On August 15, 2025, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Elk Grove regarding their Climate Action Plan, also called the Climate Compass.
Click here to read the letter.
Click here for the attachment to the letter.
Tag Archives: Climate Plan
“Climate Compass”: Elk Grove’s Plan to Implement Climate, Sustainability, & Resilience Goals – Presentation 8/21/2024
Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) Climate Change Committee Meeting: Thursday, August 21, 2025
Featuring a special presentation on the “Climate Compass”: Elk Grove’s Plan to Implement Climate, Sustainability, & Resilience Goals
Zoom Link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6656164155 | To phone in: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 665 616 4155
And in-person, at Mogavero Architects, 1322 T St., Sacramento, CA
The City of Elk Grove is updating its draft climate action plan, titled the “Climate Compass”.
Intended as a roadmap for climate mitigation and adaptation, it also addresses broader sustainability and resilience efforts.
New measures are proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from transportation and buildings – through policies such as compact development, electric vehicle infrastructure, and building energy efficiency.
City efforts have been led by Carrie Whitlock, Elk Grove’s Long Range Planning Program Manager. She has been working on climate, sustainability, and resilience in Elk Grove since 2019. Previously, Carrie worked on climate change at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and 20 years for the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, serving in Rwanda and Cambodia.
5:30 PM: Social period (join us for snacks and drinks!)
6:00 PM: Welcome and Introductions
6:10 PM: Carrie Whitlock will overview the Climate Compass and the Climate Compass Dashboard which lists the Compass actions and impacts. Compass comments are due August 15; ECOS and others have submitted comments. Carrie will share her thoughts on how the Compass may be revised in light of the comments received. State legislation calls for carbon neutrality by 2045, a goal that has been made more difficult by federal actions this year.
ECOS Letter
On August 15, 2025, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Elk Grove regarding their Climate Action Plan, also called the Climate Compass. Click here to read the letter. Click here for the attachment to the letter.
Join the discussion and learn more about the City of Elk Grove climate plans!
After Q&A, we’ll have updates and announcements (open to all).
Updates to include recent Sacramento City & County actions on Natomas development projects.
20 Years Later, How Are City Climate Plans Actually Going?
Science Friday with Susan Scott Peterson | June 21, 2024
Are Cities Meeting Their Climate Targets?
“The state of decarbonization is lopsided. It’s really imbalanced in this country,” says Hilari Varnadore, a vice president at the U.S. Green Building Council, where she oversees a national program that helps cities with sustainability goals. “We have places—cities and states—that are just really accelerating progress, big time. And then there [are] just places that it’s moving super slow.”
Sacramento County Climate Action Plan: ECOS Comments, Jan 2024
On January 31, 2024, ECOS submitted a letter to Todd Smith, Planning Director of Sacramento County Planning and Environmental Review, regarding the Notice of Preparation of a Subsequent Environmental Impact Report and Public Scoping Meeting for the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan.
ECOS offers two comments on the subject document, summarized below. Please see our letter for supporting information.
- The Climate Action Plan (CAP) and SEIR should be complete, that is, they should show how carbon neutrality will be achieved in the County in whatever year the County believes is realistic.
- We know that land use and transportation are the keys to GHG emissions reduction. Therefore, the CAP and SEIR should include alternatives or scenarios showing three levels and locations of development – mostly greenfield, some greenfield/some infill, and mostly infill – similar the SACOG’s three Pathways for our region that were discussed by the jurisdictions last summer.
Sacramento City Climate Adaptation Plan – ECOS Comments on Preliminary Draft
On December 5, 2022, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento regarding their Sacramento City Climate Adaptation Plan Preliminary Draft. Below is the content of the letter.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this chapter.
Flooding: The Draft highlights the high flooding risk in Natomas. Proposed developments in the Natomas basin such as South Airport Industrial, Grand Park, and Upper West Side, would increase flooding threat to Natomas because these lands currently are agricultural, and can absorb significant water should flooding occur. In addition to increasing flooding risk in the Natomas Basin, another climate risk associated with these developments is the loss of habitat land and related species (giant garter snake and Swainson’s hawk), which would mean failure of the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. Therefore, the City should find a mechanism to influence the County’s process of development approvals in these areas. One possibility might be a “Sphere of Influence” application to LAFCo, which has the charge to preserve agricultural land.
Trees: The City of Sacramento has both the Parking Lot Tree Shading Design and Maintenance Guidelines and a tree ordinance. These should be updated to allow for larger shade trees and larger planting areas. We note that Crocker Village has planted “lollypop trees” that don’t provide much shade, and trees on Crocker Drive have insufficient planting radius to allow for mature growth. In contrast, neighboring Curtis Park has tree plantings that shade the entire streets by foliage meeting in the middle. The City should develop programs to guide urban forestry within communities, with a focus on increasing canopy in underserved communities. Tree planting should be required as part of major roadway or utility projects. The City should establish a resource database to help staff select tree species based on maintenance costs, structural integrity, and the most appropriate planting locations.
Water: The City should actively participate in the Sacramento Regional Water Bank, to store water during high precipitation years, for use during droughts. This is especially important with models showing more extremes of precipitation, and much earlier Sierra snow-melts. Because the City relies on a combined sewer system for the older parts of the city, the City needs to budget for upsizing pipes in that water system.
Electrification: The City should move forward rapidly on an ordinance requiring existing building electrification, rather than burning natural gas that accentuates the heat island effect.
Land Use: The City should consider land use as an adaptation; e.g., rezoning around transit for higher density, creating community public spaces and parks.
Structures: The City should consider incentivizing green walls and green roofs that cool buildings and provide food in urban settings, as well as shaded bus shelters, including passive-cooled shelters, such as developed by JCDecaux. The City should develop green building programs that require institutional and commercial buildings to have cool roofs. These strategies can be phased in based on square footage and allow for flexible compliance between cool roofs, green roofs, and rooftop solar PV to help alleviate cost concerns.
Roadways: The City should have code requirements for both new roadways and maintenance activities to ensure that roadways are designed and built at the outset to support heat-resilient paving materials. The City should also require high albedo and permeable pavements for transit stations, centers, and corridors.
City of Sacramento Climate Action Update
On October 12, 2021, the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) submitted our comments on City Council October 12, 2021 Agenda Item 23 – Climate Action Update Summary, City of Sacramento Draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, Sept 2021.
