Shoreline drove 16% less
Telecommuting cut driving, preventing more emissions than Shoreline’s trees can ever sequester. Instead of more driving cuts, the Shoreline council focused on trees & compost sorting.
The Shoreline City Council reviewed the city’s climate progress report on May 5, highlighting decreased driving per person, two new light rail stations, an e-bike/scooter share program, and reduced building energy use.
To achieve the city’s Net-Zero goal, it must eliminate or offset 246,001 annual metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2e) by 2050. Transportation is Shoreline’s largest emissions source, with vehicles spewing about 135,300 MTCO2e — 55% of the city’s total emissions.
Average vehicle miles traveled per person dropped 16% from 13.54 to 11.4 miles, mainly due to pandemic era telecommuting, preventing about 21,650 MTCO2e of emissions annually.
However, the council was more interested in tree planting and apartment resident compost sorting.
Council member Keith Scully pushed for a crack down on restaurants and apartment dwellers who don’t sort their recycling and compost. “I'm hoping that the city will step up enforcement,” he said, “I think it's time to start saying these are the rules and we need to have this done.” All solid waste disposal accounts for 2% of Shoreline’s emissions (less than 5000 MTCO2e).
Council member Annette Ademasu wants to count trees every year instead of every five years. “It seems like we're missing a lot of data,” she said. Ademasu also pushed to increase canopy coverage from 37% to 40% by 2040. “We could have a slogan: Shoreline 40 by 40,” she said.
Shoreline’s entire urban forest removes about 13,890 MTCO2e each year. If the city increased its tree canopy coverage from 37% to 40%, it would sequester somewhere around an additional 1,000 MTCO2e each year. Even if Shoreline maximized its tree canopy cover to 60%, this theoretical best-case sequestration capacity would only remove about 19,000 MTCO2e annually — still less than reduced driving.
Not casting shade on the benefits of trees, but on the road to Net-Zero, reducing driving goes a lot farther toward cutting greenhouse gases
Trees do a lot more than sequestering carbon. So while I agree for carbon, focus more on encouraging less driving where possible, I do still want trees to be a part of our concerns.Trees are vital for heat island mitigation, and wildlife (especially insect and bird) preservation. Oh, and trees (especially evergreens) hold and slow water much better than solid surfaces.