Sustainability & Climate Action Plan Gil Philip Friend Chief Sustainability Officer City of Palo Alto February 11, 2015

A “sustainable city” can Improve Quality of Life Build Prosperity Enhance Resilience

We’ve done a lot 2007 Climate Protection Plan 154+ City sustainability initiatives, including Green building ordinance Electric vehicle readiness Local Solar Plan Urban Forest Master Plan Energy/compost facility PV permit streamlining Bicycle Boulevards Source: http://copasharepoint/Sustainability/Lists/Sustainability%20Initiatives/Quick%20View.aspx  

With more in the pipeline Sustainability metrics to Open Data Internal engagement: Green Team Process improvement: Workflow & checklists Directory of policies & initiatives Procurement: Default to green Zero Waste: Internal benchmarking Fleet: Conversion to ZEVs Finance: “total cost of operations” + “cost of externalities” “Future generations” policies Streamlining sustainability reporting

And long way to go…

You’ll recall Impressive GFG reductions: 34% base 1990, x% base 2005 Focus has been incremental reductions of negative impacts Now we face big challenges: Transportation and Natural Gas Whether we decide to go for 80x50, 80x30, or carbon neutral in 10yrs or less--Can’t get to even 80% x 2050 w/o transforming transport, and eliminating impact or actuality of gas How… specific rates of change… So all this work leaves us…and you…with some big questions To discuss tonight and over the coming months.

Emissions, Current vs. Required (2005-50)* P R O V I S I O N A L Current emissions path based on reductions from 2005-2012 Leading but not good enough. Cali 80x50.[EU: 40% by 2030] CAP now, looking at 80x30…and Moonshot Courtesy of Daniel Aronson & AutoDesk

Global Benchmarks CITY KEY MEASURE GHG GOAL Barcelona Open Gov’t + Intelligent Energy Network 20% reduction by 2025 Amsterdam Smart City Investment Funds 40% Reduction by 2025 London Carbon Measurement + Congestion Pricing + ZEV Taxis 30% reduction by 2025 Ft. Collins Smart Grid + Efficiency pricing Carbon Neutral by 2050 Seattle Integrated transit planning Copenhagen California Carbon Free Mobility and Energy AB32 Net zero buildings Renewables Carbon Neutral—and 75% bicycle commute mode share—by 2025. 80 x 50 New residential 2020, new commercial 2030. 50% renewables by 2030 We’ve done a lot 2007 Climate Protection Plan: 154+ City sustainability initiatives, including Green building ordinance, Electric vehicle readiness, Local Solar Plan, Urban Forest Master Plan, Energy/compost facility, PV permit streamlining, Bicycle Boulevards 7th in US for number of PV installations per capita-  Hewlett Packard, VMWare, JCC, VA Hospital, EPRI, Cooley Godward, SAP, and Stanford Medical Center are some of the 36 Palo Alto businesses that have installed solar power systems.

Scenarios: Natural Gas (1) Accelerated: 10% per year Note this scenario is with a 10% adoption rate for fuel switching Envision a series of stakeholder meetings, interactive, dialing assumptions and preferences, to see what needed to get to where we want to go So all this work leaves us…and you…with some big questions To discuss tonight and over the coming months.

Big Questions Shall we become a carbon-neutral city? How fast? How will we reduce or eliminate the 60+% of our carbon footprint contributed by transportation? How will we reduce or eliminate the 30+% of our carbon footprint contributed by natural gas? How will we adapt to climate change? How would Palo Alto adapt to a possible “new normal” in California’s water regime? Since it’s not only about carbon, what other sustainability goals should we pursue? What goals will you pursue?

Gil Philip Friend Chief Sustainability Officer gil.friend@cityofpaloalto.org 650-329-2447 @paloaltocso Now some may say...