The Climate Change Committee makes climate action a primary focus for ECOS advocacy, and a pivot point for its land use, transportation, green building, and environmental justice teams. This interdisciplinary group meets monthly to discuss issues and plan education, advocacy, and outreach work. The committee invites people to put their minds and energy to these issues.
Committee Co-chairs and Team Leads:
- Ralph Propper, Co-chair, rpropper47[at]icloud[dot]com
- Eugene Lee, Co-chair, eugeneenergy22[at]gmail[dot]com
- Heather Fargo, Natomas Team Lead, h-fargo[at]comcast[dot]net
- Sam Rice, Transportation Team Lead, samhrice[at]gmail[dot]com
- tbd, Green Building Team Lead
- Luz Lim, Environmental Justice Team Lead, luzlim[at]live[dot]com
Check this repository of documents for supporting materials for the Climate Committee and its teams.
The Climate Change Committee encourages local jurisdictions to meet their commitments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, and of course, the State of California’s mandate to reach net zero carbon by 2045 (per the California Climate Crisis Act, AB1279). To achieve these reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, jurisdictions need to take actions that were until now inconceivable, such as stopping approvals of sprawl development; and increasing taxes to fund infrastructure for dense development around transit and the transition to all-electric for buildings and vehicles.
The committee and its teams advocate for consistency across jurisdictions in inventorying emissions, setting targets, employing climate action methods, verifying GHG reductions, and meeting related laws, regulations and guidelines.
The Natomas Campaign is actively working to protect habitat and agricultural land in the Natomas Basin to ensure the success of the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. See this page for more information.
The Transportation Team focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, and on providing a transit network that makes it possible to live without a car in the Sacramento region. Priorities include obtaining funding for transit and making a denser transit network; retrofitting streets to prioritize walking and biking; providing electric charging for vehicles; improving air quality near freeways and industrial sites; and battling highway expansions.
Environmental Justice (EJ): The EJ Team focuses on housing affordability, anti-displacement from major development projects, homelessness, food security, and public health, and importantly, remedying the effects of institutional racism in planning such as the “redlining” shown on the map at left. This team advises on advocacy and outreach strategies; and helps to ensure effective public participation in local government plans, policies, and decisions. It participates in the anti-displacement activities of Sacramento Investment Without Displacement (SIWD) and helps to foster community benefits agreements for areas near new major development projects.
The Land Use Team’s work encourages linking transit and land use to create high levels of access to jobs and services, reduce the combined housing/transportation costs to residents, and make a walkable and sociable community. It discourages low density development that produces lots of car trips and GHG emissions, and uses valuable open space, habitat and agricultural land.
It advocates for five- to ten-story development along and around transit stations, use of graduated density zoning to reduce the difficulties of land assembly for infill development, use of inclusionary zoning for affordable units in new developments, elimination of parking minimums, establishment of parking benefit districts, and transference of development rights, among other things.
Trees for Sacramento is an arm of the Land Use Team. It is a group of tree advocates that champion neighborhood quality of life and sustainability.
Green Building: The building sector is responsible for about forty percent of the emissions in the County and City of Sacramento. The Green Building Team advocates for advanced sustainability standards for materials, construction, and operations to be incorporated into California building codes and jurisdictions’ ordinances. Also, the team brings creative solutions to the difficult problem of retrofitting existing buildings to all-electric.
