SLO Climate Solutions Series – Kickoff Celebration

Have fun, learn, and take part.

Kid Hanging a Garland for a Celebration

Why should you care about the City of San Luis Obispo’s decision to be carbon neutral by 2035? Join us on April 30 to find out, have some fun, and get involved.

On September 18, 2018, when the San Luis Obispo City Council decided to pursue a 2035 carbon neutral goal (see page 6), they were making a monumental commitment to protecting this beautiful place where we all love to live, work, and play.

At the time, it was the most ambitious municipal goal in the country and landed San Luis Obispo and Mayor Heidi Harmon on the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign website. The Mayor issued a challenge to other mayors across the country to join us. Apparently, Chicago decided to follow our lead because, on April 10, 2019, the Chicago City Council announced a similar commitment.

Last year, even though I live in Cambria, an unincorporated part of San Luis Obispo County, I was thrilled to learn about the City of San Luis Obispo’s carbon neutral goal.

The environment surrounds you, me, and everyone else 24/7/365. It does not recognize city limits, county lines, or state or country borders. What we do to the environment we do to ourselves.

I hope the entire County will embrace a carbon neutral by 2035 goal. That is why I decided to get involved with the San Luis Obispo Climate Coalition and do my part. You can, too.

A good way to get involved and share your ideas is by participating in the SLO Climate Solution Series.

SLO Climate Solutions Series

San Luis Obispo Climate Solution Series Kick Off and Celebration Flyer

The first event in the SLO Climate Solution Series is a kickoff celebration with interesting people to meet and talk with, free nibbles, giveaways, prize drawings, and most important, several ways for you to communicate with us what is important to you.

Event Information

This free event is open to the public.

SLO Brew Logo

Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Time: 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: SLO Brew at 736 Higuera St. , San Luis Obispo

To reduce the carbon footprint of the event and spread happiness to another city in California the SLO Climate Coalition has purchased a carbon offset. This will support the City of Arcata Community Forest among the magnificent redwoods of Humboldt County.

You can find more information on the Coalition’s website or by contacting our hardworking leader for this event, Francisco Pares at fpares@civicspark.lgc.org.

Passport

SLO Climate Solutions Series Kickoff Passport Front

When you arrive, make sure you pick up your passport. Throughout the evening, you will have opportunities to visit the exhibitor booths to get it stamped. Then fill out the back, drop it off, and you are eligible to win one of our door prizes.

Exhibitors

Before and after the panel discussion you will have a chance to talk with representatives from the organizations listed below. Not only are they friendly people from the Central Coast, but they also have information to help you participate in going carbon neutral, and they want to hear your ideas, too.

Panel Discussion

Eric Veium, the SLO Climate Coalition chairperson, will be moderating a panel discussion with Heidi Harmon, City of San Luis Obispo Mayor; Jim Dantona, President and CEO of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce; and Dennis Elliot, Director of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo.

These leaders will share their thoughts about going carbon neutral by 2035, answer questions, and listen to your ideas.

Heidi Harmon

In her second term as the Mayor of the City of San Luis Obispo, Heidi Harmon continues to be a climate champion and a staunch advocate for inclusivity and diversity. She is committed to a Green New Deal for San Luis Obispo and is spearheading the City’s carbon neutral by 2035 goal. Heidi fell in love with San Luis Obispo as a college student. She earned a degree in early childhood education from Cuesta College and a BA in liberal studies from Cal Poly. She has two grown children Zoie and Jack. Heidi believes that democracy starts and ends with the voice of the people.

Jim Dantona

When Jim Dantona took over the reins of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce in January 2019, he brought with him over 20 years of experience in the public and private sector helping businesses grow and create jobs. In Los Angeles, he worked with residents and community leaders on issues such as homelessness, zero waste, and affordable housing. Jim earned his bachelor’s degree in government from California State University, Sacramento. Having recently relocated to the San Luis Obispo area, Jim and his wife Jennifer are looking forward to taking in all the beauty of our community.

Dennis Elliot

As Cal Poly’s Director of Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability, Dennis Elliot manages the campus’ climate action plan and a $10M utility budget. He and his team oversee a wide variety of projects and programs focused on energy and water conservation, renewable energy, high-performance buildings, student engagement, and sustainability curriculum infusion. Dennis has served in the Facilities Department at Cal Poly for 36 years in a variety of energy-related roles, starting his career as a student working in the campus steam plant while pursuing his mechanical engineering degree.

After the panel discussion, you will have a chance to finish making the rounds of the exhibitors before turning in your passport for the door prize drawings.

View of Bishop Peak in San Luis Obispo, CA
Bishop Peak in San Luis Obispo, CA – photo credit San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce.

San Luis Obispo County is the coolest place to live, work, and play in the country so let’s keep it that way.

Top Photo Credit: Kid preparing for a celebration by hanging a flag garland on a tree – photo credit iStock/portishead1.

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About the Author: Linda Poppenheimer researches and writes about environmental topics to share information and to spark conversation. Her mission is to live more lightly on Earth and to persuade everyone else to do the same. She writes as The Unlikely Environmentalist at Green Groundswell.

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13 Comments

    1. I support everything that you may be able to do to help us adapt to climate change but please let us stick to the facts. Enough of this self-congratulatory, back patting! I noted in your promo of the “Kickoff Celebration” that the goal of being carbon neutral by 2035 is the “most ambitious goal in the nation”. This is factually incorrect. SLO is clearly “behind the curve” when it comes to climate change. There are already six U.S. cities that are powered entirely by renewable energy and 52 U.S. cities have targets set at 2035 or sooner and they set these targets long before SLO. SLO has an implementation plan for a community choice aggregation (CCA) program that is projected to be in operation a year from now. But as of today 881 U.S. cities have CCA’s up and running. Moreover, SLO is a late comer to installing electric vehicle charging stations. Similar-sized California college towns such as Santa Cruz, Davis, Palo Alto and Isla Vista have approximately the same number of charging stations as San Luis Obispo. Among the top 10 U.S. cities leading the way in the per capita number of charging stations, three of them are located in California and none of these include San Luis Obispo. We know we have a SLO Climate Coalition, a “Green Team” and a Sustainability Coordinator but what concrete accomplishments can we credit them besides talk and aspirational goals?

      1. Alan, while I appreciate your dedication to this cause, perhaps beating up on your allies isn’t the best way to approach this issue? We’d rather have you working side-by-side with us to fight climate change. At the time SLO made the commitment to be carbon neutral by 2035 there were no other cities in the country with that goal. None. Some have joined us since then. This article states that clearly and while you say 52 cities have goals set sooner than ours, you provide no citation to back up your claim. I, for one, would love to see that. It would be exciting.

        As for community choice, our provider switches to Monterey Bay Community Power on January 1, 2020 which is 8 months away, not “a year from now”. If we could have joined sooner, we would have, but the CPUC requires a year waiting period. It was a huge effort to get both SLO and Morro Bay to join MBCP before the end of 2019 and we’re proud of that achievement. I’m sorry you don’t like the “back-patting” but hey, people need encouragement to undertake the biggest and most important effort of our lives.

        We too believe in fact based analysis and decisions and there are many areas in which SLO is behind the curve a bit, you’re right about that. We’re working hard to change that fact and to get our residents engaged and excited about the economic and social potential for such a big change in our way of doing things. Will you choose to help us or knock us down?

  1. Dear Justin –
    Thanks for your prompt reply. Below are links to my sources for my statement that 52 cities have targets set for 2035 or earlier:

    https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/commitments

    https://www.c40.org/press_releases/global-cities-commit-to-make-new-buildings-net-zero-carbon-by-2030

    You may not have read the many letters I’ve submitted over the past several years addressed to the City regarding the inadequacy of our “Climate Action Plan”, but I have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of leadership this and previous councils have shown by not REQUIRING (as opposed to “incentivizing”) developers to incorporate into their developments the following:

    1) REQUIRE that developers install cool roofs and cool paving; 
    2) REQUIRE developers to install photovoltaics on new roofs where appropriate; 
    3) provide rebates for planting drought tolerant trees that sequester high amounts of carbon and put an end to indiscriminate removal of trees; 
    4) REQUIRE the purchase of “green power”. 

    Even if we avoid two degrees of global warming, water in the Central Coast will become much more scarce. Therefore the City must also:
     
    5) REQUIRE all developers to install vegetated bioswales and retention basins to recharge our aquifers; 
    6) REQUIRE developers to provide some form of rainwater harvesting (rooftop or surface);
    7) reinstate SLO’s water demand offset program; and 
    8) implement the expansion of rebate programs to include, but not be limited to, the following types of water demand reductions: hot water recirculation, point-of-use water heaters, toilet leak detection systems, dry toilets and grey water systems;
    9) CAP its population growth (including Cal Poly’s enrollment growth); and
    10) CAP or slow down its commercial growth. 

    Items 9 and 10 are critical though no politician will address these issues.. Instead, this council plows ahead on growing more head of household jobs, growing more tourism and growing our population (in excess of 1% per year) thereby growing our carbon footprint and biome carrying capacity. So, no, I’m not knocking what you’re doing but rather I’m urging you to realize that complacency is our enemy. This city is desperately “behind the curve” and has a lot of catching up to do.
     

    1. Alan, Thanks again for your continued dedication to climate action and the SLO County area. I checked out your links and I think we have a misunderstanding of what SLO’s goal is. By joining Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP), our electrical supply will be 100% GHG free on Jan 1, 2020, up from 80% with PG&E right now. We expect MBCP to use 100% renewable power well before most cities’ 2035, 2040 or 2050 goals.

      The Sierra Club link you provided is for cities who are merely pledging to use 100% renewable power by certain dates… NOT to be CARBON NEUTRAL by those dates. Only Evanston, Milwaukie, OR, Los Angeles and London have goals for the entire city to be carbon neutral, based on these links… and they all have chosen 2050, which lags our goal by 15 years.

      Even the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA) doesn’t list anyone with a goal sooner than ours. Washington DC, incidentally also has a 2050 goal. Notably, Copenhagen has a more aggressive target than ours: 2025.
      https://carbonneutralcities.org/cities/
      I also see that the Sierra Club link has our goal incorrectly stated… so I will work to get that one updated.

      I realize that this is a wonky distinction but it’s a very significant one. SLO will be doing much more than having a 100% renewable grid by 2035. That’s easy in California. We aim to reduce our carbon emissions from transportation and the built environment and everything else to as close to zero as possible, and then offset the remaining emissions with carbon sequestration… so ideas like your green roofs and tree planting are very well received and already in planning stages.

      We believe we can achieve these reductions, even with the modest planned population increases and assure you that there is no complacency in our Coalition or this City’s goals and expectations.

  2. Dear Justin –
    I stand corrected and thank you for you clarification. As you can imagine, I was disturbed by the following statement provided by the Sierra Club:

    “San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo is committed to 100% carbon-free, clean electricity by 2035. Mayor Heidi Harmon has pledged their support for a community-wide transition 100% renewable energy.”

    And I realize that most of these cities have community wide carbon neutral goals for 2050. However, (and not to get into a p…..g contest!) you failed to mention the three cities listed below. And Cambridge Mass beat us by a year!

    Berkeley The City of Berkeley is committed to transitioning to 100% clean, carbon-free energy by 2030, including electricity, transportation and buildings, by 2030. Contact Richard Rollins Mayor Jesse Arreguin has pledged their support for a community-wide transition 100% renewable energy.
    Cambridge In April 2017, Cambridge committed to transition 100% clean and renewable energy community-wide, including building energy use and transportation, by 2035.
    Chicago Chicago, IL is committed to transitioning to 100% clean, renewable electricity for all buildings by 2035 and to a 100% renewable, electric bus fleet by 2040. Contact Kyra Woods

    Hoping you will hear my plea for more mandatory requirements rather than elective requirements especially for new development. I’m also concerned that our citizens will still have the option (which they may not exercise) to switch to MBCP as their power source.
    – Allan

    1. Hi Allan,

      I hope you can attend a Coalition meeting. We have one this Thursday (May 9) starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Ludwick Community Center. Also, the City of San Luis Obispo is hosting their first 2019 Climate Action Plan update workshop on May 16 starting at 6:30 p.m. at the downtown library, which gives you an opportunity to share your thoughts and solutions.

    2. Hey Allan, I just wanted to mention what I found about Cambridge… because it’s very important to me that we are, in fact, the most ambitious carbon neutral goal in the country, if we’re going to be saying that.

      So I checked out the Cambridge city website, and it’s kinda weird. Their “2020 climate action plan” has very tepid, modest goals like “reduce GHG emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels”. BUT I then found the “Net Zero Action Plan” and that’s really good. They’re new goal seems to be carbon neutral by 2050… which is very good… and I particularly like the idea of the “Local Carbon Offset Fund” which gives developers incentives for GHG reductions and sequestering. Anyway, they’re doing great stuff… but our goal is still the quickest-to-neutral.

      Let’s hope, for our kid’s sake that we make it by then… and that other cities get faster to meet or exceed our timeline.

  3. I congratulate the city for moving to MBCP next year. It is an important step in the right direction. However, regarding carbon neutral, I believe what I see. And what I see are trees cut down right and left in order to pave more of our land under the banner of “affordable housing” that turn out to be not affordable at all. I see hotels, worst offenders when it comes to save water and energy, being built all over town. As Allan mentioned earlier, no requirements have been placed on developers to use methods that will lead us to be carbon neutral. Allan’s suggestions ought to be implemented immediately. Instead, the City kowtows to developers. Presently they run the show to the point that when one wants to paint a building black against the decision of the ARC, the city overturns the ARC’s decision and lets him do it! Again, I believe what I see, and what I see (outside of moving to MBCP) is not encouraging because it is wishful thinking instead of moving forward and enrolling people who have long been involved in working hard to improve the environment.

    1. Hi Odile,

      I hope you can attend a Coalition meeting and/or the City of San Luis Obispo’s upcoming 2019 Climate Action Plan workshop. See my reply to Allan for details.

  4. Allan is right on with regard to developers in SLO County. There seems to be a “Santa Barbara envy” in city and county government. This is what happens to charming small towns. They get over built and swallowed up by developers. Allan’s “required” list should be a must for developers. They always whine that these things aren’t affordable, which means they won’t make as much money. So what! Go build someplace else.

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