was about 10% from 2019 levels." The presentation emphasized the need for improved, quantitative metrics and ongoing monitoring before firm targets can be refined.
Miguez walked the council through sector-level priorities: electrification and weatherization of existing residences and businesses, reduced vehicle miles traveled and vehicle electrification, and municipal-efficiency measures. On buildings she said electrification and weatherization are high-impact strategies but face workforce and permitting bottlenecks; on transportation she highlighted the active-transportation plan, recent sidewalk and shared-use path miles and the city's public-EV charging plan. On municipal operations she noted a roughly 12% decrease in municipal emissions since 2019 and described near-term municipal projects including additional EV chargers, more municipal EVs, and Bartlett Bay work that includes a large solar array and effluent heat recovery.
Councilors asked detailed questions about data sources and metrics. Miguez said staff will gather more municipality-level data (including from CCRPC, Efficiency Vermont and utility partners) and will prepare a short status report on the implementation plans that already exist. She also flagged an upcoming municipal planning grant and an RFP that will support buildings-and-thermal implementation work; she said that data limitations require staff to build a tracking framework now rather than wait for a perfect model.
"The climate action plan was adopted by the city council in October 2022," Miguez reminded the council, and she asked members to funnel resident concerns and practical questions to her office as staff refine the workplan and metrics.
Next steps include: developing an implementation plan for buildings and thermal measures, continuing the multiunit EV-charging analysis, gathering renewable-generation data from the regional planning commission, and producing short status reports showing progress and costs saved through municipal investments.
