Climate action overview
As part of the City’s climate work, the Portland Water Bureau has been planning for the impacts of climate change on our water supply, infrastructure, and workforce. Portland’s water system is well situated to adapt to the future. Our climate actions include
- Investing in our water system to ensure our water supply remains robust and resilient to future climate impacts
- Preparing for a wide range of climate risks including increased heat, floods, storms, and wildfire
- Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions
- Generating clean energy through the Bureau of Hydroelectric Power
- Ensuring that our climate work promotes equitable outcomes for underserved communities
Learn more about our ongoing work in our climate action overview:
Net Zero Strategy
At the Portland Water Bureau, we’re not just dedicated stewards of our region’s water supply—we’re also fierce advocates for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why we’re committed to cutting our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to a 2007 baseline, and to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. (Net zero is defined as the state where greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, are added to the atmosphere and removed from the atmosphere at equal rates.)
This work is aligned with the City of Portland’s Climate Emergency Declaration and City climate goals. In 2024, the Water Bureau published our first Net Zero Strategy outlining steps we need to take to reach our net zero goal.
Over the next five years, we’ll be focusing our greenhouse gas reduction and mitigation efforts on the following subset of high-priority actions:
Top strategies for the next five years (through fiscal year 2028–29)
- Reduce electricity use through energy savings contracts and programs, preventing water loss, and climate-smart planning and design practices.
- Increase renewable energy generation by looking for new solar and micro-hydro opportunities.
- Reduce fleet emissions by transitioning to electric and high-efficiency vehicles.
- Begin phasing out natural gas by switching to electric heating sources.
- Increase both internal and external communication and partnership around climate action.
- Analyze scope 3 emissions and identify opportunities for meaningful emissions reductions.
- Use an adaptive management approach to update our Net Zero Strategy regularly. Continuously conduct research and incorporate new projects into our strategy as appropriate.
The 2050 roadmap
The full Net Zero Strategy can be found here:
Reducing carbon emissions by reducing water loss
As part of our Net Zero Strategy, we’re working to reduce water loss. Water loss is responsible for about 8 percent of the Water Bureau’s carbon emissions. It includes things like leaks on storage tanks, water lost when a pipe breaks, and unpermitted hydrant use.
Treating and moving water uses electricity, so reducing our water loss reduces our electricity use. And that means we can lower our carbon emissions by addressing water loss.
We’re using innovative strategies to reduce our water loss, including satellite leak detection technology. Satellite leak detection helps us locate leaks in a faster, more cost-effective way. In 2023, finding and fixing leaks through the satellite leak detection project reduced our carbon emissions by 56 metric tons. Read the full case study below to learn how we calculated our carbon emissions reduction:
Greenhouse gas emissions dashboard
We’re working to cut emissions in half by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2050. To increase transparency and accountability around our climate efforts and progress toward net zero goals, we made an interactive dashboard showing organizational emissions, sources, and trends.
Carbon footprint reports
We’ve been tracking and reporting on the bureau’s greenhouse emissions since 2007 in regular carbon footprint reports. These reports calculate annual emissions and summarize historical trends in emissions, with a focus on scope 1 and 2 emissions and renewable energy generation. Recent carbon footprint reports can be found here:
Climate adaptation and resilience
We’re a national leader in water sector climate adaptation and have a long history of planning for climate impacts to Portland’s water supply and distribution system. Read more about how we adapt to climate impacts and build resilience to physical and organizational climate risks and stressors.