Tag Archives: Climate

ECOS Comments on Sac County CAP

January 19, 2021

What do we mean, “CAP?”

Why, the Climate Action Plan, of course!

The County of Sacramento is currently working on their Climate Action Plan (CAP). On January 19, ECOS submitted our input on the plan.

Click here to read our letter.

The Plan

Learn more about the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan on the County’s website.

What’s a CAP though?

Climate action plans are comprehensive roadmaps that outline the specific activities that an agency will undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate action plans build upon the information gathered by greenhouse gas inventories and generally focus on those activities that can achieve the relatively greatest emission reductions in the most cost effective manner.

– The Institute for Local Government

Sac County Climate Emergency Declaration

December 17, 2020 Update: we are happy to report that the County of Sacramento has passed the declaration!

December 15, 2020

ECOS has submitted a letter asking the Sacramento Board of Supervisors to vote in support of declaring a Climate Emergency. The item is on the agenda for their December 16, 2020 meeting.

From our letter:

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) supports the County’s proposed Climate Emergency Declaration. As Greta Thunberg has told us,
“Humans are very adaptable: we can still fix this. But the opportunity to do so will not last for long. We must start today. We have no more excuses. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.”
Please demonstrate that our County’s system is up to the task!

Click here to read our letter in full.

Click here to add your voice!

Photo credit: Anders Hellberg, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Important Sac County Decisions Dec 15/16

On December 15th and 16th, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be making some important decisions about local actions to save the planet.

The following agenda items are on the consent calendar:

  1. Approve Authority To Apply For Grant Funding From The Sacramento Area Council Of Governments 2021 Funding Round And The Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program
  2. Zoning Ordinance Amendments Related To Accessory Dwelling Unit Standards. Request To Amend Chapter 1, Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, And Chapter 7 Of The Zoning Code Related To Accessory Dwelling Units
  3. General Plan Amendment to Adopt SMAQMD Thresholds of Significance for CEQA Analyses of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
  4. Declaration Of A Climate Emergency
Click here to view the agendas

Climate Emergency Declaration

Our partners at 350 Sacramento have created a handy letter-writing tool for anyone to use to send a message to the Board of Supervisors expressing your support for the declaration of a Climate Emergency. Please use to button below to help Sacramento county make the right choice.

Click here to send message

Keeping e-Commerce Environmentally Friendly—What Consumers Can Do

By Miguel Jaller, Anmol Pahwa, Seth Karten | December 1, 2020 | Transportation and Climate Blog by UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies

With more states and individuals observing stricter limits on in-person shopping, and with holidays coming, what can we do to limit the environmental and societal impact of online shopping? And even beyond this moment, how do we minimize the harm—or maximize the benefit—of online shopping to society and life on our planet?

The short answer: Buy what we need, and do what we can to allow packages to be consolidated for the most efficient delivery routes, so the fewest miles possible are traveled for each package brought to the door.

So what does this mean for us as consumers? Factors that increase the number of items per vehicle mile of travel in a delivery or shopping trip will reduce the pollution and traffic impacts of our purchases. We should consider the following actions, when possible, to reduce the environmental impact of our online purchases:

1. Allow longer time windows for delivery whenever possible, even if we o not save out-of-pocket expenses for it.
2. Group orders together as much as possible by pooling orders into a single delivery and do not impose additional constraints on the delivery, such as specific days and times.
3. Minimize returns and consider buying clothing, shoes, and electronics in-person, as these have high rates of return from online shopping (clothing/shoes 56%, electronics 42%).
4. Avoid driving to the store to decide on—but not purchase—an item, and then ordering it online to save money, thereby increasing the miles traveled for one purchase.
5. For recurring purchases, take advantage of subscriptions, which can save money and allow the vendor to optimize planning and delivery.
6. Select, when possible, an alternative delivery location (e.g., pickup facility, lockers) at a place that you are already going to travel to, preferably by walking or biking.

Click here to read the full article.

Climate Action Plan Presentations

Climate Action Plans: What’s the Latest? How Can We Help?

At the ECOS board meeting on Tuesday, Nov 24 at 6pm, we heard the latest about the Climate Action Plans of Sacramento City, West Sacramento City, and the County of Sacramento.

Click here to download a recording of this meeting.

Cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento

How has Sacramento been following up on these recommendations?

Anne Stausboll, Chair of the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change, presented. The Commission presented its recommendations to Sacramento and West Sacramento this summer.

Resources from Anne

Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change Report, and the supporting Technical report, are both here: https://www.lgc.org/climatecommission/

Sacramento City Council voted on ten preliminary “first year” actions: https://engagesac.org/blog-civic-engagement/2020/8/26/sacramento-city-council-embraces-slow-streets-electrified-buildings-to-fight-climate-change

Sacramento City staff update on Nov 10 to Council on the “first year” actions: https://sacramento.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=22&clip_id=4764&meta_id=605234

Sacramento City staff update on the city CAP to the Planning Commission on Nov 12: https://sacramento.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=34&clip_id=4765&meta_id=605782

County of Sacramento

Todd Smith, Principal Planner, Sacramento County, discussed the status of the County’s Community-wide Climate Action Plan. This month, the County’s Stakeholder Committee heard a presentation on an early draft.

Presentations were followed by a Questions and Answer session.

Join us at our next board meeting!

Board Meetings of the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) happen at 6:00 pm on the 4th Tuesday of odd-numbered months.
Zoom Meeting ID: 818 6537 7865
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81865377865
Call-in: 1-669-900-6833 | Same Zoom info every board meeting

Click here for the agenda, and links to the supplemental materials for this meeting.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels