Protocol Development Process

Local government staff and sustainability consultants can have confidence that the Community Protocol reflects the consensus of leading experts in the field.

Deep collaboration among ICLEI staff, a steering committee of leading local government and sustainability experts, and six technical advisory committees has resulted in this state-of-the-art national standard that builds on existing knowledge and establishes new and innovative best practices. In addition, ICLEI held a public comment period to collect broad national feedback on the Community Protocol before the publication of Version 1.0.

More on the Process

This Protocol was developed by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA (ICLEI USA) to respond to the expressed needs of local governments in the United States for a standardized methodology for accounting and reporting on GHG emissions associated with individual communities.

Protocol development decisions were made by ICLEI USA and a Steering Committee comprised of U.S. local government members and others with relevant expertise. These decisions were informed by six Technical Advisory Committees (TACs), also comprised of members of local governments and other technical experts, who referenced what they determined to be the best of the existing emissions accounting methodologies (i.e., drawn from existing sources such as IPCC and EPA) to provide the Protocol users with the accounting methodologies for the GHG emission activities and sources covered by this Protocol.

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