• iMatter City Climate Report Card

  • With this simple, science-based report card, you can hold your community accountable to truly protecting your future.

    Earning a top grade requires that political leaders in your city have real, measurable plans and take meaningful actions to get off of fossil fuels before it’s too late. And, if your city is falling short, the Report Card provides tangible actions you and your community can take to help end the climate crisis.

    It may take some time to gather the information needed to complete the report card, so we’ve made it easy for you to save your progress and come back later. 

    If you gave us your correct contact information you will have received an email with a link to the report card you’re starting now (you should have it now - check your spam folder if you do not).

    Your responses will be saved when you press "Back" or "Next" on a page. Until you submit the report card on the final page, the link you received can be used to come back to a partially finished report card.

    We encourage you to begin collecting this information by having a conversation with someone in your city government (Click the help bar immediately below - for more info). 

    • HERE'S HOW TO WORK WITH YOUR CITY GOVERNMENT  
    • You may have already done this from the first page of the Report Card form.

      If you have not, then building strong relationships with an official or officials in your city government can help you get the information you need to complete the Climate Report Card, and help create allies within the city before you present your findings.

      We suggest you start by working with someone in your city government to complete this questionnaire. The questionnaire is a PDF. You can download it and print it out, then use it for a meeting with a city official, or attach it to an email and send it to someone you've identified who can help you.

      Download or print the questionnaire

      Start first by searching online to see if your city has an environmental or sustainability department. If they do, you’ll want to meet with someone there. If not, you can call the city manager’s office or the main city line, using this phone script and ask them who to talk to.

      Your phone script could go something like this:

      “Hi, my name is ___________ and I am a leader with iMatter, a youth-led climate organization. As part of a campaign, we’re assessing [CITY]’s actions on issues that impact climate change, and I’m wondering if you can direct me to someone who can help me collect some data around environment and sustainability efforts in [CITY]?”

      Also, there's a lot more help in the Quests of the iMatterNow campaign on connecting with a city official and gathering the necessary data.

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    • Why a Report Card?  
    • With a simple but science-based report card, you can hold your cities accountable for truly protecting your future. And just as you have do well to get good grades in school, the iMatter Climate Report Card requires that a city and its political leaders have real, measurable plans and take meaningful actions.

      The Report Card also gives tangible actions that your cities can take together to improve grades  and address the climate crisis.

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    • Does it have to be done on a city?  
    • The Report Card was designed to evaluate a city or town’s progress and plans in doing their part to end the climate crisis. One of the main grades is related to a Climate Action Plan. As creating a Climate Action Plan can take a good amount of work, you may find that smaller cities participate in a county’s plan instead of creating one of their own. If this is the case, you should use the county plan to respond to the Climate Action Plan section of the report card.

      It also could be possible to use the Report Card at a state level, but some modifications would be necessary.

      If you have questions, please send us an email and ask for help. 

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    • The iMatter Report Card: Background & Sample  
    • Click here for detailed background on the iMatter Report Card (and to see a sample)

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      If you need help as you're filling out this form:

      Send us an email at ReportCard@imatteryouth.org. Include as much information as you can about the issues you're having.

  • 1. Zero Emissions Climate Action Plan

    Climate Action Plans are put in place by city governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from a city and its residents. Rapidly reducing emissions is the most important thing we can do to address the climate crisis, so your city's Climate Action Plan is the most heavily weighted grade in the Report Card.

    We're making zero emissions, or at least net zero emissions the goal. This means completely cutting a city's carbon pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have shown (here's one) that it is doable. Imagine commuting to work or school, heating homes, and doing business – all without polluting the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. 

    By saying “net zero,” it leaves a bit of practical wiggle room for some continued but drastically reduced level of emissions, as long as they’re balanced out by natural factors that remove carbon pollution from the atmosphere (see the Carbon Removal section below). 

    In this section you will first figure out if your city has a plan in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then evaluate the plan's goals and initial progress.

     

    • Is it always called a Climate Action Plan?  
    • Most cities are using the term “Climate Action Plan.” Sometimes you may see it called Climate Change Action Plan. You may also see Climate Recovery Plan, Sustainability Plan, or Climate Recovery Ordinance. If you see ordinance, that’s generally a good thing, because it means your city has enacted a climate plan into law. It’s also possible you could see a plan called an Emissions Reduction Plan.

      (Note: You are looking for a community-wide Climate Action Plan. Some cities also have Climate Action Plans for city operations – just the activities and buildings run by the city, not the community as a whole. Make sure to be aware of this as you search for your city’s community-wide Climate Action Plan.)

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    • What is a Greenhouse Gas Inventory?  
    • A Climate Action Plan typically starts with understanding how much greenhouse gas emissions are created by a community. In order to reduce something, you have to know how much of it you create! Figuring out how much greenhouse gases are created is called a Greenhouse Gas Inventory (you may also see it referred to as a greenhouse gas baseline). As it’s the first step in creating a Climate Action Plan, the Report Card gives some credit for cities that have done a greenhouse gas inventory.

      A greenhouse gas inventory should include at least the activities that directly produce greenhouse gas emissions in the community and the community’s direct consumption of energy.  Here are the activities generally included in a community inventory:

      1. Electricity generated in the community
      2. Electricity used by the community
      3. Transportation fuel used in the community
      4. Natural Gas (and/or other fossil fuels used to heat homes) used by the community

      Sometimes Greenhouse Gas Inventories and Climate Action Plans also include information about emissions caused in other places from the goods and services used in a city. By purchasing goods and services, a community’s citizens contribute to emissions around the world, in the places where those goods or services are produced. If your city is addressing these emissions, they’ll get “extra credit” in one of the next questions.

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    • How do I find out if my city has a Climate Action Plan?  
    • Click here for detailed information on where to look for a city's Climate Action Plan

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    • What if there is no Climate Action Plan or Greenhouse Gas Inventory?  
    • What if there is no Climate Action Plan or Greenhouse Gas Inventory that has been done in a city?

      If they haven’t been done, then the grade is an F.

      What if the city government is planning on doing them?

      It’s great if the city is planning on doing them! It is on the way to a better grade. In fact, if a Greenhouse Gas Inventory is planned and will be completed within the next 6 months (make sure there is a real commitment date!), then the city gets some credit and the grade rises to at least a D-.  

      Then, when a Climate Action Plan is completed the grade will increase again.

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    • Does it matter what the baseline is for an 80% reduction?  
    • The baseline is the starting point. Ideally we want cities to get to zero, then the starting point really doesn’t matter. Cities can make it easier on themselves to get to an 80% reduction by picking a starting year with a higher emissions level. So, we’d suggest you ask tough questions if your city is picking a year that makes it easier, but in general we’re not going to worry about which year is picked.

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    • What is the significance of goods produced outside the community?  
    • Click here for detailed information about why goods produced outside the community are important

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    • Where should I look to find an annual progress report?  
    • Generally, you’ll find annual progress reports in the same place as Climate Action Plans. We recommend doing the same kind of searches as suggested here.


      Additionally, you may need to call your city government. Look for an Environment or Environmental Services department. You may even find someone with “Climate Change” or “Energy Analyst” or “Sustainability” in their title. It’s also generally quite easy to call a general number and ask for someone that deals with environment or climate change issues.

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    • Will there always be quantified results in an Annual Progress Report?  
    • Generally yes, but they will often not be as detailed as the Climate Action Plan. 

      Detailed quantified results typically would require the completion of another Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Completing a Greenhouse Gas Inventory is time consuming and can require quite a bit of work. An Inventory forms the foundation of a Climate Action Plan, which is a set of planned actions intended to reduce a city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

      Generally a complete Inventory is only done once every 3 to 5 years, and it is unrealistic to expect it to be done more frequently. However, cities should be regularly reporting on their Climate Action Plans, and the measures they are putting in place to reduce greenhouse gases.

      Here is an example, from Eugene, Oregon of a 2013 Climate Progress Report on their 2010 Climate Action Plan.

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    • What is a Climate Recovery Ordinance?  
    • A Climate Recovery Ordinance is basically a Climate Action Plan that has been made into a law. Eugene, Oregon is an example of a place where this has happened.

      Here is the press release from our partner Our Children’s Trust on the ordinance.

      Here is the ordinance itself.

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    • Email us for help

  • 2. Renewable Energy

    While typically included within a city’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory, electricity generation caused 32% of US greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 (source: EPA), the largest of any source. That's why it's included as a separate grading item.

    In this section you'll be entering information about the percent of electricity your city uses that comes from renewable sources. This is for your entire city, including all the residents, businesses, and organizations in the city. The Report Card compares your city's percentage to the national average to generate a grade. This amount above or below the national average determines the grade.

     

    • What is the definition of renewable energy?  
    • Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale* such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. For the Report Card, we use the US Energy Information Administration’s (US EIA) classification system for defining what is renewable energy. They include the following in their renewable energy figures:

      • Hydroelectric Power
      • Geothermal
      • Solar
      • Wind
      • Biomass (includes biofuels, wood, waste)

      For the United States, the source of national data also comes from the US EIA. For Canada it comes from the International Energy Agency. Note that 2016 Canada data is an extrapolation from prior years.

      * - Note that on very long timescales (millions and millions of years, fossil fuels are technically replenishable. But not in any way that is useful to humanity.

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    • How do I find this data for my city and what do I do if I can't find city data?  
    • Click here for help finding city data. If you can't find city data then you'll use state data, also available here.

      (Note - we don't have Province information for Canada. If you are having trouble, send an email to ReportCard@imatteryouth.org.)

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    • Please use state information in place of city data for the rest of the questions in this section. Note that the maximum grade a city can get if it is using state information is a C+.

      State information is available at the bottom of this page.

    • Email us for help

  • 3. Waste

    Reducing the amount of waste we generate and recycling more of it reduces the amount of greenhouse gases from landfills. Waste reduction is also an indirect indicator that we're reducing the amount of completely new stuff we're buying. Buying lots of new stuff can significantly increase the greenhouse gases generated in the production of that stuff. 

    In this section you will find out what kinds of waste management programs your city has, how much waste is being generated, and how much of that waste is being recycled or composted. The Report Card gives better grades when waste generated per person is decreasing and when the portion of waste that is recycled or composted is increasing.

    • Why do we measure waste?  
    • Waste is used as an indicator for the amount of things we buy that cause greenhouse gases.  This is often referred to as “Materials” or “Materials and Waste.”  Reduction of waste has three main impacts on greenhouse gases.

      1. Reduced amounts of waste in a landfill, especially food waste, reduce the amount of greenhouse gases (methane) given off by the landfill (according to the EPA, waste in landfills generates 2% of our greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.).
      2. The production and transport of the food and products (materials) we buy is estimated to cause 42% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (see “Background note on greenhouse gas emissions” below).  Less overall waste created likely would mean we are buying less stuff that causes greenhouse gases when it is produced and delivered to the market.
      3. More recycling typically reduces greenhouse gases, because it generally requires a lot less greenhouse gases to recycle materials than to create new materials.  The EPA has estimated that moving to 100% recycling would result in a decrease in our national greenhouse gas emissions of 6%.

      Background information from the EPA

      “Waste generation” is the sum of materials disposed (in landfills and incinerators) and recovered (via recycling, composting, and some forms of energy recovery).  In 2012, Americans generated about 251 million tons of trash and recycled and composted almost 87 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.5 percent recycling rate. On average, Americans recycled and composted 1.51 pounds out of our individual waste generation rate of 4.38 pounds per person per day.  

      Note that EPA statistics do not include most construction and demolition materials and cannot be readily compared to data from local communities that include these waste types.

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    • How do I find waste, recycling, and composting data for my city?  
    • Click here to learn how to find waste data for your city.

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    • How do I find population data for my city?  
    • Click here to learn how to find population data for your city.

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    • Note: Make sure Total Waste Created is the total amount of waste generated by a community, not the total waste that is disposed of at a specific landfill or group of landfills.

    • Email us for help

  • 4. Carbon Removal

    Removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere will reduce the impacts of climate change. Carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, can be removed from the atmosphere and stored in trees, forests, plants, and soil, mostly through photosynthesis - the process by which carbon is stored in plants and oxygen is released into the atmosphere.

    In this section you'll be figuring out if your city has any kind of a program to remove carbon (typically in the form of carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere.

    • How to find programs that remove carbon from the atmosphere  
    • Most programs that would qualify as removing carbon from the atmosphere probably aren’t labeled as carbon removal programs. You need to look for programs on your city government’s website that do one of the following:

      • Encourage tree planting
      • Manage forests or the number of trees in a city
      • Increase the amount of green space in a city (green spaces are areas of grass, trees, or other vegetation set apart for recreational or aesthetic purposes in an urban environment.)
      • Protect or restore wetlands
      • Protect or restore grasslands or prairies
      • While you’re less likely to find this, in a community with farmland, there are ways of encouraging carbon storage in the soil with certain farming and livestock management practices.

      You may need to make a phone call to your city government to find out if there is such a program. Look for a Department with Environment in its name or a person with Environment in their title.

      More info on carbon and soil

      Plants and grasses also store carbon and then also transfer some into the soil.  When plants and grasses die and decompose, some of their carbon is released back into the atmosphere, but some of it transfers into the soil.  There are ways of managing soil to encourage more of this transfer to happen.  More carbon in the soil is not only good for removing greenhouse gases, but it also makes for healthier soil that can support more plants and wildlife or in the case of croplands, produce more and healthier food.

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    • Note - for the preceding question - more trees or more wetlands would be a metric associated with increased carbon storage capacity, even if the actual carbon storage capacity is not calculated. So it is possible to answer the previous question as "Increase..." and the following question as "No."

    • How would I find out if metrics are being met?  
    • Programs you find may remove carbon or carbon dioxide from the atmosphere even though they don’t actually have that as a goal. For example, a program with metrics tracking an increase in the number of trees, or of wetlands, would be removing carbon from the atmosphere even if that wasn’t the program’s main objective.

      To find if the program actually tracks the amount of carbon removed, you should be able to find somewhere in reports about program results, a linkage to carbon or carbon dioxide removed (you may also see the word “sequestered” instead of removed). This is typically reported in pounds or tons of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.

      For example, an average gasoline powered car in the U.S. emits between 4 and 5 tons of carbon dioxide each year. According to the American Forests organization, the typical tree they plant removes 910 pounds of carbon dioxide. This means that every 9-10 trees added to a forest, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere equivalent to what a car adds during a year of driving.

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    • Email us for help

  • 5. Youth involvement

    Youth opinion matters, and on the climate crisis it matters now. The youngest generation will be most impacted by the climate crisis, and should have a seat at the table when policies are being put in place. A city can get a half grade level increase for having a Youth Council of some sort that is involved in developing climate related actions and policies, or having youth representatives on a group responsible for climate related policies. 

    You should be able to find this information by looking at the city government website, or calling your city government and asking them if such a group exists and if it is a youth group or if there are youth representatives on the group. Look for a person or department involved with the Environment or Environmental Services.

     

     
  • iMatter City Climate Report Card

  • Please verify City, State, Country, and your E-mail are entered and accurate before you Submit the Report Card.

    After submitting, you will be emailed the Report Card and a Detailed Report on your city, typically within about 15 minutes.

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    • How is the overall grade calculated?  
    • The four sections will be combined into an overall grade, and then, if applicable, a half-grade increase from youth involvement is applied. Weightings are based on the U.S averages for the impact of each area on a typical community’s greenhouse gas footprint.

      The “Carbon Removal” grade is slightly underweighted compared to an overall U.S impact, but this is because much of the U.S. impact will likely come from areas that may be outside typical city boundaries (e.g., national forests, croplands, etc.)

       

      Sample grades with weightings

       

      Grade

      Weighting

      Zero Emissions Climate Action Plan

      C

      50%

      Renewable Energy %

      B

      20%

      Waste (Generated/Recycled/Composted)

      B

      20%

      Carbon Removal

      D

      10%

           

      Overall grade

      C+

       
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    • How are the individual grades calculated?  
    • Click here to get detailed information about individual grades

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