City of St. Albert Greenhouse Gas Emissions Local Action Plan (LAP)

The City of St. Albert will develop a Local Action Plan for the reduction of community and corporate GHG emissions. In January 2010, St. Albert became the 200th member of the Partners for Climate Protection Program (PCP). The new plan will help the city to achieve its targets to reduce corporate emissions by 20 per cent and community emissions by six per cent by 2020 from 2008 levels. The city's environmental framework and pursuit for environmental excellence support its efforts to resist climate change and encourage individual actions through shared responsibility among homeowners, vehicle owners, businesses and the corporation. The city completed its GHG inventory for Milestone 1 and identified its reduction targets Milestone 2 in 2011. Through the efforts of a multidisciplinary, cross-departmental team, St. Albert will review existing plans, strategies and other relevant documents; and conduct stakeholder workshops as well as public consultations. These activities will guide the development of a Local Action Plan that includes implementation and monitoring measures. The city will build on the GHG inventory by analyzing the identified sources of community and corporate emissions to set appropriate initiatives. The plan will also examine interactions between emissions sources; expand the monitoring recommendations from the inventory; and incorporate reporting and measurement of GHG emissions reductions to determine impacts. St. Albert will involve different levels of government, institutions, organizations and citizens in developing its Local Action Plan. It will also use social media to engage and inform the public, which will offer lessons on communications planning for other communities. (Project description from original funding application)