Our Climate Resolutions

[See this page for info about our January Climate Conversation event]
Our April 13 Climate Conversation: Imagining Our Carbon Free Future
 
 
On Saturday, April 13 we took the next step in imagining our carbon free future. We looked at four greenhouse gas emissions sectors – Transportation (29%), Energy (28%), Industry (22%) and Food and Buildings (21%). Then, we considered where we could personally have the most influence in what happens next – in our personal/family lives, in our neighborhoods, and in our communities.

That gave us a grid with 12 sections to fill. And that's when we started to “channel” our future selves who are living in a clean energy future when greenhouse gases are no longer driving catastrophic climate change and the worst effects of global warming have been averted. Where the connections between the future and the present were a little fuzzy, we thought about experiences we've had, things we've read or heard, or dreams we've had about what we could do to make a difference.
We left with personal action plans that we could paste up on the refrigerator and check off as each step is accomplished. The lists below are the ideas and visions we came up with. Use it to create your own action plan or to replace a checked off item. Use this visioning idea with your own family, community, friend group to come up with more ideas and submit them for inclusion in the list!
First, here are things we can all do now or in the next few days!
Here's the list (remember - send more ideas to us at crsierraclub@gmail.com!)
TRANSPORTATION
Personal/Family
  • Research purchasing an electric car
  • Carpool more
  • For every trip, first ask – can I walk, can I bike, can I take the bus?
  • Combine as many errands as possible into one car trip
  • Find out where you can get and use biodiesel fuels and ethanol
  • Check into purchasing an electric bike
  • Share vehicles with family, neighbors, friends
  • Sell one car
  • Spend time learning about riding the bus – where does it go and when, how much does it cost, where do I catch the bus (hint – contact LATA!)
  • Sit down with family and work out schedule so we can drive as little as possible
  • Buy student bus passes for students in our house
  • Insist on tele-conference options for every personal and business meeting that's not accessible by walking, biking, or public transit
Neighborhood (or workplace or school)
  • Ask my employer to sign up with the MTU Works program
  • Find a car full of co-workers with whom I can car pool and/or carpool to a park and ride lot
  • Ask my landlord or employer to provide better, more secure (covered) bike parking
  • Ask my employer to provide incentives for low-ghg transportation to/from work
  • Support improved bus infrastructure in my neighborhood – better lighting, shelters or benches, etc
  • Ask to get public charging stations in my neighborhood
  • Talk to neighborhood group to get better bicycling infrastructure
  • Ask to close some streets to traffic – either all the time or on weekends, etc. to make walking safer
  • Start a neighborhood ride share system so our neighbors can combine errands
  • Ask for neighbors' extra/old/unused bikes and start a group to fix them up and have them around as free bikes to use
Community/Municipality
  • Encourage expansion of and better publicity about SMRT bus so people can use it weekends and evenings to get around the region
  • Push for more funding and support for better bus service – more and later routes, etc
  • Lobby for free transit fares
  • See about starting SHARE TAXI service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi)
  • Educate about and encourage that all transportation cost is the TRUE cost
  • Work on a plan to have good and enough charging stations all around the city
  • Make EV charging stations' permitting easier and more transparent
  • Make biodiesel fuels more available in the area
  • Fight Sprawl at City Hall!
  • Encourage “cluster zoning” in our city with neighborhood shops and services
  • Encourage the city and other government entities to replace current fleet with all EVs
  • Add “express” north-south service to encourage more to commute by bus
  • Support city-wide bike share service
  • Ban cars in downtown
  • Set up a ring of park and ride lots – charge low and provide free day bus pass. Charge very high for parking in the city. Use money to provide better bus services
  • Charge for street parking where congested and use funds to improve public transportation
ENERGY/EFFICIENCY
Personal/Family
  • Audit last year's home electricity and gas use and plan to cut that by 20% or more
  • Check into installing solar
  • Get a SMART thermostat
  • Collect rain water
  • Turn off electric water heater 5 days per week and when going away for more than a couple of days
  • Use solar panels directly wired to electric water heater (solar electric hot water)
  • Use solar for lights, charging batteries
  • Replace old appliances with Energy Star
  • Hook up exercise bike to power pack and generate entertainment electricity (TV, computer, speakers)
  • Use wood stove for heating, cooking, water heating
  • Use a rocket stove and/or solar oven
  • Buy into a community solar garden or Xcel's R-Connect
  • Turn down thermostat in winter
  • Do not use a clothes dryer – EVER! Install an outdoor and indoor clothes line
  • Re-landscape to make air conditioning less “necessary”
  • Use fans, shade, etc instead of AC
  • Re-roof with a metal reflective roof
  • Replace all bulbs with LED
  • Turn off anything that's not being used. Have on/off power strips on everything.
  • Wash in cold water
  • Use a solar shower heater (black bladder) for in home showers
  • Water less, mow less
  • Replace grass lawn with veggies, perennials, other native plants that don't require lots of water/care
  • Rake, don't blow!!!

Neighborhood/Work/School
  • Ask neighborhood businesses to turn off lights when they are closed at night
  • Start a “green team” at work to monitor energy use and advise about improvement
  • Have a neighborhood conversation or program about energy conservation, solar panels, etc
  • Ask for solar lights in the neighborhood where needed
  • Have a neighborhood Energy Efficiency Day where people get LED bulbs, advice on conservation
  • Assess possibility of neighborhood solar garden
  • Share cooking – have a neighborhood meal prep party once a week
  • Talk with neighbors about climate issues
  • Encourage solar group buys
  • Set a max heat on apartment units
  • Provide incentives for neighbors who switch to renewable energy
Community/Municipality
  • Support local Ready for 100 resolution
  • Talk to council representative, mayor, city planners about putting solar panels on all public buildings
  • Have community seminars so people can learn about their clean energy options, energy efficiency
  • Change all public lighting to solar
  • Set up special energy saving tax districts to encourage and support efficiency and renewables
  • See if microgrids will work downtown or on campuses
  • Ask public employees to avoid air travel and attend all conferences, training remotely when possible
  • Ask the city to host a community solar garden
  • Look into generating energy using new micro technologies (water (https://www.wired.com/2016/04/corpower-buoy/) , wind (https://thearchimedes.com/) pressure (http://www.pavegen.com/)
  • Force landlords to pay at least half of utilities so they will have an incentive to bump up energy efficiency
  • Do more to produce and capture methane from waste food
  • Push for third party ownership programs to provide more affordable renewable options
  • Continue and expand the Mayor's Energy Challenge
  • Replace crumbling water pipes with energy generating pipes (https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/01/portlands-drinking-water-is-powering-the-grid/550721/)
  • Hold a community wide – How LOW can you Go? Competition – using utility bills who is using the least electricity per person, per square foot, etc.
  • Revamp water rates to promote water savings rather than promote water usage
  • Add a carbon tax for businesses
  • Charge everyone holding an event at a city venue a carbon fee based on electricity used and use the money to install solar and assist event holders to use less energy/pollute less (ROTARY BLIGHTS)

 INDUSTRY/CONSUMPTION
Personal/Family
  • Make a goal – no new clothes this year (except maybe underwear). Instead only second hand
  • Share or give away things I no longer need
  • Don't buy plastic if at all possible. Prefer no plastic packaged goods.
  • Talk to stores and manufacturers asking them to stop plastic use
  • Get into the habit of asking, “Do I NEED it? Will I use it? Can I afford it?” for every purchase
  • Purchase only from Benefit Corporations (B Corps = https://bcorporation.net/about-b-corps)
  • Buy locally produced stuff
  • Take and use reusable bags, reusable food storage (doggie bags), your own utensils to avoid waste
  • Use bio-based lubricants for equipment, vehicles, and machinery
  • Always take my own recycled steel water bottle. Never buy bottled water.
Neighborhood/Work/School
  • Organize a neighborhood SWAP day to get and give things needed/no longer needed and give info about consumerism driving global warming
  • Hold regular barter sessions
  • Recycle as much as possible
  • Encourage neighborhood businesses to learn about and embrace green business practices
  • Share housing
  • Share tools and machines
  • Create a neighborhood list of special equipment so people can borrow not buy
  • Organize community events so people can be sharing energy use not sitting at home consuming alone
  • Simplify recycling, educate more about it, have neighborhood recycling centers or drop points
  • Support neighborhood farmers markets
Community/Municipality
  • Organize a city wide swap event
  • Publicize city wide swap events
  • Plant trees, ask park dept if you can donate to help get more trees
  • Incentivize reduced consumption
  • Tell Nestle to stop using single use plastic
  • Support Full Circle Supply and other places that sell bulk letting you fill your own container
  • Ask city to start a Green Business Award program to publicize and encourage green practices (with Sustainable Institute)
  • Require stores to take back packaging “waste”
  • Lobby for a container deposit law
  • Charge by the pound for all waste and recycling
  • Publicize public food waste composting program. Have citywide drop points for vegetable waste
  • Change law to allow “pickers” at trash waste sites to remove usable items before it goes to landfill
FOOD & BUILDINGS
Personal/Family
  • Plant a garden
  • Help others plant gardens
  • Volunteer at school or community gardens
  • Change diet – eat less or not meat and dairy, go vegan
  • Build a greenhouse of waste windows and pallets
  • Raise backyard chickens and bees
  • Live in a smaller space, size DOWN
  • Prefer farmers markets and locally produced food
  • Share space to do more in less – combo bedroom/office, shared play space, etc
  • Reduce heated space. Close off rooms when not being used.
  • Insulate, caulk, weatherstrip, etc.
  • Ask landlord if I can add caulk, weatherstripping, etc
  • Learn more about farm issues and support local farmers
  • Ask store to carry more local and organic stuff
  • Check out Who owns food companies and shop awake
  • Be aware of which products are truly organic (https://www.cornucopia.org/)
  • Eat lowest carbon intensive proteins possible (https://www.wri.org/resources/data-visualizations/protein-scorecard)
  • Have a home energy audit
  • Use passive solar more
  • Insulate, caulk, weather-seal
  • Use solar electric for hot water (behind the grid)
  • Compost food waste
Neighborhood/Work/School
  • Start a n/w/s garden
  • Share garden produce with neighbors
  • Share preservation of garden produce with neighbors
  • Purchase a neighborhood cider press or other special equipment to preserve neighborhood food
  • Hold vegan/low carbon potlucks to educate about “green eating”
  • Collect neighborhood yard waste, leaves, etc for neighborhood compost piles
  • Get a whole block to go on a micro grid
  • Give neighborhood info about energy retrofits
  • Grow gardens, nuts, berries on public neighborhood land (roundabouts, parks, etc)
  • Identify kitchens, other resources, spaces that can be shared
  • Ask for greener than concrete materials for paving streets and sidewalks
  • Ask a neighbor if you can grow a garden in their yard and share produce
  • Share housing, rent out a room, fix up and rent out the basement, etc.
Community/Municipality
  • Ask city to look into geothermal for heating public buildings
  • Create a NET ZERO neighborhood and require all homes built there to be net zero (produce as much as more energy as use)
  • Create incentives for installing solar, EV charging, etc on new or remodeled
  • Require all new/upgrades to meet LEED like energy standards
  • Lobby for return of rental efficiency standards and rental weatherization inspections
  • Change building codes to allow small square foot requirements, to not require parking, to allow more unrelated people in a dwelling
  • Require businesses to turn off lights when closed
  • Require businesses to turn off “demonstration” lights, fans, TVs, etc
  • Support regenerative agriculture
  • Support environmental organizations
  • Support, donate to, work for and vote for green candidates
  • VOTE
  • Support REFILL TECHNOLOGIES
  • Support reforestation, volunteer and donate
  • Prefer farming systems that sequester carbon into soil
  • Encourage and prefer locally owned true cooperatives that source locally
  • Support and encourage land trusts
  • Turn public green spaces into gardens. Add gardens to flat roofs
  • Turn old buildings into vertical energy efficient gardens
  • Update HVAC controls to save energy
  • Update HVAC to most efficient. Add solar panels “behind the grid.”
  • Advocate for more energy efficient building codes
  • Have bicycle pick up of compostables
 
 

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