Public officials benefitting from college programs on sustainability

NORTH BAY – The city of San Rafael has launched a Climate Change Action Plan with the goal of reducing greenhouse emissions 25 percent by the year 2020, and a leader of that program tapped a local university to learn how to create it.

City of San Rafael Community Development Director Bob Brown went through Dominican University’s new Sustainable Practices Certificate program, which offers participants the opportunity to train in sustainability in less time than it takes to get a bachelor’s degree.

“I was in the first class that went through there,” said Mr. Brown, who has been involved in city planning for 31 years. “I started the program thinking I knew a lot, but I learned that what I knew was about building, transit-oriented communities and the like.”

Mr. Brown’s experience is one of an increasing number of examples where higher education can play a role in creating an intelligent response to climate change.

Mr. Brown said the course broadened his perspectives, allowing him to take much more into consideration as the city put together its action plan. “I got to look not just at the public policy side, but at businesses and how they can brand themselves and gain competitive advantage.”

He said when the city began creating the plan, it did not look at the economic end of things, which now is a major part of the plan. Getting the plan together has been about a year-long effort and a community-based planning process. Roughly 45 community volunteers sitting on various panels got together and generated more than 300 ideas of what the city could do to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Then a citizen group reduced that to 200.

“There are 64 programs in the final plan,” Mr. Brown said. The first goal being implemented is getting all buildings in San Rafael 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020.

“Sonoma County’s goal is even bolder,” he said. “This area is really the Holy Grail as to what the local government can do to make a difference.” In September, the city will begin the process of putting together a retrofit financing program like the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program, made possible by the passage of Assembly Bill 811.

Mr. Brown said he feels the program at Dominican was helpful to him and that it could serve both public officials and private citizens. “It could make better officials and have them understand policy better,” he said. “But it also will make private citizens more aware of how to be effective in voicing their concerns.” San Rafael is not the only city in the North Bay to have benefitted from an official going through an education program at a local university.

When Peter Bruck, building official for the city of Rohnert Park, was completing his master’s degree in sustainable and energy-efficient communities at Sonoma State University in 2007, he was fortunate that city officials were open to having him use his master’s project in a practical way.

Rohnert Park’s green building ordinance was the result. The ordinance, which went into effect July 1, 2007, is a set of guidelines that business owners, builders and contractors use when renovating a building to make it more sustainable in order to qualify in being named a green business or to become LEED certified.

“If it weren’t for the support of the City Council leadership, I would have ended up with a degree in a theoretical arena and not be able to use it as a tool,” Mr. Bruck said.

The building ordinance in Rohnert Park has a pre-permitting process that is unusual for a program of its kind. Instead of having the architect draw up the plans and then submit them, a meeting takes place between the applying business and the city to go through a checklist and figure out exactly what needs to change.

“Take a look at the economy. ... Americans are used to living beyond their means. By living within our means, it will reduce our carbon footprint. It will necessarily green our economy if we reprioritize how we spend our money,” he said.