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Toolkit & Carbon Calculator

This page will present the Hamilton County Climate Initiative Toolkit in the form of recommended initiatives for the four categories Solid Waste, Transportation, Energy and Development (see the links below). The initiatives will include a short description, a link to that indicator's carbon calculator formula, possibly the estimated implementation cost and payback period (years) and links to actual case studies from communities that implemented similar initiatives.

Please click on one of the categories below:

• Solid Waste
• Transportation
• Energy
• Development

Some of the Development Initiatives do not have readily available carbon calculator formulas. Most of these initiatives are important smart growth land use policy initiatives or process changes supporting those initiatives. Actual implementation of these smart growth polices will result in compact communities characterized by higher densities, a mix of land uses, interconnection of streets and population and employment centers. Recent studies have shown that residents of compact communities drive a "third less than otherwise comparable residents in low-density sprawl".

We have created the Hamilton County Climate Initiative Green Credit Score for these development initiatives without carbon calculator formulas. A detailed description of the HCCI Green Credit Score Methodology can be found here.

The Carbon Calculator will be a progress indicator for the HCCI. Through previous studies, we know what Hamilton County’s total carbon output (or carbon "footprint") is today. Using the Carbon Calculator, HCCI will compute the total carbon reductions from all the various initiatives of the participating jurisdictions on the HCCI Carbon Calculator Summary Sheet, which can be found here. The HCCI Carbon Calculator Summary Sheet also includes the HCCI Green Credits for the participating jurisdictions thereby giving the HCCI a mechanism for tracking both short term initiatives (with carbon calculator formulas) and long term initiatives (with Green Credit Scores).

We have also included several sample resolutions from various cities to help you develop your own Climate Plan.