posted on: 2/8/2019

The City of Dover’s Planning and Community Development Department announces the publication of its first greenhouse gas and nitrogen inventory for municipal and school operations. It is believed to be the first report in North America completing an analysis of both reactive nitrogen impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. The report is a result of a University of New Hampshire Sustainability Fellowship undertaken by UNH doctoral student Jackson Kaspari and hosted by the City of Dover.

Conducting a greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen inventory serves a number of purposes, primarily by allowing a municipality to develop a baseline analysis to which future emissions and costs may be compared. Dover’s report also provides a picture of how various city operations, facilities, and policies contribute individually to the gases and reactive nitrogen released into the atmosphere and surface waters. Identifying individual impacts then enables city leaders to target specific reductions to the overall municipal impact, such as retrofitting a facility with LED lighting, or transitioning vehicles in the fleet from diesel to gasoline, or from gasoline to electric.

In addition to aiding goal setting around existing structures and practices, the inventory provides theoretical reduction scenarios estimating the impact of possible actions such as installing solar arrays at city-owned properties like the closed Tolend Road landfill. The analysis also illustrated the significant impacts of a recent project, the retrofit of 1,781 streetlights with LED fixtures and smart controls, which resulted in a reduction in GHG emissions and cost savings that will quickly pay for the cost of the retrofit.