eNews Update | Spring 2016 | www.clean-economy.org   |
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In addition to having an award-winning membership of more than 1,300 small and mainstream businesses, the CBA continues to team up with the California Delivers campaign, to promote a clean energy economy. A couple of new reports are demonstrating that California is outpacing the nation when it comes to clean energy investments, job creation and economic growth.
~Susan Frank
Director, California Business Alliance
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The Huffington Post - February 25
Los Angeles Times - February 10
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California Means Business (CMB)
Click here to read more CMB news.
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Featured Report
REPORT: California's Advanced Energy Industry Has More Than Half a Million Workers, Up 18 Percent from Last Year
Employment in California's advanced energy industry grew 18 percent last year, six times the rate of statewide employment growth. More than half a million California workers spend some or all of their time on advanced energy work, including energy efficiency, advanced electricity generation, biofuels, advanced grid technology, and advanced vehicles. Employers engaged in advanced energy business also expect to increase their workforce by eight percent this year.
 At just over 500,000 workers, advanced energy employs three times as many Californians as the motion picture, TV, and radio industry (145,000); more than agriculture, forestry, and fishing (475,000); and approaching construction (750,000). With one in every five advanced energy workers nationwide, California has the largest advanced energy industry by employment of any state in the country. These are some of the results of a new jobs report recently released by the Advanced Energy Economy Institute.
"California is the nation's leader in advanced energy policy and that leadership is paying off in jobs for Californians," said Graham Richard, CEO of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a national business association with many member companies in California, and the AEE Institute, its affiliated nonprofit educational organization. "Advanced energy jobs have grown at a much faster rate than jobs overall, and employers expect that to continue. That's good news for advanced energy companies and for the California economy."
The Advanced Energy Jobs in California Report is available here.
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Featured Report
New Consumers Union Report Finds California's Clean Transportation Policies Provide Net Savings for Consumers
California households are likely to save up to $1,530 each year by 2030 from clean transportation policies, according to a new report from Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports. The report, conducted by ICF International, analyzes the consumer impacts of California's primary policies to lower carbon emissions from the transportation sector, including: the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas standards, the Zero Emission Vehicle Program, sustainable communities strategies (Senate Bill 375), and the AB 32 Cap-and-Trade Program.
Shannon Baker-Branstetter, Energy Policy Counsel for Consumers Union, said, "The question we set out to answer was whether California's efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions would hurt consumers. And the answer is no. In fact, we found that California's clean transportation policies work together to help lower consumer fuel costs, insulate consumers -- especially low-income consumers -- against gasoline price spikes, and save the state billions of dollars. And the health benefits and savings from reduced air pollution are nothing to sneeze at. Overall, consumers come out ahead as a result of these low carbon transportation policies."
Read the full report here.
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Featured CBA Activity
CBA Founding Member Steve Frisch Speaks at Climate Leadership Conference
The annual Climate Leadership Conference in Seattle on March 8-10 convened a global audience of climate, energy, and sustainability professionals to address climate change through policy, innovation, and business solutions. The 2016 event was the first U.S. climate conference post-Paris to further accelerate climate solutions and a low-carbon economy.
CBA Founding Member, Steve Frisch, who serves as President of the Sierra Business Council, based in Truckee, represented the Alliance on one of the featured panels of the conference entitled "Rising to the Challenge: West Coast Business Leadership and Climate Action." This session examined the role that businesses and business groups are playing to usher in the low-carbon economy along the West Coast. Frisch provided an overview of the CBA and highlighted the success of California's clean energy policies that are benefiting the economy and small businesses.
Learn more about the conference here.
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Featured Member Event
California Energy Efficiency Industry Council Hosts 1st Professional Education Symposium
May 3, Berkeley
Join the Efficiency Council and guest speakers for a one-day professional education symposium to stay current in the energy efficiency and demand response fields as these resources evolve to meet California's grid needs. The event is designed to build a deeper understanding of how efficiency and demand response will fit into California's emerging distributed energy future. It can be used as a refresher or as a training resource for staff and is an excellent opportunity to catch up on this rapidly changing field.
Keynote Speaker:
Commissioner Andrew McAllister
California Energy Commission
Session Topics Include: - California's Changing Transmission and Distribution Grid: How Do Efficiency and Demand Response Fit?
- Demand Response is Paving the Way for Integrating Distributed Energy Resources into CA ISO's World: How Will It Work?
- The Intrepid Customer: How the New Demand Response Approach is working for California State University
- Policy Puzzle Pieces Impacting Demand Response and Efficiency Businesses
- Point of View of Utilities on the Role of Efficiency and Demand Response in their Future Plans
- For Energy Efficiency, it's all about Measurement, Measurement, Measurement
Details:
The symposium will take place on May 3, 2016 at the David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA. Lunch will be provided. A networking social with appetizers and drinks will follow the sessions.
Enter 15% discount code CBACE2016 and register here.
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Featured Member Event
2016 Silicon Valley Energy and Sustainability Summit
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CBA Member Silicon Valley Leadership Group will hold its 4th annual Energy and Sustainability Summit on June 30 at Oracle in Redwood City.
The theme for the Summit is "What's Next" - after momentous efforts in 2015 on the international front in Paris, the national front with the Clean Power Plan, and the state level with SB 350, what is next for businesses looking to take advantage of changing policy landscapes?
The Summit will feature case studies for how businesses are achieving energy efficiency, deploying renewables, conserving water, managing climate risk, and achieving corporate sustainability goals. The Summit will include C-Suite plenaries, policy round tables, workshops and case studies, all focused on the business case for clean and efficient energy, environmental sustainability, water conservation and climate action.
For a 10% discount, just type in "CaBACE10" in the promotional code on the registration page that you will find here.
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Featured Event
Green California Summit
April 21-22, Sacramento
The Green California Summit & Expo will be taking place on April 21-22 at the Sacramento Convention Center in Sacramento, California.
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the Summit will highlight strategies, technologies and best practices that are essential to the attainment of California's green goals. Discover 100 companies with green products and services. Attend keynote presentations, education sessions, leadership awards and an opening reception on April 20. Group discounts available. Expo, keynotes, opening reception and Leadership Awards are free.
Keynote Speaker
Juliet Christian-Smith, PhDClimate Scientist, Union of Concerned ScientistsAuthor, A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy
Editor, Sustainability Science
To learn more and register, visit here.
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Featured Event
10th Anniversary Sustainability Summit
CA's Energy and Water Future in Global Market
April 29 - Getty Center, Los Angeles
Featured Keynotes and Speakers
Marisa Buchanan Executive Director of Sustainable Finance, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Marisa will discuss how the major financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase are deploying capital in new and innovative ways to support the growth of clean energy and technology and enable businesses in a broad range of industries to finance sustainability strategies and manage environmental risk.
Andrew McAllister Commissioner, California Energy Commission
Commissioner McAllister will discuss the strategies being employed by the California Energy Commission to meet the state's new goal to double the energy efficiency of buildings by 2030, and manage an increase in distributed energy resources like rooftop solar, electric vehicles and energy storage technology, on the electricity grid.
Rachael Nava Executive Vice President & COO, University of California
Rachael will discuss University of California's role in the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a new global initiative of leading technology companies in response to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris last December, with a mission to increase funding for basic and applied clean energy and technology research and strengthen research partnerships with private industry worldwide.
Additional Featured speakers to include:
- California State Senate pro Tempore, Kevin De León
- Thomas Werner, President & CEO, SunPower
- Susan Kennedy, CEO & Board Member, Advanced Microgrid Solutions
- Richard Maullin, Chair, California Independent System Operator
- Felicia Marcus, Chair, California State Water Resources Control Board
- Jeffrey Kightlinger, General Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- Matt Petersen, Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Los Angeles
To learn more and register, visit here.
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Featured Event
North America's Largest Event on Climate Policy and Carbon Markets
May 4 - 6, San Diego
As the nation's longest running and most anticipated conference for discussing climate policy and carbon markets, Navigating the American Carbon World (NACW) has a well-established history of providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on these topics and serving as the best event for networking with colleagues from the business, government, nonprofit and academic sectors. It is easily the largest carbon conference in North America and known as the sector's must-attend event.
In its 14th consecutive year, NACW 2016 will take a close look at domestic and international climate policy, carbon markets and green investments. Session topics will include U.S. and North American climate policy, the road after Paris, the current status and future growth of California's historic cap and trade program, other established and emerging carbon markets, state-level activity under the Clean Power Plan, green bonds, risk management strategies and other innovative environmental initiatives.
NACW 2016 takes place May 4-6 in San Diego and is hosted by the Climate Action Reserve, a pioneer in carbon accounting and the most experienced, trusted and efficient offset project registry to serve the carbon market.
To learn more and register, visit here.
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Featured Member Award
CBA Founding Member Tom Bowman Inducted into International Green Industry Hall of Fame
Tom Bowman, President of Bowman Change, Inc., based in Signal Hill, and a founding member of the CBA, has been inducted into the International Green Industry Hall of Fame (IGIHOF) for his ongoing work to promote sustainability to small and medium enterprises (SME), a business sector that Bowman calls "an untapped resource" in creating a sustainable economy.
 Bowman has distinguished himself from other green business experts by proving the business case for sustainability with his own company and providing other business owners with practical steps that reduce environmental impact-and save money. In conferring the award, Sam Geil, IGIHOF Founder, said Bowman had become "one of the foremost sustainability specialists in the world" and cited his work to drive sustainability initiatives across three distinct groups - the business, NGO and policy-making sectors.
Bowman says the collective impact of the 28 million small businesses in the U.S. making greener choices is an opportunity to jumpstart the country's climate response. "SMEs are nimble, efficient, and self-motivated. It's time to activate this valuable resource by providing them with the tools to tackle sustainability in the same ways they tackle any other business problem," says Bowman.
The 2016 IGIHOF Conference and Induction Ceremony was held on March 9, 2016, at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology in Clovis, California. As an IGIHOF "Lifetime Achievement Award" winner, Bowman joins other lifetime achievement award winners including David Gottfried, founder of the U.S. Green Building Council and the World Green Building Council, and Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute and leader in renewable energy solutions.
Learn more about the honorees here.
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Featured Member Award
CBA Member Incredible Adventures Receives Climate Leaders Award
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced the winners of the sixth CoolCalifornia Small Business Awards, recognizing small businesses that demonstrate leadership and make notable, voluntary achievements toward reducing their carbon footprint.
"These businesses illustrate the California story," said CARB chairman Mary Nichols. "From Eureka to San Diego, from an auto body shop to a winery, small businesses throughout the state are showing that environmental protection, innovation, and profit go hand-in-hand."
The 19 award winners were selected from competitive applicants, representing a variety of business sectors from across the state. These businesses took a number of different actions to save money and improve their business operations while reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts.
Many CBA members have been past recipients of the Cool CA award. This year, CBA member Incredible Adventures of San Francisco, was recognized for its outstanding achievements.
To learn more about the awards, click here.
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Member Profile
Cut Your Watts™ Brings Energy Efficiency to Everyone
Alliance Member Cut Your Watts™, based in Glendale, brings energy efficiency to people who have not taken part in the big programs like Energy Upgrade California. The company's goal is to help underserved markets such as apartment renters, property owners with limited budgets, and small businesses who lease their space. Cut Your Watts™ provides low cost, simple audits and do-it-yourself electricity saving approaches to individuals and small businesses. The savings do not rely on expensive building envelope improvements, but instead are based on identifying where you use electricity and controlling or replacing the energy hogs.
There is even a no risk, no-money-down plan in which you pay nothing until you see a smaller electric bill. Satisfaction is always guaranteed!
Cut Your Watts uses smart meter hourly data, on/off logging, and plug in meters (e.g., Kill A Watt) to find easy, inexpensive ways to reduce electricity usage. After finding the energy hogs, they can be removed, replaced, or controlled with power strips, timers, or smart plugs.
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Best,
Susan Frank
Director, California Business Alliance
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CALENDAR AT A GLANCE
April 19-21
April 29
May 1-4
(Los Angeles)
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