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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 5363City of Palo Alto (ID # 5363) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Study Session Meeting Date: 12/8/2014 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: Sustainability Study Session Title: Study Session on Sustainability Initiatives and the Sustainability & Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) From: City Manager Lead Department: City Manager Recommendation This is a study session to provide information about work in progress and an opportunity for City Council questions and discussion. No City Council action is requested. Executive Summary Palo Alto has a long history of environmental leadership with a wide range of initiatives — citizen-led, staff-initiated, and council-directed—that have in many cases raised the bar on urban sustainability. One year ago, the City Manager created an Office of Sustainability in the City Manager’s Office, and hired a Chief Sustainability Officer to provide strategic focus to the City’s diverse existing efforts; to chart a course for the next phase of the city leadership; to develop a new climate action plan, building on original 2005 climate protection plan; and to further embed sustainability into City operations and the life of the community. Palo Alto is seen, both nationally and internationally, as a leader in sustainability and urban innovation. This status is well deserved, given our community's deep-rooted environmental values and City's early climate initiatives, our long history of innovation—including our early Climate Protection Plan, the hundreds of measures undertaken since then, the achievement of carbon-neutral electricity, award winning green building program, and the many initiatives underway across the organization. However, COPA’s good policies and programs could benefit from a clear strategic focus, clear goals and a clear story; consistent implementation and systematization; clear and accessible policies, programs and outcomes; and embedding of knowledge and best practices in well-articulated operating systems across the organization. The City has done a great job of leading by policy and regulation, but can do more by leading by example (such as improving the energy performance of City buildings). Our world-leading GHG reductions—both our historic accomplishments and projected business as usual (BAU) programs, will be insufficient to meet the California target of 80% 1 City of Palo Alto Page 2 reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (which, though also world-leading as policy, may itself be inadequate to meet the climate challenge). Staff is in the early phases of developing a new “Sustainability & Climate Action Plan” (S/CAP). Staff and consultants are carefully examining: what would it take to meet that “80x50 goal” (80% GHG reduction by 2050)—or more aggressive climate goals; what actions and investments would be required; what benefits could potentially be realized; and in view of those findings, how fast should and could we go. Staff and consultants will bring to Council a proposed S/CAP that includes discussion of these issues and proposes options for addressing them. Staff believes that the challenges of sustainability and climate change also present substantial opportunity to the City of Palo Alto. Emerging information from leading companies and other communities around the planet suggest that a well-grounded strategic focus on sustainability can serve as an innovation driver, and can contribute substantially to quality of life, and resilience (from climate resilience and emergency preparedness to energy price stability). This document will summarize staff’s current perspective on our current sustainability initiatives; orient Council to the S/CAP as a work in progress (note: it is not a draft or a preview of the S/CAP); and a set of “big questions,” including issues related to energy, transportation, water, the utility of the future, finance, transparency, adaptation and our common wealth, for consideration by Council and the community over the coming months. Background Palo Alto has a long history of environmental leadership with a wide range of initiatives — citizen-led, staff-initiated, council-directed—that have in many cases raised the bar on urban sustainability, including: the Palo Alto Green program and Carbon and Neutral Electricity; our early Climate Protection Plan and Zero Waste initiatives; leading commitments to green buildings, EV readiness and open data; an urban forest master plan, and much more. As staff noted in its April 21, 2014 staff report to Council: These are impressive accomplishments and continuation of current programs will produce additional gains. However, the context for this study session is increasingly different than when Council first set these programs in motion. It includes:  The growing seriousness of climate impacts, from sea level rise to the intensity and frequency of storm events;  The effect of these trends on hydropower, water supply and food supplies;  The increasing concern of capital markets and corporate leadership with climate risk and the “carbon bubble”;  The rapidly dropping price of renewable energy (and anticipated drops in the cost of energy storage);  The mounting evidence of the economic benefits of low-carbon strategies and the economic costs of delay; City of Palo Alto Page 3  The disruptive challenges that Distributed Generation (DG) poses to the traditional utility industry business model;  The rising expectation of what constitutes “climate leadership.” At a time of rising global concern about climate change, and rising frustration around the world at the lack of national leadership on these issues, we also see increasing responsibility and action from cities around the world. In fact, many see cities as the global leaders on climate change. At the Earth Day briefing in April, Council requested that additional study sessions be scheduled to enable Council to engage more substantially on these important issues. Since that time, staff has reviewed existing sustainability programs; instituted new programs, including a focus on improving internal and external sustainability reporting and expanding financial resources for sustainability initiatives; and launched the S/CAP process. Discussion PROGRAMS (EXISTING) There are a wide variety of sustainability initiatives underway in almost e very corner of the City government.. To improve both visibility and coordination and performance management, this summer staff created a database of sustainability initiatives across all departments. This first effort yielded 154 initiatives, including green buildings, electric vehicles, local solar, urban forest master plan, energy/compost, the GHG impact of City expenditures, “future generations” policies, and more. Some specific programs the Office of Sustainability has undertaken (the details of whic h are still in development) include:  Adding initial sustainability key performance indicators to the City’s Open Data dashboard: http://paloalto.opendata.junar.com/dashboards/8842/sustainability/  Improving internal engagement through the Sustainability Board and reactivating the staff GreenTeams  Developing workflow diagrams and checklists to facilitate efficiency and consistent adoption of policies.  Developing a comprehensive, accessible, actionable and trackable directory of sustainability related policies, resolutions, etc.  Working with Procurement to ensure green purchasing policies are being consistently implemented, and that greener alternatives become the default wherever possible  Working with the Zero Waste team to raise the performance of all City facilities  Working with Fleet Management to systematize and accelerate the conversion to zero emissions vehicles City of Palo Alto Page 4  Working with Finance to explore incorporating life cycle costing/total cost of ownership, as well as “reflecting the cost of externalities”—including potential carbon pricing—in financial decisions when applicable.  Streamlining sustainability data analysis and increasing timeliness and transparency of sustainability performance reporting. (Staff will provide a detailed summary of initiatives in the 2015 Earth Day report and in the S/CAP itself.) COLLABORATIONS (EXISTING): Because “sustainability is a team sport,” and because many of our challenges --such as transportation –can only be effectively addressed a tan inter-jurisdictional level, staff actively participates in several collaborative networks and organizations, including the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), Green Cities California, the International Cities League for Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), Bay Area Renewable Energy Network (BayREN), Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) Public Sector Climate Task Force (PSCTF), and others. (These are direct CSO collaborations; departments participate in many more, which are not listed here). Collaborative initiatives with these partners include:  With Santa Clara County: Alternative Mobility initiative, funded by the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC);  With the Urban Sustainability Directors Network Innovation Fund: multi-city working groups on Shared Mobility. Smart Cities. Sustainable Procurement.  In addition, we have applied for participation in the Rockefeller Foundation 100 Resilient Cities program. (Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco were among the first 32 cities selected last year. Cupertino, Palo Alto, San Jose and Sunnyvale have applied this year. We expect notification in December.) http://www.100resilientcities.org/cities AWARDS The City has continued to earn awards and recognition for our sustainability leadership including; the Beacon Award from the Institute for Local Government; Public Power Utility of the Year from the Solar Electric Power Association; 2014 Most Electric Vehicle Ready Community at the Charged & Connected Symposium; the 2014 Best Solar Collaboration Award from at the annual Solar Power Generation USA Congress; and others. Palo Alto is also one of 50 cities entered in a two-year competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize. STAFFING & CONTRACTORS In addition to the S/CAP initiative, the Office of Sustainability has invested in several targeted research projects including:  an analysis of the indirect carbon impact of the city’s spending (ClimateEarth); City of Palo Alto Page 5  Common Wealth, an examination of the policy mechanisms and decision tools that could organize the City’s sustainability efforts around the concept of “responsibility for future generations” (Science and Environmental Health Network);  several work streams to advance Electric Vehicle readiness (Sven Thesen & Associates);  a Cost Effectiveness Study to support an “above code minimum” energy code. In November, the Office of Sustainability added two hourly employees (through a pilot program requiring self-supporting revenues after one year seed funding), one focusing on expanding financial resources for sustainability initiatives across the city, and one focusing on streamlining our sustainability data management and reporting systems. OPPORTUNITY In the words of Alex Steffen, Planetary Futurist in Residence at IDEO, “One of the biggest levers that we have in the developed world for changing the impact that we have on the planet is changing the way that we live in cities S/CAP: T HE SUSTAINABILITY & CLIMATE ACTION PLAN OVERVIEW In August, the City began work on the S/CAP, the first comprehensive update to our climate planning since the 2007 Climate Protection Plan (CPP). Palo Alto has already reduced its carbon emissions by 34% from 1990 levels i, and now needs to decide on the climate action goals and strategies it will pursue in the coming decades. In addition the City's S/CAP and comprehensive plan need to be in sync with each other. Palo Alto is now faced with the leadership challenge of identifying and implementing a solution that can achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions—or carbon neutrality—in the next several decades. The S/CAP project is designed to:  Provide a strategy and policy framework for aggressive, imaginative and achievable results on climate and sustainability.  Develop targets and implementation strategies that also may to provide policy makers with the information they need about costs and benefits to make decisions about strategic investments, incentive programs, and regulatory changes  Engage staff and community to drive intelligent change and catalyze and capitalize on innovation. City of Palo Alto Page 6  Design new or modified programs and incentives and push technology and innovation around transportation, energy, and water, and buildings to:  Transform transportation (with regard to non-commute trips as well as commuting)  Promote fuel switching from natural gas to clean electricity  Address water resilience in the face of potential regional changes  Continue to rapidly advance the efficiency of new and existing buildings  Assess and reduce the climate risks to the City, its operations and the community  Identify new funding and finance opportunities that can leverage and accelerate these changes  Partner with stakeholders through innovative outreach programs to incite behavior change and promote community building. CONSULTANTS The City has engaged a consulting team led by DNV GL, and including Environmental Science Associates (ESA), Moore Iacofano Goltsman (MIG) and Nelson Nygaard to lead the S/CAP effort, and Rocky Mountain Institute on a small supplemental contract to lead an innovation charrette and other advisory functions. WORKFLOW & STATUS INTRODUCTION Since Council approval on August 11, 2014 (Staff Report # 4996), City Staff, supported by consultants from DNV GL, MIG, ESA, and Nelson Nygaard have been developing the S/CAP. This plan will present a comprehensive vision and actionable approach for the City of Palo Alto to continue its leadership in sustainability and climate action planning. The City’s 2007 Climate Protection Plan (2007 CPP) presented a vision for managing sustainability and provided detail programs focusing on city operations with some information related to the community as a whole. The 2014 S/CAP is designed to advance the efforts articulated in the 2007 CPP by presenting both a vision and an actionable plan for the City, its residents, businesses, workforce, civic sector and visitors in a drive to achieve extraordinary results. The overarching goals of the 2014 S/CAP are to: 1. clearly explain the community’s sustainability challenges, and the challenges and opportunities it faces in meeting more ambitious sustainability and GHG reduction goals; 2. serve as a mechanism to tie together the City’s existing and developing sustainability initiatives, strategies and plans with the community’s goals; and City of Palo Alto Page 7 3. establish a set of cohesive sustainability strategies, emission reduction targets, implementation plans and metrics for measuring progress, and for improving Palo Alto’s sustainability, and its contribution to regional and State strategies and initiatives. Staff’s approach to the 2014 S/CAP activity is to focus on sustainability as an innovation driver, while addressing the two leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions – transportation and natural gas use – to drive City and community emissions to near zero, while promoting a sustainable business community, engaging in smart-grid and smart-city applications, exploring other environmental challenges (water, forestry, adaptation, etc) and engaging the City’s population. S/CAP WORK STREAMS The S/CAP development is structured around nine primary work elements. These elements are summarized below: Task 1. Scoping and Inventory. The team has carried out a background review of the best practices carried out by globally leading cities to assess how Palo Alto’s plans and policies compare with these leading cities. The team has also reviewed the City’s baseline emissions inventory and inventory updates, ensuring the Palo Alto community greenhouse gas inventories are compliant with the most recent GHG protocols and is providing recommendations for improving the workflow of the reporting processes. Interim Results Task 1. Leading cities such as London, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Fort Collins and Seattle are implementing highly innovative solutions to achieve “carbon neutrality”1 with time targets as far as 2050 and as close as 2025. Nearly 40 cities in the US have made commitments and established plans to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2050; Fort Collins is committed to 80% by 2030. Each of these of course has very different starting conditions than ours. At least 17 cities in the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (a network of the world's megacities taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) have committed to carbon neutral by 2050; however they have defined carbon neutral as 80% emissions reduction. Some programs aim at near carbon neutrality through a combination of emissions reductions and offset purchases. The most aggressive cities are actively transforming energy systems and behaviors to achieve dramatic carbon reductions. For example, Helsinki is implementing a plan to eliminate the need for private vehicles through a combination of open information management and new flexible transportation systems. London has instituted a wide range of transportation policies such as public transport electrification, congestion charges, and advanced analysis. Fort Collins, with its own municipal utility, is integrating smart metering, micro-grids and tariff changes to 1 (which some define as no net GHG emissions, and others as 80% reduction in emissions) City of Palo Alto Page 8 dramatically drive down emissions. Copenhagen, with a goal of being carbon neutral by 2025, is pursuing aggressive green building programs, and targeting a bicycle commute mode share of 75% by 2025. Best Practice Case Study Example: Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki aims to transcend conventional public transport by allowing people to purchase mobility in real time, straight from their smartphones. The hope is to furnish riders with single point of contact to an array of options so cheap, flexible and well-coordinated that it becomes competitive with private car ownership not merely on cost, but also on convenience and ease of use. Subscribers specify an origin and a destination. The app would then function as both journey planner and universal payment platform, knitting everything from traditional mass transit, shuttles and taxis to shared cars and bikes (and perhaps someday driverless cars) into a single, supple mesh of mobility. Imagine the popular transit planner Citymapper fused to a cycle hire service and a taxi app such as Hailo or Uber, with only one payment required, and the whole thing run as a public utility, and you begin to understand the scale of ambition here. This program is bolstered by the Regional Transport Authority's rollout last year of a strikingly innovative minibus service. Kutsuplus lets riders specify desired pick-up points and destinations via smartphone; the app aggregates these requests, and calculates an optimal route that most closely satisfies all of them. These programs aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by upwards of 90% in the capital. Task 2. Transportation. The team is currently reviewing local and regional transportation plans, and programs and policies; assessing the travel demand model that the City is currently using for its comprehensive planning process; and identifying and assessing transportation - related GHG emissions reduction potential and strategies deemed to be technically and politically feasible in the City. Interim Results Task 2. The team has examined numerous transportation models used to estimate mobility in Palo Alto, Santa Clara County and the Bay Area, and is coordinating with the CompPlan transportation consultant to ensure consistency in business as usual growth assumptions and leveraging their work related to transportation modeling, where possible. The transportation challenge is daunting, as it requires changing embedded behaviors —not only for Palo Alto residents, but for the larger Bay Area community ecosystem in which the City of Palo Alto Page 9 City is but one constituent. The team is reviewing existing local and regional transportation initiatives to identify ways that Palo Alto can transform transportation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Key levers for reductions include vehicle fuels and technology, expanding infrastructure for non-auto based mobility, comprehensive parking pricing and management, congestion management, and land use approaches for proximity to services. The jobs/housing balance and location issues must also be considered. Task 3. Scenario Development. The team is developing emissions reduction scenarios to help define the limits of what can be done locally (by the community and the local government), regionally (by the agencies and communities with which the City int eracts), and in the wider spheres of policy, economy, and culture to achieve deep reductions in GHG emissions. Three initial scenarios explore requirements in the areas of technology, policy, investment, behavior, incentives, etc. to achieve three aggressive alternatives:  80% below 1990 levels by 2050 (80x50)  80% below 1990 levels by 2030 (80x30)  Carbon free by 2025. City of Palo Alto Page 10 Interim Results Task 3. Staff initially tasked the consultants to develop scenarios around three goals: the state of California's goal of 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050; the 80% by 2030 goal selected by Fort Collins and various other cities; and the California moonshot of carbon neutral in 10 years or less. As work began, the consultants recommended, and staff accepted, that we focus initial research on carbon free (carbon neutral across all energy forms), since that “forcing function” would generate the richest and most complete collection of strategies and tactics; the scenarios, from Moonshot to 80x50, could be built by in essence adjusting the timing of strategies. The team has developed an interactive tool to examine the impacts of policies and actions to drive significant carbon reduction. The focus of analysis so far has been on requisite policies and incentives for fuel switching from natural gas to electricity in the residential and commercial sector for both space and water heating. The team is also looking at transportation and developing scenarios around a catalog of levers including policies, infrastructure and incentives for massive adoption of public transportation, walk and biking and other alternative modes for fossil powered vehicle trips and the adoption of electric vehicles. Initial results are presented in the “Wedges” section below. Task 4. Implementation Plan. The team is preparing a summary of Sustainability/Climate Action Plan strategies that can be successfully implemented by the City and community -wide. Based on the scenario analyses in Task 3 above, staff developed a range of emission reduction strategies across each scenario. The first step of an implementation plan is to assess the strategies needed to achieve each scenario, considering technical issues, costs, savings, feasibility, behavioral changes needed, and other factors. Recognizing that some strategies will be implemented sooner than others, staff will propose a phased approach to implementation of the S/CAP strategies, with specific milestones, for Council consideration. Each phase will be designed to naturally build upon the earlier phases, so that emission reductions will increase over time. In most cases, the implementation strategies are expected to be the same across each scenario, with differences in timing and aggressiveness. City of Palo Alto Page 11 Task 5. Roadmap Development. The team will develop a Sustainability Roadmap for each Scenario that provides a high level summary of the S/CAP, and weaves together the City’s numerous environmental achievements, policies and programs together with new actions to achieve the City’s sustainability vision. The Sustainability Roadmap will lay out the selected emission reduction strategies, implementation steps and responsibilities, and other supporting initiatives such as community engagement and participation, and protection and enhancement of natural ecosystems. The Sustainability Roadmap combined with the Implementation Plan will be used as the basis for review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which is planned to go hand-in-hand with the Comp Plan update, and will articulate the City’s goals and aspirations beyond GHG mitigation alone. The roadmap will provide a succinct overview of how the City’s many environmental efforts all fit into a coherent strategy that leverages its unique position in the Silicon Valley and history of innovative environmental programs. The Sustainability Roadmap will include a component related to climate risk, water and adaptation strategies. Resilience includes not only the ability to withstand dangerous situations, but also to recover quickly from major events, such as storms, floods, or fire. Task 6. Financing Options. The team will review and provide recommendations on financing strategies available to implement the Sustainability Roadmap and emission reduction strategies. The objective of this task is to identify “different ways of working with money” to achieve large leaps in technology adoption, behavior change and greenhouse gas reductions. For instance, innovative financing approaches that utilize crowdfunding, allow citizens to invest in solar or carbon offsets in their community ,etc- Task 7. Public Engagement and Feedback. This task has two goals: to invite the best thinking of this community in creating a next-generation strategy, and to expand the conversation, to ensure broad community buy-in to support plan adoption and implementation. Building upon existing City communication tools including Open Town Hall, the Our Palo Alto website, and mailing list and social media accounts the S/CAP team organized two major engagement activities to date. Interim Results for Task 7. The first outreach event, a Sustainability Charrette, was held on October 1, 2014 at the City Art’s Center, and included 13 city staff, 14 community and other advisors and specialists on sustainability issues (including 3 from Stanford Unive rsity), and 11 from the project team and RMI. The second event, the Sustainability Ideas Expo, was held on November 18, 2014 with more than 75 enthusiastic attendees from the community, and featured 15 poster presentations from community groups and other outside stakeholders. (Note that this was a brainstorming session, and did not include any vetting, ranking or selection of ideas proposed.) In addition to general enthusiasm for the “Moonshot” scenario, participants brought several common themes to the Expo: fuel City of Palo Alto Page 12 switching and electrification; mobility and “de-car-i-fication;” financial innovation, including internal carbon pricing; engagement for behavior change. Largely missing in the conversation (perhaps because of how staff framed it, perhaps because of the perceived urgency of climate change): water, biological resources. Staff opened a poll on Open City Hall (results not yet compiled at the time of this writing), and will provide other online engagement channels in the coming months. Additional publi c engagement and informational events will be scheduled in the New Year. In addition, staff has established an informal advisory board of community members and sustainability experts to provide periodic guidance throughout the SCAP process. Task 8. Coordination with Comprehensive Plan. The S/CAP and CompPlan represent mutually dependent efforts. The project team’s coordination efforts have been aimed at: (1) providing input and S/CAP implementation strategies into the CompPlan process, and (2) reviewing the CompPlan interim deliverables to ensure the CompPlan doesn’t inadvertently provide barriers to S/CAP implementation and goal attainment. Interim Results for Task 8: The SCAP project team has met with CompPlan staff and consultants, and continues to support City staff in their efforts to coordinate various planning processes and will provide advice at critical milestones to support plan development in a manner that is conducive to community participation without overburdening stakeholders and participants. Task 9. Reporting. The team will develop a clear and persuasive public facing presentation, summarizing the overall goals of the S/CAP, including reduction targets, the emission reduction strategies, and the implementation guidelines. The report will be as concise as possible, but will provide information to City staff and City residents and businesses about what changes will be coming or needed in the near and long-term future. The report will conform to CEQA Guidelines, as well as relevant guidance from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) for Climate Action Plans. The team will also team will produce and deliver a “coffee table briefing book”— intended to be an engaging, attractive, accessible and easy to read public facing report (e.g., short booklet that could be turned into eBook) that includes findings, goals, recommendations and action plans (i.e., strategies and associated implementation guidelines). City of Palo Alto Page 13 SCENARIOS Palo Alto's emissions reductions have come primarily from the virtual elimination of carbon emissions from the electricity sector, as well as initiatives at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant. Emissions from transportation and from natural gas use (for commercial and residential space heating, water heating and cooking) represent more than 90% of our remaining emissions inventory. In order to achieve any significant level of further GHG reductions, it will be necessary to transform transportation, and to eliminate the use, or the impact of natural gas. This graph makes the challenge clear: City of Palo Alto Page 14 Transportation Natural Gas The two emissions sectors pose significantly different challenges. Each will require a combination of dramatic efficiency improvements, fuel and technology substitutions, policy changes and behavioral changes—and potentially some rethinking of land use and development patterns in the city and the region. In order to understand these options, the team has built a model to enable interactive examination of the impact of different combinations of measures at different rates of adoption. City of Palo Alto Page 15 NATURAL GAS Natural gas impacts can be reduced in four ways: purchase of offsets for the GHG emissions related to gas use, reduced demand through greater efficiency (of both technologies and buildings), fuel substitution with biogas, and fue l switching to carbon neutral electricity—which would involve substantial migration from the City’s embedded natural gas infrastructure. This can be accomplished and led by the City in collaboration and support of the City’s utilities, but only if coordinated policies, rate structures, customer incentives, community outreach and financing mechanisms are established to motivate consumer switching choices, mitigate risks and protect rate payers. TRANSPORTATION The transportation challenge is far more daunting, as it would require changing not only systems and technologies but also deeply embedded behaviors—not only Palo Alto residents and workers, but the larger Bay Area community ecosystem in which the City is but one constituent. Some of the steps are clear—EV readiness, bicycle friendliness, expanded shuttle services, land use planning to minimize transportation demand—and we are already pursuing many of them. Some, like land use planning, are controversial. Innovations like shared services, mobility apps, flexible transportation systems, neighborhood EV fleets, multimodal transportation integration, have demonstrated success (and raised concerns) in variety of urban centers. Potentially disruptive innovations—like distributed generation, EVs as rolling storage, and driverless vehicles—portend even larger changes. But for more regionally integrated cities, innovation plus local policies have not yet been fully demonstrated. (See, though, the Helsinki example described above.) B IG IDEAS / BIG ISSUES / BIG QUESTIONS In conclusion, and to open further discussion about both the community’s aspirations for the future and our options to achieve them, here are several big ideas, big issues and big questions that have emerged from the work so far. HOW GOOD IS GOOD ENOUGH? Shall we become a carbon-neutral city? How fast? With what investment? (This speaks to both where we want to be on the leadership curve—this city likes to be out front, but the brass ring of urban climate leadership is moving fast —and on how we assess feasibility & economics of what that will take.) TRANSPORTATION How will we reduce or eliminate the 60+% of our carbon footprint contributed by transportation? Shall we privilege “mobility” over “transportation,” and align policies to maximize convenient access for all while minimizing transportation and/or transportation related emissions? How shall we plan parking and roads in that context? Since we can’t solve City of Palo Alto Page 16 our transportation our own, how shall the best collaborate with neighboring jurisdictions? Should we drive? NATURAL GAS How will we reduce or eliminate the 30+% of our carbon footprint contributed by natural gas? How shall we allocate our efforts between demand reduction and fuel switching (and between electrification and biofuels)? How shall we engage potential regulatory barriers and cultural resistance to such changes? Should we replicate and adapt our successful Carbon Neutral Electricity transition to rapidly eliminate dependence on natural gas? WATER What if the current drought lasts longer—or even represents a “new normal” in California’s water regime? How, beyond voluntary cutbacks, would Palo Alto adapt? How might we reduce demand (including of landscaping)? How would we manage groundwater? How would we approach the use of recycled water? UTILITY OF THE FUTURE What is the role of Palo Alto Utilities in a low-carbon future? What is the business model that will enable it to thrive—energy generation and distribution? Energy services? Energy finance? How will we meet increases in electrical demand generated by fuel switching, and the potential revenue losses and infrastructure maintenance challenges it could generate. FINANCE How will we lawfully finance the path we choose? How shall we both acquire and allocate needed investment and operating funds? How shall we account for whole system costs and benefits? And how shall share the benefits? Can we create or work with new financial instruments and technologies that better connect our values and aspirations with our policy decisions as a government and our investment and spending decisions as a community? COMMON WEALTH Since the familiar definition of “sustainability” contains the concept of responsibility for future generations, but doesn’t define it, should Palo Alto embed that responsibility in all departments, policies and programs? How? CLARITY AND ACCESS Providing people “a clear line of sight” that connects aspirations, actions and outcomes is consistently shown to be one of the most effective ways to effect change—in organizations, communities and individuals. How can the City leverage its existing “open data” commitments to systematically and consistently use dashboards and scoreboards to build more access and understanding into the operations of city government and the culture of the commu nity? ADAPTATION City of Palo Alto Page 17 How should Palo Alto adapt to the potential impacts of climate change, from flooding and temperature rise to changes in precipitation patterns (affecting water supply and hydroelectric capacity)? IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT CARBON What other sustainability goals should we pursue besides GHG emissions reductions? Environmental Review Some of the City’s sustainability initiatives are internal, administrative practices that do not require review under CEQA, and some are projects that require review before an implementation decision is made. Adoption of an updated S/CAP will require review, and will be covered by the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that is currenenlty for the Comprehensive Plan Update to the extent feasible given the scope and timi ng of both planning efforts. Attachments:  SCAP Ideas Expo Workshop Summary (DOC)  SCAP Open City Hall Summary (DOC) i The 2013 Earth Day Staff Report (ID# 4584) reported 41% r eduction against the 1990 baseline. This was in error, since the baseline reported for 1990 in Table 3 was misstated as result of a clerical error —showing as 962,000MT when it should have shown as 862,000MT.) 1 Sustainability and Climate Action Plan Ideas Expo November 18, 2014 6-8 pm Downtown Library, 270 Forest Ave WORKSHOP SUMMARY On November 18th, 2014, about 75 community members gathered at the Palo Alto Downtown Library for a workshop to gather input on the city’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (S/CAP). The overall objective of the S/CAP project is to establish a set of cohesive sustainability and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies, implementation plans, and progress metrics for the City of Palo Alto. The Ideas Expo used the S/CAP process as a platform to engage the community in a broad discussion about sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and explore what would it take for City of Palo Alto to achieve new aggressive goals for GHG reductions and other sustainability goals. Community members were invited to bring their ideas for current or potential programs that would have significant positive impact on the community. The event was promoted on the City’s website and social media accounts, through an eBlast to community members and partners and through direct outreach to City and community partners and stakeholders. During the course of the evening, workshop participants shared information in an o pen house format and discussed existing and proposed initiatives for sustainability and GHG reductions. To encourage big, bold ideas, workshop participants were asked to explore what it would take for Palo Alto to be carbon neutral in 10 years or less. 1.1 Workshop Format During a short introduction, City staff and project consultants presented background information about the S/CAP project, which seeks to enhance quality of life, prosperity and community resilience for the future. Gil Friend, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Palo Alto, introduced the project and outlined three domains of action it will consider: the infrastructure of things and systems (including buildings, transportation and other information) that we build to enable our lives; the resources (including energy, water and other materials) that flow through our community; and the behaviors (including beliefs, commitments and actions, and policies) we perform to fulfill our aspirations. The S/CAP will build on the momentum of the city’s GHG emissions reductions achiev ed to date to meet or exceed California and international GHG reduction goals. Now that Palo Alto has reduced GHG emissions 34% from 1990 levels, the largest remaining sources are transportation and natural gas consumption in the community. Project consultants presented preliminary analysis of what it would take to achieve different levels of emissions reduction targets.  80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.  80 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.  Carbon neutral by 2025. 2 To encourage creativity and ambitious ideas, Ideas Expo participants were asked to explore what actions are needed to achieve a carbon neutral goal by 2025. Eighteen poster presenters introduced their ideas for GHG reduction strategies, including both existing programs and new strategies fo r consideration. Following the poster presentations, workshop participants circulated around the room to explore ideas in more depth with presenters and other participants, as well as generate new ideas and other feedback for the S/CAP team. Participants recorded their ideas on flip charts and posters distributed throughout the room as well as on comment cards provided to each person. Large sheets of butcher paper with four additional questions were posted for people to share their ideas. These questions a nd responses are included below. The workshop concluded with a facilitated discussion of key takeaways, and ideas that people felt should be prioritized. Gil Friend closed the session by encouraging community members to stay engaged in the S/CAP process, and together to support shared sustainability programs and shared interests. 1.2 Common Themes Many of the ideas presented and discussed by participants focused on four themes: - Fuel switching. To achieve significant GHG emissions reductions, we must utilize energy and fuel sources with lower carbon content. Given Palo Alto’s carbon neutral electricity supply, a lot of attention was paid to electrification of buildings and transportation. This includes supporting on - site solar generation for homes and local businesses, as well as electrification of gas-using appliances such as furnaces and water heaters. Many people also mentioned electric vehicles and Caltrain to move away from gasoline and diesel fuels. - Mode share (de-car-ification). Not only is fuel switching needed, but a sustainable future should include the ability to get around without needing to use personal vehicles. Ideas included new information technology, such as an open data information platform for transportation and as a way to facilitate the transition to new modes and paradigms for mobility. - Finance. How to pay for programs and technology solutions was another important area. Ideas included ways to support community investment. Several people suggested local carbon taxes, internal city government carbon pricing or other mechanisms for more accurately capturing the environmental and societal costs of greenhouse gas emissions. - Behavior change (community engagement). Sustainability and addressing climate change requires community to support and commitment. As such, workshop participants explored different programs and ideas to encourage participation. Ideas included a carbon credit program for residents and businesses, a smart app platform, demonstration projects and the Georgetown Energy Prize program. Ultimately, the discussion for the community focused on how sustainable does Palo Alto want to be , how fast, and what would it take to get there? 1.3 Community Questions During the workshop, participants were invited to answer four questions by writing their responses on large sheets of butcher paper. The unedited questions and responses follow, organized by theme where relevant. These are presented for purposes of discussion, and have not been vetted or endorsed by the City. 3 1. What would it take for Palo Alto to be carbon neutral in 10 years or less? Topic Area Comments Transportation - Regionally coordinated public transportation with better service - Install electric vehicle charging at rental housing - Change behavior around car idling; shut off engines while parked. This would significantly reduce emissions by many metric tons. - Roundabouts – safer, cleaner, less expensive than stop lights - Electrified transportation including pervasive personal rapid transit - Fiber to the premises to promote telecommuting rather than driving or other physical commuting Housing and Land Use - Build energy efficient micro-homes (apartments) in downtown/office-dense areas to decrease traffic - Increased housing and pedestrian-oriented development along El Cerrito Real (help address job/housing imbalance) Community - City-wide (all departments) instructed in implementing systems thinking/planning as in permaculture. Consider the multiple functions/benefits of actions you can take and the multiple facets of the issues/needs you are trying to address to find optimal solutions which solve multiple problems. - Give out Clipper cards as incentives for energy, waste and water reduction - Focus on leadership through fuel switching - We would need to get all of Palo Alto working on this including our neighboring cities Energy - Return to previous practice of offsetting utility bill one-for-one for excess PV electrical generation - Time of use metering for PV and EVs - Winter rates for electrical heat (instead of natural gas winter rates) - If Palo Alto wants to be carbon neutral and depend on a blend of hydro, solar and wind, we ned to consider reductions in hydro production at Hetch Hetchy due to a reduction in the Sierra snowpack. Scientists predict a 30% reduction in the Sierra snowpack by 2030. - Provide incentives for landlords to incorporate higher efficiency appliances. o Is there a dichotomy between renters and landlords? Renters have no incentive to upgrade appliances and because landlords don’t pay utility bills there is no incentive. 4 - Incentives for homeowners to replace gas heaters/water heaters - Educate home builders about the pros and cons of gas 2. What other goals should we pursue besides CO2? Topic Area Comments Transportation - Reduce auto in commuting - Make travel convenient without personal cars - Dedicated separate bike paths for safety, with colored pavement Solid Waste - Food compost collection bins city-wide in commercial areas - Support local yard and food composting at “measure E” site - Demonstrate sewer landfill management 5x better than standards for reducing allowed methane leakage. - Commercial compost at the curb for residents. Less food waste = less methane production o Combine with sewage in advanced anaerobic digester – make methane and use as fuel for generators Green infrastructure - Design curbs to send rain runoff into planting strips - Continue and expand incentives/requirements for sustainable gardens (either native/drought tolerant and or food producing) Water - Ensure water conservation measures do not contribute to statewide adoption of desalination - 60 gallons per day per person of potable water o Most renters don’t pay their water bills (in high density housing). So there is no information on how much waters renters are using. Housing and Land Use - Make housing more affordable and accessible - Limit population growth - Make Palo Alto ecosystem services positive through green and built infrastructure Energy - Energy storage system for grid stabilization - Limit tall buildings that shade adjacent properties - Give solar panels rights – trim trees that shade panels 3. What actions will you (or your organization) take to further these goals? The community shared ideas on how they were committed to sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Workshop participants wrote that they plan to: o Stop watering lawn/replace with xeriscaping o Replace gas water heater 5 o Replace gas dryer o Replace gas or wood fireplace o Continue to live close by to work and keep my commute time low and doable by bike o Work at home 4. How quickly should we aim to reduce GHG emissions? GHG Reduction Target # of Votes 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 No votes 80% below 1990 levels by 2030 No votes Carbon neutral by 2025 8 votes 1.4 Posters Eighteen community members presented posters or introduced ideas, as follows:  Cool City Challenge California. What might a Cool City look like with citizens living low-carbon and green lifestyles in resilient and livable neighborhoods? Behaviors that build up from one household to neighborhood blocks to whole neighborhoods leading to entrepreneurs and leaders responding to consumer shift.  Next Generation Caltrain. Ideas focused on improving CalTrain, including electrification, improved train car design for expanded capacity and faster loading/unloading, transit connections, and funding strategies.  Microgrid at Stanford Research Park. One idea was to complete a demonstration project of a microgrid project with on-site generation, dynamic energy consumption (demand response) and show how community energy scale system could work in Palo Alto. Calculations show m ore than 200 acres of parking and rooftop PV may be possible, combined with smart inverters directly tied in with energy storage.  Georgetown University Energy Prize. Palo Alto is a participant of the Georgetown University Energy Prize competing against 51 other communities for a $5 million prize to reduce electric and natural gas usage in the residential, multi-family, municipal and schools sectors.  Putting People First (Not Cars). The strategies include bus rapid transit for El Camino Real and Middlefield Road, painted and protected bike boulevards, prioritized and secure bike routes, bike share, LED lighting for bike lanes and transit and frequent local transit coordin ated between VTA, shuttles, CalTrain, SamTrans and Marguerite, and a registration fee for gasoline vehicles to be used to support transit.  Revenue Neutral Carbon tax. To change local buying decisions and advance a replicable model for other cities, Palo Alto should enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax. The tax may be phased in over a period of time (e.g., 3-10 years) with pricing that represents a “true” cost of carbon (i.e., over $120/metric ton of CO2e)  Top Transportation Tactics from Fort Collins. Fort Collins CO is focusing on five key areas to reduce vehicle miles traveled by 30% by 2030 and increase electric vehicle adoption rates. Tactics are 6 focused on off-street parking, on-street pricing, coordinated mass transit, fleet electrification, and an open transportation data and mobile transit application.  Carbon Neutral Electricity to Zero Natural Gas for Palo Alto. Replicate our carbon neutral electricity initiative for natural gas: Move from voluntary City of Palo Alto Utilities GreenGas Program to buy offsets or credits to immediately make the entire natural gas supply carbon neutral in Palo Alto. Then design and implement strategies for fuel switching, efficiency and policy drivers to move away from natural gas, and apply the offset investment to finance them.  Go CO2 Free Palo Alto. This is a game and interactive program for Palo Alto residents and businesses to learn about options to lower greenhouse gas reductions. The program includes a dashboard to plan and track individual and program level accomplishments.  Palo Alto’s Carbon Neutral Portfolio. City of Palo Alto Utilities presented information about the path to carbon neutral electricity. Renewable resources include wind and landfill, with solar projects coming online in 2015 and 2016.  Gasoline or Electric? A comparison of costs. This poster showed cost of operating a conventional gasoline vehicle in the range of 11-17 cents per mile, compared with electric vehicles costing 4-6 cents per mile using City of Palo Alto Utility rates.  Palo Alto Solar Projects. City of Palo Alto Utilities Local Solar Plan identifies a set of strategies and initiatives to continue promoting solar. The goal is to increase the penetration of local solar installations from 0.7% of the City’s total energy needs in 2013 to 4% by 2023. Utilities offers rebate programs and payment for electricity generated at customer sites. Upcoming programs include community solar, group-buy down and solar donation program.  Carbon Free Palo Alto. Concepts for carbon neutrality in 10 years or less include fuel switching, end of life program for water heaters (e.g., 24 hour hotlin e to get an electric replacement), electric vehicle programs (e.g., Drive-EV marketing campaign, EV chargers in every city garage), promoting heat pump technologies and reducing air travel.  Project Green Home. Low impact home designed and built by the Thesen family in Palo Alto to be “zero net energy” and produce as much energy as it consumes. Real life example of how a local home was able to achieve zero net energy.  Sustainable & High Value Transportation (Active Transportation). While electric vehicles are essentially zero emissions, it perpetuates car culture and sprawl. Walking, cycling and public transit needs to be key strategies to improve help, reduce congestion and promote social equity. Electric bikes, and intelligent active transportation systems (e.g., Stanford’s Capri program) are needed.  Mobility as a Service. Concept presented by the City of Helsinki (not present at the workshop) to combine all transportation into one flexible, all-inclusive service. Framework for providing mobility services at a package price per month to enable decreased car ownership, and increase public transportation.  Energy + Household with Zero Annual Energy Bills. A net zero energy household in Cupertino achieved with efficiency, home electrification, automobile elect rification and renewable energy. The poster presents steps for others to achieve a net zero energy home.  Downtown Palo Alto Net Zero Energy (DPANZE). The DPANZE initiative is targeting 100 commercial buildings in downtown Palo Alto for net zero energy, an d serve as a retrofit example for all of Palo Alto and beyond. In addition to energy efficiency and local renewables, DPANZE will also heavily promote fuel switching to electrify natural gas applications and petroleum-dependent vehicles. 7 1.5 Additional Comments A number of participants provided written comments on cards. The table below summarize s the comments. Topic Area Comments Transportation - Use paint to increase albedo and also to delineate bike-only or bike- privileged. - Make biking safer by dedicated, separate bike lanes - Equitable transportation - How many people can afford to buy EVs? - Promote resale of electric vehicles (EVs) to lower income drivers - Batteries will be less than $100/kwh capacity within 1-2 years, and probably 10,000 discharge cycles within 2 years. - Palo Alto to lead the way with ultralight system, planned to connect to north and south when they act too, and designed as economic and time breakthrough that cuts cost of mobility by at least 40%, and has high amenity in terms of view, comfort, but not elite design issues. - 92,000 workers (here) commute into Palo Alto - Bi-directional monorail (Pavers Design International) has many times capacity of single-track - Check out Skytran, which is an elevated personal rapid transit that may go 100 mph Housing and Land Use - Affordable housing is needed - Support diversity of those who can live in Palo Alto and surrounding communities, drawing artists, teachers, non-tech workers gives Palo Alto balance and makes it more interesting and reduces the number of p eople who have to commute to work here. Community - It was great to see the Palo Alto emissions bar chart and the contribution breakout for each segment. For context, add in the emissions per capita then compare this per capita emissions with those of other aspiring green cities. - Business ecosystems for rolling out replacement technologies, supported by incubators that focus on a business cluster. Green Infrastructure - Elmer Avenue – in L.A. as a sample - Need more cork trees - Eliminate paved creeks - Divestment of companies that are not in line with Palo Alto environmental values? - Too many mature trees are being cut down in Palo Alto Energy - Palo Alto should generate its own electricity through putting solar on all schools, and public buildings 8 - Encourage homeowners to replace gas heaters, furnaces, dryers with electric - Educate new builders about pros/cons of installing gas appliances – incentives/penalties - As utility rates and carbon taxes increase, will there be help for poorer people? - As Palo Alto strives to be carbon-neutral with a hydro-solar-wind portfolio, we need to take into consideration that the Sierra snowpack is reducing (30% by 2030) and hydropower generation capacity will decrease. In addition to building more solar-wind options locally, we need to provide more incentives for conservation efforts. - I’m currently a renter in Palo Alto and pay for my utilities. The appliances in my house are old and inefficient, but my landlord has no incentive to upgrade old appliances. We need to target property owners to increase efficiency for renters. This includes water conservation, especially in high density properties where landlords by fer the water bill. - I love my o-power report and would love to see more gamefication elements as Palo Alto goes more carbon neutral. - Solar over all parking, partial solar over many sheets to power transport EVs and buildings – special structural technology for it. - Passive solar design for lower heating/cooling bills Solid Waste - The City should move expeditiously to do anaerobic digestion of all organic waste. This will generate biogas as well as handling sewage, food waste and yard waste. - A composting program would be great and also maybe reduce that rat issue (?) - High-tech biodigester for sewage and part of yard waste – electricity and compost 1.6 Next Steps Participants were encouraged to stay involved in the S/CAP process by signing up for the sustainability new list, participate in the Open City Hall forum , follow on Twitter (#SCAP), and attend the City Council Study Session on December 8th, 2014. Gil Friend encouraged all participants to take ideas back into the community to motivate friends and neighbors to action. The S/CAP team will utilize the input from the community to develop a Sustainability Roadmap to guide City efforts across a broad range of environmental sustainability initiatives. The team will report back in 2015, with draft work products for public review. 1 Sustainability and Climate Action Plan Open City Hall Summary On November 13, 2014, the City posted the question: “What would it take for Palo Alto to be carbon neutral in 10 years or less?” A total of 189 individuals visited the topic on Open City Hall with 30 posting ideas and 20 posting comments as part of the community outreach related to the update of the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan. The topic closed on November 26, 2014. This input, along with feedback and ideas received from the c ommunity Ideas Expo, will be incorporated into the Sustainability / Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) the information provided to the City Council to inform their direction and policy decisions on the S/CAP. A study session is scheduled for the Council meeting on December 8 and public participation is welcome and encouraged. A number of themes emerged from the responses, and included:  Solar: residential solar, community solar share program, bigger solar arrays to sell back to the grid, put solar panels on all buildings in Palo Alto, let community sell excess power back to grid, create largest suburban PV installation in U.S., Palo Alto Utilities should finance installation of solar panels with sustainable source of funds.  Transportation choices: Real commitment to reducing dependence on single occupant vehicles, rebates for electric cars, more plug-in recharge sites, regional approach to remedy commute routes along the Peninsula, cash for clunkers, reduce driving, charge for access, employer based strategies to reduce driving, replace internal combustion engines with electric bikes.  Economics: Establish a standard for what it means to be carbon neutral, carbon tax, raise costs of utility bills (except for low income), charge for parking, citizen driven cap and trade, shift tax burden from property to utilities to encourage resident to be more mindful about use of natural resources.  Other: Low-impact downtown housing, subsidize local high-speed broadband to encourage telecommuting, green building design, smaller homes near work, require LEED, water conservation.