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CEAP 2008 Annual Report

Government Segment Report

 

 

Introduction

The Government segment of the Community Environmental Action Partnership (CEAP) was formed to educate and engage City of Palo Alto employees in environmental initiatives. Toward this effort, the Government segment has worked on the following actions over the last year, since CEAP’s inception in March 2008:

 

·         City Green Team

·         Departmental Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions Reduction Guidelines

·         Interactive Carpool Connection

·         Library Paper Reduction

·         Monthly Green Tips

 

 

City Green Team

Green teams provide a forum for employees interested in environmental protection to share ideas for improving the organization’s environmental performance and to create and implement projects that make these improvements a reality. The City Green Team was created in October 2008 to identify and implement projects that help the City operate in a more environmentally sustainable fashion, and therefore meet its environmental mandates and goals. With a multi-stakeholder membership, the Green Team will also help integrate environmental considerations across City functions.

 

The mission of the Green Team parallels that of CEAP, reflecting its connection: “The City of Palo Alto Green Team, a collaborative initiative, engages all city departments and divisions to identify, create and implement sustainable environmental solutions.”

 

Since its creation in October of 2008, the Green Team has initiated the following projects:

 

·         Zero Waste Services Project. The purpose of the Green Team Zero Waste Services Project is two-fold:

Ø        to roll out to all 28 City Facilities the new organics (e.g., food scraps, food-soiled paper) collection service which begins in July 2009, and

Ø        to evaluate and revise current custodial practices at City Facilities to increase diversion of materials from landfills.

 

The overall goal of the Zero Waste Services Project is to create institutional change, accommodate the diverse work groups and work performed by employees, and engage employees by providing them with the tools they need to help the community achieve its goal of sending Zero Waste to landfills.

 

·         Green Awareness Campaign - The Green Awareness Campaign is currently in the planning stages. It is a 6-month campaign targeting all City staff. The campaign will focus on 4 themes: transportation, waste, energy and water. The first month will be planning the campaign itself, building awareness and holding the kick-off event. The next four months will be ‘challenge months’ in which each month is organized around a particular theme (transportation, waste, energy or water) to motivate participants to try a few specific steps toward greening. Participation in these challenges will be open to all City employees. At the end of each monthly challenge, the Team will gather data on how many people participated and what steps they took to get a rough gauge of the campaign’s success. The last month will wrap up the campaign, conduct final surveys and post the results. The team will continue to grow and create a sustainable, lasting green team.

 

 

Departmental Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions Reduction Guidelines

The CEAP Government segment began developing a set of Departmental GHG Emissions Reduction Guidelines (Guidelines) as a tool to help departments reach their emissions reduction goals. The Guidelines walk departments through the assessment of their baseline carbon footprint and then create a plan to obtain 5% reductions in 2009. As the Guidelines were developed, staff realized the need for coordination to create the departmental reduction plans, which led to the creation of the Climate Protection Team. The Climate Protection Team comprises one representative from each department and is responsible for creating and coordinating implementation of an emissions reduction plans for their department.

 

 

Interactive Carpool Connection

In addition to a traditional benefits fair Commute Alternatives table provided by the Transportation division, an interactive carpool connection activity was implemented at the annual employee luncheon in October 2008 to get employees that live close to each other or on the same route to build connections and carpool options.

 

The event consisted of signs showing employees’ towns of residence arranged on lunch tables in geographic analogy to the location of these towns on a map. Employees entering the dining area were shown a map with the number of employees living in each town. They were asked to sit near their own home town signs and to look for people who might be good carpool matches. They were also asked to look for people in towns between their own and Palo Alto for potential riders.

 

Possible improvements to consider:

·         Allot 2 to 4 minutes in the employee luncheon agenda to support and explain the activity.

·         Allot 5 to 10 minutes at end to provide time for people meeting people.

·         Offer prizes to carpools formed at the event.

·         Conduct follow up to measure its effect.

 

 

Library Paper Reduction

The amount of unclaimed print jobs from public-use internet printers is surprisingly high. The printers were monitored at Mitchell Park Library to learn how many print orders were not claimed per day on the existing 3 printers. For each week, it is estimated that approximately 3 reams of paper are not claimed. After this review, the libraries changed their policy from initially giving 5 free sheets of paper per day to those customers using the Public Internet Stations to not offering any free sheets and charging 5 cents per page. Additionally, draft paper boxes were placed near these printers. People have been placing the sheets they print and don’t need into these draft paper boxes and a few staff members use the sheets for printing. This has reduced paper use and waste considerably.

 

A possible improvement:

·         Raise printing costs above the current 5 cents per page.

 

 

Monthly Green Tips

The monthly green tips project is ongoing. Currently in the design phase, the project is an awareness-raising and behavior-changing effort. City employees are e-mailed tips each month to encourage them to green their work areas. A short term pilot program with tips has shown that employees not only read the tips, but ask a variety of questions about them. Answering these questions can be an overwhelming task to the volunteer charged with distributing the tips.

 

A possible improvement to this initiative:

·         Set up a link to an off-site tip source. In monthly e-mail, send the City staff the link to the source of the tips.

 

 

Future Plans

Plans for the coming year, include the following:

 

·         Implement the City staff Green Awareness Campaign

·         Roll out the Zero Waste Services Project to all facilities

·         Build the Government Segment to include additional government entities/groups besides the City of Palo Alto

 

 

Prepared by Wendy Hediger, March 2009.