SF Environment offers free on-site assistance to help your business reduce waste and comply with the City's Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance. We offer multi-lingual staff training, program set-up assistance and education materials including signs, stickers, sample tenant training presentation and letter to tenants, and other resources to help your business better recycle, compost and reduce waste. For more information click here.
SF Environment and BC3 has moved!
Our new space at 1455 Market Street is designed to exceed the City's green building requirements for LEED Gold certification!
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Introducing Michael Parks
BC3's new Executive Director
Hello and happy summer everyone! We are very excited to announce that as of June 17, BC3 has a new full-time Executive Director, Michael Parks. Michael has years of experience in environmentally focused journalism and brings a passion for creating positive, local models for a sustainable future to the BC3 team.
Prior to joining BC3, Michael worked at Oakland-based Mosaic, an online community solar finance platform. At Mosaic, Michael led a team of writers dedicated to exploring paths to a 100 percent clean energy system. Prior to Mosaic, Michael worked for the National Forest Foundation, coordinating a team tasked with ramping up efforts to turn what was once the world's largest bomb-making facility into the future "Central Park of Chicago." He holds an MA in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Michael's leadership in telling the BC3 story is going to be a great addition to the important work that the BC3 community is already doing. You can reach Michael by email at -michael@bc3sfbay.org , please join us in welcoming him to the BC3 team!
In addition to our new Director we are also pleased to announce that Citibank is the latest company to join the Climate Leadership Circle, and that we are settling in nicely to our new office space co-located at San Francisco Environment. Many thanks to SFE for being such a great partner and host!
Now that we have Michael on board I will be transitioning back to my role as a member of the BC3 Advisory Committee. Thanks to everyone for making this transition go so smoothly, in particular the BC3 Advisory Committee Andrea Gardner, Jennifer Kass, and Katherine Michonski, who deserve a special round of applause for the extra effort they have put in to keep things going strong.
-Melissa Capria, BC3 Advisory Committee Member |
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May 7th Breakfast Briefing with SFMTA
On May 7, members of BC3's Climate Leadership Circle attended the third meeting of the "Breakfast Briefings with the City" series with SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin to discuss San Francisco's transit needs, challenges, and opportunities. Highlights included information on the city's Transit Effectiveness Project, how residents can support the city in addressing MUNI's capacity issues, making our bicycle infrastructure safe for residents aged 8 to 80, parking management and road repair needs, and how SFMTA shares its data to spur private sector innovation in developing alternative forms of transportation. Among other things, participants learned:
- San Francisco has the 7th largest transit system and had the first public transit system in the United States
- About 90% of San Francisco residents live within a quarter mile of a Muni stop
- SFMTA is upgrading the Muni bus fleet this month; by the end of this year, Muni will have 62 new buses and 80 refurbished buses
Director Reiskin also thanked city leaders for their contributions to meeting San Francisco's transit needs by supporting commuter benefits programs, providing good bike facilities and emergency rides home, limiting free parking in buildings, and working closely with the SFMTA when developing private shuttle fleets. For more information about how to take advantage of the City's commuter and transportation demand management programs for your company, see SF Environment's toolkit here.
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Congestion Management Working Group White Paper is Complete!
The Congestion Management Working Group wrapped up six months of meetings and discussions in late 2012. After input and review by the Working Group this spring, BC3 has just published a white paper, Business Perspectives on Congestion Management in San Francisco. The white paper highlights working group members' perspectives on how congestion affects businesses in San Francisco and provides feedback on potential transportation demand management programs. Recommendations from the working group include:
Promoting direct business benefits of congestion reduction, beyond greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions.
When speaking to the business community about congestion pricing, focus on tactical concerns that everyone can relate to and potential cost savings that are likely to generate more support. Show businesses that reducing congestion can create direct benefits such as customer access and improved quality of life in San Francisco.
Providing data and clear information about policy goals and implementation.
Working Group members stressed the importance of providing readily available, verifiable, transparent, and detailed data about the transportation sector's contribution to GHG emissions in San Francisco. Be clear about the benefits that businesses will receive by supporting or agreeing to any congestion pricing strategy, and be sure these are commitments that can be delivered.
Examining congestion pricing in the larger context.
Working Group members cautioned that congestion pricing should be examined within the entire City's traffic flow, as congestion pricing may shift traffic to other neighborhoods or create other equity issues. Congestion pricing must be linked to parking strategies to avoid spill-over effects into neighborhoods adjacent to the cordon area.
Providing for ongoing engagement with businesses.
Working Group members expressed interest in continued engagement with the City in congestion management and climate activities. Some members are interested in participating in pilot projects, such as new approaches for providing travel information, shuttle buses/vans, and experiments with congestion pricing.
BC3 is currently holding briefing sessions on the white paper with City leaders and elected officials. The white paper will be presented to interested businesses at a BC3 member event in mid-July. You can find the Executive Summary here.
BC3 would like to thank CH2M HILL for sponsoring and facilitating the Working Group; the SFMTA, SFCTA, and SFE staff who shared their knowledge in support of the Working Group; and especially Working Group business members that contributed their valuable time and ideas to this effort.
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Electric Vehicle Outreach
BC3 EV Outreach Coordinator Justin Brown and USF staff explore options for EV charger installations.
Through a grant from SF Environment, BC3 has been offering free electric vehicle (EV) charger consultation for businesses throughout San Francisco. The consultations are conducted by Justin Brown, who is serving as BC3's EV Outreach Coordinator. Justin brings significant experience with commercial EV installations and services to his role at BC3.
On June 4th, BC3 Intern Latifa Laanatza shadowed Justin on his visit to the University of San Francisco (USF) to observe how the process of installing EV chargers works. During the consultation, Justin walked the USF team through the logistics and benefits of EV installation on campus. They discussed the number and type of chargers that should be installed and most importantly, how providing charging stations could provide a more sustainable commute option for USF staff and faculty.
USF is now conducting an in-house assessment in order to determine if EV installation would be a functional solution on campus. Justin will continue liaising with USF throughout this process.
Justin has been a great asset to BC3 in increasing the EV project outreach since he came on in March. His last day at BC3 will be in mid-July, so if you would like to receive a free consultation for your business, contact him now at justin@bc3sfbay.org. BC3 also offers an online step-by-step guide for how businesses can become EV ready. To access the EV guide, please visit our website.
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SF SunShares has some exciting new announcements
for our participating members!
The Business Council on Climate Change would like to applaud Blue Shield of California, Pacific Gas and Electric, Genetech and University of California San Francisco for joining the City and County of San Francisco in the SF SunShares program. SunShares gives companies and other employers the opportunity to offer their workforce significant discounts on purchasing or leasing solar panels for their homes.
Through the program over 550 households throughout the Bay Area have signed up for a no obligation solar consultation. Due to this tremendous response, the program registration period has been extended to July 30th. In addition, BC3 is excited to report that the program has also been expanded to allow friends, family and neighbors of participating company employees (in the Bay Area and greater Sacramento metro region) to participate. For more information please see www.mygroupenergy.com/sfsunshares.
The BC3 interns have been working hard to help promote the SF SunShares program and are excited to be contributing to the increased use of solar power in the Bay Area. If you work for one of the companies or organizations participating in the program we encourage you to help us spread the word by letting your friends and family know about this wonderful but limited time offer. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about SF SunShares, please contact BC3 at bc3@bc3sfbay.org.
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What's YOUR Watt?
BC3 members are encouraged to take advantage of the "What's Your Watt?" program. As part of the program, which was sponsored by Wells Fargo, BC3 member companies can borrow watt meters from the BC3 office to loan out to their employees. The meters provide a fun tool to help people get a better understanding of the energy used (and often wasted) by appliances and electronics both at their workstations and at home. The meters are also available to the general public at all branches of the San Francisco Public Library.
This past spring, BC3 presented the program to a lunch meeting for employees of Salesforce.com. The BC3 team gave an overview of how the meters worked and some experiments that they conducted on various home appliances. Joining BC3 at the 45-minute session was staff from the SF Environment residential energy efficiency team, who rounded out the talk with information on a host of ways that households can reduce their energy use and save money.
The Salesforce team borrowed about 20 meters for a month and came back with some great feedback and stories of how they used the devices. One participant had this to say - "those watt meters are pretty cool. I had a great time with my 5-year-old, learning about our energy usage and practicing math. We found that the most wasteful appliance is a space heater in the baby room - a whopping 1500W! We'll look for a cheaper solution for next winter."
Visit www.sfenvironment.org/whatsyourwatt for more information on library check out, or, if you are a BC3 member, contact the BC3 office at bc3@bc3sfbay.org to arrange for a lunch and learn for your staff
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BC3 depends on interns to execute 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. We had two new interns this spring and we are very excited to have them on board!
Stephanie Leung recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree
in Environmental Studies. She has also studied abroad in Copenhagen, where she learned a lot about the city's sustainable urban planning. She is looking forward to working in the sustainability sector in the future and feels very fortunate to be able to help BC3 and its partners reduce greenhouse gases in San Francisco.
Latifa Laanatza has previously worked on the Mayor of London's Volunteer Program for the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. She has a program and project management background and is now steering her career towards sustainability and climate change issues. She sees BC3 as the perfect place to learn as much as possible about the green sector in her new home town, build a network and contribute to the amazing work BC3 does.
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