The Sedona City Council’s fiscal year 2025 budget work session on April 17 included an update on the city’s sustainability program, which has the goal of halving citywide carbon emissions by 2030, and a discussion of the possibility that the city might need to pay for carbon offsets or capture to reach that goal.

$300 per Metric Ton

The proposed FY25 budget for the sustainability department was $907,370, a decrease of 10% from FY24, due to the elimination of one-time costs for solar lighting at Posse Grounds Park, and included $426,900 in supplies and $319,580 in personnel costs. Sustainability Manager Bryce Beck estimated that the time city staff spend on counting carbon was equal to one-quarter of a full-time equivalent position, which works out to a cost of $26,632, down from his 2023 estimate that he was spending half his own time doing that.

While the only amount currently budgeted for sustainability capital projects in FY25 is $80,800 for streetlight retrofitting, projected future allocations in FY26 and FY27 will include $1.64 million for decarbonization roadmapping and $404,000 for at least six new electric vehicle chargers. Beck also stated that the final budget would include a new request for $150,000 for design and scoping for FY26 projects based on numbers that city consulting firm McKinstry provided the day before the meeting.

“What is that deliverable?” Sedona City Councilman Brian Fultz asked. “Here’s where to go put some new controls in buildings?”

“That design and scoping would be covering solar installation, electrical vehicle charging infrastructure, like what’s going to be needed to make those things work,” Beck said. “That $150,000 new ask would be for components that would be building largerscale projects.”

“I just don’t understand why we have to pay consultants to do that for us,” Fultz said. “Why can’t we just do this in-house?”

“If staff is at a spot where they’re at capacity with projects, we’re going to look to offset it with external sources,” Beck said.

“I know we’re trying to save the planet with this whole decarbonization thing, but is there some ROI along the way?” Fultz asked.

Beck replied that the streetlight retrofit was estimated to save $200,000 over 15 years and the optimization of building control systems $100,000 over a 10-year period.

“The other ROI is what we’re getting in return for decarbonization,” Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey said. “Some of it’s not strictly financial. Also the benefit of our goal for the cap.”

“If we don’t have that transition phase to still meet that carbon-neutral goal or to still meet that 50% reduction goal as a community, we’d have to start looking at either carbon offsets or direct air capture components, and those are ranging about $300 per metric ton, so it’s looking at anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000 per year if we don’t actually have a plan to transition those components if you’re still trying to get the mechanism to meet those goals,” Beck said.

“That’s like mindblowing. Nobody’s got a gun to our head,” Fultz said. “If we don’t meet the number, we didn’t meet the number, but to go spend $300,000 per metric ton so we feel better at that point? Seriously?”

Fultz later clarified that he meant to say $300 per metric ton.

Progress to Date

When the City Council approved the Climate Action Plan in 2021, the plan set a goal of reducing Sedona’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. According to the city’s sustainability website, citywide emissionss were 179,006 tons in 2018, 160,042 tons in 2020, 170,842 tons in 2021 and 167,386 tons in 2022.

Beck stated during the work session that emissions resulting from municipal operations were 2,957 metric tons, or 3,253 imperial tons, in calendar year 2018.

“So are we on target?” Fultz asked of the program’s progress.

“Our electricity emissions are down a little bit,” Beck said. “Our wastewater side of emissions are down as well as water delivery. It’s been like a slow decline … I don’t have a definitive number yet.” For FY24, Beck said, “we’re probably going to be sitting around the 1,200 [metric tons; 1,320 imperial tons] range.”

Beck’s numbers from the 2023 and 2024 budget work sessions and the FY25 draft budget show that the annual greenhouse gas reductions the city has so far achieved have been 102 tons from refitting 62 homes to be more energy-efficient and 1,485 tons through purchasing “green power” from Arizona Public Service for a total reduction of 1,587 tons, or 1.9% of its goal, three years into a nine-year program.

In 2022, the city’s wastewater plant, which is the primary source of electricity-related municipal greenhouse gas emissions, produced approximately 1,544 tons of electricity-related emissions and 300 to 500 tons of decomposition-related emissions. The department’s proposed program to save a portion of the 84 tons emitted annually by sodium bulbs in streetlights through an LED retrofit program is currently scheduled for completion in December.

Beck noted on April 17 that the city’s transit program is producing an additional 110 tons of emissions per year.

Beck also stated during the meeting that “the best aspect of reducing carbon emissions from vehicles is electrification.”