Broomfield reports 15% drop in communitywide emissions since 2017; introduces ClearPath 2.0 planning tool

City sustainability staff presented Broomfield’s 2017–2024 greenhouse-gas inventory and previewed ClearPath 2.0, a scenario and tracking tool the city will use to model climate interventions.

Alex Moore Van Djk, the city’s sustainability policy analyst, said the inventory shows total community emissions fell from about 850,500 metric tons of CO2e in 2017 to roughly 726,000 metric tons in 2024, a 15% reduction. “When you look at it on a per capita basis, the story is even stronger. We’ve gone from 12.5 metric tons per person down to 8.8. That is a 29% per capita reduction,” she said.

Staff broke down the 2024 emissions: commercial and industrial energy (33%), transportation (32.6%), residential energy (25.7%), and process/fugitive emissions including oil and gas (6.5%). Municipal operations were down about 6% since 2019 but still need progress to meet more aggressive municipal targets.

ClearPath 2.0 was showcased for its ability to model interventions, measure progress and create a public dashboard. Staff described a multi-step process already underway with the ACES advisory committee to prioritize 59 possible interventions (transportation and building energy). Next steps include modeling the high-priority interventions, assessing funding and staff capacity, and aligning modeled activity shifts with 2050 targets. Staff also noted an awarded DRCOG-related grant to support building policy work.

Council members welcomed the dashboard and urged staff to focus on measures the city can directly influence, to consider per-capita targets, and to accelerate near‑term actions while using utility decarbonization as a partner in meeting long-term goals.

Next steps: staff will model prioritized interventions in ClearPath 2.0, work with ACES on targets, and bring funding and policy recommendations back to council.