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Upcoming Events
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S A V E T H E D A T E
World Economic Forum-
Davos Debrief
Friday, March 9
12:30pm - 1:30pm
Blue Shield of California
Register online now>>
Minimizing your Carbon
Footprint: How to
Bridge the Gap with Offsets
Thursday, March 15
4:30pm - 7:00pm
Environmental Defense Fund
Register online now>>
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SF Environment Announcements
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Shedding Some Light on the SF Commercial Lighting Ordinance 
In San Francisco commercial buildings, all 4-foot or 8-foot linear fluorescent lamps and ballast systems must be 81 lumens or more per watt of electricity consumed, and any linear fluorescent lamps installed after December 31 must meet a mercury content standard. The SF Energy Watch program offers financial incentives and technical services that can help you comply. Act now while there are rebates available! Call the SF Energy Watch hotline at 415.355.3769 or visit www.sfenergywatch.org.
Energy Benchmarking Deadline is April 1
Energy is the single largest controllable operating cost in commercial facilities. As it is phased in over the next three years, the San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance will ensure that businesses have the information they need to control utility costs and improve energy efficiency. If you own or manage a commercial property in San Francisco over 25,000 square feet, by April 1, 2012 you must use Energy Star's Portfolio Manager to electronically send the City a brief "Annual Energy Benchmark Summary" - a report based on the building's energy use from January to December 2011. See here for more information or call (415) 992-6373.
Greenbuild 2012
San Francisco is the host city for the world's largest green building conference and exposition: November 13 to 16, 2012. With over 35,000 attendees, the expo will feature over 1,000 vendors and suppliers of green building products and services. Learn how you can get involved here.
SF Environment's Climate Team is hiring
SF Environment's Climate Team is hiring a Climate Information Management Assistant to assist the climate, renewable energy, and green building teams in data collection, management, and calculations for policy at the municipal operations and community levels. Interested applicants can learn more online here.
Solar SunShot InitiativeSF Environment has begun work on SunShot, a Department of Energy Initiative aimed at lowering the installed cost of solar to $1/watt. As part of the Rooftop Solar Challenge, SF Environment will work with other Bay Area participants to lower permitting and interconnection costs, simplify administrative processes, and generally lower the "soft" costs associated with installing solar, which can account for up to 30-40 percent of a typical residential installation. Learn more about the program online here.
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Member Announcements
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Organic Architect
Green architect and author Eric Corey Freed was selected as one of 20 designers for the Celebrate Exhibit for the Architecture + Design Museum in Los Angeles. The gala will be held in Los Angeles on March 10. Eric's piece is a Climate Change Protection Helmet, designed as a "found artifact from the future." It is a statement about the need to slash our carbon emissions and invest in smarter, more responsible energy sources. See
here for more information on the exhibit.
GreenBiz Group
GreenBiz presents VERGE DC, coming to Washington, DC on March 14-16 at the Renaissance Hotel in Arlington. VERGE brings together corporate and government leaders to discuss the next generation in sustainability: the convergence of technologies for energy, information, buildings, and transportation. VERGE DC will reveal the business opportunities brought about by these disruptive technologies, and the radical efficiencies it can bring to business and society.
California Academy of Sciences
Update on our climate change exhibit: In order to make room for our new 6,500 sqaure foot exhibit on earthquakes, the Academy dismantled some existing exhibits including climate change. The Academy remains committed to exploring local and global biodiversity, sustainability, and climate change through its other exhibits and daily education programs, as well as the "Sustainability and Green Wall" (which will be relocated to be adjacent to the Project Lab).
Orchard Hotel
Orchard Hotel, in partnership with PG&E, is conducting energy audits in order to determine an energy consumption baseline, identify areas for improvement, and devise a strategy for reducing our facility's energy consumption. In addition, we now offer packages with a "Plant a Tree" option, in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of our guests during their stay. We have a "Go Green" package available for the month of March to celebrate St Patrick Day.
Fairmont
Together over 40 eco-minded colleagues (accompanied by friends and family) from The Fairmont San Francisco, The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and The Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square volunteered over 180 hours to the Muir Woods Earth cleanup. While enjoying the majestic redwoods the group joined other like-minded Bay Area businesses to work toward restoring and preserving this spectacular national park. Projects included planting, habitat restoration and weed removal, mulching, tending the forest floor, and trail maintenance throughout the Redwood Creek Watershed.
Tripos Software, Inc.
There's much talk of employee engagement and sustainability, but relatively little understanding about what it takes to hone staff talent and passion to really make sustainability take hold in companies. Tripos Software releases its new e-learning library for sustainability, called Sustainability In Practice, and a timely article in GreenBuzz,"3 Essential Steps for Harnessing In-House Talent on Sustainability" available here.
Arup
Arup's newly released report "Implications for Real Estate Owners, Investors, and Tenants" seeks to understand the potential commercial real estate impact of three pending regulatory issues: Net Zero Energy Readiness, Mandatory Energy Performance Benchmarking and Disclosure, and SEC Climate Change Risk Disclosure. After researching these regulations, Arup surveyed and interviewed select Bay Area Council & Urban Land Institute members to better understand their awareness of these issues, their anticipatory actions, and their perceived market impacts. To obtain a copy of the report, please contact Jordan O'Brien.
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COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
| US Green Building Council Discounted Membership Offer
Become a member of the U.S. Green Building Council - Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC), the region's leading green building organization. USGBC-NCC is offering BC3 members an exclusive 20% discount on Full Chapter Membership or Associate Chapter Membership. Please see here to learn how you can take advantage of this limited-time discount. Presidio Graduate School
Presidio Graduate School is the go-to school for executive certification in sustainable leadership. We are offering BC3 members a 10% tuition reduction for our spring program in San Francisco beginning March 1. See here or contact Bethany Baugh, Co-Director of Admissions at 415-655-8976 or bethany.baugh@presidioedu.org. The Future We Want: A Systems Approach to Growing Sustainable Business (May 18th - 20th, 2012) Come to the world-renowned Esalen Institute for a dynamic, interactive workshop on systems thinking and sustainable business. Led by Yahoo's Global Director of Energy and Sustainability Strategy Christina Page, the workshop will feature best practices and case studies from the front lines of corporate sustainability in a stunning natural setting. See here for more information or to register. |
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BC3's Wishlist
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BC3 is a member driven 503(c) non-profit. We graciously accept new or used items on our wishlist. Click here for a short list of our current needs.
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Welcome to the Spring 2012 edition of the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3) newsletter! These quarterly updates are intended to fill you in on recent events, inform and remind you of upcoming seminars and meetings, and communicate best practices and programs.
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What you missed
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Arup's Jordan O'Brien and SF Environment's Sachiko Tanikawa take a sneak peak at San Francisco's emissions inventory and climate targets at BC3's 11/1 event at Arup.
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We've hosted some exciting events since our last newsletter in September. In October, new BC3 members, The InterContinental Hotel and Schneider Electric, sponsored our semi-annual meeting where the city's America's Cup Project Manager, Mike Martin, discussed how businesses can prepare for the America's Cup. Attendees learned about BC3's newest resource - The Green Tenant Toolkit - from the Director of the U.S. Green Building Council for Northern California Dan Geiger and Arup's Jordan O'Brien. BC3 members and guests also enjoyed a networking reception and tours of the hotel's green features led by the InterContinental's Director of Engineering Harry Hobbs.
In December, SF Environment celebrated the holiday season with its annual holiday party. BC3 kicked off the New Year with a special event with new member SCIenergy about their new iSite product, which aims to support commercial building energy disclosure requirements.
In February, Salesforce.com hosted BC3 members for an event on the city's new bike share program, which launches this summer. SFMTA's Heath Maddox provided an overview of the city's program, while Genentech's Nate Byerly gave the 411 on Genentech's internal ride share initiative. Stay tuned for more details on how your company can get involved!
This past Sunday, BC3 hosted a panel on "Gaming for Good" at the SF Green Film Festival where SAP, Badgeville, and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management highlighted how they've used gamification to achieve a variety of sustainability goals. We're always on the look-out for new programming ideas from our members. If you'd like to host or sponsor an event, send us an email at events@bc3sfbay.org.
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Badgeville's Adena Demonte, SAP's Mario Herger, and SF Department of Emergency Management's Kristin Hogan with Katherine Michonski at "Gaming for Good" on March 5.
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EPA releases study on local air quality benefits of San Francisco's climate policies
SF Environment's Climate Team has been working with the EPA on a study of the potential air quality benefits (and the associated health impacts) of greenhouse gas reduction measures. On February 13, EPA Region 9 Administrator Jared Blumenfeld, SF Environment Director Melanie Nutter, policy experts from SF city agencies, leading NGOs, and environmental consultants met to review the study's major findings. The study concluded that the total health valuation of San Francisco's current and proposed climate measures is $114 million. At the center of this study is a new BAAQMD tool, which provides improved decision-support for local policy-makers and helps identify measures which produce air quality benefits alongside greenhouse gas emissions reductions. If you'd like an electronic copy of the study, please send a request to Meredith Kurpius. Results of this study are being used to inform the forthcoming update to the San Francisco's Community Climate Action Strategy.
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Full Circle Fund works with BC3 to increase electric vehicle adoption
About 40 percent of San Francisco's greenhouse gas emissions stems from vehicle use. Increased adoption of electric vehicles is therefore one important component of the city's strategy to reduce transportation emissions. In November, the Full Circle Fund awarded BC3 a $10,000 grant to support electric vehicle adoption in San Francisco. A six-person Full Circle Fund team worked with BC3 and SF Environment to create a strategy to increase access to electric vehicle charging stations. As about 15 percent of charging will take place at work, the team recognized that having access to workplace charging stations can influence an EV owner's purchasing decision. Over the course of three months, the Full Circle Fund team developed a targeted outreach campaign to encourage large commercial building owners and managers in downtown San Francisco to install EV charging stations. The campaign incorporates the work of BC3's 2010 EV guide for businesses - Electrify Your Business - which compiles everything a building manager or owner needs to know about installing workplace charging stations. BC3 will begin reaching out to building managers in March. You can help by connecting us with your building manager! Tell us your building address, manager name and contact information via this form online here. We'll contact your building manager with information on how to get an EV charging station in your building. |
BC3 Goes to Davos!
 In January, BC3 Director Katherine Michonski traveled to Davos, Switzerland to participate in the World Economic Forum's annual meeting as part of the Forum's newly created community of leaders under-30. Over the course of 8 days, Katherine represented BC3 and the San Francisco Global Shapers hub by participating in panel discussions, facilitating roundtables, and attending informal meetings with some of the Forum's 2,600 participants. This year's participants included Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and many others. Some highlights from her trip included: skiing the Swiss Alps, hearing from Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy about his plans to roll out a state-wide green bank, a chat about female participation at Davos with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and getting to know the many other fantastic under-30 participants from around the world...particularly during the post-conference parties. Lowlight: getting the flu and missing the last day lunch at the top of the Alps. Flu highlight: Swiss doctors make house calls!
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Intern Spotlight
  BC3 depends on interns to execute its monthly programming, maintain operations, and provide project support. We're always looking for talented individuals to join our team. If you know of any candidates, please refer them to the job description on our job opportunities page. Our current interns, Cody Field and Kathy Vining, are about to complete their 3-month internship, which means they're on the job market! |
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Green your workplace with BC3's Green Tenant Toolkit
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Working group members with group leader Jennifer Berg finalizing the Green Tenant Toolkit.
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At the semi-annual meeting in October, BC3 launched a new tool to help you green your workplace. Created by a 26-person working group, the Green Tenant Toolkit aims to enable owners or managers, occupiers, and their agents to minimize operating costs, save water, manage energy, and reduce carbon emissions by identifying split incentives and offering best practice solutions. We're looking for case studies about folks who have used or are using parts of the kit to green their office space. Please contact Katherine Michonski if you're interested to learn more. If you haven't already, check out the tool at www.greentenanttoolkit.com.
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BECOME A BC3 SPONSOR TODAY!
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Join BC3 sponsors Blue Shield of California and CH2M Hill in becoming a BC3 sponsor today! BC3 sponsors demonstrate leadership, support the BC3 program, and build brand value with the Bay Area's top business leaders. We've created a four-tiered sponsorship and benefits package Bronze ($2,500); Silver ($5,000); Gold ($7,500); Platinum ($10,000). Sponsorship benefits include preferred speaking and hosting opportunities, spotlight article and press mentions, and other high-profile public recognition. See here for more details.
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BC3 MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
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Every quarter, BC3 takes a moment to highlight its new and newly renewed members. Renew your membership today!
The Better World Group 
Founded in 1999, The Better World Group (BWG) is a recognized leader in political and environmental strategy, regulatory policy development and advocacy, communications planning and execution, and coalition building and management. A certified Minority/Women Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE), we focus on air quality, climate change, advanced transportation, clean energy technologies, livable communities and other leading environmental policy issues. In August, BWG achieved Climate Registered™ status by successfully measuring the company's carbon footprint according to The Climate Registry's best-in-class program. Measuring our carbon footprint with The Registry allows BWG to prepare for future regulation, identify inefficiencies and potential for cost savings, and track real and meaningful data about our environmental performance.
PR&Co's Charge Across Town Project
Charge Across Town is an educational campaign to advance the adoption of electric vehicles and infrastructure by educating commercial and residential property owners on the costs and benefits of installing EV charging stations. Funds raised by the campaign will help the city install the public charging infrastructure needed to make San Francisco the EV Capital of America. Charge Across Town is a public-private partnership, working in collaboration with San Francisco's Department of the Environment and BC3, and is fiscally sponsored by the Tides Center.
MNR Consultants
Meg Ruxton, Principal of MNR Consultants, applies more than 20 years of experience in law, public affairs, city government, and sustainability to help clients develop strategic business opportunities, create contractual relationships and promote products and services. Her focus is on sustainable transportation. Currently, her projects involve electric vehicles, telematics, mobile phone app games, and carsharing. She provides her clients with thorough research while developing creative business proposals.
If you would like to post an announcement in BC3's next newsletter, email us at bc3@bc3sfbay.org.
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