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2007 has been a year of hype and hope about how green Berkeley is and might be. 

Bombarded by press releases, PowerPoint presentations, high-priced consultants, pledges, the proliferation of city-funded environmental nonprofits, the buzz of kick-offs, luncheons, press conferences and the profusion of green plans, how does one cut through the veneer to judge how green Berkeley really is? 

Past the glare of a TV moment, city government, individuals and businesses in Berkeley are taking concrete action to support the environment. Some examples: the availability of local produce; programs where people share low-emission vehicles; shops and flea markets where one can buy previously used stuff; and a network of relatively safe bicycle boulevards.  

The year 2007 has also seen a new housing complex topped with solar panels, businesses adding green techniques and the opening of an electric-car dealership; city efforts have paid off in planting trees and expanding recycling to food waste and demolition materials. 

Planning for plans 

In 2006, voters overwhelmingly approved Measure G, an initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gases 80 percent by 2050. A mom-and-apple-pie initiative in Berke-ley, voters passed the advisory measure by 81 percent.  

The initiative calls on the mayor to “work with the community to develop a plan for adoption by the City Council in 2007 that sets a ten-year emissions-reduction target and identifies the actions that the city and its residents should take both to achieve both the ten-year target and the goal of 80 percent reduction in emissions.” 

The action plan didn’t make it to the council in 2007, but will appear on its agenda early next year. Planning for the plan has been high on the council’s 2007 agenda. 

“The ballot measure was advisory, but I will act as though it is legally binding,” promised Mayor Tom Bates in his Feb. 13 State of the City address. 

He’s kept his promise. 

While the city attorney’s analysis of Measure G said its costs would depend on plan contents, costs to create the plan came first, with the mayor getting council members to sign onto hiring a $100,000 consultant to write the plan. 

The consultant was handpicked by Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries, but his hiring did not go exactly as anticipated. 

The consultant, Timothy Burroughs, was to have worked for Sustainable Berkeley through a city contract.  

Sustainable Berkeley is an initiative that came out of the mayor’s office—a grouping of nonprofits, green consultants and the university. It originally included city staff—employees of the city’s energy division—and the executive director of the Community Energy Services Corporation (CESC), which would accept the funds as the fiscal sponsor for Sustainable Berkeley. 

(The CESC has a convoluted story of its own, with its executive director fired in August after her alleged personal use of CESC materials and staff, and its board of directors—the city’s Energy Commission—coming to the realization that CESC’s multiple operations needed greater oversight than the few minutes allotted to it at monthly Energy Commission/CESC board meetings. In fact, at least as far as the interim executive director knows, the CESC board has never evaluated a CESC executive director nor has it approved a CESC budget during its 20 years of existence.)  

The city’s legal department questioned whether it was appropriate for Burroughs to work for Sustainable Berkeley, Energy Officer Neal DeSnoo told the Energy Commission at the time. And some citizens and this newspaper were asking why an individual should be hired with city money to work with a group that did not meet publicly.  

The consultant contract approved by the City Council for Sustainable Berkeley was moved to the city’s energy division. The council added another $100,000 to produce the Climate Action Plan. Events around the plan have included kick offs and luncheons, with free compact fluorescent light bulbs for those willing to sign the Climate Action Plan pledge. Burroughs has attended various commission meetings to discuss the contents of the Climate Action Plan.  

More plans in 2007 

Another plan the city is pursuing is known as the East Bay Smart Solar program. It is billed as a pilot project that will target some 25 Berkeley homeowners and businesses for solar panels and other energy-saving options. Once the pilot is successful, the program is to be expanded throughout the region. 

The $200,000 Smart Solar grant from the Department of Energy—like much of the money the city takes in—is not free. The city must add about $188,000 to the mix, including $80,000 from the city’s energy division and $108,000 in city staff time. The university will contribute the time of two doctoral students. 

The program is, in part, aimed at taking the guesswork out of going solar, with the inclusion of “a trusted, knowledgeable third party” to guide the prospective client through the maze of decisions around solar equipment and energy efficiencies. In the original grant, the CSEC was to have played the trusted-third party role, but, according to Berkeley’s energy officer, speaking to the Planet in November, “There are doubts about [CESC’s} capability at this time.” 

Another plan that grabbed local and national headlines is intended to help homeowners finance going solar. The idea was approved by the City Council in concept only, giving the green light to the city manager to continue to use staff time and city resources to explore the details involved in the city’s getting bank or bond financing that homeowners and business owners would borrow for solar panels and other energy-saving options.  

The financing, presumed to cost less for most individuals than borrowing directly from a bank, would be paid back over 20 years through property taxes. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to give the city $160,000 in grant funds for the effort. The city is already spending funds in staff time on the project. 

Publicizing the plan, however, seems to have backfired. According to Energy Officer DeSnoo, speaking to the Energy Commission in early December, people who had planned to go solar are now waiting to see if advantageous city financing becomes available. 

Another plan whose concept that has been slow to bear fruit is Community Choice Aggregation, a plan for Emeryville, Oakland and Berkeley to join together to control the electric and gas supply in the three cities, taking that function away from Pacific Gas and Electric. The plan was to have been brought to the City Council in September, but the council will not get the plan until early next year. Voters in the three cities must approve the project. 

One more plan was revealed Dec. 3 to the surprise of the Energy Commission, which hadn’t been kept in the loop. This is collaboration among the UC Berkeley chancellor, mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville and Richmond, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab director. The group stood before TV cameras and pledged to join forces to make the corridor between Richmond and Oakland a location that welcomes green research and industry. 

The details of this collaboration remain under wraps. The Daily Cal quoted mayoral Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries saying the idea was hatched at a dinner party last spring given by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. 

These sometimes-costly plans may bear fruit and thrive over the years, reducing Berkeley’s greenhouse gas emissions. Or the plans, as Councilmember Betty Olds once said of Sustainable Berkeley, could be “so much talk,” with stacks of dusty city plans growing higher.  

Real Green 

While planners plan and consultants collect paychecks, less-publicized actions impacting climate change today abound in city government and private industry.  

Among them: according to Jerry Koch, urban forestry supervisor in the city of Berkeley’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department, the city planted some 600 trees along city streets, medians and in parks in 2007. It plants about that many each year. (Street trees are free to residents who agree to water them for two years. Call 981-6660—getting a tree can take a year.)  

Another try at biodiesel 

The city’s first attempt to use biodiesel in its trucks tanked in 2003 with engines destroyed by a bad batch of the fuel. This year, the city reintroduced biofuels, this time mixing 80 percent regular diesel with 20 percent biodiesel. 

In 2003, former City Manger Weldon Rucker was quoted saying: “The City of Berkeley has a long history of innovation and as a leader in public policy. The use of biodiesel fuel is yet another example.” 

This time, the city has an agreement with the provider, holding the company responsible for vehicle-engine damage, according to Matt Nichols, principal transportation planner, who spoke to the Planet by phone last week.  

“They will have to pay for broken engines,” Nichols said, adding that he did not know the name of the fuel provider. 

The biodiesel the city uses is not made from crops such as corn, soybeans or grasses. Some say these crops are controversial because the land used to produce biofuels, especially in developing countries, would be better-used producing food.  

“The source [of the city’s biofuels] is recycled cooking grease,” Nichols said. 

Berkeley buys green 

Among the city’s sustainable purchases are recycled white paper—since 2006, the city’s been using 100 percent post consumer paper made without chlorine—and cleaning supplies that meet Green Seal standards. 

All custodians employed by the city and those janitorial services contracting directly with the city use environmentally-sound cleaning products, certified by nonprofit Green Seal. However, in offices where the city rents space, custodians are not required to use sustainable products. 

Berkeley has also promised to build green, with the new fire station on Shasta Road that opened in 2006, an example of a building constructed to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. It includes natural ventilation, use of recycled floor materials, sustainable wood, natural light and more. 

Recycling  

Beginning in March, all contractors that build or demolish structures in Berkeley have had to present a recycling plan for all waste and debris their project generates prior to submitting a building permit application.  

And they must submit a waste diversion report once the work is completed. The solid waste division of public works “has to see the weight slips,” said Tanya Levy, acting recycling program manager, speaking in a phone interview Wednesday. 

“The goal is to recycle 100 percent of the concrete and asphalt waste,” Levy said, noting there are companies that come to the worksite and grind up the debris for reuse at the site. 

“In old buildings, there is a lot of stuff people can re-use,” such as redwood beams or whole cabinets, Levy said.  

Unpainted wood not re-used is composted, Levy said. 

Bins for bone grinding 

Even residents who already feed their garbage to backyard bugs and worms can take advantage of the little green bins that appeared at their front doors in August or September.  

In addition to green table scraps, people can put items in the bins they don’t compost such as bones, paper with food attached and milk cartons. 

“Since the program started, 31 percent more organics have been collected and there’s been a drop in trash of 12 to 15 percent from residents,” said Levy who compared weeks in September to the first half of December of last year through the same time in 2007. Trucks bringing material to the transfer station are weighed, so the comparison is not simply an estimate, Levy said. 

The effort is funded with an $186,000 grant from Alameda County Waste Management at about $8 per home. The city pays for the four-to-five additional workers needed to handle the increased work—the project includes weekly pickup of yard material into which the green bin materials are dumped. 

City workers ride the bus 

The eco pass is a benefit for full-time city workers. The city pays about $90,000 annually and all city workers ride the bus free. The program has grown from about 37,000 bus rides in 2002 to about 50,000 this year, Nichols said. 

A fleet of cars belonging to City CarShare is available to city workers using them for city business during the day. These vehicles become part of the regular City CarShare fleet in the evening.  

Car sharing grows 

Car sharing allows people to get around on bicycle and foot, and use automobiles when they need one, without owning one. The nonprofit City CarShare has been joined in Berkeley by a for-profit car sharing company called Zip Car. 

“Berkeley has the busiest car share in the Bay Area,” said Anita Daley, director of membership development for City CarShare, noting that the fleet is made up uniquely of low-emission vehicles. “The culture of Berkeley takes to car sharing,” Daley said. 

Other initiatives 

Another notable green initiative has been the 54 units of affordable housing built on Ashby Avenue by Affordable Housing Associates that includes solar panels on the roof to provide savings to tenants. The project also includes flooring materials with recycled content, nontoxic paint and a hydronic hot water system. 

Then there’s the new electric car dealer that moved into an old Cadillac dealership at Jones Street and San Pablo Avenue and the news that Inkworks Printing is using a process that takes a job directly from the client’s computer straight to the plate, eliminating film and the environmental problems silver in film presents.  

Kirk Lumpkin of the Berkeley Farmers Markets reports an ever-expanding customer base bringing locally grown, sustainably grown food straight to the consumer. These farmer markets have been joined by the newer Spiral Gardens and Farm Fresh Choice veggie stands in southwest Berkeley. And this year, a new fresh fruit and vegetable stand has opened on the UC Berkeley campus.  

And so, out of the limelight, green is growing strong in Berkeley. As for the plans in process—they could bloom or mold on shelves. Stay tuned until 2008 or thereabouts. 

Car sharing grows 

Car sharing allows people to get around on bicycle and foot, and use automobiles when they need one, without owning one. The nonprofit City CarShare has been joined in Berkeley by a for-profit car sharing company called Zip Car. 

“Berkeley has the busiest car share in the Bay Area,” said Anita Daley, director of membership development for City CarShare, noting that the fleet is made up uniquely of low-emission vehicles. “The culture of Berkeley takes to car sharing,” Daley said. 

Other initiatives 

Another notable green initiative has been the 54-units of affordable housing built on Ashby Avenue by Affordable Housing Associates that includes solar panels on the roof to provide savings to tenants. The project also includes flooring materials with recycled content, nontoxic paint and a hydronic hot water system. 

Then there’s the new electric car dealer that moved into an old Cadillac dealership at Jones Street and San Pablo Avenue and the news that Inkworks Printing is using a process that takes a job directly from the client’s computer straight to the plate, eliminating film and the environmental problems silver in film presents.  

Kirk Lumpkin of the Berkeley Farmers Markets reports an ever-expanding customer base bringing locally grown, sustainably grown food straight to the consumer. These farmer markets have been joined by the newer Spiral Gardens and Farm Fresh Choice veggie stands in southwest Berkeley. And this year, a new fresh fruit and vegetable stand has opened on the UC Berkeley campus.  

And so, out of the limelight, green is growing strong in Berkeley. As for the plans in process—they could bloom or mold on shelves. Stay tuned until 2008 or thereabouts.