Welcome

In 2016, Bend City Council set a goal to reduce community fossil fuel use by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050. Over the last year, the City of Bend and the Climate Action Steering Committee (a volunteer committee made up of Bend residents) have been developing Bend’s Community Climate Action Plan.

The Bend Community Climate Action Plan is a set of strategies that will guide the City and community as we work together to reduce our fossil fuel usage. The City and the Climate Action Steering Committee have developed the plan through extensive participation with the Bend community. The strategies consist of new programs, policies, and systems that the community proposed and vetted. They are meant to encourage and support residents, businesses, and other agencies to reduce the community’s fossil fuel use.

Public comment has closed

Public comment on this online open house closed on 7/31/2019. It was used to gather a final round of feedback on the proposed strategies for the Community Climate Action Plan. You can continue to browse the online open house to learn more about how we developed the plan, the proposed strategies and specific climate actions. You can also review the vision, goals, and proposed strategies for the Plan.

Vision and Goals

The vision for the Community Climate Action Plan is to have neighbors, businesses, and community leaders work together to preserve our natural environment while promoting economic opportunity and resilience for current and future generations.

Goals:

Develop and implement a plan that serves as a road map to a sustainable future for our community.
Harness the resources and talents within Bend’s community to take practical action across a wide range of sectors and activities.
Achieve a 40% decrease in fossil fuel use emissions by 2030 and a 70% decrease by 2050 (from a baseline year of 2016).
Accomplish a set of goals for each sector discussed in the plan.

The plan calls on the community of Bend to lead on climate action through the following principles:

Reflect Local Values. Develop a plan that fits the unique challenges, opportunities and priorities of the Bend community.
Smart about Energy. Reduce our fossil fuel use by promoting efficient and renewable energy consumption. Ensure energy supply reliability and affordability while protecting the natural environment.
Practical, Achievable, Flexible. Create pathways to achieving measurable goals that allow the community to adapt to Bend’s needs, capacities, and opportunities over time.
Act Inclusively and Respectfully. Consider diverse perspectives and ensure that all viewpoints are considered. Prioritize climate actions that will benefit individuals who have been historically underserved and will be most impacted by climate change.
Promote Economic Well-being. Ensure climate actions are well-researched and can have positive outcomes. Build economic resources and resiliency for generations to come.
Create Alliances. Collaborate as a community to build partnerships and find common ground as we develop and implement the Climate Action Plan.
Focus on the Triple Bottom Line. Consider the economic, equity, and environmental impacts of all our decisions.
Keep Eyes on the Horizon. Explore new technologies and approaches. Recognize the long-term nature of some climate actions. Commit to regular evaluation, refinement and collaboration to ensure lasting success.

Three children water plants in a garden.

The goals of Bend’s Community Climate Action Plan are based around reducing our fossil fuel use. We will track our progress towards these goals by measuring the amount of greenhouse gas emissions we reduce by taking the actions described in the plan.

What are greenhouse gas emissions?

What are fossil fuels?

What We’ve Done

Project Timeline

Summer 2018

The Climate Action Steering Committee developed a vision for the Community Climate Action Plan and created objectives for different sectors.

Fall 2018

The Committee hosted working group meetings with stakeholders (both community members and experts) to brainstorm potential climate actions for further consideration. These actions describe ways citizens, businesses, and institutions in Bend can reduce their fossil fuel use.

Winter 2019

Members of the general community shared their feedback on the working groups’ proposed action ideas through an online survey.

Spring 2019

The Committee and the City worked with partners and technical experts to identify and quantify the impact of 15 specific strategies and actions to include in the plan.

Today

In this survey, we are collecting a final round of feedback from the community on the 15 strategies as we complete the plan.

We are also soliciting your ideas for additional climate action strategies that we should consider as we develop the final plan. These additional strategies are needed in order to reach the City’s climate action goals.

Next Steps

After reviewing the public feedback, the Climate Action Steering Committee will finalize the proposed strategies in the plan. The Committee will also select 5 additional strategies to add to the plan, which are needed to meet the Community’s climate action goals.

In August and September, the City and the Committee will work with technical experts to finalize the plan. Then, in Fall 2019 (expected in November), Bend’s City Council will review and act on the plan.

The Climate Action Steering Committee meets monthly and the meetings are open to the public. All meetings provide an opportunity for public comment. Visit the Committee’s webpage for meeting times, agendas, and more information.

Four individuals sit around a table conversing while one takes notes on a large piece of paper. — Climate Action Steering Committee at work brainstorming climate actions.

What We’ve Heard

While developing the Community Climate Action Plan, the City and the Climate Action Steering Committee worked to gain feedback from the larger Bend community through a public survey.

In this survey we heard that the Bend community:

Supports investments that would yield long-term benefits, such as investments in public transportation, energy efficiency in buildings, renewable energy facilities and community planning.
Prefers actions that would create incentives or personal cost savings over regulatory actions.
Believes that actions should avoid or mitigate financial burdens to low-income populations.

To learn more about what we heard from the Bend community, see the Survey Results Summary.

A bridge crosses over a river in Bend. — ©2008 Dustin Mitsch / Alpen Exposure

Strategies

The Community Climate Action Plan consists of both climate strategies and climate actions. Strategies are higher-level objectives that the community needs to achieve to reduce its fossil fuel use. Actions are specific policies, programs, or projects that can be implemented to help reach these objectives. The strategies and actions of this plan are divided into four sectors:

Energy Supply: the source of energy used for transportation, buildings, waste and materials.

Energy in Buildings: the energy used in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings.

Waste and Materials: emissions from the production and disposal of materials.

Transportation: emissions from vehicles.

Within each of these sectors, there are several specific strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Click on the sector areas below to learn about:

Why targeting emissions of each of these sectors is important.
The specific strategies suggested for inclusion in the plan within each sector.
The results of our analysis of each strategy, including the strategy’s potential to reduce emissions, who will take the lead on implementing the strategy, and the co-benefits of the strategy.

A power plant and houses in Bend covered in snow.

A road in Bend with coniferous trees and mountains in the background. — ©2008 Dustin Mitsch / Alpen Exposure

Co-benefits

The co-benefits of each strategy are the positive impacts this strategy will create beyond its effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Describing the co-benefits of each strategy helps us realize that investing in greenhouse gas reduction is beneficial not just for the environment but for our health, the economy, and equity.

Members of the Climate Action Steering Committee identified a set of co-benefits that they thought were important to analyze based on Bend’s community values and their vision for the Community Climate Action Plan. They then worked with technical experts to determine the impact of each action on the chosen co-benefits.

The co-benefits analyzed in the plan are:

Community Health and Safety

Economic Vitality

Affordability

Protecting the Natural Environment

Security and Resilience

Social Equity

Energy Supply

Why it matters

Energy supply refers to the sources of the energy we use to power our buildings, fuel our transportation, and produce the materials we use and foods we consume. Different energy sources have different levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Switching from a carbon-intensive source of energy to lower-carbon sources – such as renewable wind and solar energy – will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

The Community Climate Action Plan will help identify ways we can incorporate more renewable energy sources into our community. The table below shows the strategies that the Climate Action Steering Committee proposes we implement to address our energy supply.

Results of the analysis

Note: Co-benefits are on a scale of 0-10 in increments of 2.5 (i.e., 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10) where 10 is the highest contribution to the co-benefit and 0 is the lowest.

energy supply analysis table - view long description for accessible table — Click to enlarge

Energy in Buildings

Why it matters

The energy we use in our buildings makes up 67% of Bend’s fossil fuel use, making it the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the city. This includes the energy used in our homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities. Almost everything we do and use in buildings consumes energy – from our lights, heating and cooling systems, to our appliances and electronics. In Bend, we primarily use natural gas and electricity as the energy sources for our buildings. Electricity represents 58% of the greenhouse gas emissions in this sector, while natural gas represents 40%. The remaining 2% comes from other fuels like propane.

We can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in this sector by switching to renewable energy like wind and solar and improving our buildings so they use less energy to meet our needs.

There are many ways we can encourage residents, business owners, property managers, builders, and homeowners to make and use buildings more efficiently. The table below shows the strategies the Climate Action Steering Committee proposes to increase energy efficiency.

Results of the analysis

Note: Co-benefits are on a scale of 0-10 in increments of 2.5 (i.e., 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10) where 10 is the highest contribution to the co-benefit and 0 is the lowest.

Waste and Materials

Why it matters

The stuff we use in our daily lives in Bend has a huge effect on the environment and generates large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. This “stuff” includes the food we eat, clothes we wear, electronics we use, furniture we own and materials we use to build our houses – almost everything!

Most of what we use eventually ends up in the landfill, where it creates additional greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from the landfill make up 5% of the total greenhouse gases emitted in the Bend community. If you add up the total emissions of the manufacturing and shipping, then emissions from waste and materials is equal to emissions from all other sectors combined.

The Community Climate Action Plan can help identify ways we can reduce the impact of our waste and materials by encouraging people to purchase and use things that create less greenhouse gas emissions and dispose of these things responsibly. The table below shows the strategies the Climate Action Steering Committee proposes that will address the impact of our materials.

Results of the analysis

Note: Co-benefits are on a scale of 0-10 in increments of 2.5 (i.e., 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10) where 10 is the highest contribution to the co-benefit and 0 is the lowest.

waste and materials analysis table - view long description for accessible table — Click to enlarge

Transportation

Why it matters

Transportation emissions make up 33% of greenhouse gas emissions in Bend. These emissions come from the tailpipes of passenger vehicles, commercial service vehicles, freight vehicles, and transit vehicles and include both Bend residents and visitors.

A pie chart showing what percentage of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sectors come from different vehicles. Passenger vehicles release the greatest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions (60%) followed by residential air travel (19%), off road equipment (9%), commercial service (6%), Heavy-Duty Freight (5%), Bend Airport (2%), Transit (less than 1%), rail freight (less than 1%) — Figure 1: This chart shows the breakdown of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector by type of vehicle.
Click to enlarge

Transportation emissions are increasing as the Bend community continues to grow.

The Community Climate Action Plan can help us figure out how to make transportation choices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions more feasible for people in Bend. The table below shows the strategies the Climate Action Steering Committee proposes to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.

Results of the analysis

Note: Co-benefits are on a scale of 0-10 in increments of 2.5 (i.e., 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10) where 10 is the highest contribution to the co-benefit and 0 is the lowest.

Welcome

Public comment has closed

Vision and Goals

Goals:

The plan calls on the community of Bend to lead on climate action through the following principles:

What We’ve Done

Next Steps

What We’ve Heard

Strategies

Co-benefits

The co-benefits analyzed in the plan are:

Why it matters

Results of the analysis

Why it matters

Results of the analysis

Why it matters

Results of the analysis

Why it matters

Results of the analysis

Thank you!

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