Climate Change & Clean Energy: Plans & Progress

In Executive Order 80: North Carolina's Commitment to Address Climate Change and Transition to a Clean Energy Economy, Governor Roy Cooper laid out a series of goals for the state to strive to accomplish by 2025: 

• Reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2005 levels
• Increase the number of registered, zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) to at least 80,000
• Reduce energy consumption per square foot in state-owned buildings by at least 40% from fiscal year 2002-2003 levels

EO80 creates the Climate Change Interagency Council to help the cabinet agencies work together to achieve those goals. 

There are specific directives for the Departments of Environmental Quality, Transportation, Administration and Commerce and general directives that apply to all the participating cabinet agencies. You can find updated information on each agency's plans and ways you can get involved by visiting the Department of Environmental Quality Website. 

Plans and Next Steps

About

The NCDOR recognizes that global climate change poses a threat, especially for coastal regions that are vulnerable to extreme weather events such as hurricanes. We are standing with other state agencies in North Carolina to reduce our environmental impact.

Our Plan

In an effort to reduce our environmental impact, the NCDOR is committed to making efforts in the following areas:

1. Reduce paper processing by promoting electronic filing
2. Reduce internal environmental impacts by improving energy efficiency in our leased facilities and Raleigh headquarters building
3. Procure energy efficient equipment and evaluate working relationships with current and future vendors to see if there are there are opportunities to reduce our environmental impact
4. Analyze use of long-term lease and motor fleet vehicles to see if there are opportunities to improve energy efficiency
5. Focus on employee-centric programs that increase environmental awareness and provide opportunities for telecommuting

Next Steps 

Electronic Filing

• Electronic filing reduces paper waste and paper processing, which, in turn, reduces impacts on the environment. Our goals include reducing paper usage and reducing the run time of our scanners that process paper filings and payments. By enhancing our e-Services applications and increasing our promotional efforts, we can cut down on paper processing significantly.

Reduce Internal Environmental Impacts

• Leased Facilities
  • Analyze leased space needs and reduce remote office footprints upon lease expiration
  • Work with the State Property Office to add energy efficient features as preferences when advertising for leased space
• Main Revenue Building
  • Continue working with the state Department of Administration to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption
  • Make HVAC system improvements to increase efficiency
  • Continue replacement of older equipment such as Power Distribution Units, Cooling Units and IT servers with more energy efficient models

Procurement

• Continue adding language to solicitations for energy efficient features when applicable 

Vehicles

• Analyze use of long term lease and motor fleet vehicles
  • Update policies and procedures to require use of hybrid vehicles when available and suitable base on business use

Employee Centric Programs

• Expand teleworking opportunities
• Promote EO-80 by posting information on energy conservation in service centers

About

As of October 2022, Cabinet agencies have combined the annual reporting on Executive Order 80, Executive Order 246, and the Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan actions into Climate Strategy Reports. The NCDOR report addresses North Carolina's vulnerability to climate change. Any climate related disaster event has the potential to impact one or more assets and the NCDOR's ability to perform business operations. The report also outlines several planned and ongoing initiatives to support the executive orders. 

Climate Strategy Report 

North Carolina Department of Revenue Climate Strategy Report