By Eileen Qiu

The city’s Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change kicked off its monthly meeting on September 8 with a goal to widen the scope of Sommerville’s greenhouse gas inventory, carried out every two years.

There wasn’t a meeting for August, but members of the CEUCC announced emissions from goods manufactured in another country and bought by residents will now be considered said Director of Sustainability and Environment Oliver Garcia.

“The inventory will identify areas where we might be able to build awareness or design new programs and policies to reduce emissions,” Garcia said.

Despite setbacks due to COVID-19, the 2020 Climate Forward progress report found the city’s carbon emissions decreased by 0.2% since 2016 and 5.3% since 2014.

An associate for the Boston based architecture firm Payette, and member of the CEUCC Liz Galloway presented net-zero building science.

As a building scientist with a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering, Galloway’s work centers around turning normally heavy energy use buildings like schools and hospitals into more cost effective and environmentally friendly, carbon neutral places.

Her presentation could potentially inspire private developers building in Somerville to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money, Garcia said, but isn’t as relevant to the city’s own buildings.

Rising sea levels, temperature and more intense and frequent storms are some of the effects climate change can have on Somerville. The city received grant funding in 2011 from the Department of Energy Resources to finance projects for a more efficient way to use energy. The first greenhouse gas inventory then occurred in 2014, along with the goal to be carbon neutral by 2050.

The next CEUCC meeting will be Wednesday, Oct0ber 13.