Climate Action Plan

The Climate Action Plan that I wrote about when it passed committee unanimously passed the Council this morning.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of this document.  It lays out specific, targeted, achievable strategies for reducing our city's impact on climate change.  As I have said elsewhere, I think this is the critical challenge of our time, the issue on which future generations will judge us.

I want to publicly thank a few people for the success of this document, starting with Sustainability staff person Brandon Slotterback.  He put in a tremendous amount of time, effort, and skill into this planning process, and it shows.  He was supported by his boss, Gayle Prest, and intern Anders Imboden (who did much of the very impressive graphics work in the plan, among other things).

Sustainability staff worked hard to make this plan possible, but it's important to note that the goals and strategies were not crafted by staff, but by a large and diverse Steering Committee.  In turn, they worked with goals and strategies that were laid out by four working groups: on buildings and energy use, transportation, waste, and environmental justice.  I want to thank all of the members of the steering committee and the work groups for their hundreds of hours of volunteer effort.  They wrote this ambitious plan, and their ideas will define our work on climate change for years to come.

Lastly, I want to note that my office played many roles in the formation of this plan.  Along with the Mayor and Council Member Glidden, I welcomed the participants into this process over a year ago, and helped them celebrate their success this afternoon.  My Aide was a member of the Steering Committee, and participated on all of the work groups.  CM Glidden and I played an active role in expanding the environmental justice aspect of the plan, and shepherding it through the Council's process.

Now we have to make sure we implement the great ideas in this plan.  CM Glidden's staff direction to Sustainability to come back with recommendations for strategies to begin implementing immediately is a great start.  I look forward to putting this fantastic document to work in the months and years ahead.