Climate Change Action Plan
In 2006 San Rafael was one of the early signatories to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing the City to working towards meeting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. To provide a roadmap on how the City can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its own municipal operations as well as influence residents and businesses in San Rafael to reduce their emissions, the City Council called for the preparation of a Climate Change Action Plan.
In March, 2008 the City Council appointed a 14-member Green Ribbon Committee composed of volunteers with diverse expertise but a common interest in sustainability to prepare a draft plan with extensive community input. The Council also appointed volunteer subject experts to four “Green Teams” which tackled issues such as transportation, waste reduction, land use, green building, energy conservation and adaptation.
The result of this community planning effort is the San Rafael Climate Change Action Plan which was adopted by the City Council on April 20, 2009.
Marin Green BERST
The Climate Change Action Plan calls for aggressive actions to achieve a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in San Rafael by the year 2020. The Plan identified that the greatest potential for emission reductions from local governmental actions is in the area of energy use in buildings, which contributes over a third of our local greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason, the City is spearheading a countywide effort to develop common green building regulations for new construction and to establish a retrofit program to improve energy efficiency and water conservation in existing buildings in a manner that is financially attractive and simple for property owners. This countywide collaborative effort is know as Marin Green BERST (Green Building, Energy Retrofit and Solar Transformation).
Click here to view the Marin Green BERST documents and anticipated meeting schedule.
Implementation of the Climate Change Action Plan
The City will also hold quarterly meetings to share its progress in implementing the many programs in the adopted Climate Change Action Plan. These meetings will be held at 7pm in the San Rafael City Council Chambers on the last Thursday of July (30th), October (29th), January (28th), and April (29th).