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Juneau has taken a first step in creating a program for reducing its carbon footprint - measuring it.

Juneau released the equivalent of 441,000 metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in 2007, according Maria Gladziszewski, former city special projects officer, who presented a report to the Juneau Assembly's Committee of the Whole on Monday.

The findings and methodology are detailed in the 37-page report that Gladziszewski and a project intern authored. The figure is an important benchmark, though Gladziszewski cautioned that it is not an absolute and may not be valid to use in comparisons with other cities' emissions because methodology and data availability vary.

"These are estimates times estimates in many cases. So this is not an exact measure, but it's a starting point," Gladziszewski said.

Gladziszewski said Juneau is fortunate to have hydroelectric dams supplying most of its electricity, accounting for 17 percent of the city's energy consumption but only 1 percent of its greenhouse gas. In contrast, petroleum-based fuels accounted for 81 percent of the city's energy consumption and 96 percent of its greenhouse gas.

Now that there's a baseline for comparison, the Juneau Assembly intends to have its Commission on Sustainability create a plan that follows through with the rest of a framework for combating climate change laid out by the international organization ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. Specifically, the Assembly intends to work with the commission to:

• adopt an emissions reduction target;

• develop a climate action plan for reducing emissions;

• implement the policies and measures;

• monitor and verify the results.

Bob Doll, the Assembly's go-to member on sustainability issues, said the city is in a position to make a lot of progress without much additional effort thanks to hydropower expansions by Alaska Electric Light & Power Co. that are near completion.

For example, when the utility's Lake Dorothy plant comes online, which is expected to happen sometime this fall, the diesel guzzling operation at Greens Creek Mine on Admiralty Island will be able to switch to hydropower. The mine made up 14 percent of Juneau's greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, according to the report.

As for the Assembly's plans, Doll suggested the commission focus its directives on city government operations and offer only broad suggestions to the community as a whole. The city government only accounts for a small part of the overall emissions picture - about 14,0000 metric tons or 3.1 percent of the total, according to the report - but Doll said the city can set an example for the rest of the community without imposing restrictions on the private sector.

Fortunately, Doll said, many steps toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions also can save money. For example, he noted that Juneau International Airport is expected to save $80,000 a year in maintenance and heating costs when a new ground-source heat pump comes online.

"Everybody in the community should be interested in that," he said.