Chapel Hill's Commercial Sector

Chapel Hill has a strong economy that will continue to grow in future years. Although the town's commercial sector's carbon dioxide emissions are relatively small compared to some of the other sectors (see the figure below; the Commercial Sector is highlighted in red), every sector needs to contribute to the overall reduction in emissions from the town.

A good way to start reducing a business' emissions is to look for easy and intuitive ways to decrease its energy usage. To help you choose reduction strategies, the figure below shows the typical uses of energy in a commercial operation in the United States for 2004. The information is taken from the U.S. Department Of Energy. In that figure, the category Other includes service station equipment, ATMs, telecommunications equipment, medical equipment, pumps, emergency lighting, emergency electric generators, and manufacturing performed in commercial buildings. The category SEDS includes emissions attributable to the commercial sector but not directly to specific end-uses.

More information about each of these emission sources in the commercial sector, specific strategies to reduce them, and links to resources to help you meet those strategies, can be obtained by clicking on the corresponding links below.