Salem is not immune to the impacts of climate change. Everything from the Willamette Valley produce on our table to the North Santiam River water flowing from our taps is susceptible to climate change. Recognizing this, the 2017
Salem Strategic Plan identified a community greenhouse gas inventory as a way to measure the community’s impact on the environment.
Acknowledging the different ways that we add to this global issue, the City has collected
information about greenhouse gas emissions in two different ways.
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Sector-based inventory: Emissions produced in Salem from areas, such as transportation, and residential, commercial, and industrial building and energy sources, including electricity produced elsewhere but used in the city.
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Consumption-based inventory: Emissions produced around the world due to Salem residents’ consumption of goods and services, including emissions associated with the production, transportation, supply chain, use, and disposal of those products.
The sector-based and consumption-based inventories are not additive, as there are areas of overlap. Instead, they are both pieces of the greenhouse gas emission picture. Emissions from Salem’s consumption-based inventory cannot be directly added to the sector-based inventory because some consumption occurs within the Salem city limits and therefore these emissions would be double-counted.
Data for both methods were gathered for the 2016 calendar year from federal, state, and local sources, including utilities.