TransLink Card Now Available

Consider getting a TransLink card to ease your daily commute.

The TransLink card is now available for use on Muni, AC Transit, Dumbarton Express, and Golden Gate Transit and Ferry. TransLink is not currently accepted on BART or CalTrain, but eventually will be used on all transit systems in the nine-county Bay Area.

Your TransLink card carries a pre-paid balance, so you can forget about scrounging in the sofa cushions for bus money, and it provides protection of your balance if your card is lost, stolen or damaged. There is no fee for a TransLink card if you set up Autoload at the time you order the card online.

You can order a TransLink card here: https://www.translink.org/TranslinkWeb/getTranslinkOrderCard.do

...and don't let this be you!

Oakland's Green Building Requirements

Oakland - Building a Sustainable Future

The City of Oakland is considering mandatory Green Building requirements for private development. Green Building emphasizes maximizing efficiency and reducing consumption, and will mitigate the negative environmental and health impacts on many people living and working in Oakland.

A public hearing has been scheduled:
Thursday, February 19, 2009
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Oakland City Hall
Hearing Room 1

For more information:
Heather Klein, Planning and Zoning Division
510.238.3659, hklein@oaklandnet.com

Other Green Building requirements in the Bay Area:

Oakland already has Green Building requirements for applicable city building and traditional public works projects, setting LEED Silver standards for city buildings, and has adopted Green Building guidelines for private sector building. The city maintains a Green Building Resource Center to provide recycling and green building education and assistance.

Effective November 2008, Chapter 13C of the San Francisco Building Code requires new buildings constructed in the city to meet green building standards, which were developed by the Green Building Task Force.

San Francisco's priority permitting program provides expedited permit review in the Planning Department, Department of Building Inspection, and Department of Public Works for LEED Gold projects.

All San Francisco municipal projects (new construction and major renovations over 5,000 square feet) are required to achieve LEED Silver certification.

The city of San Francisco is banned from purchasing or using tropical hardwoods, virgin redwood, and wood treated with arsenic-based preservatives.

The City of Berkeley does not have green building standards, but requires that projects that require a Use Permit or Administrative Use Permit and involve demolition or construction, to consult with a green building expert provided at no charge by the Berkeley’s Best Builders Program. Applicable projects may also require completion of a Green Building Checklist, an Energy Conservation Analysis, or specific conservation measures.

All Alameda County projects must meet at least LEED Silver rating or equivalent. Traditional Public Works projects (e.g., pump stations, flood control improvements, roads, bridges, sidewalks, etc.) are exempted.

Alameda County projects with a total estimated construction costs exceeding $100,000 must divert at least 50% of debris from landfill via reuse or recycling. Traditional Public Works projects must also divert 75% of asphalt, concrete, and earth debris from landfill via reuse or recycling.

In San Jose, commercial and industrial buildings that are 25,000 square feet or more must meet LEED Silver standards. Residential developments of 10 or more units must meet basic LEED certification standards or achieve 50 points under the GreenPoint rating system. Housing structures that are 75 feet high or taller are required to meet basic LEED standards. In 2012, commercial and industrial buildings of 10,000 square feet or more and residential buildings 75 feet high or taller must meet LEED Silver standards.

Structures 10,000 square feet or more that are built by the city of San Jose or the San Jose Redevelopment Agency are required to meet LEED Silver status.

Cities and Counties: Clean Up Your Creeks...Or Else

Water board moves to clean up Bay, waterways
Jane Kay, SF Chronicle, February 12, 2009

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board voted Wednesday to designate most of San Francisco Bay's shoreline and two dozen tributaries as "impaired" under the federal Clean Water Act.

The vote is the first step in putting counties and cities on notice that the U.S. EPA could impose legal requirements and fines if they don't get rid of the trash, however, the listing could also bring resources to aid in the cleanup.

The list of sites recommended for cleanup - including Strawberry Creek in Berkeley, Guadalupe River in Santa Clara County, and the entire central and lower San Francisco Bay shorelines - will go to the State Water Resources Control Board and the EPA for concurrence. If approved, the EPA would require the region to start regulating trash as an urban pollutant or face heavy fines.

Read the complete story here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/12/BAKG15SAKG.DTL&type=green

Read the RWQCB Staff Report "Evaluation of Water Quality Conditions for the San Francisco Bay Region here: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay/board_info/agendas/2009/february/6_Appendix_A.pdf

Climate Change and Water Resources

On January 29, 2008 the Santa Clara Valley Water District's (SCVWD) Board of Directors hosted a special meeting and work study session to explore climate change, its potential local impacts, and policy implications.

One of the outcomes was the adoption of a resolution stating that the SCVWD will "apply understanding of climate change and climate change impacts as appropriate in water supply plans, flood management project plans, asset management and infrastructure plans, CEQA assessments and EIRs, energy management plans, business plans, and strategic plans". It also states that the SCVWD "will strive to minimize its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, work with the community to reduce its GHG emissions related to utilization and management of water resources and enhance community understanding of climate change".

They have posted materials from their meeting here: http://www.valleywater.org/Water/Where_Your_Water_Comes_From/Water%20Supply%20Sustainability%20Planning/Climate%20Change/_BODWorkstudy.shtm

REDUCE, REUSE, and if you must, recycle

Recycling is not the end-all, be-all in sustainable consuming.

According to Earth911:
- a trillion sheets of paper are tossed within a day of being printed, equating to 90 million trees even if all that paper were 30% post-consumer recycled paper
- reducing the margins from 1.5-inches to 1-inch can save the average office worker 475 pages a year, even more if you can reduce your margins to 0.75-inch

Consider these three simple questions each time you prepare to click Control-P:

• Do I need to keep this for more than a few hours or days?
• Does this really require a paper copy, or can it stay on my hard drive?
• Has this already been printed by someone else?

Also please consider adding a footnote to your emails encouraging others to kick their printing habit. Here is some simple sample text:
Please consider the environment before printing this page.

And here's an idea of something to print on the back of that page you just printed and no longer need: a suggestion card to leave with your bill at your favorite restaurant to encourage them to "go green": http://www.dinegreen.com/images/suggestioncards.pdf

Green Stimulus

Environmental Defense Fund
February 11, 2009

Summarized by EDF, these are the primary ways how green initiatives fared in the stimulus bill:

• By far the largest funding ever for clean energy and energy efficiency
• The Manufacturing Extension Partnership will get funding
• High-speed rail will get $8 billion dollars
• Very large investment in transit ($8.4 billion); includes funds for new construction of commuter and light rail, modernizing existing transit systems, and purchasing buses and equipment to needed to increase public transportation and improve intermodal and transit facilities (states have 787 ready-to-go transit projects totaling about $16 billion)

Read more from EDF here: http://blogs.edf.org/greenroom/2009/02/11/stimulus-deal-reached-how-did-we-do/

What Will it Take to Make the Bay Area the Electric Vehicle Capital of the US?

In November 2008, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed announced a plan to position the region’s economic and environmental future around electric transportation. They hope to make they Bay area the so-called "Electric Vehicle Capital of the US".

City Visions Radio - Mondays from 7:00-8:00 pm on KALW 91.7 San Francisco - discusses the plans to make the Bay Area more friendly to electric cars.

Guests on the February 9, 2009 show included:

• Sherry Boschert, journalist and author of the book “Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America”; president, San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association; vice-president, Plug-In America
• Richard Lowenthal, founder & CEO, Coulomb Technologies
• Nick Rothman, lead technician, Green Gears; http://greengearhead.blogspot.com/; http://www.a123systems.com/hymotion/home

Here's a link to the program: http://www.cityvisionsradio.com/

And learn more about electric vehicles here:
http://www.sfeva.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.gogreenmotors.com/
http://www.teslamotors.com/
http://www.lusciousgarage.com/

Oakland Energy & Climate Action Plan

Public Workshop ~ December 11, 2008

The City of Oakland Public Works Agency (PWA) had its first public workshop to identify, evaluate, and prioritize actions it can take to becoming a model sustainable city. The city intends to do this by reducing and optimizing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The PWA, under direction of a sustainability coordinator, is drafting an Energy and Climate Action Plan (ECAP) that will be submitted to the Oakland City Council to clarify its policy and recommend priority actions.

The stages of the process include initial public input, early research and analysis, setting targets and objectives, plan development, plan presentation, and a comment period. The second public workshop will be in Spring 2009, with a goal of presenting the ECAP to the City Council in Fall 2009.

During the first meeting, the attendees were asked for input in four areas:

1. What do you see as the main purposes and benefits for Oakland by addressing climate change locally?
2. What should the City consider in deciding which greenhouse gas reduction actions to implement?
3. What actions should the City take to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions?
4. What other suggestions do you have that might help the City develop its ECAP?

Comments, questions, ideas, and suggestions can be forwarded to the city's Sustainability Coordinator, Garrett Fitzgerald:
City of Oakland, Public Works Agency
250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 5301
Oakland, California 94612
climateaction@oaklandnet.com

For more information, please visit http://www.sustainableoakland.com/

Easy Eco Questions

...and some not so easy answers.

You might find this article in New Scientist magazine interesting.
Although it has a slight UK-focus, it provides answers to some common but not so easy questions that you may have been afraid to ask.

(Note: I have not done a QC check on their answers!)

Take Steps to Reduce Junk Mail

Did you know that...?

• More than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are delivered each year, more than 800 pieces per household
  
• US junk mail accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world
• 44% of junk mail goes to the landfill unopened
• It takes the equivalent of >100 million trees to produce the junk mail that arrives in US mailboxes each year

Efforts are underway to create a national Do Not Mail Registry, similar to the Do Not Call Registry that was officially enacted in 2003. It's not there yet, but Forest Ethics has some great tools for helping you get off mass mailing databases. It's easy.

Read more here: http://donotmail.org/index.php