Energy Efficient Homes & Net-Zero Buildings

Energy Efficient Homes & Net-Zero Buildings

Thursday, January 20, 3:30 - 5:00 pm, Zoom Recording & Slides

MEETING RECAP

On January 20th, Thrive brought together five different organizations working in the buildings and energy world within San Mateo County. Seeing the different organizations and the work they are currently implementing was eye-opening and created a sense of urgency to push for gas phaseouts, electric appliances, grid resiliency, and so much more while also recognizing the extensive need for equity, practicing inclusion, and serving under-resourced communities. Even as this was a critical, pressing matter, it also showed a hopeful outlook for the future as we heard about so many other organizations involved in this space, all of the collaboration work between these organizations, and the ideas they have for future projects.

First up, we had Christine Kohl-Zaugg, Executive Director of Sustainable San Mateo County (SSMC).  SSMC aims to achieve true sustainability through a systems approach by addressing the economy, environment, and social equity all in balance with each other. One of their main programs is the Sustainability Dashboard which collects and track 30 key performance indicators to asses the progress of local cities and San Mateo County on their sustainability metrics. Several of these key performance indicators are around energy such as the number of net-zero buildings and PV permits issued. SSMC meets with these cities to review their metrics, encourage them to share their sustainability programs, policies, and ordinances, and works with them to create solutions the cities can implement to perform even better. The next steps involve releasing the metrics to the public and publishing the data on their website. Another one of their projects is the Sustainability Ideas Bank, a compilation of sustainability solutions. They use this database when discussing potential solutions to increase cities' sustainability metrics in a way that is cost-effective, impactful, and in some cases, already known to be successful with other contacts.

Then we had Susan Wright, Sustainability Program Manager of the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability talk about what they were doing with their program called RICAPS, or Regionally Integrated Climate Action Planning Suite. As a county-wide climate action collaboration between the Office of Sustainability, City/County Association of Governments, PG&E, Peninsula Clean Energy, and Rincon Consultants, RICAPS brings them together to provide support and help San Mate county adopt climate action plans, track their progress, save on costs, and provide leadership for coordinated implementation opportunities. Currently, they help cities individually to work on their climate action plan, but one of their main goals is to get consensus on a countywide climate action goal as a countywide approach is very powerful and easier on the public. In addition, they are in the process of identifying 2-3 "moonshot initiatives", or areas that are complicated but by coordinating with various stakeholders, can be an area where a great deal of work can get done. Susan pointed out that an important key to success is to not leave anyone behind while addressing sustainability issues. In order to achieve a more sustainable future, it's important to work together across all sectors - public, private, nonprofits, and government as well as including all aspects of policies, incentives, education, and pilot projects to create a lasting change. 

After Susan, we had Diane Bailey, Executive Director of Menlo Spark. Their mission is to help Menlo Park become climate neutral and help spread their climate measures throughout the region. In addition, they support a campaign for Fossil Free Buildings in Silicon Valley (FFBSV), an alliance of 37 groups aiming to support and accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels and methane gas from all buildings. Since its launch in 2019, 26 policies have been launched to phase out fossil gas from new construction in Silicon Valley. Looking forward, Fossil Free Buildings is aiming to focus on existing buildings and pivoting from gas to electric appliances while keeping in mind equity issues in supporting low-income communities throughout this transition. FFBSV also supports mandatory standards that require phasing out gas as voluntary programs move forward too slowly to meet the electrification need. While doing so, they create necessary support programs to help throughout this process and work with cities to phase out permits for fossil fuel appliances and combine these efforts with new reach codes. By keeping equity front and center and working together, San Mateo County and the rest of Silicon Valley can successfully phase out all fossil fuels from their homes and buildings in the near future.

Up next we had Kirsten Andrews-Schwind, Senior Manger of Community Relations of Peninsula Clean Energy talk about their various programs to support clean electricity and all-electric buildings. Peninsula Clean Energy is a community choice energy aggregator that buys electricity from clean sources which in turn gets delivered to customers via PG&E power lines. Through this, San Mateo County receives 100% clean energy on an annual basis and at a cheaper rate than if generated by PG&E. Through this clean energy, they hope to electrify everything, especially buildings as gas systems account for around 45% of methane emissions and pose a health risk, causing asthma and NO2 exposure. In addition, they work towards increasing grid resiliency as they have programs aimed to incentive solar and battery storage systems to maintain power during outages. Peninsula Clean Energy works to make these appliance upgrades affordable through on-bill financing and creating appliance subsidies and rebates that customers can stack on top of other existing incentives. 

Concluding the panel of speakers, we had Violet Saena, Executive Director of Climate Resilient Communities (CRC). A community based organization serving East Palo Alto, North Fair Oaks, Belle Haven, Menlo Park, and Redwood City, CRC supports under-resourced communities gain access to the programs mentioned by all the previous organizations and adapt to the effects of climate change. They work in partnership with organizations such as Peninsula Clean Energy, El Concilio, Grid Alternatives, and Habitat for Humanity to bring their services to communities. However, even with the help of these programs and rebates, many of these underserved communities may not know these programs exist, do not have the ability to apply for them, or cannot afford the upfront costs of new appliances as rebates can take a while. In addition, there have been cases where these programs have unintended consequences that can actually reverse the outcome and harm community members. Violet urged us to plan and implement policies in a way such that they are inclusive by bringing affected communities to the table when deciding on these policies and systems and focusing on weatherization and home upgrade efforts before moving on to electrification and new appliances.

After all the organizations presented, we opened up the floor for questions from the audience as well as a conversation between the speakers and organizations. One main point of this discussion centered on equity as it was mentioned the importance of meeting people where they are at, recognizing unintended consequences, and creating approaches to solve these issues. Through these efforts, the hope would be that one day, the new norm would be cheap, all-electric appliances that are readily accessible to buy and install and more appealing than their gas counterparts. Another important topic was education, and in frontline communities, when CRC engages in conversations with families and homeowners, they provide information and highlight the benefits of electric appliances, such as the health benefits mentioned before, and how that relates back to the message of electrification. In addition, it was mentioned that there is a need for more public knowledge on environmental issues to groups that may have no connections or involvement in the environmental realm. Several of the speakers were interested in ways to partner with communities and low-income households to improve outreach and reach the groups that may need home upgrades the most. In response, Violet stated that if not working directly with communities, find and partner with a community organization to support and follow their lead as they understand best the community, their needs, and best strategies to reach them.

Coming up, on February 24th, we will be focusing on the theme of transportation and will feature organizations focused on public transit, the future of transportation, and transit infrastructure.  We hope to see you again there!

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