In October 2025, Medford’s Planning, Development, and Sustainability Department completed the city’s community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory as part of our commitment to Global Covenant of Mayors. The inventory calculates emissions for the 2023 calendar year and is an important measure for us to realize and achieve our goals of becoming a carbon-free community by 2050.
This is the seventh GHG inventory conducted by the City, prior city-wide inventories were conducted between 2017 and 2024.
What is in the inventory?
Medford’s GHG inventory includes emissions from buildings, transportation, and waste activities that occur both within the city and outside the city. These different types of emissions are broken out into three “Scopes”, described below.
- Scope 1: What we combust and use in the city (e.g., residential heating oil, natural gas & gasoline)
- Scope 2: Emissions from energy we consume in the city, but the creation of the energy is outside the city, therefore the emissions occur outside the city, but occur due to activities in the city (e.g., electricity generated elsewhere but consumed in our homes and businesses)
- Scope 3: All other GHG emissions occurring outside the city as a result of activities in the city (e.g., waste disposal)
This inventory primarily includes scope 1 and 2 emissions. Some scope 3 emissions (electricity and natural gas distribution losses, waste disposal) are also included.
GHG Emissions Profile
The City of Medford generated 346,282 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e) in 2023. Stationary sources like our homes and businesses account for 61%, 38% comes from transportation, and the remaining 1% is generated by our waste.
Building Energy Emissions
60% of building energy emissions comes from our residential buildings, while 40% comes from commercial and industrial buildings.
Building Energy Emissions by Energy Type
Electricity and natural gas are responsible for 20% and 69%, respectively, while heating fuel oil contributed 11% in 2023.
Medford’s Emissions Over Time
This chart shows Medford’s GHG emissions over the last five reported years. Tools to model greenhouse gas emissions can change over time, so it’s useful to track the general trend rather than focusing too precisely on each year’s numbers.
Per Capita Emissions in Medford
Because of regional characteristics, Medford’s per capita emissions are lower than the average in Massachusetts and significantly lower than the average nationwide.
