45. figure out new paltz’ collective carbon footprint
Using software provided by ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability, map the carbon footprint of the Village, Town, School District and SUNY.
About the Clean Air and Climate Protection (CACP) software:
“CACP 2009 is a new product that replaces the CACP Software, originally released in 2003. CACP 2009 has been updated to support emissions inventorying and climate action planning based on the principles and methods of the Local Government Operations Protocol (LGOP). To learn more about how to use this software, please refer to our FAQs.
CACP 2009 is a one-stop emissions management tool that calculates and tracks emissions and reductions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) and criteria air pollutants (NOx, SOx, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, PM10, PM 2.5) associated with electricity, fuel use, and waste disposal. This tool can help you do the following:
- Create emissions inventories for the community as a whole or for the government’s internal operations.
- Quantify the effect of existing and proposed emissions reduction measures.
- Predict future emissions levels.
- Set reduction targets and track progress towards meeting those goals.”
More links about ICLEI:
100 Ideas for New Paltz 
New Paltz GreenWorks attempted to do this but the ICLEI system required a level of expertise and amount of time not reasonable for a volunteer committee. Since abandoning ICLEI (I don’t think the village is paying ICLEI dues anymore) we have been in search of an easier way to map and quantify our carbon footprint. If anyone has knowledge of software or programs that can help us out, please email newpaltzgreenworks@townofnewpaltz.org.
I spoke with Ecology Action sometime ago, they have developed an approach that uses results from completed ghg inventories to estimate emissions for a community. According to them, it’s pretty close to what you might get with a comprehensive emissions inventory. I tried to find a link to this directly, but could not. Try contacting them – http://www.ecoact.org/index.htm
Climate Smart Communities grant program will have this (at some point) for NP!