St. Louis
City Scorecard Rank
28
St. Louis, MO
40.00Scored out of 100Updated 10/2020
Community-Wide Initiatives
Score: 4.5 out of 15 points
Community-Wide Climate Mitigation and Energy GoalsList All
Climate Mitigation Goal
The Sustainability Action Agenda sets a goal to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions 25% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 80% below 2005 levels by 2050. Based on ACEEE’s analysis of past years emissions data, ACEEE projects that the city will achieve 75% of the per-capita emissions reductions required to achieve its 2050 community-wide GHG emissions reduction goal.
Energy Efficiency Goal
While the city’s Climate Action & Adaption Plan and Energy Benchmarking program have the intention to reduce energy use within the community, neither have established a quantifiable energy reductions goal.
Renewable Energy Goal
The Board of Alderman approved a resolution to procure 100% of electricity from clean energy sources such as wind, solar, and energy efficiency measures by 2035.
Last updated: August 2023
Equity-Driven Approaches to Clean Energy Planning, Implementation, and EvaluationList All
Equity-Driven Community Engagement
We were unable to determine whether relevant decision-makers have taken a unique and expanded approach in conducting engagement for multiple clean energy initiatives with marginalized groups compared to engagement with other city constituencies.
Equity-Driven Decision-Making
We were unable to determine if the city has created a formal role for marginalized community residents or local organizations representing those communities to participate in decision-making that affects the creation or implementation of a local energy, sustainability, or climate action plan.
Equity Accountability Measures
We were unable to determine whether the city has adopted specific goals, metrics, or protocols to track how multiple energy, sustainability, or climate action initiatives are affecting local marginalized groups.
Last updated: August 2023
Clean Distributed Energy ResourcesList All
The city is piloting a community solar program at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Last updated: August 2023
Adaptive Mitigation List All
Heat Island Mitigation Policies and Programs
St. Louis is a member of the Green City Coalition, which runs the Urban Greening Program. The Program has a budget of $13.5 million to spend on demolishing vacant and abandoned buildings as a means to reduce impervious surfaces while also restoring the Bissel Point Watershed.
Resilience Hubs
We were unable to determine if the city has supported the creation of resilience hubs that incorporate clean energy resources and are sited in disadvantaged communities.
Last updated: August 2023
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Workforce DevelopmentList All
Workforce development for disadvantaged workers
We could not determine if city has partnered with a local education institution, labor union, or community-based organization to create, support, and/or incentivize the development of clean energy workforce development initiatives that target training and support services for potential or existing workers from disadvantaged communities to obtain and keep in-demand jobs.
Workforce development for the broader community
We could not determine if city has partnered with a local education institution, labor union, or community-based organization to create, support, and/or incentivize the development of clean energy workforce development initiatives that target training and support services for potential or existing workers from the broader community to obtain and keep in-demand jobs.
Outcomes tracking
We could not determine if the city has instituted a mechanism to measure the performance and/or success of equitable workforce development initiatives focused on the clean energy sector.
Last updated: August 2023
Buildings Policies
Score: 19 out of 30 points
Building Energy CodesList All
Overview
The State of Missouri allows local jurisdictions to adopt building energy codes more stringent than the state’s code. In 2018, St. Louis adopted the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) by ordinance, along with several other of the 2018 ICC codes. To learn more about Missouri’s building energy codes, please visit the State Policy Database.
Commercial
Commercial properties must comply with the 2018 IECC. The city’s zEPI score for their commercial energy code is 47.25.
Residential
Residential properties must comply with the 2018 IECC. The city’s zEPI score for their residential energy code is 55.5.
Solar-readiness policies
St. Louis adopted a solar-ready ordinance for commercial and multifamily buildings in January 2020.
EV-charging readiness policies
Saint Louis Ordinance 71285 sets EV-ready requirements for commercial and multifamily buildings.
Low-energy use requirements
St. Louis Ordinance 67414 requires new municipal buildings achieve LEED Silver certification.
Electrification
We could not find information on whether the city has adopted any electrification policies.
Last Update: August 2023
Building Energy Code Compliance and EnforcementList All
St. Louis has 160 full time employees but we were unable to determine the amount of staff effort dedicated to energy code enforcement. The city uses plan reviews to verify compliance with building and energy codes. The city partners with Missouri Gateway Green Building Council and Building Energy Exchange-St. Louis to provide free online and in-person training on benchmarking, building energy performance standards and energy efficiency topics.
Last Updated: August 2023
Policies Targeting Existing BuildingsList All
Building performance standards
Ordinance 71132 requires commercial, multifamily, institutional, and municipal buildings greater than 50,000 square feet to achieve phased energy use reductions.
Commercial and multifamily benchmarking
St. Louis adopted the Building Energy Awareness bill. It requires certain buildings to record annual whole-building energy and water consumption data in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. City-owned buildings began benchmarking in the first year under the ordinance in 2017. The city required privately-owned commercial and multifamily buildings 50,000 square feet to comply starting April 2018. Both city- and privately-owned buildings will be required to report their consumption information each year thereafter.
Incentives
PACE financing is available for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in residential and commercial buildings. The program is targeted to low income housing.
We could not find information on whether the city collects data on incentive and financing programs to ensure equitable outcomes.
Last Updated: August 2023
Transportation
Score: 8 of out 30 points
Sustainable Transportation Planning List All
Sustainable Transportation Plan
St. Louis's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan was released in 2017 and includes sustainable transportation strategies.
VMT/GHG Targets and Stringency
The City of St. Louis does not have a codified VMT or transportation GHG reduction target.
Progress Achieved Toward VMT/GHG Targets
The City of St. Louis does not have a codified VMT or transportation GHG reduction target, and therefore cannot make progress toward the target.
Last Updated: September 2023
Location Efficiency List All
Location Efficient Zoning Codes
We were unable to find information indicating that the City of St. Louis has made changes to its zoning code in the past 10 years to facilitate more residential density, mixed-use development, or transit-oriented development.
Parking Requirement
St. Louis has eliminated parking minimums in certain districts.
Location Efficiency Incentives and Disclosure
St. Louis offers tax incentives for developments near transit.
Affordable Housing around Transit
The city incentivizes affordable housing near transit by offering tax incentives for these developments.
Last Updated: September 2023
Mode Shift List All
Mode Shift Targets
The City of St. Louis does not have a codified mode share target.
Progress Achieved Toward Mode Shift Targets
The City of St. Louis does not have a codified mode share target, and therefore cannot make progress toward the target.
Subsidized Access to Efficient Transportation Options
Lime and Bird, the primary shared micromobility operators in St. Louis, offer discounted rides for qualifying individuals. Those participating in assistance programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, or the local transit agency's reduced fare program are eligible for Lime Access. Low-income individuals, veterans, students, teachers, and senior citizens can receive discounts through Bird's Community Pricing program.
Last Updated: September 2023
Public Transit List All
Transit Funding
The transit entities that serve the City of St. Louis have received $273,497,100.00 on average annually between 2017 and 2021 from local sources. That equates to roughly $174.65 per capita between 2017 and 2021 within the service area.
Access to Transit Services
The AllTransit Performance Score measures a given community's transit access and performance. The score considers connections to other routes, access to jobs, service frequency, and the percent of commuters who ride transit to work. The City of St. Louis's AllTransit Performance Score is 8.4, scoring the 3 points in the City Scorecard.
Last Updated: September 2023
Efficient VehiclesList All
Efficient Vehicle Purchase Incentives
Neither the City of St. Louis nor the local utility provide incentives for purchasing efficient vehicles.
Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Incentives
Ameren, a utility serving the City of St. Louis, offers rebates of $5,000 per port on Level 2 EV chargers and $20,000 per port on DC fast chargers for businesses and multifamily properties. The maximum incentive amount is 50% of the total project cost.
Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Requirements
The City of St. Louis requires all new multifamily buildings with 21 to 49 parking spaces to include at least 1 EV charging station. All new multifamily buildings with 50 or more parking spaces must include EV charging stations in at least 2% of spaces.
EV Charging Ports
The City of St. Louis has 53 vehicle charging ports per 100,000 people available for public use.
Electric School Bus Goal
Neither the City of St. Louis nor the local school district have set an electric school bus goal.
Electric Transit Bus Goal
Neither the City of St. Louis nor the local transit agency have set an electric transit bus goal.
Last Updated: January 2024
Freight System EfficiencyList All
Sustainable Freight Plans
The City of St. Louis does not have a sustainable freight plan or freight mobility plan in place, nor is it pursuing any freight efficiency strategies.
Open Data Portals
The City of St. Louis does not have an open data portal with real-time freight data.
Last Updated: September 2023
Community Energy Infrastructure
Score: 6.5 out of 15 points
Community Energy Infrastructure Summary List All
Ameren Missouri, formally Union Electric Co., is the primary electric utility serving the City of St. Louis. Spire Missouri (formerly Laclede Gas), an investor-owned utility (IOU), is St. Louis’s primary natural gas utility. The State of Missouri requires all IOUs to capture all cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities. To learn more about the state requirements for electric and gas efficiency, please visit the Missouri page of the State Database.
The St. Louis Water Division is the municipal utility that provides drinking water services to St. Louis. The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is the regional utility which treats the city’s wastewater and manages the stormwater.
Last Updated: September 2023
Electricity and Natural Gas Efficiency SavingsList All
In 2021 Ameren Missouri reported 308,402 MWh in net electric incremental savings. In 2021, Ameren Missouri spent $62,067,389 on electric energy efficiency programs.
In 2021, Spire Missouri reported 3.28 MMtherms of net natural gas savings at the meter. In 2021, Spire Missouri spent $8,246,950 on energy efficiency. These savings and spending figures cover the entire jurisdiction of both utilities, not just the City of St. Louis.
Ameren Missouri offers electric efficiency incentives and technical assistance to residential and commercial/industrial customers. Spire Missouri similarly offers natural gas efficiency programs to residential and business customers.
The City of St. Louis partners with Ameren Missouri and Spire Missouri in a number of programs and utility representatives serve as board or commission members for multiple city programs. For example, the city and utilities partner through the Set the PACE St. Louis financing program to help homeowners and commercial, industrial and multifamily property owners access affordable, long-term financing for smart energy upgrades to their buildings. Ameren Missouri participates in the Board of the recently passed Building Energy Performance Standard program. Spire participates with the City of Kansas City regarding the Benchmarking Ordinance.
Last Updated: September 2023
Low-Income & Multifamily EE Programs List All
Low-Income Programs
Ameren Missouri, in partnership with Spire Missouri, offers a Community Savers Rebate Program to qualified low-income residential customers. This program is available to multifamily buildings with three or more units in the building that meet income qualifications. The program provides education, HVAC tune-ups and a variety of direct-install, no-cost, energy-saving measures including LEDs, faucet aerators, programmable thermostats, low-flow showerheads, and ENERGY STAR refrigerators and window units. In addition, incentives are available for common area lighting and whole building retrofits for standard and custom projects. In addition, Ameren Missouri offers a Multifamily Income Eligible program, Single Family Income Eligible Program, and Low-Income Grant program.
In 2021, Ameren Missouri’s achieved 9,467 MWh in energy savings, while spending $8,425,671 and serving 5,440 low-income customers.
Spire Missouri offers a Low-Income Weatherization Program to customers in St. Louis and throughout its service territory. The program offers weatherization measures including weather-stripping, caulking, HVAC filter replacement, HVAC repair/replace, and low-flow faucet aerators and showerheads. The program partners with the local government agencies, Community Action Agencies (CAA), the Weatherization Assistance Program, Committee to Keep Missourians Warm, Earthways Center, US Green Building Council, and Energy Efficiency for All.
Spire Missouri partners with the Community Action Agencies and leverages Low Income Weatherization Assistance Program (LIWAP), Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and energy assistance dollars from Spire’s Dollars Help program. Spire also leverages funds from Independence Power & Light for the co-delivery program in Independence service territory. Spire covers health and safety measures 100%, including ASHRAE ventilation fans, energy recovery ventilators, new power vented water heaters, new furnaces, and smoke & CO monitors.
In 2021 according to Spire Missouri, it spent $3,081,742 on its low-income programs, which includes the co-delivery programs with Ameren, Evergy, and Independence Power Light along with weatherization funding distributed. In 2021, Spire provided incentives to 2,065 low-income multifamily units alongside Ameren and Evergy as part of their co-delivery offerings.
Multifamily Programs
Ameren Missouri and Spire Missouri jointly offer the Multifamily Low-Income Program for low-income multifamily buildings. This program delivers long-term energy savings and bill reductions to tenants, owners, and operators of multifamily low-income properties. This will be achieved through education and a variety of directly installed and incentivized energy-saving measures in tenant units, whole-building, and common area improvements. Ameren Missouri also offers the Multifamily Market Rate program which provides buildings with an energy assessment, incentives for energy-saving building upgrades, and incentives for energy-saving products.
In 2021, Ameren Missouri achieved 9,685 MWh in energy savings, while serving 4,219 multifamily housing units and spending $5,676,306. In 2021, Spire Missouri achieved 0.14 MMtherms in energy savings and spent $372,639 in FY21 for gas measures as part of their co-delivery with Ameren.
Last Updated: September 2023
Provision of Energy Data by UtilitiesList All
Ameren and Spire provides automated benchmarking services. Ameren created a new tool called the Benchmarking & Energy Efficiency Portal (BEEP) so building owners can get monthly, electric data automatically uploaded to properties created in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The city of St. Louis provides community wide energy usage information for planning and evaluation purposes through their Annual Benchmarking Report.
The City of St. Louis does not advocate for better access to utility data for ratepayers or the establishment of data-sharing agreements between the city and its utilities.
Last Updated: September 2023
Decarbonization and Climate Change Mitigation Efforts of Cities and Energy UtilitiesList All
Utility Climate Mitigation Goal
In 2020, Ameren committed to a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with an interim goal of 50% reduction by 2030, and 85% by 2040, and 100% by 2050 from 2005 levels. To achieve 50% by 2030, Ameren will need to reduce emissions by 3.8% annually from 2019 levels.
City-Led Efforts to Decarbonize the Electric Grid
In 2020, the City of St. Louis signed on to Ameren's green tariff program to procure renewable energy. Ameren is adapting the program now, and the city plans to revisit the program offering in June 2020.
Clean Distributed Energy Resources
The city is piloting a community solar program at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Municipal Renewable Energy Procurement
We were unable to find information indicating that St. Louis has installed onsite or offsite municipal renewable energy systems.
City Renewable Energy Incentive and Financing Programs
PACE financing is available for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in residential and commercial buildings. The program is targeted to low income housing.
Last Updated: September 2023
Efficiency Efforts in Water ServicesList All
Citywide Water Efficiency and Goals
The City of St. Louis’s Water Division and the energy utilities do not offer joint water or energy efficiency programs. At this point, the City of St. Louis Water Division does not have a goal to reduce water usage, nor does it offer water conservation rebates or incentives to city residents.
Water Plant Efficiency and Self-Generation
There is currently no goal established for saving energy through the municipal water system operations. The City's Water Division has entered into a formal Energy Demand agreement with Ameren Missouri and is saving energy through this program. The city’s water system does not self-generate its own energy.
Last Updated: September 2023
Local Government Score:
2 out of 10 points
Local Government Climate and Energy Goals List All
The City of St. Louis adopted the Climate Action and Adaption Plan. The Plan includes actions for municipal operations.
Climate Mitigation Goal
In 2018, St. Louis achieved its goal to reduce municipal greenhouse gas emissions 25% below 2005 levels by 2020. St. Louis established a citywide goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 as part of the city’s commitment to the Global Covenant of Mayors. Based on ACEEE's analysis of past years emissions data, ACEEE projects that the city will not achieve its 2050 municipal GHG emissions reduction goal.
Energy Reduction Goal
We were unable to find information regarding a municipal energy reduction goal.
Renewable Energy Goal
The Board of Alderman passed a resolution to use 100% renewable electricity by 2035 citywide.
Last updated: June 2021
Procurement and Construction Policies List All
Fleet Policies and Composition
In Feb. 2021, Executive Order #68, Priority Procurement of Clean Municipal Vehicles, cements the practice of adding more clean vehicles to the City’s fleet and demonstrates the City’s commitment to reducing municipal emissions. The changes to the existing City Vehicle Policy require departments to prioritize electric vehicles when procuring new vehicles for the City fleet, except when there is no electric model to suit the operating needs for the vehicle being replaced, or there is no cost-effective electric alternative. In those cases, departments are be required to prioritize purchase of a clean vehicle pursuant to the following structure: (1) plug-in hybrid vehicle, (2) hybrid-electric vehicle, (3) alternative fuel or other vehicle with demonstrated lowered emissions than the vehicle eligible for replacement. We were unable to find data regarding the city’s fleet composition.
Public Lighting
The city and county’s lighting regulations require lighting controls and call for automatic extinguishing of streetlights when sufficient day light is available. St. Louis has converted approximately 40-50% of streetlights to LED.
Inclusive procurement
St. Louis has set carveouts for minority and women-owned businesses.
Last updated: October 2023
Asset Management List All
Building Benchmarking and Retrofitting
The City benchmarks 16 properties 50,000 square feet or larger that are subject to the City's benchmarking ordinance.
Comprehensive Retrofit Strategies
The city of St. Louis does not have a comprehensive retrofit strategy due to budget limitations.
Municipal Employee Transportation Benefits
St. Louis does not provide reduced-emission transportation benefits to municipal staff.
Last update: February 2024