States Aim to Slash Emissions in Public-Owned Buildings, Fleets

Publicly owned buildings and vehicles mark one of state governments’ biggest opportunities to slash carbon emissions and set greener standards for the private sector, but getting there depends on overcoming vehicle inventory issues, real estate hurdles, and more.

The transportation sector and the construction, heating, cooling, and lighting of buildings are each responsible for around one-third of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Across the board, states, cities, and counties own roughly 3.9 million vehicles, and states occupy a massive real estate footprint. New York and California’s portfolio, for example, spans a combined 55 million square feet, according to numbers from both states’ general services departments.

States are buckling down on goals to make their emissions-heavy assets environmentally friendly in an effort to pave the way for companies to follow.

Those goals include procuring more zero-emission vehicles for state use, installing electric heat pumps in buildings, and constructing new government facilities with environmentally friendly materials. And state-led efforts could make a difference.

Interactive map: state governments manage massive, mostly gas-powered fleets.

“It’s hard to quantify the value of leading by example” in the states and how it will bleed over into the commercial sector, said Ben Grumbles, executive director at Environmental Council of the States. A decade ago, people focused more on the energy sector to curb emissions. Today, transportation and buildings are top of mind, he said.

New Incentives

For the first time, state agencies can use a wider range of federal incentives to reach sustainability goals. The 2022 climate law’s “direct pay” provisions, for instance, let public and nonprofit entities access cash equivalents of private sector tax credits. They include programs for electric vehicles, solar and wind installations, and clean fuel.

Because the states directly control their own buildings and vehicles, they can also decide to change their energy supplies, switch to low-carbon building materials for new construction, or pivot to electric cars and trucks.

California’s Department of General Services is battling building emissions by choosing to construct new facilities and retrofit older ones rather than sign leases, said Ana Lasso, the agency’s director.

“When you’re starting from scratch,” you can build in a greener way, she said. About 11.6 million square feet of the larger 19 million square feet that the department owns is already net-zero as agencies move into carbon-neutral, state-built facilities, according to Lasso.

In theory, decarbonizing government property is a much faster way of cutting emissions than waiting for the private sector to respond to the various sticks and carrots in the climate law. But in reality, it can take years for some states.

Minnesota, for instance, is hurrying to electrify its fleet of light-duty vehicles, but procuring those cars is difficult because electric vehicle manufacturers often prioritize states with up-and-running programs to phase out gas-powered cars, said Marcus Grubbs, the enterprise sustainability planner in Minnesota’s Department of Administration.

Plus, heavy- and medium-duty vehicles—which include snowplows and other special service vehicles that are harder to electrify—account for nearly 80% of car-related fossil fuels in the Minnesota state government, according to the department.

The country’s lack of widespread electric vehicle charging infrastructure marks another challenge for reducing vehicle emissions, since people want to ensure the reliability of state-owned vehicles, and especially emergency vehicles, Grubbs said.

Still, Minnesota has achieved a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from state-owned assets, and it’s on track to slash that number another 20 percentage points by 2050, according to the Department of Administration.

New York Leads

One of the states taking the lead on decarbonizing is New York—a critical state because its government manages 20 million square feet of real estate and hosts an estimated 32,000 state, city, and county vehicles, according to Federal Highway Administration data.

The state legislature passed a bill that requires New York to slash its carbon emissions economy wide by 40% over the next seven years, and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has made climate change a key plank in her administration. In September, Hochul rolled out new mandates requiring that any concrete used in a state-funded building or transportation project must meet low-carbon standards, the first such rules in the nation.

Thus, the political climate is right for the New York Office of General Services (OGS) to make its buildings more energy-efficient, only buy low-carbon building materials for new construction, and eventually electrify its vehicle fleet.

To hit those targets, the OGS is conducting energy audits, seeking ways to make its buildings more energy efficient. It’s also considering adapting some of its design and construction work to protect properties in areas prone to flooding or sea level rise, and working with agencies like the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to better understand where it should funnel its resources, according to Jeanette Moy, the agency’s commissioner.

Some of the building retrofits are likely to be expensive undertakings because maintenance on many of the state’s buildings has been deferred for years.

“The underinvestment has resulted in some buildings and facilities that are at the end of their useful life,” Moy said. “So we have to replace them anyway. It’s about making sure that, as buildings or any of the other systems that support them are at the end of their useful life, that you’re replacing them with something that’s better.”

She also said OGS wants to lead the private sector by example and help create local markets for products like low-carbon concrete and steel, to make it easier for private building owners across the state to buy those materials themselves.

“We’re trying to make sure that we’re moving the dial,” Moy said. “It’s something that’s going to be echoed, we think, in the private sector.”