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LA County Accelerating From Zero to 5 to 100

Guest Blogger: Alison Culpen, ICLEI USA Program Associate, California Region

“It’s not about going from zero to 100, it’s about going from zero to five.”
--Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles City Council President

Eric Garcetti's remarks, which he made at the LA County National Conversation on Climate Action on Earth Day, refer to the approach the region must take to transportation.

With over 27 speakers including four supervisors and the president of the CPUC, and with the help of over 40 staff volunteers (just glancing at the event agenda will make you dizzy), it certainly seemed like the National Conversation event was averaging 100 miles per hour.

And for good reason.

Local Action Roundup

• Keene, NH, takes green crown in NH Carbon Challenge (The Keene Sentinel)
• City Web sites track new federal money (Federal Computer Week)
• Akron group assesses city's carbon footprint (Akron Beacon Journal)
• Black Mayors Announce National 'Green The City' Initiative (PR Newswire)
  

Brainstorming Backyard Solutions in Houston

Guest Blogger: Ryan Foshee, ICLEI USA Program Associate (South Central)

The National Conversation on Climate Action event held in Houston, TX yesterday attracted a diverse crowd, yet everyone in attendance was united by the same question: What can we do, personally and collectively, to make a difference on climate change? 

This question was the jump-off point for several lively presentations by local government officials, academics, and do-it-yourselfers followed by a fantastic and fun town hall forum.

“Conservation, environmentalism, these ideas are nothing new,” explains presenter Mark Robinson,” a consultant with Momentum Bay Associates.  “Folks that went through the depression know that what you use, what you do – these things matter!  It’s time for us to remember this, now maybe more than ever."

Live More, Drive Less

Guest Blogger: Amy Shatzkin, ICLEI USA Pacific Northwest & Islands Manager (Live from the National League of Cities' Green Cities Conference and Expo in Portland)

You could have learned anything and everything about sustainability at the Green Cities Conference, with workshops covering topics from food systems planning to green buildings and community engagement. But it’s hard to attend any event in Portland, Oregon, without thinking about transportation and land use.

Buses, light rail cars and a stream of bicyclists criss-cross downtown and the eight bridges strung across a three mile stretch of the Willamette River connecting the City’s northeast and southeast neighborhoods.

Doug Farr’s keynote talk on Sunday night discussed sustainable urbanism, which he defines as "walkable and transit-served urbanism integrated with high-performance buildings and high performance infrastructure." Farr is a pioneering green architect and a key player in developing the LEED for Neighborhood Development program.

A Pie Chart of Opportunities for Atlanta

Any greenhouse gas emissions inventory tells a story, and for City of Atlanta, the tale involves an airport terminal and water and wastewater treatment facilities. In its municipal operations inventory, released on March 17, you can see that the blue and yellow pie slices constitute the two biggest sources of emissions, due to their high electricity consumption. Water and wastewater treatment (blue pie slice) are energy-intensive processes, and the airport terminal (yellow pie slice) is the largest building owned by the City.

Viewing this pie chart is a clear reminder that any local government needs to conduct an inventory (i.e., Milestone One) before it can think about an emissions reduction target or a climate action plan. With this information in hand, City of Atlanta can now decide on a realistic long-term goal to reduce emissions (the City is already committed to reducing emissions 7 percent by 2012), and strategize ways to reduce energy consumption and emissions. All the pie slices, in essence, represent emissions reduction opportunities through a broad range of measures, from lighting retrofits to more energy-efficiency water treatment pumps.

Sarasota Starts Talking

Guest Blogger: Cyrus Bhedwar, ICLEI USA Southeast Regional Director

Climate friendly landscaping.  Nuclear energy.  Public education.  What do each of these have in common?  They were topics discussed, with passion, on Earth Day in Sarasota County’s “Community Conversation on Energy and Climate,” part of the National Conversation on Climate Action.

Over 100 attendees gathered to listen, learn and share their thoughts on actions that they as individuals, businesses and civic organizations could take to reduce their energy consumption and their impact on the environment.  Keynote speaker Philip Fairey, deputy director of the Florida Solar Energy Center drew spontaneous applause from the audience when he demonstrated how Floridians could eliminate the need for a new nuclear energy plant by increasing efficiency in their homes.  And they could do it for a lower cost than building the new electricity generation facility.