Our speaker today was introduced by Susan Kealey. Karen Wang is a Montara resident and mom of 2 kids. She is also the Communications Officer for the County of San Mateo Office of Sustainability where she oversees communications to promote sustainability education and initiatives within the County and the community. She was formerly, the Director of the nonprofit, Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) and the founder and Director of Because Health, an environmental health education campaign. Karen completed her PhD in Strategic Management at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Karen also holds a MS in Environmental Science and a BA in Economics from Stanford University.
The following are the key points covered by Karen in her presentation.
First the History of the Office of Sustainability - it was formed in 2014, part of the county manager's office, helps the community become more sustainable. Now own county department, joined recently, solving for today and our long term future
Karen asked our members, "What do ou think about when you hear sustainability? " The responses were:
Food, environment, climate change, running out of resources, agriculture, housing,
Rotary has two beach clean ups coming up
Karen Then presented the Mission statement: Building a sustainable community that fulfills the needs of the present and future.
The OOS includes 20 partnered cities. Her following slides listed:
Four areas of programs:
Climate protection
Climate resilience- adapting to effects of climate change we are seeing
Waste reduction- how to deal with waste resources
Livable communities- housing and transportation
Climate action plan:
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Community action plan for unincorporated areas
Reduce use of fossil fuels
Bring together all 20 locations to reduce gasses
Transitioning to clean energy
Peninsula clean energy (PCE)- electricity provider for all of San Mateo County
Close partnership BOS and all counties
Shift from gas to electric
Bay Run:
Rebates and technical assistance
Electric vehicles: leasing or buying new and used electric vehicles
Climate resilience:
Need to actively prepare
Complete sea level rise vulnerability assessment
Vulnerability of buildings, land, ag, etc.
San Mateo county has higher risk than any other county
Type of impacts and vulnerabilities, used to implement policies
One shore Line:
Expanding
Asses hazards affecting areas
How we can protect county now and in the future
4 resilience projects
Senior Coastisders: resilience hub, access clean air and charging ports in emergencies
Protecting water resources:
Protect stormwater, coordinate conservation efforts and water quality efforts
Coordinate and lead public outreach for pet waste, provide information on importance of cleaning up after pets
Identify sources of bacteria, detect any leaks, etc
Strategy: Bioswale, collects water from sidewalks, filters pollutants from sidewalk
Can put them in your own home, rain gardens
Engaging programs for all
Local businesses take specific climate actions, become certified and recognized as green businesses
Green businesses
Youth climate programs- build next gen climate action leaders
Waste reduction
Manage resources, put nothing to waste, reduce landfills, grants and diversion practices
Reduce, recuse, recycle and rot
Providing building deconstruction training
Composting program
Electronic reuse and reduce clinics
Learn how to repair broken items
Schools: teachers have access
Food waste: lots go to landfills
Reduces use and time we can keep landfill, rotting produces methane, require organic waste to be recycled (compost)
Edible food recovery program: collect food from large companies that would go to landfill, redistributed to people who need it
One year recovered 5.5 million pounds and redistributed to people who needed it
New ordinance food service can only use compostable foodware, foodware initiative, decreased plastic use
200,000 grants to fund projects that divert waste
Livable communities:
Close to transit
Support county employees to find ways to commute
Active transportation plan, encourage walking and biking, decrease traffic
Home for all, support solutions to creating homes
Engage community in decisions around housing
Address critical housing problems
Working on eliminating homelessness
Get involved:
Talk to friends and family
Complete home energy and water audit
Share small business resource center
Rebates and incentives to help you go electric
Join a virtual sustainability academy workshop
Pick up pet waste, even in own homes
Plant a rain garden
Follow on social media or sign up for emails
US is leading greenhouse gas emitter
San Mateo is most susceptible to sea level rise
Includes assets, roads, properties, buildings
Important for San Mateo county to have housing from environmental purposes
Cost of green initiatives increase, in turn push over to consumers
Impacts of climate change that we pay for overshadow small costs form initiatives
Impacts are direct result of not taking action
Paul Rubel was honored and given a certificate and a cupcake made by Liz.
Irwin Cohen was honored for being amazing, getting cool speakers.
Liz passed out posters advertising our Magic of the Coastside Lobster Fest for everyone to put up in offices and shops and anywhere they can.
Barb needs some help creating a booklet for the auction items.
Next Thursday's lunch, will be catered by Chef Ellie Andrini of A Teaspoon of Love located here in HMB - RSVP is required. Chef Ellie Angelini graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco. Chef Ellie has a passion for food, cooking and teaching others. She decided to put them all together and share her passion with others!
Joe drew a GREEN marble.
