An issue for those local governments that led the climate change debate over the past decade or so is: how do we keep the momentum up? Toronto is proving their success by measuring reductions - can those cities in Australia that have done so much over recent years do the same? And this is a recent short overview from a wonderful USA leader, the City of Berkeley:
In its efforts to secure the future of its community, the city of Berkeley has decided to effectively combat the present threats triggered by climate change. In 2006, recognizing the costs to society, the voters of Berkeley demanded a critical change by endorsing the “Berkeley Measure G.” The measure proposed reducing the community’s greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this goal, the government led by then-mayor Tom Bates started a local climate change campaign that resulted in the 2009 Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan. By creating value in sustainability and the future; Mayor Bates was able to engage the population into moving forward progressively.
Tom Bates was a “Greenie” before pushing for the Climate Action Plan. He was already recycling his garbage and composting the organic disposables from his own house inside his garage, taking public transportation and walking to his meetings. In 2009, he was able to scale the reach of his actions to a bigger level by taking the lead on the development of the Berkeley City Climate Action Plan.
To move this idea forward, local government established an ambitious goal of reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent by 2020. The project consisted of a sequence of behavioral change measures distributed over five different important areas:
- Sustainable transportation and land use
- Building energy use
- Waste reduction and recycling
- Community outreach
To monitor the progress and ensure the results were achievable, the key performance indicators (KPIs) and impact measures were carefully planned and designed to involve all the important stakeholders, from city residents to local companies, during the process. Every opinion and thought was seriously considered.
- Adaptation and resilience
To date, Berkeley has already achieved outstanding results such as decreasing commercial electricity usage by seven percent, and reducing solid waste disposal by 43 percent, which equals approximately 48,000 tons. Unfortunately, like every long-term plan that quickly achieves success in its initial stage, the biggest concern the city faces now is how to move forward and keep the same high level of achievement.
Ever since its implementation, enthusiastic citizen engagement has been credited as a crucial part of the plan and the determining factor for achieving success as well as a solid functional and sustainable financing system. Some strategic events were developed not only to attract the contribution of locals but also to measure the efficiency of the project as a whole. The city used monetary reward systems, especially in the area of waste reduction and recycling, to stimulate companies, local businesses owners and residents to adopt new habits when disposing their garbage. In the first year of the project, a “Cash for Trash” contest granted up to $2,000 dollars to citizens that demonstrated strong recycling policies and local businesses would get up to 30 percent off the fee of standard garbage collection.
