Meet LSA’s Climate Change Group!

LSA’s climate change experts keep current regarding ever-changing regulations and requirements pertaining to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global climate change. LSA provides a full range of climate action planning services that are responsive to evolving State and federal standards, recent case law, and scientific literature. It is challenging to understand global climate change as the science evolves, and even more challenging to keep up with evolving strategies developed by local, regional, State, and federal governments in assessing and reducing our culture’s impacts on the environment. This is where LSA’s climate change team can step in. From GHG emissions to the carbon footprint of development projects, LSA’s experts work with you to develop an approach to climate change analysis that meets current challenges, anticipates future issues, and reflects the needs of the community, your project, and multiple regulatory agencies. LSA uses the most current methodologies to calculate GHG emissions from vehicle activity, electricity use, natural gas consumption, and energy use associated with the transport and consumption of water. LSA also provides guidance on how future projects will likely need to adapt to climate change. LSA staff members have developed software tools focused on emissions inventories, reduction measure tracking, carbon reduction metrics, and climate change risk, including dashboards designed for agencies to review real-time energy use and sustainability design criteria.

Additionally, LSA provides a full range of energy analysis services. LSA has prepared energy analyses to address the impacts of energy consumption on climate change. For California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documents, the energy analysis includes a discussion of the potential energy impacts of the proposed project, with particular emphasis on avoiding or reducing inefficient, wasteful, and unnecessary consumption of direct and indirect energy. For climate change documents, the energy analysis identifies and implements comprehensive energy efficiency and renewable energy projects aimed at reducing costs and energy, as well as GHG emissions. LSA staff members have provided technical assistance with CEQA environmental documents and energy efficiency Climate Action Plans (EECAPs) to reduce energy-related GHG emissions in projects. LSA’s EECAP reports are structured to function as both stand-alone documents and the energy efficiency chapters of Climate Action Plans (CAPs).

Some of the specific climate change services LSA provides include the following:

• GHG Analysis for CEQA Projects
• CAPs
• California Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32) Compliance Assistance
• GHG Emission Inventories
• Climate Change Impact Analysis of Infrastructure, Ecosystems, and Communities
• GHG Reduction Strategies
• Carbon Sequestration and Offset Market (Cap and Trade) Evaluations

Amy Fischer, Principal Director of Air Quality Services