6.1 EWEB Internal Operations Introduction and Policy Language from SD15
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15: Internal Operations Section
The Board further authorizes, delegates, and directs the General Manager to continue efforts to minimize and/or mitigate GHG emissions from EWEB’s operations that contribute to climate change. As initially established in 2010, EWEB adopted a goal to reduce the Scope 1 and 2 (direct GHG emissions and energy) greenhouse gas emissions associated with its operations and facility management activities.
Accordingly, and as formally established by this directive, EWEB plans to reduce our net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from operations relative to 2010 levels by:
- 25% by 2020,
- 50% by 2030,
- Achieve carbon neutrality from our operations by 2050.
EWEB seeks to lead by example. By developing and implementing strategies for reducing our own GHG emissions, EWEB can share lessons learned with customers who seek to decarbonize, take advantage of federal or state incentive programs, and/or add resiliency measures and best practices to their internal operations.
EWEB has been measuring and reducing its GHG emissions since 2009. Included here is a comprehensive set of EWEB’s emissions, according to The Climate Registry’s General and Electric Power Sector protocols, showing the results of EWEB’s GHG inventory from calendar year 2024.
Content currently included in v4.0:
- Beginning with this update to the Climate Guidebook, EWEB has developed a comprehensive GHG inventory following The Climate Registry’s General Reporting and Electric Power Sector Protocols. (Past inventories were based on the General Reporting Protocol only and included a subset of the emissions reported here.) This updated and expanded inventory includes emissions from owned electricity generation, purchased/contracted energy used to serve customer load, fugitive SF6 losses from distribution system equipment, transmission and distribution line losses, emissions associated with water treatment and pumping to deliver water to customers, and operational emissions from fuels, refrigerants, and electricity used in EWEB-owned buildings and vehicles.
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- 2025 data year General Reporting Protocol & Electric Power Sector Protocol compliant GHG inventory.
Explore this webpage: 6.2.1 Inventory Protocols, Boundaries, and Scopes | 6.2.2 Overall Inventory Results by Scope | 6.2.3 Overall Inventory Results by Operational Category, 2024 | 6.2.4 EWEB’s Progress towards SD15 GHG Reduction Goals | 6.2.5 EWEB’s Scope 1 Emissions: Fleet fuels, Natural Gas, and Refrigerants and SF6 | 6.2.6 EWEB’s Scope 2 Emissions: Electricity and Steam | 6.2.7 Next Steps for EWEB’s Carbon Emissions Reporting
6.2 EWEB’s Internal Greenhouse Gas Inventory, 2024
EWEB’s Climate Change Policy (SD15) set specific GHG reduction goals for EWEB’s internal operations (see box). EWEB’s goals are in alignment with goals set by the State of Oregon and the City of Eugene (see Chapter 2) and in line with the science-based targets to keep warming below 1.5 degrees C as outlined as part of the Paris Accord and recommendations from climate scientists. EWEB seeks to be an active partner in these efforts to decarbonize our operations and our community.
6.2.1 Inventory Protocols, Boundaries, and Scopes
EWEB follows the guidance outlined in both The Climate Registry’s General Reporting Protocol (GRP), which defines boundaries and methods for general entities and the sector-specific guidance from The Climate Registry’s Electric Power Sector Protocol (EPSP) that is tailored for electric utilities. EWEB reports emissions for assets that we financially own (financial control approach). The protocols define 3 scopes of emissions:
- Scope 1 emissions: defined as including direct emissions from organizationally owned assets. Relevant GRP Scope 1 sources measured include fuels used in owned fleet vehicles, natural gas used for building heat in owned facilities and fugitive refrigerants used in buildings and vehicles. EPSP Scope 1 sources include emissions from owned electricity generation assets, and fugitive SF6 emissions from distribution system equipment. EWEB has no process emissions.
- Scope 2 emissions: defined as including indirect emissions specifically from electricity purchased from a utility provider. EWEB, as a customer of the electric utility (and formerly steam) purchases electricity used in owned facilities and vehicles. EWEB chooses to separate out the electricity emissions associated with water treatment and water pumping in order to calculate an emissions factor for customer water delivery. EPSP Scope 2 sources also include emissions associated with transmission and distribution (T&D) line losses. EWEB has no bulk power transmission losses or wheeled power.
- Scope 3 emissions: defined as including all other indirect emissions from sources or equipment that an organization does not own, but where it has some shared responsibility. Relevant GRP Scope 3 sources include: business travel in employee-owned or rental vehicles, or airplanes; organizationally generated solid waste disposed of at landfills owned and operated by other entities; purchased goods and services manufactured at vendor locations around the world; upstream emissions from mining and transporting the fuels combusted and reported in Scope 1. EPSP Scope 3 sources include specified energy EWEB purchases through energy contracts and unspecified market purchases for day-ahead and real-time energy balancing. EWEB has no wheeled power, power exchange, or direct access emissions.
Based on the Electric Power Sector Protocol’s Table 5.1 excerpted here, EWEB is considered a “Fossil Generator” for a small amount of natural gas combusted at an owned biomass facility, an “Other Generator” for the hydro and other renewable assets we own, a “Transmission Company”, a “Local Distribution Company” and a “Retail Provider”.
Figure 30: Excerpt from The Climate Registry's Electric Power Sector Protocol – Emissions categories for Electric Power Sector (EPSP)
Emissions factors used in our inventory come from The Climate Registry’s 2024 Default Emissions Factors, EPA eGRID emissions factors for the Northwest Power Pool (currently available through 2023 data year), and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s GHG Reporting Program’s utility-specific emissions factors (currently available through 2024 data year).
6.2.2 Overall Inventory Results by Scope, 2024
Results for our EPSP compliant GHG inventory for 2024 by scope are shown. Key takeaways from these results:
- The largest emissions source in each Scope was not measured under the General Reporting Protocol (GRP) methods used previously. Using the Electric Power Sector Protocol along with the GRP reports a more comprehensive set of emissions for EWEB.
- The largest source of EWEB’s emissions is from purchased energy, under Scope 3. As an indirect emissions source, EWEB has much less control over Scope 3 emissions, but still has some influence. These are emissions primarily from EWEB’s unspecified market purchases used for day-ahead and real-time energy balancing. Because they are from unspecified sources, they must be calculated using an assumed emissions factor equivalent to a natural gas plant.
- The largest source of Scope 1 direct emissions under EWEB’s control comes from natural gas combustion at the turbine, owned by EWEB, that is located at the International Paper (IP) mill in Springfield, OR. This is a biomass facility and the majority of fuel used in the turbine is from renewable black liquor, while a small percentage is fossil natural gas. The emissions from biomass combustion, per protocol, are reported separately from the fossil natural gas emissions shown here.
6.2.3 Overall Inventory Results by Operational Category, 2024
The Electric Power Sector Protocol also encourages reporters to report the same emissions, but instead of by Scope, by Operational Category instead. Key takeaways from this view of EWEB’s emissions include:
- The largest sources of emissions are associated with EWEB’s power delivery to electric customers. Power Delivery Purchases are significant due to unspecified market purchases calculated at an assumed emissions factor equivalent to a natural gas plant.
- EWEB’s offers two products: electricity and water. Power Delivery emissions (the orange bars) are associated with providing electricity to customers in our service territory. It only makes sense to also calculate the emissions associated with water delivery (the blue bar). Water Delivery emissions are small but include the electricity consumed in facilities and equipment associated with water treatment and water pumping to deliver clean drinking water to our customers.
- EWEB’s emissions associated with our operations are shared services between the electric and water utilities. Compared to the Power Delivery emissions in our inventory, the scale of these sources is small.
6.2.4 EWEB’s Progress towards SD15 GHG Reduction Goals
SD15 outlines emissions reduction targets for EWEB’s “Operational” Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. In past inventories, we have defined Operational Scope 1 and 2 emissions to only include emissions from fleet, natural gas use in buildings, fugitive emissions from refrigerants (operations) and SF6 (which really is part of Power Delivery), and total electricity (including electricity used for both water delivery and operations). As EWEB matures our understanding of these “Operational” emissions, we may adjust our goals and/or interpretation of the Board guidance in SD15 to better reflect these new Operational Categories as represented above and show how we are reducing all three categories of emissions from Power Delivery, Water Delivery and EWEB Operations over time.
To maintain consistency with past reports, the section below will follow the way we have reported our “operational Scope 1 and 2 emissions” in accordance with SD15 Board Policy since 2010.
In 2024, EWEB is again pleased to report that our emissions once again fell below the 2030 50% emissions reduction goal compared to the 2010 baseline. In 2024, EWEB is reporting aggregate emissions reductions of 55% compared to 2010 baseline performance. There was 2% decrease in emissions between 2023 and 2024, despite a 43% increase in fleet emissions, due to lack of availability of renewable fuels. There was a 51% decrease in natural gas emissions and a 6% decrease in electricity consumption emissions mostly due to the sale of the headquarters
While there has been annual variation in emissions over time due to several factors, EWEB has met its 2020 goal of 25% reduction over 2010 baseline emissions consistently since 2014. In 2020, emissions dipped below the 2030 goal of 50% reduction compared to our 2010 baseline, but some of those reductions were temporary due to the COVID-19 pandemic and work-from-home orders.
Progress towards EWEB’s internal GHG goals is calculated using a market-based approach to electricity emissions that uses the EWEB-specific emissions factor for purchased electricity as calculated by Oregon DEQ’s GHG reporting program.
6.2.5 EWEB’s Scope 1 Emissions: Fleet fuels, Natural Gas, and Refrigerants and SF6
Fleet
Much of EWEB’s overall operational GHG reduction success since 2010 has been due to emissions reductions from our owned fleet. Emissions from EWEB’s fleet vehicles have dropped 53% since 2010. Unfortunately, between 2023 and 2024, EWEB’s emissions from fleet increased by 43% instead of continuing to decline, due primarily to supply challenges related to renewable fuels availability in 2024, especially, E85 ethanol.
EWEB’s fleet is comprised of 418 active (in-service) units, including 234 vehicles, 68 units of power-operated equipment, and 116 trailers. The size of EWEB’s fleet has grown 9% since 2020. Total gallons of fuel consumed have grown by 12% since our 2010 emissions baseline.
What has changed significantly over time are the types of fuel consumed. Since 2010, and especially since 2016, EWEB has invested heavily in new renewable fuels including Ethanol, Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel, and more recently Electric Vehicles (EVs). These biomass-based fuels reduce the carbon intensity of the fuel being consumed. In 2024, the uptick in EWEB’s emissions was caused by a decrease in the consumption of Ethanol, and the corresponding increase in the amount of fossil gasoline consumed by EWEB’s fleet due to lack of E85 availability and fuel quality issues. EWEB expects these fuel supply issues to continue and expand to other types of fuels, like renewable diesel in 2025. On December 31, 2024, the federal ‘Blender’s tax credit’ expired, which had offered a credit worth $1 per gallon for fuels like biodiesel, renewable diesel and certain sustainable aviation fuels. It was replaced with the Clean Fuel Production Credit (45Z) on January 1, 2025, which prioritizes certain fuels produced in the United States and doesn’t carry through to blenders of clean transportation fuels such as biodiesel or renewable diesel. Additionally, there has been an increase in demand for renewable diesel as Washington has started its own Clean Fuels Standard and the Federal Aviation Administration is using renewable diesel in the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). This change in credit and increased demand is both increasing costs and making supply availability more difficult.
In late 2023, EWEB was excited to receive two all-electric Ford Lightning pick-up trucks to complement its small fleet of passenger plug-in hybrid EVs. Due to supply chain challenges, these two trucks took over 26 months to receive from the date of order. Due to the small size of EWEB’s passenger fleet, pick-up trucks are the next most likely sector of our fleet to be electrified.
Moving forward, EWEB will need to augment the electric vehicle charging infrastructure at EWEB’s ROC facility in order to continue to grow our EV fleet. In January 2026, EWEB was pleased to have been selected for a $100K electric vehicle planning grant through the Oregon Department of Energy’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program that will support EWEB’s ability to continue to electrify our owned fleet vehicles.
Natural Gas
Historically, natural gas was used for space heating in three EWEB-owned facilities: EWEB’s headquarters building in downtown Eugene (sold to the City of Eugene in mid-2023 for use as the new City Hall), EWEB’s Roosevelt Operations Center (ROC) in west Eugene, and a facility EWEB owned for just two years in 2013 and 2014 on W 3rd Ave in Eugene. The increase in emissions from natural gas in 2013 and 2014 can be attributed to both EWEB’s headquarters transitioning off steam heat to use natural gas instead and added consumption from the W. 3rd facility for those two years. Once the W. 3rd facility was sold in 2015, consumption dropped but continued to climb again until the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed EWEB’s occupancy levels at the headquarters facility in 2020. In June 2023, EWEB vacated and sold its headquarters facility. Due to guidance from GHG Inventory Protocols and EWEB’s financial control approach to our inventory boundaries, natural gas consumption from this facility was only included for 2023 through the date of our facility sale. In 2024, the only EWEB-owned facility to consume natural gas is the ROC. This represents a 67% decrease from our peak consumption in 2019, a 51% decrease year-over-year since 2023, and a 17% decrease from our 2010 baseline.
Refrigerants and Industrial Gases
The final category of Scope 1 emissions includes industrial gases used in various equipment that can leak into the atmosphere and have an impact on the climate. EWEB tracks four types of industrial gases and refrigerants that are used in fleet vehicles and building HVAC equipment (for air conditioning) as well as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) which is used as an insulator in electrical switchgear at substations.
Leaks of these gases can happen slowly over time yet are captured in our inventory during the year in which the equipment was recharged. Similar to 2010, there were no industrial gas recharges for EWEB in 2024.
6.2.6 EWEB’s Scope 2 Emissions: Electricity and Steam
Steam
In 2010-2013, EWEB consumed steam for heating at its headquarters building before the steam plant was decommissioned and the building transitioned to natural gas for space heating instead.
Electricity
Emissions from electricity consumption have two components – how much electricity an organization is consuming, and the carbon intensity of the electricity being consumed. The carbon intensity of EWEB’s electricity varies from year to year depending on real customer demand (driven by local weather patterns and customer behavior) and EWEB’s changing need to rely on market purchases to balance customer demand and resources continuously. EWEB’s total GHGs from electricity consumption have increased by 3% since our 2010 baseline but decreased by 6% since 2023.
The high emissions factor in 2019 was reflected throughout the west due to decreased water availability in the western hydropower system.
EWEB’s electricity consumption in MWh has declined by 20% between 2010 and 2024. There was a 10% decline between 2023 and 2024, mostly due to the sale of the headquarters building in June 2023, but also due to other factors including the Waterville Project being offline for most of the year.
EWEB’s annual electricity consumption is dominated by the Hayden Bridge water treatment facility that produces finished drinking water for a community of more than 200,000 residents. Water operations facilities, shown in blue, include EWEB’s Hayden Bridge drinking water filtration facility in Springfield and the electricity used for water pumping and reservoir storage within the water distribution system. Operations facilities are shown in yellow. EWEB sold its headquarters building to City of Eugene in June 2023, so EWEB was not responsible for electric consumption there in 2024. EWEB staff now operate out of the Roosevelt Operations Center (ROC) in west Eugene or work from home (home emissions are outside the boundaries of this inventory). The Other Facilities category includes support facilities at Carmen Smith and Leaburg hydroelectric dams along the McKenzie River, and other smaller facilities in Eugene.
6.2.7 Next Steps for EWEB’s Carbon Emissions Reporting
We recognize that the emissions being reported here are for 2024. At the time of Climate Guidebook v4.0 publication in April 2026, full set of data for the 2025 update to the Electric Power Sector Protocol was underway, yet data needed to complete that analysis from some of EWEB’s partner agencies was not fully available on this timeline. We have chosen to report the Operational + EPSP GHG inventory results for calendar year 2024 here but look forward to updating this chapter with the results from the 2025 inventory as soon as possible.
Links and Relevant Resources:
