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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Feature: March 2008
Carbon Regionprint
Local governments forgo mandates and green their own operations
Story by Nancy Brands Ward
Last year, San Francisco made headlines around the world when it became the first city to ban plastic bags. The ordinance promised fines within weeks of its November 2007 effective date should the city’s large supermarkets continue to use non-recyclable bags.
Other cities — Oakland, London and Paris — followed San Francisco’s lead, but so far no Capital Region cities have followed suit.
“You might go there first if you wanted to make a big splash,” says Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo. “We haven’t had a big discussion of plastic versus paper, but perhaps we should.”
In January, Los Angeles County supervisors chose a voluntary ban on plastic bags rather than a mandate. That decision came after a nine-month study, which was met with opposition by the California Grocers Association.
Local city officials acknowledge that taking a stand like San Francisco’s on plastic bags goes a long way toward raising public awareness about greenhouse emissions and sustainability. The nearly 1,800 responses elicited by an online poll at SFGate.com on the subject attest to the significant interest generated by the mandate. Public support for the new law — measured by agreement with the poll’s statement that it represents a “groundbreaking idea” — was 64 percent. Only 31 percent in the unscientific poll considered the law “unnecessary meddling.”
Buoyed by similar public support among their citizens, Capitola, San Francisco, Oakland and other cities have taken trailblazing stands against Styrofoam through ordinances passed in 2006 and 2007 banning its use in food packaging within city limits. In the Capital Region, however, only Roseville has dipped its toes in these waters by instituting a pilot program last November to promote Styrofoam recycling in the city.
So far, area cities have shied away from passing ordinances that require residents and businesses to enforce sustainability or reduce their carbon footprints — except where state law has forced their hands.
The 1989 Integrated Waste Management Act requires governments to divert 50 percent of their jurisdiction’s waste from landfills beginning in 2000 or face fines of up to $10,000 a day. That’s why the Sacramento area’s first green mandates concern recycling. In May 2006, West Sacramento took aim at a big-ticket item — recycling of construction and demolition waste — by requiring that contractors divert at least 50 percent of this waste from landfills. And early last year, concern that the Legislature might raise that bar led the Sacramento Regional Waste Authority to become one of the nation’s first metro areas to mandate businesses in the city and county of Sacramento to recycle paper, cardboard, bottles, cans, plastic, wooden pallets and metals. The requirement, which took effect in April 2007, applies to about 20,000 businesses that have four or more cubic yards per week of garbage services.
Requirements to comply with AB 32 — the Global Warming Solutions Act signed into law in summer 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — may ultimately have a similar effect by prompting cities to issue mandates to businesses and residents to reduce greenhouse emissions. But in early 2008, area cities are still feeling their way around this issue.
“The field is still very much emerging,” says Rob Braulik, Rocklin’s assistant city manager. “The infrastructure is not fully developed to implement certain practices or requirements. We’re not able yet to say, ‘We know this works. Here’s the [return on investment].’”
For years, local cities have been environmentally conscious. Rancho Cordova’s City Hall is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Solar carports generate 40 percent of the electricity required to operate Rocklin’s police station. And last year SustainLane ranked Sacramento as No. 13 on its list of greenest cities nationally.
Now, perhaps because of AB 32, cities are beginning to take a comprehensive look at what they can do to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote sustainability. Plans are at various stages around the region. Rancho Cordova and West Sacramento are barely beginning the process. Others, like Roseville, are pulling full-blown plans together. And still others, including Sacramento, are moving forward on implementing action plans. Even Davis, which has a history of sustainability projects dating back 40 years when it first introduced bike lanes, has taken a step back to re-examine the issue.
“Davis is at the formative stages of developing a sustainability plan,” says Mitch Sears, interim sustainability program coordinator for the city of Davis, noting that Davis has led the way for decades by making it easy for residents to ride bicycles, take public transportation and shop in their own neighborhoods. “We have to be realistic about what we can accomplish as a small community.”
An assessment of greenhouse emissions for the city and community of Davis is expected in early 2008 and will be used as a baseline for meeting carbon reductions required by AB 32. Davis may ultimately issue mandates, but Sears says first it is “trying to walk the talk — to re-energize our original focus. Then we’ll be making a more aggressive push out into the community. We’re trying to be smart, making sure the steps we take are useful and that they’re worth the time, cost and effort.”
And before the region’s cities consider passing ordinances aimed at promoting sustainability or reducing carbon emissions, there seems to be a sentiment among leaders that they need to get their own acts together first.
“We have to look at what we can do as a city,” Fargo says. “If we’re going to ask residents and businesses to do their part, which we are, we have to have our own house in order first.”
Fargo is taking aim initially at transportation and land use. That’s where the city can have the greatest impact, says Fargo, noting that transportation is responsible for 50 percent of the city’s carbon emissions, while the heating, cooling and construction of buildings contributes another 30 percent.
“My big push calls for more houses — river to river and freeway to freeway,” she says. “That’s also why I’m pushing so hard for the intermodal transit facility at the railyard, so we can have 1.5 million people a year moving through that station.”
The city has the most control over its own operations, says Reina Schwartz, director of general operations of the city of Sacramento. “The good news is that the city has control of a lot of buildings,” she says.
The California EPA building, which the city of Sacramento owns, was the first high-rise in the nation to receive platinum LEED certification — the highest level of the recognized standard for measuring sustainable building. And six other city buildings are moving toward silver certification.
While the area’s cities are working on a number of other ways to green their own houses — from replacing lighting systems to adopting environmentally friendly purchasing policies — they are stopping short of imposing requirements externally. Davis learned a lesson about the need to take a long-term look at sustainability after it passed an environmental initiative decades ago to limit the size of grocery stores to 25,000 square feet, only to rescind that ordinance in January 2006.
“The object was to allow residents to shop close to home and not have to use their cars to cross town to the mega-mart,” Sears says. “After years of debate and market research, the city increased the cap to 40,000 square feet to reflect market conditions.”
Robert Lee Chase, an architect and chief building official for Sacramento, says that kind of thinking — though those limits were ultimately rescinded — pave the way for developers to think about sustainability when they propose building in Davis. For example, Target is opening a mega-store in Davis, slated for March 2009, which will be one of its first green stores in the nation.
Under Chase’s leadership, Sacramento will use a two-phase program to encourage commercial and residential builders to go green. Initially, the city will hold out carrots for those who follow the green-building principles of programs like LEED and Build It Green, such as being able to jump to the front of the permit line. “In the development world, time is money,” says Chase. “So, we feel the incentive is pretty valuable.”
In the interest of making the transition as smooth as possible, a lot of Sacramento’s incentives will initially focus on education. In the first year, for example, compliance won’t be required. But builders may be asked to fill out a LEED or Build It Green checklist and attach it to their plans as a way to educate them about green building principles and certification requirements.
“Building green isn’t rocket science,” says Chase, a LEED-accredited architect who was building green for years before joining the city. “A lot of it is common sense, but there’s still a learning curve.”
Across the region, cities are holding workshops for citizens and businesses, involving youth groups and engaging the public in enhancing sustainability and reducing carbon footprints. Fargo talks about creating pledge cards Sacramento families can use to commit to reducing their own carbon emissions and educational coloring books for children about saving the Earth. In addition, Schwartz told the City Council in December that the city’s plan will also focus on improving energy efficiency of city buildings, switching to using 100 percent recycled copy paper, eliminating bottled water and seeking local carbon offsets.
Cities can also remove barriers to green initiatives through ordinances. “Ordinances don’t always have to be prohibitive,” says Rob Fong, a Sacramento councilman. “We can pass ordinances that allow [actions, such as] placing wind generators on rooftops.”
Using the carrot of incentives and encouragement could be more effective in the long run. Enforcement is expensive, and change is a slow process. Recycling mandates in the region and West Sacramento have been well received, and neither authority reports the need to levy penalties yet. But California cities have had decades to develop programs that divert waste from landfills before being slapped with the big stick of $10,000-a-day fines. The Integrated Waste Management Act has been in force for nearly 20 years, and development of California’s curbside recycling infrastructure began 30 years ago.
Sears notes that, if anything, sustainability is about long-term thinking. “We need a balance between social, environmental and economic systems,” he says. “[In Davis,] we’re trying to have a broader discussion at the community level.”
Officials in Davis and Sacramento say success depends on having that broader discussion in their communities and on weaving sustainability into all aspects of government operations. Despite budget constraints that limit the ability of cities to dedicate staff to sustainability actions, expect to see these issues form the framework for many local government actions in the coming years. Also expect continuing efforts to make them top-of-mind among residents — already discussion of green issues has begun to permeate nearly every aspect of community life.
“I went to church on Sunday,” Fong says to illustrate the point, “and the sermon was on bottled water.”
The region’s greenery
by Nancy Brands Ward
Although the region wasn’t the first to ban plastic bags or Styrofoam, some local cities have taken the lead in other areas toward ensuring sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. The following are some regional firsts.
Elk Grove: In January 2007, became the first to pass an ordinance providing incentives to homeowners to install money-saving, clean-energy solar systems. The three-year pilot program reduces the initial cost of solar systems on existing rooftops by upward of 25 percent and makes homeowners eligible for a $2,000 federal tax credit. As additional incentives, the city waives permit fees, reviews applications in one day, uses a standardized application and conducts the post-installation inspection within 24 hours.
Lincoln and Rocklin: First cities to adopt a state law allowing the use of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles for those who have lost their drivers’ licenses.
Rocklin: First city in PG&E’s service territory to sign up for the ClimateSmart program by earmarking more than $8,000 per year to be invested by the utility in new greenhouse emission programs. Rocklin’s investment offsets 100 percent of the city’s carbon emissions generated by city properties.
Roseville: In November 2007, introduced a pilot program to recycle Styrofoam, placing receptacles in five locations throughout the city. It was the first such program aimed at Styrofoam in the region.
When the city’s study of carbon emissions is completed this year, it could be one of the first in the state to have a comprehensive assessment of its emissions. Roseville Electric, a city-owned utility, completed its assessment last year.
City and county of Sacramento: Through the Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority, this is the first metropolitan area in California — and one of only a few jurisdictions in the nation — to implement a mandatory business recycling ordinance. Businesses that have four or more cubic yards per week of garbage services must recycle paper, cardboard, bottles, cans, plastic, wooden pallets and metals.
