Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy (AIRE)

The Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy (AIRE), a division of Arlington County’s Office of Sustainability and Environmental Management (OSEM), operates as the County’s core agency for climate mitigation, adaptation/resilience programs, and community-facing energy programs. The AIRE program has been a catalyst for climate action since 2008 with multifaceted programs designed to: 

1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from County government operations,
2. Encourage, assist, and recognize businesses that join the County in reducing emissions from their activities,
3. Inform and encourage residents to reduce their own emissions,
4. Engage other localities and regional organizations in a broader effort, and 
5. Execute its Community Energy Plan (CEP), with a goal of setting mid- and long-term targets for emissions reductions in the County as a whole. 

Through the AIRE program, Arlington is on the way to achieving its 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for carbon neutrality. AIRE deploys an all-of-government approach and works with a wide range of external partners to achieve common climate and energy goals.

This CEP Roadmap operationalizes the CEP and outlines how Arlington County will implement the CEP to achieve the community’s climate and energy goals, all while considering energy equity. In brief, the CEP Roadmap identifies specific implementation strategies by sector, establishes timelines and responsibilities for each strategy, and lays a framework for aligning and measuring their impacts. The CEP Roadmap is constructed to allow for flexibility to adapt for emerging or evolving technologies, future policymaking, and changing financial, legislative and regulatory contexts. 

Read the CEP Roadmap.

Arlington County’s GHG Dashboard presents the community-wide anthropogenic (originating from human activity) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all major sources as estimated in the 2016 Arlington County Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. This includes emissions from residents, businesses and County operations. The linked report provides additional details about the data sources and methodology used to develop the GHG inventory estimates. 

A GHG emissions inventory provides an estimate of GHG emissions for a given year from major anthropogenic sources and is used to identify, plan, and implement reduction opportunities and to track progress toward climate goals. A GHG inventory typically estimates total emissions for a single year, providing a snapshot of emissions in that year. The GHG Dashboard allows users to interact with the data through visualizations. 

View our Community-wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Dashboard.