Sunnyvale Cool Green Letter, July 2010
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Sunnyvale Cool Green Letter, July 2010

Posted by barbf on Tue, 07/13/2010 - 08:39

 

 

Sunnyvale Cool Green Letter
July, 2010
 
Opportunities Abound
 
If you have a mind to shape the direction of our city in the direction of Sustainablity, opportunities abound this summer.  Perhaps the pace of your life has eased up a bit, leaving some time to come to the aid of our planet.

  • Horizon 2035--Convergence of Land Use, Climate, and Transportation.  The City of Sunnyvale is in the early stages of revising the Land Use and Transportation Element of the General Plan and creating Sunnyvale's first Climate Action Plan. Because our city government needs residents' input into this important and rather rare process, the City held a community outreach meeting on the last day of May to discuss Sunnyvale's first Climate Action Plan. This Plan will guide our city's effort to make our city more energy-efficient and less-dependent on fossil fuels. Over 50 people attended.  After a background presentation, we broke into 4 facilitated groups to discuss our ideas of a sustainable city and the challenges of implementing our vision. Then we brainstormed ways to surmount the challenges. The results of this effort are to be posted on the Horizon web-site:  Horizon2035.insunnyvale.com  Meanwhile, the site hosts an abundance of information relevant to the process.

**The next community outreach meeting will be on the evening of Thursday, July 22, at 6:30-8:30 PM in Council Chambers.  Don Weden, retired principal planner for Santa Clara County, will offer his "Cities for All Ages" presentation. Don's presentation has received vary favorable reviews from many quarters. He discusses the many reasons we would benefit from changing our land use patterns.  His talk will set the stage for the many discussions to follow in the  coming months. If you can just attend one civic meeting this month, this would be it!  And please consider bringing some friends! **
 
The Horizon Committee, tasked with advising city government on the revision of the Land Use and Transportation Element of the General Plan and the creation of Climate Action Plan, has met once.  It will meet again on Wednesday, July 14 from 7-9 PM in the West Conference Room (down the hall from Council Chambers) to discuss the Climate Action Plan.  The public is welcome to attend all meetings of this committee. 
 
Another meeting relevant meeting is the community outreach meeting on the consolidation of the general plan on Wednesday, July 13, 7-8 PM, Senior Center, Sequoia Room.
 

  • Meanwhile, those more interested in taking direct action to help others make their homes more energy-efficient, can take Acterra's upcoming Green @ Home volunteer training. Acterra trains volunteers to conduct basic home energy-efficiency audits and to install simple upgrades for those residents of Sunnyvale and other communities requesting a free audit. This program provides a great way to increase our own awareness of home energy use, learn new skills, and help others reduce their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while saving money. Green @ Home is funded with grant money and City of Sunnyvale and other cities.

The next two-day training will be held in Sunnyvale! 

2 Wednesdays, July 21 ANDAug 4, 5:30 pm - 9:45 pmLocation: Sunnyvale
 

A Spanish-language training is also offered this month.

2 Thursdays, July 22 ANDJuly 29, 5:30 pm - 9:45 pmLocation: Menlo Park

 
A $30 deposit is required for the two-day, 8 hour training.  It is fully-refundable after completing a given number of home energy audits. To sign up, for more information or to learn about future training dates, please contact Acterra at 650.962.9876 x 353 or greenathometraining@acterra.org  Bring some friends to the training so you can sign up to green your city together! 

 
Other upcoming events:

  • Water Pollution Control Plant Tour, Saturday, July 17, 1 PM.   For more information, or to reserve a spot, call 408.730.7717.

 

The Sunnyvale Cool Green Letter is brought to you once or twice a month by Sunnyvale Cool (sunnyvalecool.org)  We are an all-volunteer group of Sunnyvale residents and friends working for a Sustainable Sunnyvale.  If you wish to stop receiving these letters, just send me an e-mail with your request.