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HomeMy WebLinkAboutID-3019-Cool-Cities City of Palo Alto (ID # 3019) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Study SessionMeeting Date: 7/16/2012 July 16, 2012 Page 1 of 3 (ID # 3019) Summary Title: Cool City Challenge Title: Cool City Challenge Study Session From: City Manager Lead Department: City Manager This is a study session where David Gershon of the Empowerment Institute will explain the Cool City Challenge Initiative and take questions from the Council. As a study session, there will be no action. If the City would be interested in participating in the Cool City Challenge, the first step would be to commit to participating via a letter of intent. We would expect that matter to come to the Council after you return from break, if there is interest. The Challenge will only occur if the Empowerment Institute is able to raise the funds to support the initiative. At the point that the initiative proves it will be viable, cities that have signaled their intent to participate will be asked to submit formal applications to be one of the three participating California cities. There thus may be a competition to be a participating city, so a letter of intent may not ensure a city’s automatic participation. The Cool City Challenge is a bold initiative and in staff’s view will require a significant commitment over the approximate three year period that the Challenge requires. In staff’s opinion, Council should understand that this is as much a civic engagement, community building exercise as it is an experiment to advance the reduction of CO2, increased energy efficiency, and other aspects of our climate action goals and environmental initiatives as a community. The City has established ambitious goals through our Climate Action Plan and is a leader, comparatively, in making significant progress in meeting our CO2 reduction targets. In our case, we will want to consider the Cool City Challenge in the context of surpassing our established 15% community wide CO2 reduction goals. How far do we want to go and how much of an effort to we want to commit to? And is the grassroots, household-by-household approach that the Cool City Challenge proposes a vehicle we want to use? These and other questions will help to inform any next steps the City would take in the Cool City Challenge. July 16, 2012 Page 2 of 3 (ID # 3019) We have included a number of summary bullet points below that provide some basic facts and background about the Cool City Challenge. There are also a series of attachments provided by David Gershon that provide more depth and background about the initiative. Staff will also reach out to different community partners from our Green Teams to Acterra and others who have expressed interest in the Cool City Challenge to be sure they are informed about this study session. Summary Facts and Background  It is a global climate change initiative that involves 3 CA cities and 3 neighborhoods of comparable size in San Paulo, Brazil.  It is based on the fact that cities are where a large percentage of the planet’s carbon is generated (70%), and citizens represent a significant part of a city’s footprint (50 to 90%).  If a community model can be built in these 4 demonstration cities and then brought to scale worldwide, it would represent a major global climate change mitigation intervention.  Empowerment Institute, the initiator of the Cool City Challenge and who will provide each of the cities technical assistance in its implementation, has a successful track record in designing and implementing successful behavior change programs and community engagement strategies for cities both in the United States and Europe. The content of these behavior change programs include low carbon and sustainable lifestyles, livable neighborhoods and disaster-resilient communities.  Their Low Carbon Diet Program, core to the Cool City Challenge, has demonstrated that it can help households reduce their carbon footprint by 25% or more. As a result the program is being used in over 300 US cities with 46 of those cities in CA, and 6 countries including China. They have also demonstrated that through their community engagement tools they are able to get a minimum of 25% of the residents on a block to participate in their programs.  One of our Palo Alto citizens, Sandra Slater, heard about the Cool City Challenge, thought Palo Alto would be a great fit, and introduced it to us.  The 3 US cities being selected by EI are based on the following criteria. 1. The cities needed to be in CA because of its strong commitment to GHG reduction as demonstrated by AB 32. 2. Be in reasonably proximity to one another so they can form a learning community and enable easy access for those who will travel here to learn from them. July 16, 2012 Page 3 of 3 (ID # 3019) 3. Be early adopter cities known for taking leadership on the issues of climate change and sustainability. 4. Have either a citizen or local community group and the local government championing the participation of their city in the program.  To enable this project to be most effectively disseminated after this demonstration phase, Empowerment Institute has partnered with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to do a research study and provide the analytics for this initiative. Stanford, UC Berkeley and UC Davis will assist them in this research.  Empowerment Institute realized that cities do not have resources to implement this type of transformative social innovation, as much as we might wish, and has committed to raise the funds in partnership with LBNL for the program’s implementation in the cities selected. Attachments:  Attachment A: Cool City Challenge_City Selection Process (PDF)  Attachment B: Cool City Challenge v1 6 (PDF)  Attachment C: LBNL Cool City Challenge Research Framework v2 1 (PDF)  Attachment D: Local Carbon Reduction Initiatives (PDF)  Attachment E: Changing the World One Household at a Time (PDF) Prepared By: Lorie Camino, Executive Assistant to the City Manager Department Head: James Keene, City Manager City Manager Approval: ____________________________________ James Keene, City Manager ATTACHMENT A COOL CITY CHALLENGE SELECTION PROCESS This document provides a summary of the Cool City Challenge, provides criteria for being invited to participate as a candidate city, and describes the selection process. SUMMARY PURPOSE: To scale up a proven community-based social innovation to achieve dramatic carbon reduction while building a low carbon economy and resilient neighborhoods in three early adopter California cities and three neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and then disseminate this strategy worldwide. The ultimate goal of the Cool City Challenge is to change the game around greenhouse gas reduction in cities and provide a viable path forward to address climate change. NEED AND OPPORTUNITY: With international climate change legislation failing to get traction and the long timeframe required to scale up technological solutions, the world is searching for a feasible and scalable strategy for addressing global warming. Since cities represent 70% of the planet’s CO2 emissions and citizens’ daily lifestyle choices represent between 50 and 90% of these emissions, cities and their citizens provide the world with an unparalleled opportunity to address global warming. Further, this can serve as a demand-side driver for building robust local green economies. STRATEGY: Empowerment Institute—the world’s pre-eminent expert in environmental behavior change and community engagement—over the past two decades has developed a proven methodology to help cities empower citizens to reduce their carbon footprint by 25% through the Low Carbon Diet EcoTeam program and a strategy to achieve between 25 and 75% household participation. This methodology has now spread to over 300 US cities and 6 countries including China. The Cool City Challenge is designed to bring this transformative social innovation to scale. GOALS: Minimum of 25% carbon reduction per household Minimum of 25% participation of citizens in the community Minimum of 40% participation in some form of household retrofit Stimulate green economic development Enable participating households and blocks to become more disaster resilient Build social capital on blocks that can be redeployed to address multiple community issues. Transfer Empowerment Institute’s intellectual capital in behavior change, community engagement and large system transformation to city government agencies and multiple community groups. 2 Help grow participation in existing community programs such as audits, rebates, zero waste, water conservation, as well as leverage the campaign to help create new programs and local business opportunities such as a local carbon offset program. Develop a plan for city to become carbon neutral Do rigorous research on all of the above through Empowerment Institute’s partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to be in a position to take this model to scale in cities across the state of CA, nationally and ultimately globally. DESIGN PRINCIPLES: To enable a scalable behavior change and community engagement initiative to succeed, Empowerment Institute’s research has shown the following elements need to be in place. 1. A structured program with a menu of carefully crafted pro-social behaviors customized to support the outreach efforts of city agencies, community-based organizations, neighborhood and blocks. The Cool City Challenge combines four of Empowerment Institute’s behavior change programs—carbon reduction, green living, disaster resiliency and neighborhood livability—to increase household, block and city benefits. Game mechanics will be applied to enhance participation, social innovation and stickiness among households, blocks, community sectors, community groups and cities. 2. An in-person peer support system to provide the motivation and accountability to take and sustain pro-social behaviors. 3. Neighbor-to-neighbor connectivity based on a block or in a multi-family dwelling that is built around a set of co-benefits that include community building, environment, health, safety and livability improvements. 4. A vision and set of goals that can speak to a broad cross-section of the community and as a consequence engage a wide diversity of stakeholders in the campaign. 5. A web-based feedback system complimented by social media that shows the drops filling the bucket both around the program and participation goals to sustain motivation over time. 6. A formal partnership with the local government to enable program credibility and longevity. 7. Participation of multiple local organizations to recruit members, constituents and customers. These include faith-based organizations, environmental groups, emergency preparedness and safety groups, businesses, schools and various community-based organizations. It is not be up to any one individual or group to recruit all the teams. 8. Staffing from individuals who live in the community, are talented in community organizing, competent in program management, accomplished leaders, well connected to various community organizations, and astute students of social learning and human motivation. 3 9. Empowerment Institute consulting support of the organizing team around the local customization of this social architecture, capacity building training and coaching of local community groups, and on-going coaching of the organizing team as they deploy and evolve this methodology. Empowerment Institute has designed the Cool City Challenge based on the above research. Further it realizes that cities do not have the resources to implement this type of transformative social innovation, as much as they might wish, and has committed to raise the funds in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the program’s implementation in the cities selected. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN: Phase 1: Start-up – one year: Build program and technology infrastructure. Phase 2: Campaign – three years: Support cities to achieve the carbon reduction, neighborhood resiliency and green economic development goals. CITY SELECTION BACKGROUND: Over 2011 Empowerment Institute identified several dozen cities across America for consideration as candidates for the Cool City Challenge. It narrowed this selection down to Northern California cities because of the region’s high level of environmental consciousness and leadership, progressive state climate change legislation demonstrated through AB 32, and the ability to serve as a regional hub for national and global dissemination of this transformative social innovation. It then honed in on mid-sized early adopter cities or sub-sections of larger cities in the 50,000 to 75,000-population range that it felt best embodied this environmental leadership. Five criteria were then established to evaluate potential city candidates. 1. Commitment to bold carbon reduction: A proven track record, deep commitment, and measurable goals by the local government to achieve ambitious carbon reduction in the short and mid-term. 2. Commitment to community engagement: Recognition by local government leadership of the need to engage community members in reducing their carbon footprint and a demonstrated track record in doing so. 3. Commitment to the Cool City Challenge goals: Strong buy-in of local government and civic leaders to the Cool City Challenge goals and a willingness to invest political capital in realizing them. 4. Track record as an early adopter city: The characteristics of an early adopter community including a desire to take on big challenges, lead the way for other 4 cities, civic pride in past accomplishments, high tolerance for experimentation, and a can-do community culture. 5. Commitment to be a learning and teaching city: Since this is a bold social learning endeavor each city needs to be a committed partner with Empowerment Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the research and learning. And when feedback dictates, to be willing to evolve the program. Further, since the goal of this endeavor is to develop a scalable model, to also be willing to serve as a teaching city for other cities to learn from. SELECTION PROCESS: Participation in the Cool City Challenge is invitational based on Empowerment Institute’s evaluation of the city’s ability to meet the above five criteria. Once invited, the candidate city goes through a two-step process. First it submits a letter of intent stating that is has read this document and the Cool City Challenge strategic plan and feels it can meet the five criteria necessary to be successful and agrees to implement the strategy. When Empowerment Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have secured the start-up and first year of campaign funding, the second step in the selection process is initiated. The candidate city is invited to participate in a competitive application process demonstrating it has the on the ground community leadership commitments to make this initiative successful. Empowerment Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will then select the 3 cities with the best application. The cities not selected will be encouraged to participate in the next phase that rolls out the model. CONTACT INFORMATION: David Gershon, Empowerment Institute, dgershon@empowermentinstitute.net ATTACHMENT B          COOL CITY CHALLENGE    REINVENTING OUR CITIES FROM THE BOTTOM UP   TO ACHIEVE DRAMATIC CARBON REDUCTION, DEEP RESILIENCY AND GREEN PROSPERITY     AN INITIATIVE OF EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE IN PARTNERSHIP   WITH LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY       THE NEED    “What we do in the next few years to address climate change will determine our future.   This is the defining moment.”  —Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change    “The world’s cities are responsible for up to 70% of harmful greenhouse gases while occupying  just 2 per cent of its land. They have become the real battleground in the fight against  climate change. What goes on in cities, and how they manage their impact on the  environment, lies at the core of the problem.”  ‘“Hot Cities: Battle Ground for Climate Change” from UN‐HABITAT’s 2011 Global Report     “Cities and citizens can make a global difference. Cities are responsible for the majority of our  harmful greenhouse gases, but they are also places where the greatest efficiencies can be  made. With better urban planning and greater citizen participation we can make our hot cities  cool again.”  —Dr. Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN‐HABITAT        DRAMATIC CARBON REDUCTION: reduce community’s carbon emissions through the mobilization  of a large percentage of citizens to reduce their CO2 footprint by participation in Low Carbon  Diet neighborhood‐based teams and develop a plan for a carbon neutral community.    DEEP RESILIENCY: redeploy the social capital generated by neighborhood teams to increase the  individual and collective resiliency of residents in neighborhoods to address climate‐related  risks and enhance overall sustainability and livability.     GREEN PROSPERITY: create demand for green goods and services enabling the development of  a robust local green economy through bringing neighborhood teams to scale.  2    PURPOSE    To scale up a proven community‐based social innovation to achieve dramatic carbon reduction,  deep resiliency, and green prosperity in three early adopter California cities and three  neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, Brazil and then disseminate worldwide.     AN OPENING FOR CHANGE  With international climate change legislation failing to get traction, as concerned citizens of our  planet we are left to our own devices. But even if legislation had passed, the speed and  magnitude of change our scientists tell us is needed goes well beyond anything political leaders  were contemplating. The social change tools at their disposal—command and control and  financial incentives—at their best are designed for slow, incremental change. If the current  social change tools of carrots and sticks alone are unable to meet our needs, what else do we  have? Are there assumptions we might rethink about what motivates people to change? And  with our national governments unable to lead the way, how might our communities effectively  step into this leadership vacuum?   A VISION OF POSSIBILITY   Imagine for a moment that cities and citizens from the largest per capita carbon‐emitting  country—America—and one the world’s fastest growing economies and a global leader on  climate change abatement—Brazil—came together to develop a game changing social  innovation around global warming. Its goal: rapid and substantial carbon reduction in the short‐ term and carbon neutrality in the long‐term, with deep resiliency and vibrant livability for its  citizens and green prosperity for its businesses.     With a real ticking clock, substantive and timely carbon reduction is critically needed. The fossil  fuels used to power our homes and cars generate between 50 and 90% of a community’s  footprint. In America this represents half of the country’s CO2 emissions. It is also the low‐ hanging fruit because we can make these changes immediately while buying needed time for  the longer‐term technology and renewable energy solutions to scale‐up.   Further, empowering the citizens of a community to lower their carbon footprint builds  demand for the green products and services needed to create local low carbon economies and  the political advocacy needed to become carbon neutral cities – the carbon mitigation end  game for cities. Moreover, this sends a profound message to the world that citizens in a  developed world country are able to reduce their high carbon‐emitting lifestyles and citizens in  a developing world country are able to leapfrog over the inefficient use of natural resources  and develop environmentally sustainable lifestyles. And all while these cities grow their  economies and create greater quality of life for their citizens.   3    Cities and citizens from the north and south coming together as partners to reduce their  greenhouse gas emissions and scaling this approach up city by city worldwide puts a new option  on the table for addressing global warming.   MEETING THE CHALLENGE  While getting people to reduce their carbon footprint – energy efficiency – is the low‐hanging  fruit to CO2 mitigation in the short term, will we be able to pick it? Can we empower citizens to  get out of their comfort zones and adopt low carbon lifestyles? Will cities be willing to expand  their social change tool kit beyond legislation and financial incentives to directly reach out and  engage their citizens? And if cities and citizens are both willing to make these changes can such  an initiative be brought to scale?  In 2006 Empowerment Institute—the world’s foremost expert in environmental behavior  change and community engagement—began attempting to answer these questions by creating  a community‐based environmental behavior‐change program called Low Carbon Diet. The  program consists of twenty‐four actions to reduce one's carbon footprint by at least 5,000  pounds in thirty days and to help others do the same. It is based on two decades of experience  working with several million people in hundreds of cities around the world who are organized  into neighborhood‐based peer support groups of 5 to 8 households called EcoTeams.   The Low Carbon Diet program helped empower the movement that had been building in  America around personal action and community‐based solutions, and immediately took off. It  was driven by the many local governments committed to the issue of climate change who were  wishing to engage their citizens; faith‐based groups like Interfaith Power and Light representing  some 5,000 congregations, wishing to engage congregants; and environmental groups, like Al  Gore's Climate Project, which gave the book to the 1,000 people he trained to lead his “An  Inconvenient Truth” slide show. This interest resulted in the development of a community  engagement strategy called a Cool Community.    There are now over 300 Cool Communities in thirty‐six states across America with participants  achieving a 25 percent carbon footprint reduction and reaching out to fellow citizens to  accomplish the same. Low Carbon Diet and the Cool Community model has also been translated  and culturally adapted for China, Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.     Cool Communities are developing robust long‐term carbon reduction capability by building the  community leadership, carbon‐literate citizenry, and political will necessary to move the  community toward carbon neutrality. However, a Cool Community does more than just address  a city’s carbon footprint; it also enables it to enjoy the immediate practical benefits of green  economic development, more livable and resilient neighborhoods and greater environmental  sustainability.     4    And at the most fundamental level by enabling individuals to become personally part of the  solution, Cool Communities are creating a new dynamic in how we tackle large societal  challenges. They are allowing us to move beyond the traditional social change formula of  business as the problem and government as the solution – the familiar paradigm in which  nonprofits lobby government for better regulations against business while disenfranchised  citizens sit on the sidelines complaining about the coziness between politicians and business.     When citizens are empowered to adopt socially beneficial behaviors, such as a low‐carbon  lifestyle, an opening can occur for traditionally adversarial relationships to establish new  arrangements of cooperation and collaboration. When the whole system begins working  together and there is no “other” to combat or protect against, more innovative and generative  solutions start to emerge. Everyone is now a participant in shaping the future.     THE COOL CITY CHALLENGE GOALS     1. Scale up the Cool Community model in three early adopter California cities and three  neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, Brazil.    2. Build each city or neighborhood’s capacity to engage between 25% and 75% of their  residents over a three‐year period to reduce their carbon footprints 25%.    3. Build each city or neighborhood’s capacity to enable a minimum of 40% of program  participants to do energy efficiency building upgrades on their homes.    4. Support each city or neighborhood, with assistance from Lawrence Berkeley National  Laboratory, to develop a plan to become carbon neutral by 2025.     5. Support each city or neighborhood in developing a green economic development  strategy based on the increased demand generated by the campaign for low carbon  goods and services and renewable energy.     6. Support cities in redeploying the social capital generated through the block‐based teams  to enhance the resiliency, livability and sustainability of the city’s neighborhoods at a  block level.    7. Create the Cool City challenge as a whole system solution through engaging and building  the transformative leadership and community organizing capacity of the local  government, community‐based groups, university and high school students (Cool  Community Corps) and businesses (Cool Corporate Citizen). This approach will not only  enable the campaign to accomplish its neighborhood team recruitment goals, but leave  a legacy of enhanced community leadership, strengthened community partnerships,  and a deepened environmental stewardship ethic.     5    8. Create a formal research study and evaluation of the environmental, economic and  social results of the campaign and its various processes to assist in its future  dissemination. (The lead research partner is Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.)     9. Based on the success of this four‐city demonstration, disseminate this model worldwide.      SUMMARY AND TIMELINE     Phase 1 – Start‐Up (1 Year): Create the information technology management system,  communication tools, adaptation of the behavior change programs, and local campaign  management teams. (Begins upon securing financing for this phase and at least the first  year of the campaign.)     Phase 2 – Campaign (3 Years): Implement the Cool City Challenge in the four cities.       PHASE 1 – START‐UP: EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE KEY TASKS    1. Select the three early adopter California cities. Candidates are Davis, Palo Alto, San  Francisco, San Rafael and Sonoma. This will be done competitively in partnership with  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory based on a formal application process.  2. Select the three Sao Paulo, Brazil Neighborhoods. This will be done competitively in  partnership with the city of Sao Paulo based on a competitive application process.  3. Design and build the information management system for carbon aggregation,  participation tracking and results simulation (CAPTIN).   4. Adapt Empowerment Institute’s Low Carbon Diet, Green Living, Disaster Resilient  Communities and Livable Neighborhood programs to electronic format, integrate into a  single program, and customize for each of the cities with localized resources.  5. Integrate into the four‐part program and community organizing strategy game  mechanics to enhance participation, social innovation and stickiness among households,  blocks, community sectors, community groups and cities.    6. Design the Cool Community Corps (student engagement) and Cool Corporate Citizen  (employee volunteers) programs and customize for each of the communities.  7. Create a local green economic development strategy in partnership with each city’s  economic development agency.  6    8. Design and implement the overall communication strategy including branding, written  materials, website, promotional film, and social and traditional media and customize for  each city.   9. Meet with local government leaders, civic and faith‐based groups, and green businesses  in the four cities to understand the unique opportunities offered to each by the  campaign and the points of synergy available through increased collaboration with one  another. Integrate this information into a visioning and strategic planning retreat for  each city.  10. Recruit the local campaign leadership teams for each city.  11. Facilitate a visioning and strategic planning retreat with each community’s campaign  leadership team, key strategic partners and advisors. The outcomes will be a clearly  delineated vision customized to the unique needs and opportunities of each city, three‐ year strategic plan, and alignment of the team around this vision and plan of action.  12. Provide a capacity building training for each community’s campaign’s leadership team to  enable execution of their strategic plan through developing competencies in the Cool  Community organizing methodology, Social Change 2.0 strategies, and transformative  leadership skill‐set.   13. Help each city’s campaign leadership team develop a compelling graphic presentation of  the local campaign including the track record of the Cool Community behavior change  and community engagement methodology being deployed, benefits to the community  at different levels of scale, and the action plan to achieve it.    PHASE 2 – CAMPAIGN: EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE KEY TASKS PER CITY   Year One  1. Assist local campaign leadership teams in collaboration with city officials in making the  Cool City Challenge presentation in an event to on‐board community leadership from  civic and faith‐based groups, businesses, government agencies high schools and  universities. Each partner organization will be asked to contribute to the formation of  Neighborhood Teams and participate in a capacity building training and learning  community of peer support and coaching. This is the formal launch point of the  campaign.  2. Provide capacity building training and coaching for community partners in neighborhood  team recruitment strategies, empowerment coaching, and utilization of the carbon  aggregation and participation tracking information network (CAPTIN).   7    3. Facilitate monthly master classes for partner organizations to assist them in mastery of  the empowerment tools and achievement of their goals.   4. Provide on‐going consultation and coaching to each community’s campaign leadership  team on strategy, tactics, mastery of the tools, and attainment of their team  recruitment goals and other campaign metrics.  5. Provide consulting and support to each community in implementing the Cool  Community Corps and Cool Corporate Citizen programs, green economic development  strategy and communication plan.   6. Create baseline data and establish local partnerships to support the research study.  7. Establish and facilitate a community of practice between the cities through regular  teleconferences and the web.  Year Two  8. Provide on‐going consultation and coaching to each campaign leadership team on  strategy, tactics, mastery of the tools, attainment of their goals and build out of new  social innovations.  9. Provide on‐going consulting and support to each community in implementing the Cool  Community Corps and Cool Corporate Citizen programs, green economic development  strategy and communication plan.   10. Provide on‐going facilitation of a community of practice between the cities through  regular teleconferences and the web.    11. Conduct an on‐site retreat with each campaign’s leadership team to review progress  against their goals and adjust strategies and tactics based as needed.     12. Lead a multi‐city off‐site retreat to take a deep dive into the best practices and next  practices that are emerging in all aspects of the campaign.    13. Manage and provide continuous upgrades in the CAPTIN information management  system.    14. Continue implementation of the research study.  Year Three  15. Provide on‐going consultation and coaching to each campaign leadership team on  strategy, tactics, mastery of the tools, attainment of their goals and build out of new  social innovations.  8    16. Provide on‐going consulting and support to each community in implementing the Cool  Community Corps and Cool Corporate Citizen programs, green economic development  strategy and communication plan.   17. Facilitate the community of practice between the cities through regular teleconferences  and the web.    18. Conduct an on‐site retreat with each campaign’s leadership team to review progress  against their goals and develop strategies for necessary adjustments.     19. Lead a multi‐city off‐site retreat to take a deep dive into the best practices and next  practices that are emerging in all aspects of the campaign.    20. Manage and provide continuous upgrades in the CAPTIN information management  system.    21. Design and implement Cool City Challenge dissemination strategy.   22. Support cities, in collaboration with local universities, to serve as teaching cities.  23. Present and disseminate the research findings of the Lawrence Berkeley National  Laboratory and other participating universities.       PHASE 1 – START‐UP:  LAWRENCE BERKLEY NATIONAL LABORATORY KEY TASKS    1. Develop methodology for robust data collection and measurement of savings.  2. Collect baseline data and establish local partnerships to support the research study.  3. Develop partnerships and plans for technology demonstrations and pilot projects with  industry.  4. Coordinate partner input for CAPTIN information management system.  5. Develop a whole system model of analysis for the Cool City Challenge as a climate  change mitigation strategy. The focus of this analysis and research will be on how  human and social factors can serve as the catalyst and critical driver needed for  technology adoption, policy adoption and market creation (Figure 1).     9    POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS       (a)  POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS HUMAN/ SOCIAL  FACTORS      (b)      POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS HUMAN/ SOCIAL  FACTORS CULTURE   (c)  Figure 1. Focusing solely on technology, markets, and policy (a) in climate mitigation is incomplete  without including human and social factors (b) which can be a major driver for technology  adoption, policy adoption and market creation.  All of these items reside and must be understood  in a larger cultural context (c).             PHASE 2 – CAMPAIGN:  LAWRENCE BERKLEY NATIONAL LABORATORY KEY TASKS    1. Measurement and evaluation of community participation, behavior change actions,  energy efficiency retrofits, participation in voluntary technology demonstrations and  pilot programs conducted by cities.    10    2. Quantification of energy and carbon savings by action as part of a structured data  collection plan.    3. Semi‐annual feedback of results to city and partners for program adjustment and  improvement.    4. Annual progress report with quantified results for stakeholders, participants and  funding sources.     5. Complete formal research study of the environmental, economic and social results of  the campaign and its various processes to assist in its future dissemination, in  collaboration with partner universities. This includes:      Quantification of behavior change and community participation levels and energy  and carbon savings,     Analysis and recommendations for community engagement “best practices” and  relationships to quantified results,     Community scaling scenarios and non‐energy related impact assessment analysis  e.g. health and air quality impacts,     Analysis of economic and social impact of Cool City Challenge,      Analysis of this whole system approach in creating technology adoption, policy  adoption and market creation,     Cost/benefit analyses of behavior change interventions in comparison to other  forms of GHG reduction strategies,     Potential GHG and economic development impact of scaling the Cool City Challenge  across the state of California and the United States     Development of carbon neutral scenarios for 2025.    PHASE 2 – CAMPAIGN: COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT TEAM KEY TASKS   The staffing required to manage the campaign is estimated to be four full‐time people or the  equivalent: a campaign director and three program managers. Volunteers and the various  community stakeholders can enhance these positions.   1. Identify the residential sector carbon footprint, if it does not already exist.  11      2. Recruit partner organizations and block leaders to form Neighborhood Teams. (See Cool  Community organizing model below.)    3. Integrate the campaign into other community‐based carbon reduction, neighborhood  improvement, disaster resiliency and community development initiatives to maximize  synergy.    4. Support partner organizations in staying on track with their Neighborhood Team  formation goals and keep track of their input into the CAPTIN information management  system.    5. Manage implementation of the green economic development strategy.    6. Manage participation in the Cool Community Corps that engages high school and  university students.    7. Manage participation in the Cool Corporate Citizen program that engages employee  volunteers.    8. Manage the local communication strategy.     9. Support research on the carbon neutral city plan.    COOL COMMUNITY ORGANIZING MODEL: A WHOLE SYSTEM APPROACH     ABOUT EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE    Empowerment Institute—the world’s foremost expert in environmental behavior change and  community engagement—has helped millions of people in hundreds of cities worldwide reduce  their environmental footprint. Since 2006 it has applied this methodology, through its Low  Carbon Diet program, to help tens of thousands of households in the US reduce their carbon  12    footprint and trained over 300 communities in its Cool Community methodology. Over the past  thirty years Empowerment Insitute’s programs have won many awards, and an academic  research study described them as “unsurpassed in changing behavior.”    Empowerment Institute is the principle architect of the Cool City Challenge and responsible for  its overall implementation. This includes the selection of the four cities, building their capacity  in deploying Empowerment Institute’s behavior change and community engagement  methodology, securing and managing the team of content experts who will support various  aspects of the intiative. It is also accountable for raising the financing and disseminating of the  Cool City Challenge after this three‐year demonstration phase.     ABOUT LAWRENCE BERKELY NATIONAL LABRATORY    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) addresses the world’s most urgent scientific  challenges including the advancement of more sustainable energy technologies. Founded in  1931, LBNL’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. One of their major  initiatives is “Carbon Cycle 2.0” – a multidisciplinary approach to accelerate discovery and  innovation in creating global climate change solutions.    The Cool City Challenge fits under this broad initiative and LBNL will lead the research and  development effort for the duration of the project. LBNL will coordinate research efforts at  participating universities and with corporate sponsors as well as support technology  demonstrations and pilots with industry and other stakeholders. Key issues to be studied  include how the behavior change and community engagement tools promulgated by this  initiative can help catalyze the full spectrum of GHG reduction interventions spanning  technology adoption, policy adoption, and market development; the efficacy of the behavioral  change and community engagement mechanisms for GHG reduction and green economic  development; the potential GHG and economic development impact of scaling the Cool City  Challenge across the state of California and the United States; cost/benefit analyses of behavior  change interventions in comparison to other forms of GHG reduction strategies; and scenario  development for what it would take for the participating cities to become carbon neutral by  2025. LBNL will also assist with securing the financing for the Cool City Challenge.      STRATEGIC PARTNERS    World Wildlife Fund and its Earth Hour City Challenge    World Wildlife Fund is the world’s leading conservation organization, works in 100 countries,  and is supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. In  2007 it started Earth Hour as a symbolic event and a demonstration of solidarity, with cities  turning off their lights for one hour to show support for climate action. By 2011 this symbolic  event had become the world’s largest environmental campaign for the planet with 1.8 billion  people in more than 5,200 cities and towns taking part. Starting in 2012, WWF challenged cities  13    to do more than turn out their lights and created the Earth Hour City Challenge. Its purpose is  to encourage cities and their citizens to reduce their carbon footprints while at the same time  becoming more resilient to climate‐related disasters. Participating US cities will receive  resources and gain recognition for their efforts to address climate change.   Given the shared goals and audience of the Cool City Challenge, World Wildlife Fund reached  out to Empowerment Institute to form a strategic partnership and deploy its behavior change  and community engagement methodology in the selected cities. This partnership will be phased  in as the Cool City Challenge begins scaling this methodology after completion of the  demonstration phase described in this proposal.    In order for the Cool City Challenge to serve as the backend of World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour  City Challenge, it will participate in fundraising efforts to support the implementation of this  demonstration phase.  City of Sao Paulo Environment and Health Departments  The City of Sao Paulo, though its community health and environmental education and outreach  program, will provide the staffing and logistics to enable implementation of the Cool City  Challenge. This in‐kind contribution is valued at $1 million dollars. The plan is to embed the  Cool City Challenge in the city’s wider program of behavior change around health, safety and  environment using Empowerment Institute’s Low Carbon Diet, Green Living and Livable  Neighborhood Programs and the PAVS environment and health agent distribution platform. The  Cool City Challenge will build this model in three middle‐income Administrative Districts  (approximately 300,000 people) where its residents can serve as role models for low carbon,  environmentally sustainable lifestyles and more livable neighborhoods that could be emulated  by other parts of the city. It is estimated that approximately 20% of Sao Paulo’s citizens, or  around 2 million people, fall in this category. Since 300,000 people represents 15% of our target  group and it is also the point at which a well designed innovation can achieve a tipping point  and begin diffusing on its own momentum.     Academic Research Partners  University of California, Davis – Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Transportation Centers will  support research around technology adoption, energy efficiency and transportation behavior  change and modeling for carbon neutral city development.    University of California, Berkeley – Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and Energy  and Resources Group will support development of the carbon calculation aspects of the  information management system and the personal transportation data collection.  14    Stanford University – Precourt Energy Efficiency Center will assist in energy and transportation  efficiency research through the application of gamification and feedback systems to increase  the efficacy of program participant behavior change.  TEAM MEMBERS  David Gershon, co‐founder and CEO of Empowerment Institute, is one of the world’s foremost  authorities on behavior‐change and community engagment and applies this expertise to issues  requiring community, organizational, and societal change. His clients include cities, government  agencies, large corporations, and social entrepreneurs. He has addressed a wide diversity of  issues ranging from low carbon lifestyles, livable neighborhoods, and sustainable communities  to organizational talent development, corporate social engagement and cultural  transformation.     David used this empowerment proficiency to organize at the height of the cold war, in  partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund and ABC Television, one of the planet’s  first major global consciousness‐raising initiatives—the First Earth Run. Building on his  background as the Director of the Lake Placid Olympic Torch Relay, he used the mythic power  of relaying a torch of peace around the world to engage the participation of twenty‐five million  people in sixty‐two countries, the world’s political leadership and, through the media, an  estimated 20 percent of the planet’s population in an act of global unity. Millions of dollars  were also raised as part of this event to help UNICEF provide care for the neediest children of  the world.    Gershon is the author of eleven books, including the best selling Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day  Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds and the award‐winning Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for  Reinventing Our World. He co‐directs Empowerment Institute’s School for Transformative Social  Change which empowers change agents from around the world to design and implement  cutting edge transformative social innovations. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, and Johns  Hopkins Univeristy and served as an advisor to the Clinton White House and the United Nations  on behavior change and community engagement strategies. David has overall responsibility for  leading this initiative including desgin, management and project financing.    Douglas Davenport leads strategic partnership initiatives for the Lawrence Berkeley National  Laboratory’s Environmental Energy Technology Division, an integrated applied sciences  research program in energy efficiency and environmental quality, energy resources and  storage, and energy policy. Doug’s focus is on the value of LBNL’s R&D programs to their  partners in addressing some of the world’s most pressing technical challenges. He’s spent the  past 23 years as an engineer, leader of a climate consulting practice, renewable energy  developer, and business manager. He is currently starting up new innovation programs and  partnerships on behalf of LBNL for urban sustainability, battery technology, smart grid, and  materials science. Doug will be responsible for management of LBNL’s core team and will assist  15    with Cool City Challenge financing. He will also serve as lead R&D liaison between industry  partners and local government programs and coordinate technology demonstrations and pilots.    Tom McKone Ph.D. is the leader of the Sustainable Energy Systems group and Deputy for  Research Programs in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Department in the  Environmental Energy Technologies Division at LBNL and has several decades of experience in  scientific analysis and technical management. Tom is an authority on the life cycle  analysis/health impacts of energy production and was a co‐author of the recent National  Academy report, Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use.  He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Health Sciences group in the Department  of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Tom will lead LBNL’s overall R&D  activities and coordinate the impact assessment analysis team.  Jeffery Greenblatt, Ph.D. is a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s  Environmental Technologies Division where he leads work on California’s energy future analysis  for the California Energy Commission, and leads the Environmental Energy Analysis Team for  LNBL’s Carbon Cycle 2.0 initiative. He was a major author of California’s Energy Future report.  Prior to his work at LBNL, he was a Climate and Energy Technology Manager at Google.org,  where he screened renewable energy grants and investments. Before coming to Google, Jeff  was a High Meadows fellow at Environmental Defense Fund where he evaluated the technical,  economic and environmental aspects of a wide range of energy technologies. He helped  developed the original "wedge" climate stabilization research and has developed scenarios for  California, the Midwest, and the US. Jeff will be responsible for community scaling scenarios,  health and resource impact assessment analysis and development of carbon neutral city  scenarios.      Max Wei Ph.D. is a Program Manager in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at  LBNL. His work is focused on modeling medium‐ and long‐term greenhouse gas reduction  scenarios for California, including the potential of long‐term habitual behavior change as a  resource for carbon reduction. He was a key contributor to two recent reports: California’s  Energy Future – The View to 2050, for the California Council on Science and Technology,  and California’s Carbon Challenge: Scenarios for Achieving 80% Emissions Reduction in 2050,  for the California Energy Commission. In 2011 he completed a report on the job creation  potential from sustained investment in energy efficiency and low carbon energy sources, co‐led  successful passage of SB77, a clean energy financing bill in California, and co‐authored a study  on the economic impacts of a state feed‐in‐tariff. Max will be responsible for the Cool City  Challenge behavior change and community participation measurement and assessment,  quantification of carbon savings, and lead analysis of economic and social impact assessment.  Cara Pike is the founder and director of the Social Capital Project and a climate change  communications specialist. She has written two climate change communication guides Climate  Crossroads: A Research‐Based Framing Guide and Climate Communications and Behavior  Change: A Guide for Practitioners. She is also the founder of Climate Access, a network for  practitioners to acquire the latest research and emerging ideas on climate change  16    communications and behavior change. Cara was formerly the Vice President of  Communications for the leading nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice, where she  created and ran a full‐service internal communications agency for the organization’s eight  offices and international program. Cara has a deep understanding of environmental issues and  how they intersect with cultural trends and concerns. Cara will manage the development and  implementation the Cool City Challenge communication strategy.  Keya Chatterjee is Director of the World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Program in the US.  Among her responsibilities she runs the Earth Hour City Challenge initiative for WWF in the US  focused on getting cities to reduce their carbon footprint and prepare for adaption. Other  responsibilities include advocacy for international and national climate change legislation. Prior  to joining WWF, Chatterjee served as a Climate Change Specialist at USAID, where she managed  the land‐based carbon portfolio. Chatterjee also worked for three years at NASA Headquarters  in their Earth Science Enterprise. Chatterjee started her career as a Presidential Management  Fellow in the US government, and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in a national park in Morocco  from 1998 to 2000. Keya will manage the partnership between the Earth Hour City Challenge  and the Cool City Challenge.    John Cleveland is former director of the State of Michigan’s industrial extension service where  he worked with over 200 SMEs per year. In 2006 he founded Innovation Network for  Communities to develop and spread scalable innovations that transform the performance of  community systems. He’s been working for over 30 years on large‐scale system change projects  with a focus on the intersection between private markets and public good. His most current  work has been leading The Green Ribbon Commission—a high level group of business, civic and  institutional CEOs whose mission is to support the implementation of the City of Boston Climate  Action Plan and supporting the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. John will provide  strategic planning consultation and help partner cities create localized green economic  development strategies around the Cool City Challenge.  Carrie Armel Ph.D. is a research associate at Stanford’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center  specializing in behavior and energy research. Her current research includes developing climate‐ positive behavior change interventions; developing tools for measuring climate change relevant  behaviors, for use in evaluating the efficacy of behavior change interventions, and in providing  feedback to individuals; preparing an integrative review that identifies the most effective  behavior change techniques from multiple disciplines so that they may be translated and  applied to addressing climate change; and developing a "Behavior and Energy" website and  literature database, which serves as a central repository for research on climate relevant  behavior. She will be serving as an advisor and assisting us in the use of game mechanics for the  Low Carbon Diet.  Chris Jones is research associate at the UC Berkeley Renewable and Appropriate Energy  Laboratory. His research interests intersect the fields of environmental psychology, ecological  economics and climate change policy. He is lead developer of the CoolClimate Calculator, an  online tool that allows households to calculate their carbon footprint and develop personalized  17    climate action plans. His research is funded by the California Air Resources Board and the  California Institute for Energy and Environment. He is also program manager for the Behavior,  Energy and Climate Change Conference, the premier conference dedicated to understanding  and extending the application of behavioral sciences to solve energy and climate problems.  Chris will assist in the development of the CAPTIN information management system.  Karen Ehrhardt‐Martinez, Ph.D. is the Director of Garrison Institute’s Climate, Mind and  Behavior Program. She has two decades of experience in applied academic research on the  social and behavioral dimensions of energy and climate change. She was a Senior Research  Associate with the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at the University of Colorado  and led the behavior change research program for the American Council for an Energy‐Efficient  Economy. Karen is a cofounder of the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC) Conference  and served as the BECC Conference Chair in 2009. Karen will assist in applying the latest  behavior change research to optimizing the Low Carbon Diet program.     Peter Byck is the producer and editor of the highly acclaimed documentary film on climate  change, Carbon Nation. Peter has presented Carbon Nation for the White House and many  Fortune 500 companies and universities, and high schools across the country and  internationally. He has over 20 years experience as a director and editor. His first documentary  "Garbage" won the South by Southwest Film Festival. In addition, he has edited documentaries  for Peter Jackson's last two films, "Lord of the Rings" and "King Kong." Peter has also worked as  an editor or director for documentaries and promotional shorts for Warner Bros., Universal  Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Disney and MGM, and for shows and movies including "The West  Wing," "The Matrix," "Scrubs," and many more. He will be developing a short promotional film  and longer documentary on the Cool City Challenge.  Mario Herger is a Senior Innovation Strategist at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, California and global  head of the Gamification Initiative at SAP. In his work as head of the Gamification Initiative he  has supported gamification efforts in the enterprise from multiple levels and departments, like  Sustainability, On Demand, Mobile, HR, Training & Education, Simulation etc. He has driven the  awareness around gamification inside and outside SAP by organizing and leading innovation  events around this topic, working with gamification platform and service‐providers, and by  incorporating gamification into SAP's strategy. Mario will be helping build the gamfication  platform for the Cool City Challenge.    Greg Searle is the North American Executive Director for Bioregional’s One Planet Communities  program. In this position he serves as a strategy consultant on behavior change and low carbon  neighborhoods for municipalities and green real estate developers. Greg applied this expertise  as a consultant to Discovery's Planet Green reality show to help American families achieve a  30% reduction in their carbon footprints in two months. Greg serves as a technical advisor to  the US Green Building Council Regenerative Design Program, Clinton Climate Initiative, and the  Urban Land Institute. Greg is also the co‐founder and former Chief Technology Officer of  Tomoye Corporation, an award‐winning knowledge management software firm. Greg will help  18    in the design of the Cool City Challenge’s carbon neutral block program and knowledge  management system.  Eve Baer has served as Empowerment Institute’s Program Director for the past 20 years and is a  master coach. She has supported hundreds of individuals to form EcoTeams and coached  dozens of program managers in cities across the United States to implement Empowerment  Institute’s behavior change programs. Eve will assist the community campaign management  teams and partner organizations in EcoTeam formation.   John Winter is the founder and president of Social Responsibility Solutions, a consulting firm  specializing in creating climate change reduction programs for businesses. Before John began  his consulting practice he was the Director of Social Responsibility at Green Mountain Coffee  Roasters. In that role, John managed GMCR’s activities in climate change and environmental  quality. Key tasks included measuring the company’s GHG emissions, designing reduction and  alternative energy strategies, and creating emissions offsets. Under his leadership the company  was ranked 2nd in Business Ethics magazine 2005 “100 Best Corporate Citizens.” John will  manage operations for the Cool City Challenge and implementation of the Cool Corporate  Citizen and Cool Community Corps programs.   Sandra Slater has pioneered environmental sustainability and green design in the San Francisco  Bay area for the past two decades. She is the founder of Sandra Slater Environments a design  and consulting firm that works with businesses and private homes. Her home was one of the  first green demonstration homes in the country. Over 3,000 architects, designers, city planners,  and others have toured the home to learn about green building, and it's also been featured in  many TV programs, articles and books. Sandra will assist with overall project management with  a focus on the participating California cities.     Helio Neves Ph.D. is the City of Sao Paulo’s deputy secretary of Environment and director of the  city’s community environmental and health education and outreach program called PAVS  (Green and Healthy Environments Project). He will be responsible for organizing the City of Sao  Paulo’s participation in the Cool City Challenge including the selection of the three  neighborhoods and city staffing.      Rodrigo Lagreca is the managing director of Evolva Projects, leading experts in developing  behavior change programs in Brazil. One such program his organization developed is on low  carbon lifestyles—the first of its kind in South America. Prior to this work Rodrigo served as a  senior executive in a consumer goods company. His background also includes serving as a  professor in Pontifícia Universidade Católica. His research has focused on the impact of gray  markets on consumers, industries and companies, and ways of changing habits related to such  offers. Rodrigo will serve as the program manager for the Cool City Challenge in Brazil, assist in  the adaption of the Low Carbon Diet and other programs and in raising the financing.     Sector 2 ½ is a Brazilian marketing and communication company that works at the intersection  of the corporate and NGO sectors to design mutually supportive communication strategies and  19    programs. It strengthens corporate strategies based on intrinsic and genuine social  environmental beliefs and practices; and civil society organizations and their causes through  planned marketing communication support. Sector 2 1/2 brings these two sectors of society  together to enable mutually beneficial strategic partnerships. Their clients include Pepsi,  Unilever, World Wildlife Fund and UNDP among many others and their team has spent over  forty years in the field of marketing and communications. Sector 2 1/ 2 will implement the  communication strategy for the Cool City Challenge in Brazil and in assist in raising the  financing.     BUDGET     Phase 1 – Start‐Up (1 Year)     Foundation Building of the Campaigns ‐‐ $250,000   (Includes visits to each of the cities to meet with key stakeholders and assess needs and  opportunities, recruitment of campaign management teams, visioning and strategic  planning retreats for campaign teams, development of strategic plans for each city, and  capacity building training for campaign management teams.)     CAPTIN Information Management System ‐‐ $250,000   (Design of the carbon aggregation and participation tracker, cool city simulator,  community‐of‐practice, program management, and mobile app software. This is the  information management backbone for the Cool City Challenge during the  demonstration phase and for its long‐term dissemination.)     Program Development ‐‐ $250,000   (Includes adaptation of EI’s four behavior change programs into electronic format and  customization for each of the cities, development of the Cool Community Corps and  Cool Corporate Citizen programs, and development of the green economic development  and research strategies.)     Communications ‐‐ $200,000   (Creation of the communication strategy including branding, website, promotional film  and outreach materials customized to each city.)     Travel and Lodging ‐‐ $50,000  (Visits to four cities to implement the start‐up tasks.)    Sub Total ‐‐ $1,000,000    Phase 2: Campaign (3 Years)    20     Core Program ‐‐ $7,000,000   ($1 million per city for four staff over 3 years to manage the campaign and other  administration costs. $750,000 per city over three years for Empowerment Institute and  its cadre of content experts to provide capacity building, consultation and coaching.)     Research and Evaluation ‐‐ $3,000,000  (Conducting of the Cool City Challenge research and evaluation by LBNL.)       Communication ‐‐ $1,200,000  (Promotion of the campaigns in the four cities through social and traditional media, local  events to celebrate successes, and development of a film.)     CAPTIN Information Management ‐‐ $300,000  (Management and program upgrades of the information management system.)     Travel and Lodging ‐‐ $300,000  (Visiting cities for training and consulting and off‐site retreats for leadership teams.)     Disseminate Cool City Challenge ‐‐ $200,000  (Design and implementation of the Cool City Challenge diffusion strategy including  development of the teaching cities platform, identification of the next wave of cities,  and dissemination of the research findings of LBNL.)     Sub Total ‐‐ $12,000,000    Project Total: $13,000,000     Note: When the $13 million of core financing is secured, we will seek to raise an additional $12  million for incentive prizes to recognize extraordinary accomplishment of the cities. The Cool  City Challenge will offer cities who meet or exceed their goals: $250,000 for 25% citizen  participation, $500,000 for 50% citizen participation, $750,000 for 75% or more citizen  participation. This will also serve as seed capital to support their efforts to become carbon  neutral. When this $2 million dollars of financing is secured we will seek an additional  $10,000,000 to serve as an “X Prize” to recognize the first city to achieve the goal of carbon  neutrality.      ADDENDUM    Further Information about the Social Change 2.0 Framework and the  Low Carbon Diet and Cool Community Methodologies  21    Review of Social Change 2.0 in Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/1576670/social‐ change‐20‐a‐blueprint‐for‐reinventing‐our‐world   Introduction to Social Change 2.0 – “Reinventing Social Change”  http://www.socialchange2.com/index.php/book/excerpts  Low Carbon Diet – Portland Pilot Case Study: “Changing the World One Household at a Time”  http://www.empowermentinstitute.net/files/LowCarbDiet_article.pdf  Huffington Post Series – “Empowering a Climate Change Movement: Low Carbon Diet and the  Cool Community" http://www.socialchange2.com/index.php/author/empowering‐a‐climate‐ change‐movement     FOR FURTHER INFORMATION    David Gershon   (845) 331‐1312  dgershon@empowermentinstitute.net  www.empowermentinstitute.net   www.socialchange2.com    TOWARD BUILDING SCALABLE LOW CARBON CITIES THROUGH IMPLEMENTATION OF A WHOLE SYSTEMS APPROACH IN SEVERAL LEARNING CITIES IN CALIFORNIA AND SAO PAULO, BRAZIL AN APPLIED RESEARCH FRAMEWORK BY LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY IN COLLABORATION WITH EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE FOR THE COOL CITY CHALLENGE INTRODUCTION Climate change solutions tend to focus on technologically based solutions and advances in technology. For example 13 or more of the original 15 Socolow climate wedges are technology- based1. This is not surprising, given that by definition climate change science is largely studied, quantified, and parameterized by scientists and engineers and since technologies can be analyzed and their impact quantified in a relatively straightforward manner. But what about people: the interaction between people and technology and the larger cultural context of issues driving energy demand and climate emissions including consumption, growth and modernity? After all, people are the ultimate consumers of energy and their consumption accounts for 50-70% of greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the degree to which and rate at which people and by extension, society as a whole adopts new technologies can be as important as the development of the technology itself. Concurrently the world is becoming more urbanized and cities are becoming critical entities in which to address climate change both because of their dominant contribution to global climate emissions and because of their potential for mobilization compared to larger and more unwieldy federal or national levels of authority. Focusing solely on technology, markets, and policy in climate mitigation strategies is incomplete without including human and social factors, which can be a major driver for technology adoption, policy adoption and market creation (Figure 1). Moreover, all of these items reside in and must be understood in a larger cultural context and ultimately biologically based evolutionary setting. This work describes an innovative new framework for addressing the climate change challenge: a whole systems approach which seeks to comprehend human/behavioral factors, technological approaches, and market factors centered in several learning cities with the objective of building a scalable approach to implementing low carbon cities.                                                                                                                           1 Stephen Pacala, Robert Socolow "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies". Science 13 August 2004: Vol. 305 no. 5686 pp. 968-972.     2   (a) (b) (c) Figure 1. Focusing solely on technology, markets, and policy (a) in climate mitigation is incomplete without including human and social factors (b) which can be a major driver for technology adoption, policy adoption and market creation. All of these items reside and must be understood in a larger cultural context (c). Technology Markets Policy Human/Social Factors To what degree do human/social factors help/hurt technology adoption? How do we overcome human/technology barriers? To what degree is conservation/habitual behavior limited by market adoption factors (ease of adoption, ease of trial, visibility of benefits, etc.)? What is the potential for the “collaborative consumption” market? What is the sensitivity of “strong policy” knobs and habitual behavior change? What policies support current consumption habits? Education, information To what extent can community engagement drive technology/market/policy adoption? Technology - Test, pilot, deploy, data, marketing, etc. Education, information, incentives, financing, risk mitigation, etc. Markets - - Carbon price, incentives and regulations Table 1. Some interactions and research questions in the interaction of human and social factors with technology, markets and policy. Less explored interactions are shaded. POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS HUMAN/ SOCIAL   FACTORS POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS HUMAN/ SOCIAL   FACTORS CULTURE     3   Technology Markets Policy Human/Social Factors Lack of familiarity with technologies; complexity of technology. Feedback mechanisms for consumption and costs; trust factors and transaction costs; ease of adoption; visibility of benefits Education and awareness Incentives and regulations Technology - First cost issues; planned vs. unplanned (replacement vs. retrofit) Building codes and standards. Incentives and regulations Markets - - Building codes and standards; innovative financing mechanisms, incentives and regulations (a) Technology Markets Policy Human/Social Factors Range concerns; battery safety concerns; lack of engine revving sound; etc. Collaborative consumption car sharing? Charging vehicle-to-grid interactions with driver preferences Higher gasoline tax Education Information Technology - Cost adder; infrastructure – charging, distribution upgrades, etc. Feebates based on carbon emissions Markets - - Carbon price, higher gas tax, incentive and regulations (b) Table 2. The interaction of human and social factors with technology, markets, and policy in (a) Home energy efficiency retrofits; and (b) Electric vehicle adoption—plug in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV). Global warming is a short fuse issue with the time window for effectual strong action receding with each passing year2. There is a lack of coordinated national action or international action. This being the case, much of the leadership in climate change mitigation legislation and policies has devolved to the state and city level. Many cities have climate action plans but lack clear implementation strategies and coordination between disparate agencies (water, utilities, recycling, etc.). Moreover, cities are strapped for resources and budgets are being cut, contributing to persistently high unemployment and a chronic recession since the financial crisis. The net result of all of this is that carbon emissions are not being cut with either the requisite velocity or magnitude needed to meaningfully impact climate change.3                                                                                                                           2 J. Hansen, Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? Open Atmos. Sci. J. (2008), vol. 2, pp. 217-231. 3 “A Daunting Emissions Quest for U.S. Cities,” Dylan Walsh, New York Times, April 26, 2012.     4   Climate change solutions in leading states such as California tend to be technologically focused e.g. cleaner power or lower carbon fuels and based on carbon intensity standards rather than absolute energy or carbon reductions. Wider scale programs such as the Better Buildings Program tend to be piecemeal or narrowly focused in scope (e.g. residential efficiency retrofits) or narrowly focused in audience (e.g. single family homeowners). Because of the piecemeal, narrow focus of these programs, they are not widely adopted and thus far not viewed as successful. At the same time, cities and residents in cities are a nexus for energy, resource and carbon consumption with increasing urbanization trends especially in the developing world. Localized climate action plans exist in places such as Berkeley and Davis, California, but often lack implementation strategies with detailed measurements and verification. Instead they tend to focus on high level targets with no methodology for structured implementation, measurement or verification, much less financing. State and local approaches also generally lack strategies that include human and social factors, they focus rather on technology adoption. Further, a persistent and difficult issue to overcome on the path to deep carbon reduction in cities is the lack of demand for energy efficiency services and products, with uptake of home energy retrofit programs chronically low. The direction of programs in general tend to be top down rather than bottom up, based upon extrinsic appeals (such as saving money or saving energy) rather than intrinsic appeals (such as benefiting the community or deeper motivations such as making a difference), and they tend to be scatter shot rather than focused. TOWARD ACHIEVING LOW CARBON CITIES: A NEW PARADIGM The proposed approach is in many ways an inversion of existing paradigms that have met with limited success, with focus on motivations, desires, and psychology rather than conventional policy making based on technocratic and purely economic considerations. This whole system approach rather than piecemeal foci integrates social and human factors such as context, vision and motivations and not just energy efficiency but lifestyle and community factors such as consumption, diet, health, resiliency and safety. A potentially game changing, bottom-up climate change solution using this whole system approach has been developed by Empowerment Institute – experts in the development and implementation of behavior change, community engagement and large system transformation strategies. Participants in their Low Carbon Diet program achieve a 25% carbon footprint reduction and through their neighbor-to-neighbor outreach process are able to recruit 25% of a block to participate. LBNL will partner with Empowerment Institute in an attempt to scale up their carbon reduction and community engagement methodology in three early adopter cities in California and three neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Called the Cool City Challenge (see addendum), its goal over a three-year timeframe is to engage a minimum of 25% of the residents of these communities to reduce their carbon footprint by 25% while providing a platform for the testing and adoption of technologies to enhance the     5   behavior change and community engagement. A rigorous applied R&D learning process led by LBNL will maximize this opportunity for knowledge creation and ultimately success. (a) (b) Figure 2. Schematic of climate action plans illustrating the iterative nature of an action plan, an implementation plan, measurement and feedback, and impact assessment and learning (a). Each of the four key elements can be viewed through the lens of coupled technology, policy, markets, and human and social factors interactions (b). Human/Social Factors Technology Markets Policy Plan and Targets Role of conservation/ habitual behavior change? Education/ Awareness e.g. Eco-driving Role of key technologies (e.g. controls, networks, end use technologies, energy supply technologies) Human/social factor intervention and technology cost effectiveness? What are market adoption barriers and relative importance? What policies can encourage social factor participation and technology adoptions? What is optimal policy trajectory? Key Barriers Identified? Implementation Plan How best to do outreach? How to identify early adoption blocks and neighborhoods? Test/Pilot/ deployment plans. Education Financing issues Policies for human/social factors and technology and markets? Plan to overcome Key Barriers? Measurement and Feedback How to monitor/verify changes? How to capitalize on feedback? Sensor, feedback, networks Demand reduction/ demand shift; more comprehensive product labeling Policies for more feedback Impact Assessment and Learning Impact of implementation and changes? Total cost of ownership with lifecycle analysis impacts Impact of implementation on markets e.g. contractor employment Policy responses Market Analytics: outreach, response, adoption, penetration metrics and quantification What are integrated impacts to local economy, to local health, environment? How might these be integrated into an “urban quality index?” Table 3. Some interactions and research questions for the dynamics of climate action plans and human/social factors, technology, markets and policy. Human and social factors are usually not included in the implementation plan beyond generalized “outreach plans”, and measurement, feedback, impact assessment and learning are not generally addressed. MEASUREMENT   AND  FEEDBACK PLAN  & TARGETS IMPACT   ASSESSMENT   AND  LEARNING IMPLEMENTATION OF  ACTIONS  AND   PLAN POLICY TECHNOLOGY MARKETS HUMAN/ SOCIAL   FACTORS     6   The Cool City Challenge implementation plan is unique in that it will provide a closed loop learning system. Learning by design, rather than a top down approach of “build it and they will come,” e.g. building technology demonstrations and deployments without concomitant seeding of demand at the community level for these new technologies through creating interest in low carbon choices and lifestyle impacts. LBNL and Empowerment Institute’s partnership around the Cool City Challenge brings together for the first time the world-class technology R&D of LBNL in buildings, energy efficiency and energy analysis, IT and technology corporations, and the behavior change, community engagement, large system transformation and scaling strategies championed by the Empowerment Institute. Moreover, the initiative focuses on implementation of carbon reduction plans through specific and quantifiable behavior changes, technologies, and infrastructure in contrast to plans that focus on end states. Similarly, the initiative provides timeframes, locations, and detailed strategies for how to achieve aggressive carbon reduction targets. Further, the Cool City Challenge initiative provides a platform and test bed for deployment of new technologies, behavior change, community engagement and scaling strategies in cities. In particular it provides a learning lab for technology/human interactions and a tie-in to behavioral change experiments. It also extends the more usual “top down” framework to a “whole system” framework that integrates citizen participation, new technologies, and green economic development with the traditional policy tools of legislation and financial incentives. And the initiative offers the opportunity to design a replicable framework for scaling up low carbon implementation plans to other cities. The LBNL/Empowerment Institute Cool City Challenge initiative has six key research areas: 1. Whole System Approach: How to best integrate citizen carbon reduction actions, community engagement tools, green economic development strategies, a scaling mechanism, technology adoption, market development, and public policy tools. 2. Adoption Analytics: How to quantify adoption and penetration for low carbon actions, energy efficiency and technology. 3. Technology/Human Interface: How to maximize the human/technology interface to enable the development of new markets for low carbon technologies. 4. Behavior Change: How to maximize the quality, quantity and magnitude of citizen carbon reduction actions. 5. Co-Benefits: How to measure and quantify the economic, environmental, social and health co-benefits. 6. Carbon Neutral City: How to create a structured pathway to a carbon neutral city.     7   The research focus will include the following case study areas: transportation – vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction, residential energy efficiency – household retrofit adoption, and dietary change – eating lower on the food chain and local food. These three areas are chosen because they have either been very difficult to crack as market areas (residential uptake for energy efficiency is smaller than commercial uptake); they represent a large energy and carbon savings opportunity (residential retrofits, VMT reduction, dietary change); and they have not been highly studied or well quantified through citizen participation efforts in the past (VMT reduction and dietary change). KEY LBNL RESEARCH TASKS Start-up Phase The methodology for robust data collection and measurement of savings will be developed in this phase. This will include the definition of an appropriate control group for each city and provisions for collecting both spatial (block level) and temporal quantification (persistence) of behavior actions and community participation. Key household action items to be quantified on a pre- and post- program basis will include VMT, energy efficiency retrofits, carbon reduction actions, purchases, dietary habits, water usage and solid waste generation. Baseline data will be collected and local partnerships established to support the research study. Existing baseline data or statistics from the participating cities will be utilized wherever possible. Partnership with local utilities and/or technology provider companies will be made to collect pre-and post program utility customer data for base lining and ongoing data collection. VMT data collection will rely either on manual data entry or wireless data collection via cell phone/vehicle linkage. Data collection methodology and measurement of savings will be integrated into the Cool City Challenge information management system (“CAPTIN”) and LBNL will coordinate partner input for CAPTIN. One framework that will be employed in the program design is the investigation and possible mitigation of key barriers for actions in transport and energy efficiency (Table 4). For example, neighborhood-based carpooling barriers may include coordination gaps and trust issues and this could be addressed in the EcoTeam framework of increased community trust and a technology partner providing carpooling software integrated into IT and cell phone networks. During this phase, LBNL will also develop relationships and partnerships for technology demonstrations and pilot projects with industry or other technology stakeholders. This might include technology demonstrations for home energy management systems, advanced lighting products or controls, advanced window coatings, or pilot deployment of heat pump based space heating and water heating or integrated systems with thermal storage. Such technology demonstrations would explore issues and/or barriers with technology adoption and leverage the early adopter population segment to provide a seeding area for promising new applications.     8   Barrier Transport: Barrier Mitigation Residential Home Energy Efficiency Retrofit: Barrier Mitigation Motivation EcoTeam framework vs. Control (non-EcoTeam framework) Implementation barriers: coordination/ infrastructure Neighborhood carpooling software Demand reduction like programmable or graphical thermostat Culture Free public transit days City government marketing to create a new social norm Transactional/time Public transport lanes and privileges Utility mandatory audit Financial Incentives/rebates for public transportation Free audits for home energy efficiency Trust Local, dynamic carpooling with EcoTeam or neighborhood Trusted certified contractors recommended from EcoTeam neighbors Table 4. Investigation and possible mitigation of key barriers to citizen carbon reduction actions and technology adoption is enabled with the Cool City Challenge framework and could include some of the above elements in a matrix exploring barriers. Campaign Phase Key issues to be studied include measurement and evaluation of behavior changes, community participation, energy efficiency retrofits, and voluntary technology demonstrations. Central to this is the quantification of overall energy and carbon savings by action as part of the structured data collection plan. Effort will also be made to quantify the spatial distribution of EcoTeams, of savings within and across neighborhoods, as well as across time (persistence effects). Semi-annual feedback of results to city and program partners will be provided for program adjustment and improvement and an annual progress report with quantified progress to data will be written for stakeholders, participants and funding sources. Other issues to be studied include how the behavior change and community engagement tools promulgated by this initiative can help catalyze the full spectrum of GHG reduction interventions spanning technology adoption, policy adoption, and market development; scenario development for what it would take for the participating cities to become carbon neutral by 2025; and the potential GHG and economic development impact of scaling the Cool City Challenge across the state of California and the United States. Through survey frameworks as well as through EcoTeam member participation data, the research team will seek correlations between population segments, demographics or other characteristics with carbon reduction actions and levels of participation. Comparative cost/benefit analyses of behavior change interventions in comparison to other energy efficiency and carbon reduction programs will be done in terms of baseline adoption rates, energy savings and carbon savings versus program costs. A key question to be addressed is the deployment rate and scope of     9   energy efficiency retrofitting for Cool City Challenge participants vs. other programs such as the Better Buildings or Energy Upgrade California. Other key research activities include community-scaling scenarios and non-energy related impact assessments around health, environment, social capital, market development, and local economic development. For example, if higher rates of local energy efficiency retrofits are achieved how would this impact the local rate of employment among contractors and local sales of energy efficient products? Scenarios will also be built to explore the case where Cool City Challenge results are scaled to larger communities and regions for energy, carbon, and economic impacts. Analysis and recommendations for community engagement “best practices” will be summarized based on quantified dissemination results. Finally carbon neutral scenarios or city-specific requirements will be developed for 2025. ABOUT LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABRATORY Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges including the advancement of more sustainable energy technologies and climate change research. Founded in 1931, LBNL’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes and dozens of Nobel Laureates have either trained at the Lab or had significant collaborations with staff there. Thirteen Lab scientists have won the National Medal of Science, our nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research. One of LBNL’s major initiatives is “Carbon Cycle 2.0” – a multidisciplinary approach to accelerate discovery and innovation in creating global climate change solutions. The Cool City Challenge fits under this broad initiative and LBNL will lead the research and development effort. LBNL will coordinate research efforts at participating universities and with corporate sponsors as well as support technology demonstrations and pilots with industry and other stakeholders. LBNL will also assist in securing the financing for the Cool City Challenge. CORE RESEARCH TEAM Douglas Davenport leads strategic partnership initiatives for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Environmental Energy Technology Division, an integrated applied sciences research program in energy efficiency and environmental quality, energy resources and storage, and energy policy. Doug’s focus is on the value of LBNL’s R&D programs to their partners in addressing some of the world’s most pressing technical challenges. He’s spent the past 23 years as an engineer, leader of a climate consulting practice, renewable energy developer, and business manager. He is currently leading new innovation programs and partnerships on behalf of LBNL for urban sustainability, smart grid, battery technology, and materials science. Doug will be responsible for management of LBNL’s core team and will assist with Cool City Challenge financing. He will also     10   serve as lead R&D liaison between industry partners and local government programs and coordinate technology demonstrations and pilots. Tom McKone Ph.D. is the leader of the Sustainable Energy Systems Group and Deputy for Research Programs in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Department in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at LBNL. Tom has several decades of experience in scientific analysis and technical management and is an authority on the life cycle analysis/health impacts of energy production. He was a co-author of the recent National Academy report, Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Health Sciences group in the Department of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Tom will lead LBNL’s overall R&D activities and coordinate the impact assessment analysis team. Jeffery Greenblatt Ph.D. is a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Environmental Technologies Division where he leads work on California’s energy future analysis for the California Energy Commission, and leads the Environmental Energy Analysis Team for LNBL’s Carbon Cycle 2.0 initiative. He was a major author of California’s Energy Future report. Prior to his work at LBNL, he was a Climate and Energy Technology Manager at Google.org, where he screened renewable energy grants and investments. Before coming to Google, Jeff was a High Meadows fellow at Environmental Defense Fund where he evaluated the technical, economic and environmental aspects of a wide range of energy technologies. He helped develop the original "wedge" climate stabilization research and has developed scenarios for California, the Midwest, and the US. Jeff will be responsible for community and national scaling scenarios, health and resource impact assessment analysis, and the development of carbon neutral city scenarios. Max Wei Ph.D. is a Program Manager in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at LBNL. His work is focused on modeling medium- and long-term greenhouse gas reduction scenarios for California, including the potential of long-term habitual behavior change as a resource for carbon reduction. He was a key contributor to two recent reports: California’s Energy Future – The View to 2050, for the California Council on Science and Technology, and California’s Carbon Challenge: Scenarios for Achieving 80% Emissions Reduction in 2050, for the California Energy Commission. In 2011 he completed a report on the job creation potential from sustained investment in energy efficiency and low carbon energy sources, co-led successful passage of SB77, a clean energy financing bill in California, and co-authored a study on the economic impacts of a state feed-in-tariff. Max will be responsible for the Cool City Challenge behavior change and community participation measurement and assessment, quantification of carbon savings, and lead analysis of economic and social impact assessment. For Further Information: Max Wei mwei@lbl.gov www.lbl.gov     11   ADDENDUM COOL CITY CHALLENGE REINVENTING OUR CITIES FROM THE BOTTOM UP TO ACHIEVE DRAMATIC CARBON REDUCTION, DEEP RESILIENCY, AND GREEN PROSPERITY An Initiative of Empowerment Institute in Partnership With Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory “The world’s cities are responsible for up to 70% of harmful greenhouse gases and have become the real battleground in the fight against climate change. What goes on in cities, and how they manage their impact on the environment, lies at the core of the problem.” UN-HABITAT 2011 Global Report   PURPOSE To scale up a proven community-based social innovation to achieve dramatic carbon reduction while building a low carbon economy and resilient neighborhoods in three early adopter California cities and three neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and then disseminate this strategy worldwide. The ultimate goal of the Cool City Challenge is to change the game around greenhouse gas reduction in cities and provide a viable path forward to address climate change. NEED AND OPPORTUNITY With international climate change legislation failing to get traction and the long timeframe required to scale up technological solutions, the world is searching for a feasible and scalable strategy for addressing global warming. Since cities represent 70% of the planet’s CO2 emissions and citizens’ daily lifestyle choices represent between 50 and 90% of these emissions, cities and their citizens provide the world with an unparalleled opportunity to address global warming. Further, this can serve as a demand-side driver for building robust local green economies. STRATEGY Empowerment Institute—the world’s pre-eminent expert in environmental behavior change and community engagement—over the past two decades has developed a proven methodology to help cities empower citizens to reduce their carbon footprint by 25% through the Low Carbon Diet EcoTeam program and a strategy to achieve between 25 and 75% household participation. This methodology has now spread to over 300 US cities and 6 countries including China. The Cool City Challenge is designed to bring this transformative social innovation to scale. PROJECT SUMMARY Phase 1 Start-up – one year: Build program and technology infrastructure. Phase 2 Campaign – 3 years: Support cities to achieve carbon reduction, neighborhood resiliency and green economic development goals and design global scaling strategy. (A full proposal is available upon request.)   FOR MORE INFORMATION David Gershon dgershon@empowermentinstitute.net www.empowermentinstitute.net www.socialchange2.com