GLENDALE, California – Glendale Water & Power (GWP) is the first municipal utility in Southern California to earn the distinction of Climate Action Leader™ in 2006. GWP is now publicly and voluntarily reporting its green house gas emissions (GHG) from generation of electricity under the California Climate Action Registry’s (Registry) rigorous program. GWP has successfully certified CHG emissions inventory with the Registry.
“Glendale Water & Power has a proven track record in making positive investments in renewable resources which helps us reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reach our goal of 20% renewables by 2017. Since joining the Registry, we have an added bonus of monitoring our emissions that provides us with a benchmark for improvement as we continually seek to provide low cost reliable service to our customers and, while being environmentally responsible and strengthening our renewables portfolio,” said Ignacio Troncoso, Director of Glendale Water & Power.
GWP has been pursuing several strategies to increase energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions, including adopting California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Under this RPS, 20 percent of the power GWP sells must come from cost-effective renewable resources by 2017. With 14 percent of current sales coming from renewable resources, GWP is in line with California’s best performers (who are between 10 and 20 percent) and on track to meet its goal by 2017.
The Registry, created by the California legislature in 2000, is a non-profit public/private partnership that helps companies and organizations throughout the United States to track, publicly report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The results are certified by independent third-parties to ensure compliance with Registry protocols and standardization across participants and sectors. Organizations that are willing to meet the accounting standards and third party certification requirements of the Registry show their serious intent to address climate change. The Registry has been widely recognized as a gold standard for public reporting of greenhouse gases.
“Glendale Water & Power understands that everyone has a role to play in combating climate change, including our local municipalities” said Diane Wittenberg, President of the California Climate Action Registry. “We applaud GWP for making the effort to track its progress in reducing GHG emissions through our rigorous program.”
Starting next year, all of the electric power companies and utilities in the Registry program, including Glendale Water & Power, will also report the “carbon intensity” of the power it delivers. This not only provides a basis for consistent comparison across the power industry regardless of entity size, but also greatly enhances the public’s ability to compare the climate impact of power companies operating in California and allow for the tracking of carbon intensity performance over time.
Glendale Water & Power’s certified GHG emission report for 2004 is now available through the Registry’s website at http://www.climateregistry.org/carrot/Login.aspx.
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Glendale Water & Power is the City of Glendale’s utility. Glendale Water & Power generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to 75,341 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Glendale, California. The city-owned utility also provides water to 32,500 customers.
The California Climate Action Registry is a non-profit public/private partnership that serves as a voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) registry to protect, encourage, and promote early actions to reduce GHG emissions. Over 65 major companies, cities, government agencies and NGOs measure and publicly report their GHG emissions through the Registry. www.climateregistry.org