Climate Action Planning at the Local Level

An interview with the City of San Rafael’s Sustainability Program Manager

Federal legislation such as the infrastructure bill and reconciliation bill making their way through Congress currently tend to get most of the mainstream news coverage when it comes to climate action. What tends to get very little coverage, if any, are the significant actions cities in the U.S., and all around the world, are taking to address the climate crisis and become more sustainable and resilient. The local level is where real climate action is happening — and much quicker than most might expect from government.

I had the opportunity and pleasure to speak with Cory Bytof who is the Sustainability Program Manager for the City of San Rafael about what the City is doing to address climate change and other sustainability issues. What follows is the written version of my interview with him, edited for clarity and conciseness.

Q: What brought you to the field of sustainability? And how did you get started?

A: It was a roundabout way and it wasn’t something I studied for. My study was Interdisciplinary Social Science, which was looking at things from different perspectives. It was a really interesting and fun area of study for me.

I actually worked in social work for a while. Then, I came to the City to produce events for Falkirk Cultural Center and that’s how I got here. Within a year and a half, I was hired as Volunteer Program Coordinator because I coordinated a lot of volunteers in my job at Falkirk. From there, I got on our Green Team and contributed to the first Climate Action Plan. During the recession, the City Manager tapped me to be the Sustainability Program Coordinator, because one important thing for us is to engage a lot of our community partners or else we wouldn’t be able to get much done on our own. Our City Manager believed she needed someone that could work well with community members.

Q: What got you interested in pursuing a career in local government?

A: It was all an accident. If you had asked me when I first got my job at the City how long I’d be there, I’d probably have said three to five years. I don’t think I would have thought I’d be here 23 years now. And I had three different jobs along the way. The work I do keeps changing.

Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job? What is the most rewarding aspect?

A: Most challenging is that there are so many good and important projects to pursue, but I just don’t have the time to pursue them all. And because I oversee all of our climate action planning, it’s hard for me to get into the weeds and be an expert in any one thing. And there are “other duties as assigned”. We’re kind of short-staffed all the time and I’m often taking on other projects. Mainly, I oversee the climate action planning and implementation. I also manage the contract for Marin Sanitary Service. Because we’re the only city or town in Marin County that has a “me”, I tend to lead projects on behalf of several cities in Marin around waste and recycling. I also lead an illegal dumping program and oversee our Volunteer Program. And now I’m in adaptation planning. So, you add all that together, and that’s the biggest challenge.

Most rewarding is seeing great projects happening and working with community members. I just love working with some of our community members who are such passionate people. People who are really enthused about things, really smart, and know a lot more than I do. Working with young people is one of my favorites. Working with kids from MSEL [Marin School of Environmental Leadership] or other places is always a big thrill for me. I think it’s that community aspect. I live here, I work here, and I work with people in the community.

Q: In your own words, what is climate action planning and what does it involve?

A: Climate action planning is really about two things: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is about reducing our carbon footprint. As much as possible, we try to be as holistic as possible. For instance, maybe a really great solution for water conservation has to do with technology, but is that technology sustainable? Is it something that’s just going to add a bunch of e-waste? How do we implement it in such a way that it reduces water use while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and not contributing to other unintended consequences? That, to me, is what climate action planning is about. It’s also looking at how do we benefit the most disadvantaged or frontline communities as much as possible. For example, EVs are for a certain class of people. It doesn’t necessarily work for lower-income folks for the most part. Or, if there are jobs that come out of it, we try to make sure those jobs really benefit people locally and drive our economic development.

The other half is adaptation planning. All you got to do is look at the smoke and PurpleAir counts every day to realize climate change is here. If we don’t have decent rain this winter at the use rate we have, sometime next summer or fall we’ll be completely out of water. We got to plan for a complete reimagination of what our City is going to look like. In 30 years or so, a lot of areas are going to be underwater. We can’t protect all those areas. We can try but I think there’s going to be all kinds of tradeoffs. There’s lots of politics involved, it’s going to be super expensive, and there’ll be lots of winners and losers. And again, we need to prioritize social equity. Where is the place in the Bay Area that is most impacted by sea level rise? Our San Rafael Canal neighborhood.

Q: How do you deal with trying to balance the interests of many different stakeholders when developing a climate action plan?

A: As much as possible, we have to have representatives from all of our major stakeholder groups at the table. Everybody has to have a baseline set of knowledge and understanding to move forward. Because if everyone has a different level of knowledge, it’s going to lead to conflicts and be really hard for us to come to agreement. For adaptation planning, it’s about building a vision for what we want for San Rafael in 30 years and then in 50 years. From there, we can start developing the priorities within it that everyone can agree on. For climate action planning that is relatively easy. For adaptation planning, it’s more complicated.

We had a group of about 20 representatives from different stakeholder groups that worked about a year and a half on our second climate action plan, which was adopted in May 2019. The representatives included five MSEL students that rotated in and out and a wide variety of folks from our community. We had subject matter experts come in to help vet all the ideas we had and how they really work on the ground. That way we could come up with things we wanted in the plan that could achieve our goals to get to our 40 percent reduction in emissions while also being — in the broadest sense — agreed upon by everyone.

Q: How did you specifically reach people in disadvantaged communities and what strategies did you utilize?

A: It’s all about going to where people are. That’s the most important thing. And making sure it’s translated well and that we have good representatives from the community that are working with us. We do work with some of our primary community-based organizations (CBOs) that work in the Canal neighborhood such as Multicultural Center of Marin and Canal Alliance. We went to San Pedro Elementary during one of their events and set up a table there. We talked to and interviewed people to ask them some basic questions and get their feedback on what we’re doing. We adapted things as we went, too, as we started to understand what people’s priorities were and adjusted our questions to get at what people were really concerned about.

Q: What are the City’s long-term emission reduction goals and any other sustainability goals?

A: We have a near-term target of reducing community greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. We’re about to bring our climate emergency resolution to the City Council and re-establish our long-term goal to be carbon neutral by 2045.

We also have a zero waste goal. And we have water conservation targets. But they’re not codified as much. One of the early zero waste goals was about recycling and diversion rates. More and more, we’re trying to get at the consumption piece associated with waste and trying to get people to buy recycled or used goods. Or only buying stuff when you need it. And if you really do need it, can you buy it at a secondhand store or buy it used? That’s a tough one.

Q: Considering that the majority of emissions for the City — and for the U.S. in general — come from transportation, what are specific actions the City is taking to reduce transportation emissions? And what about actions to address other emission sources including electricity, industry, and residential and commercial buildings?

A: One of the things I brought to the City Council in May of this year was a two-year priority work plan because it is impossible to do everything at once. There are seven key areas for the two-year work plan. First was zero emissions policies and programs. The idea is that we need to work countywide because transportation is hard to address at a hyper-local level. Most people in San Rafael are commuting someplace else for work. So it’s at least a county issue, more regional, even. We’re working with the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) and the Marin Climate & Energy Partnership (MCEP) to develop a countywide zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) strategy that all the cities can sign on to. That will guide policy development for enabling more ZEV adoption. A lot of that will be around charging infrastructure and stuff like that. We also have an employee commute policy to encourage public transportation use, since we’re looking at emissions community-wide as well as at the government level.

We don’t run any utilities, i.e., we don’t deliver water, we don’t deliver electricity, and we don’t run any transportation. Public transportation in Marin County is either Golden Gate Transit, Marin Transit, or the SMART train. But we do own the roads. Public works is something that people don’t think about much in terms of sustainability but it really is where a lot of things happen. For example, a lot of our emissions are idling vehicles. There’s a smart technology for traffic signals to keep things flowing better that our Public Works department has really embraced.

Building electricity is a big one too. In the next year, we’ll be looking at the new CALGreen building codes and then we’ll be looking at reach codes on top of that to try to reduce building emissions. When you’re building something from scratch it’s easier to do certain things than it is to retrofit. But the majority of our buildings are already here. We only have a small addition of buildings every year. So that doesn’t get us very far when ordinances apply just to new buildings. How do we get at that existing building stock? That’s a lot of energy efficiency work and also potentially policies or ordinances that basically say if you’re going to remodel in a major way, then you have to do it in a green way.

And this all goes back to climate action planning and economic development. We also want to make sure that those climate action programs we do implement help develop good jobs here locally for residents and find ways to do workforce development to help people get into those better jobs, such as energy efficiency work.

Q: Are there other sustainability actions the City is taking to address single-use plastics and waste, which also contribute to emissions?

A: When we look at our emissions portfolio, yes, transportation is the biggest contributor. However, when we look at our consumption-based inventory, it might not be so much. So another action we’re taking to address that is mandatory recycling and composting of organics. It’s all related to a State law [SB-1383] that’s trying to set up a circular system where we’ll actually have to procure mulch and compost as well.

Single-use plastics are also part of our zero waste goal. The County has a draft ordinance about reusable foodware and they’re looking for alignment around all the cities and towns in Marin. The ordinance would disallow plastic takeout containers and mandate the use of compostable containers. And if people were dining in, it would mandate reusable plates, utensils, etc. So we’re working with them to do a lot of engagement with our business community. There will be some challenges in San Rafael with that. The biggest issue will be businesses training their staff well and making sure they have the right cleaning ability for people dining in. The only way it will work is if those compostable containers really do go into compost and not in the trash so we’re working hard to make sure any ordinance or implementation accomplishes that.

Q: California is experiencing ever-worsening and longer duration droughts due to climate change, which are putting a strain on water resources. Given that, are there actions the City is taking to improve water conservation?

A: We promote a lot of water conservation stuff. We are looking at two things right now:

1. We have a spring in San Rafael Hill that runs almost all year long and runs through this drainage into a holding pond. But it’s not being used. Many years ago it was. We also have these old storage tanks that have fallen apart and aren’t being used anymore. So we’re looking at doing a feasibility analysis with that and lining ourselves up for some State or federal money to be able to use that spring for some of our higher-use water areas.
2. We’re working with Marin Municipal Water District on a Purple Pipe Infrastructure project to see if we can get more recycled water from North San Rafael down to Central San Rafael for some of our major water users. That’s a big infrastructure project and will take some years to do, but we got to line up for federal funding if we have any hope of doing it in the future.

Q: What is your vision for San Rafael assuming all those actions are successful?

A: I think about all the young people in the community and what their future looks like. I have a daughter who’s 23 and I think about her future all the time.

My vision would be that we are able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions significantly and creatively, and avail that to others, whether it’s through some inspiration or some kind of technical sharing so that it goes way beyond San Rafael. So we can help the state, the country, and the world get to some tipping point to be able to start reducing our emissions dramatically and maintain a livable planet.

The second piece of that is the creation of regenerative economies that really take care of people. So we don’t have such a wealth gap and more people are able to thrive.

Q: Are there other cities you look to as models in sustainability? What have you learned from them?

A: I talk with my colleague, Tiffany Wise-West, in Santa Cruz once a month and they do such great work there. We’re a similar size city. They’re on the coast, we’re on the Bay. Both have hillsides and wildland-urban interface (WUI). We also have sea level rise flooding issues and similar disadvantaged communities. We’ve got so much that is similar. She is really great at marshaling resources and making things happen. So I’m continually learning from her. They actually are further along in adaptation planning than most places in the State.

I’ve been thinking for years about having a sister city somewhere else in the world that worked on sustainability projects that we could share, but have never done it. I’m continually looking for an opportunity to do that.

Q: In what ways is local government more effective than state or federal government in terms of dealing with climate change? In what ways is it less effective?

A: For us, I think we have some really smart people that care about this in our community and we can get some things done. We don’t have a “politics” necessarily. We don’t have climate deniers on one side and super advocates on the other fighting all the time. I think that’s one of the real benefits of the local level.

On the other hand, we don’t have the resources. We’re continually having to go to the State or the Feds or some other entity to find resources to do this work. I’ve been trying to find good money to start adaptation planning and it’s been really challenging. Meanwhile, the State just came out with billions of dollars in new funding for sustainability adaptation projects, so they have the ability to do that. When it comes to transportation or big issues like that, it’s so much easier when the State says, “guess what, we’re going to mandate that in the next 10 years fuel efficiency is 50% better than it is right now.” That has changed our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions portfolio dramatically and that’s not something we could have done. And if California goes that way, then most of the country is going to go that way.

Q: What could state or federal government do to better empower local governments to take climate action?

A: We just had a call with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and that’s one of their tasks. They can help with technical assistance and they try to put together programs and services that really help local governments do their work. There’s also the Institute for Local Government and they do a lot of good work as well. The State does do a good job of trying to help local governments. OPR is doing a lot on adaptation planning right now and how you can tie that in with your local hazard mitigation plan and general plan. Two people from the OPR office met with us virtually to talk through how we can do that.

So on one side, it’s supporting us, providing technical assistance, or helping connect us with other cities that are doing similar work so we can learn from them. The other side of it is mandates, frankly. When a state comes in and mandates something that all the cities have to do, then on one hand cities can grumble about it but on the other hand, we can go to our constituents and say, “well, we have to do it.” The State passed SB-1383, mandatory organic composting, which will be really challenging for us to meet. On the other hand, we didn’t have to go sell it to our constituents that we’re going to have a mandatory composting ordinance. The State passed it and now we just have to implement it.

Q: What advice do you have for others who may be trying to pursue a career in sustainability, particularly in government?

A: You have to sell yourself well. I think the amount of jobs out there is slowly growing but there’s not a ton. So the more versatile you can be the better. It’s really good to be able to work with communities and know how to do community engagement and have an equity focus. It’s good to have some technical knowledge but not be too pigeonholed.

I think programs like Climate Corps are fantastic and really important. You get to understand and try things out or weed things out. You also can connect to a lot of people in the industry. To me, doing a fellowship like that is really a good way to get your foot in the door.

You want to balance out understanding policy and procedure, or process. A lot of young people I meet want to understand and get involved with policy. Not everyone can get involved with policy. Knowing how things actually work on the ground so you can create good policy, and learning how to translate policy into implementation — that nexus is really important. So somehow starting to understand that whether that’s through volunteering, interning, or whatever else to be able to participate in some projects is really important.

The other side of that is behavior change. Understanding what really makes people tick and how they go about making decisions. We often, so many of us in this field, go “well, if people just know how much GHG emissions they’re emitting they’ll want to change.” They will not. Most people, even if they’re climate-oriented, are not going to make a change based on GHG emissions. We cannot continue to project that onto people. So understanding what people’s motivations are and how to elicit that, as well as what are their obstacles and pain points for them actually taking the action, is important.

One last thing, I always ask all my fellows to figure out how to take complex things and narrow them down to clear communication where there’s a focus on a few key things. So that when the person leaves the conversation or presentation, they actually remember those few key things. Whittling things down into understandable language is so important and that’s a great skill for anyone to learn.

Q: How can the general public get more involved in climate action at the local level?

A: There are two things:

1. First, walk the talk. OK, you think you’re being green — that’s great — but what’s one more thing you can do? Then continually look for simple things you can do to take one more action, and another action, and so on. Because if you think too globally and too big, you’re not going to take action. Most people won’t at least. But once you take one, you are more likely to take another. So what’s a simple thing you can do? There are tons of websites to give you ideas — our Climate Action Plan website has a bunch of things. Go pick something and do something.
2. City councils all have two minutes at the beginning of their meetings to be able to speak on things. You don’t have to know a lot. And you don’t have to be very specific about things. You can be generic and say, “I really wish you’d do more climate action in this regard.” It’s really easy to do that. Often, there are committees you can get involved with and just start attending meetings. Or, there’s someone like me you can reach out to. That’s the beauty of local government is that you can get involved.

I hope that this interview has provided a glimpse into the various actions that cities can take to address climate change, as well as the associated challenges. Keep in mind that there are cities all around the world taking similar steps as San Rafael. With enough cities working in tandem to make their communities more sustainable and resilient — along with enough funding, support, and policies from state and federal government — we can undoubtedly make significant progress towards achieving net-zero emissions on a global scale. If you want to be a part of the action, you really don’t have to look much farther than beyond your own backyard.

To address the crises we face, we all need to work together and contribute our knowledge, ideas, and skills. If you share my vision of building a better future together, then please consider subscribing here to stay connected and be notified when I publish a new story.