Staff Analysis of Environmental Sustainability Task Force 2 Recommendations
|
|
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. (Item 8.2 will be later)
Mountain View City Hall Council Chambers,
500 Castro St.
|
|
The Environmental Sustainability Task Force 2 (ESTF-2) delivered a 318-page “Final Report” for the City Council last June with 36 recommendations to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions and make Mountain View a leader in sustainability. Staff, or a consultant, reviewed and analyzed each Task Force recommendation, seeking to understand and adjust, as necessary, the assumptions the Task Force used to calculate costs and benefits.
This analysis will be presented to the City Council on December 4, including 5 proposed “early actions,” and will inform development of the City’s fourth Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP) by April 2019. This meeting is a chance to comment on the analysis of the recommendations, which can be found in Item 8.2 of the Agenda Packet
here. More information on the Task Force and Final Report can be found
here.
|
|
The Latest Climate Science
|
|
Two major climate reports have come out in the last two months that we wanted you to be aware of:
The IPCC recently released a Special Report on climate change, which was very sobering and their strongest call to action yet. In it they indicated that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society to reduce global net emissions
“by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030.”
“Many climate change impacts and economic damages in the United States can be substantially reduced through global-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions complemented by regional and local adaptation efforts.”
|
|
"Mountain View + Google: The Power of Public-Private Partnerships"
|
|
We had a great event on November 5, with 80 community members joining us to learn about Mountain View’s collaboration with Google on two projects through its Civic Leadership program, as well as Google’s “Environmental Insights Explorer” (EIE) tool:
|
|
The Mountain View Sustainability and
Google Civic Leadership team
|
|
- The City-Google team was able to reduce the time it will take to complete our greenhouse gas inventories from about 260 to 40 hours, including the ability to complete a preliminary inventory a year earlier that can start informing policies and programs.
- After collecting data from 738 community members, the team was able to identify patterns relating to sustainability behaviors and motivations—for example, that (1) renters want programs incentivizing landlords and apartment complexes to make sustainability changes, (2) 85% would avoid driving if good alternatives exist, and (3) 80% would prefer to frequent a “green business,” all else equal. These insights will allow us to offer programs specific to the interests/barriers of the identified groups.
- The “Environmental Insights Explorer” tool lets you explore estimated greenhouse gas emissions in selected cities to help make informed decisions to address climate change. Prior to the launch of EIE, Sustainability staff provided feedback to Google to make the tool as useful and accurate as possible, including the ability for users to adjust data values to explore how policies or projects might affect emissions under various “what if” scenarios. Mountain View is one of the first five cities highlighted in the tool, along with Buenos Aires, Melbourne City, Victoria, and Pittsburgh.
Thank you to those who joined us! If you weren’t able to make it, you can find the presentation
HERE
and the video recording of the evening
HERE
.
|
|
Fire Victims Need Our Help
|
|
Don’t Forget to “Like” Us on Facebook!
|
|
Action of the Month:
Give the Gift of Good Times
|
|
This holiday season, give gifts without contributing to overconsumption and waste. “Stuff” eventually ends up in the landfill, but memories last a lifetime! Here are some of our favorite zero waste gift ideas:
- A day pass to go rock climbing, boating, or to an amusement park
- A gift certificate to a restaurant
- A class or lesson, such as dance, cooking, yoga, or a musical instrument (check out the Mountain View Recreation Winter Activity Guide for local class options)
- An annual pass to our State parks—then plan an adventure in a local park
- Tickets to a concert, play, movie, museum, or sporting event
- A digital audiobook
- Bonus Tip: want to give the gift of experience to someone who lives far away? Research activities in their area and find something they’d like—they’ll be touched that you went to the trouble of finding something local for them.
- Find more ideas HERE.
|
|
Learn how to grow and maintain a beautiful low-water and low-maintenance native garden. Here are some upcoming landscaping classes:
|
|
- Designing Native Gardens
- December 1, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Mitchell Park Community Center, Palo Alto
- Maintaining Native Gardens and Leak Detection
- December 8, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Mitchell Park Community Center, Palo Alto
- Designing Native and Drought-Tolerant Gardens
- December 8, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Sunnyvale Senior Center
|
|
Find more info about upcoming classes
HERE.
|
|
We Want to Hear From You!
|
|
Tell us your sustainability story! Have you recently made energy efficiency upgrades to your home, incorporated a new zero waste habit into your life, or found an alternate mode of transport that you love?
Send a photo and a short blurb to
[email protected] and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter!
|
|
|
|
www.mountainview.gov/sustainability
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
