Earth Day Is Everyday In Santa Cruz

Press release from the City of Santa Cruz:

April 20, 2021

SANTA CRUZ, CA – Reflecting the community’s deep roots in environmentalism and love for the natural world, the City of Santa Cruz is leading the way toward a more sustainable, equitable future through its everyday practices and focus on the future. Today, the City Council will be discussing the future of the green economy with a robust panel of environmental leaders at 4 p.m. The public can view the session here: cityofsantacruz.com/councilmeetings.

In addition, in honor of Earth day, below are just a few examples of ways the City is focused on sustainability everyday, and how the public can get involved by volunteering and learning more.

Energy

The City has accelerated is energy reduction efforts over the past few years, including both policies and infrastructure work that has resulted in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Of note in 2020 alone, the City adopted an ordinance prohibiting carbon intensive and unhealthy natural gas in new buildings, installed 3 new major municipal solar installations at 3 City facilities, completed a deep efficiency effort at the Police Department and City Hall, installed fleet electric vehicle charging for 20 vehicles, including the City's electric “Santa Cruzer” trolleys and first electric refuse truck and acquired funding for the e-refuse truck. In 2021, the City is anticipating its first battery storage project to come online.

One example of the impacts of this work is in the Public Works Operations division. The division began installing solar panels to generate its own electricity in 2007. Panels are currently installed at 12 locations. These panels produce roughly 2,000,000 kWh/yearly which is about $500,000 of electricity. The most recent installations were at DeLaveaga Park, the landfill and an improved larger system at the Corporation Yard. More solar panels are planned for City parking garages, the Civic Auditorium and the Parks Maintenance Yard in the near future.

Preparing for Climate Change

With the community, the City is developing its 2030 Climate Action Plan! The goal of the Climate Action Plan development is to identify the most equitable pathway to carbon neutrality. For the Climate Action Plan 2030, the City is embarking upon an equitable, community-driven planning process, and we want all our community members to get involved. A key focus of the CAP 2030 will be catalyzing investment in the green economy in Santa Cruz, which is also essential to our recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and the recent fires in our region.

Climate change impacts your water system. According to City climate projections, rainfall patterns are expected to change significantly in Santa Cruz in the coming years. The changes will bring both dry periods and periods of intense wet weather. Supply is impacted in dry, but also in intensely years because it makes rain hard to capture and treat. The Water Department is doing a series of projects to modernize the community's water system as we continue to feel the effects of climate change, from pipeline replacement to replacing outdated equipment at the Graham Hill Treatment Plant to meet modern standards. Learn more: https://youtu.be/3XXjrNOXLDE.

Transportation

Santa Cruz is a national leader in reducing single-occupant car trips by supporting and promoting other means of travel. The City has a drive alone rate 20 percent below the national average and has earned a Gold Bicycle Friendly rating from the League of American Bicyclists.

The Traffic Engineering division has achieved over $31 million in grants since 2011 to improve multimodal transportation. Aiding walking and biking, these grants have helped to reduce carbon emissions furthering our climate action goals. The majority of this has gone to construction funding as outlined in the list below. The most recent grant awards are the $9 million Active Transportation Program grant for construction of the Coastal Rail Trail Segment 7/Phase II and two Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grants totaling $1.5 million for projects that will upgrade citywide traffic signals and make pedestrian improvements at unsignalized intersections.

Parks

The Neighborhood Parks team is piloting the use of electric equipment that is quieter and less polluting than standard gas-powered equipment. This was funded by a grant from the Carbon Fund.

The City is seeing great results:

• Electric equipment has equal power to gasoline powered equipment
• Electric equipment is quiet while in use. A real benefit for surrounding neighbors and folks using the park.
• Staff are receiving positive comments from the public thanking us for trying out environmentally friendly methods of parks maintenance.

Reducing Waste

The Sanitation division currently collects 10-12 tons of food scraps each week from over 20 businesses and processes this into mash using new equipment that was installed at the Resource Recovery Facility on Dimeo Lane in 2020. Once a month 500 gallons of this mash is transported over the hill for processing into animal feed at the Sustainable Alternative Feed Enterprises (SAFE) facility in Santa

In mid to late 2021, Sanitation expects to begin transporting the mash in septic haulers to the City’s Wastewater Treatment Facility. There, some, or all, of the collections will be processed into biogas. The biogas will be combusted to produce energy and help reduce our City’s carbon footprint. The City of Santa Cruz will be the first agency in the region to process organics within its own system in this manner.

How Residents Can Get Involved

• Learn more about the City's progress on its 2020 Climate Action Plan and opt into the 2030 Climate Action Plan project email list by visiting the project website at www.cityofsantacruz.com/climateactionplan.
• To Make Earth Day Every Day, explore the many local climate supportive volunteer opportunities at www.enviroteers.org.
• Learn about the steps our Water Department is taking toward climate resiliency: https://youtu.be/3XXjrNOXLDE
• Tour the Santa Cruz Recycling Center to learn more waste reduction. Led by Santa Cruz Warriors mascot Mav’Riks and four animated characters, the 6-minute video reveals the ins and outs of the multifaceted recycling process at www.cityofsantacruz.com/recycleright.

This press release was produced by the City of Santa Cruz. The views expressed here are the author’s own.