Business Council on Climate Change
WORKSHOP SPONSOR
Many thanks to BC3's sponsor Blue Shield of California for their generous support of the workshop

BC3 Climate Workshop 
May 14, 2012
9:30am–12:00pm

On Monday, May 14, BC3 held a workshop to explore how San Francisco's climate strategy and corporate sustainability initiatives can mutually support one another. Over 30 participants from leading Bay Area firms and city agencies gathered at Blue Shield of California to discuss corporate sustainability challenges and barriers as they relate to operating in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group explored opportunities to collaborate with the City and County of San Francisco and other large employers to support common sustainability goals. For your reference, the outcomes of each breakout session are listed below along with the city's corresponding climate goals and additional relevant resources.

The upcoming release of the city’s climate plan marks an exciting moment in the Bay Area’s environmental history and an important milestone for municipal climate action around the world. Building on its achievements in green building and zero waste policy, San Francisco is well positioned to demonstrate success in meeting local climate targets. As one of the first cities to take broad climate action, San Francisco is paving the way forward to achieve state, federal, and international climate goals.  

As sustainability leaders, implementers, and innovators, Bay Area businesses play a critical role in this climate success story. BC3 is incorporating the climate workshop outcomes into a broader strategy for engaging the regional business community in meeting our shared goal of climate protection. We’re particularly excited that workshop participants demonstrated strong interest in working collaboratively on a number of issue-specific projects, including increasing bicycle commuting, facilitating workplace electric vehicle charging, and developing coordinated employee engagement initiatives on zero waste.   

Thank you to all of the climate workshop participants for taking the time to share their thoughts during this first "un-conference" on opportunities for public-private partnership under the City's climate strategy. We look forward to continuing to work with businesses and city agencies to make the San Francisco Bay Area an inspiring model for local climate action. 

CITY-WIDE CLIMATE GOALS

  • Implement variable rate road pricing downtown
  • Expand SFPark meter demand pricing program
  • Continue parking cash out program
  • Expand participation in ridesharing 511 program
  • Increased distribution of employer transit passes
  • Coordinate transit shuttles
(Session #1)    EMPLOYEE TRANSPORTATION & COMMUTING
COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Public-private partnerships are necessary to provide ancillary services where there are public transit gaps: shuttles, rideshare, first and last mile solutions, etc.
  • Political and financial support for strategic regional projects, like high-speed rail and other big capital projects
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
  • Share best practices on clean commuting and travel programs at large employers
  • Provide a platform to advocate in support of large transit infrastructure projects

(Session #2)    ENERGY EFFICIENCY  &  (Session #7)    EXISTING BUILDINGS

COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Support for the 100 percent renewable energy goal
  • Full compliance with the existing commercial building ordinance
  • Strong coordination among all building stakeholders in support of energy efficiency retrofits
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
  • Facilitate intra-building or building-to-building energy saving competitions
  • Develop a platform for information-sharing on local resource usage benchmarks, and the vendors, consultants, or technologies used
  • Share best practices between companies on how tenants can more efficiently utilize work spaces or develop telecommuting policies
  • Recommend actions that support the climate strategy, in BC3's Green Tenant Toolkit

(Session #3)     EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & RETENTION

COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Anecdotal information about institutional sustainability initiatives—such as stories and best practices regarding employee engagement,  benefits, or economic impacts—is very important and difficult to share consistently
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
  • Serve as a clearinghouse of ideas and a forum for best-practice sharing on employee engagement programs around sustainability 
  • Facilitate company-to-company partnerships that help engage employees in internal sustainability initiatives
  • Support intra-company competition and awards for employee engagement programs

  • Develop and expand local electric vehicle market
  • Convert service delivery vehicles to electric vehicles
  • Convert taxi fleet to electric vehicles

(Session #4)     ELECTRIC VEHICLES 

COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Targeted information about how to secure workplace charging, including how to communicate infrastructure needs to building management.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
  • Develop sample contracts with car rental or car-share companies that specify electric vehicle use
  • Create statement from employers supporting the expansion of electric vehicle fleets at car rental companies and car share companies
  • Identify tenant demand for electric vehicles by surveying employers on the commuting transit mode-share of their employees

(Session #5)     AB32: BEYOND CAP & TRADE

COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Businesses don’t have a comprehensive understanding of AB32 because cap and trade dominates the discussion
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
  • Summarize opportunities for business to plug into AB32 measures—and potentially benefit from cap and trade auction revenues—to move CSR objectives forward. 
UPDATE
  • Complete build-out of San Francisco's bicycle plan
  • Develop pedestrian amenities, complete green streets and slow zones
  • Expand bicycle sharing, parking, and electric bicycle capacity

(Session #6)      BICYCLE COMMUTING

COMMUNITY NEEDS 
  • Companies need help promoting bicycle commuting internally and especially with regard to infrastructure needs, safety and training, employee benefits, and employee engagement programs
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION 
  • Develop partnerships between companies and the SF Bicycle Coalition and SF MTA to support employee bike commuting programs
  • Use collective group leverage to communicate tenant demand for bicycle infrastructure to building management

  • Achieve zero waste sent to landfills by 2020

(Session #8)   WASTE DIVERSION  &  (Session #9) CONSUMPTION & PACKAGING

COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Businesses are looking for the best way(s) to track their own progress toward waste diversion goals
  • There is a great need for zero waste best practice-sharing and formal training in the Bay Area
  • Intracompany campaigns or other activities that help spur employee behavior change 
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
  • Provide a vehicle for sharing information on waste diversion best practices
  • Provide a “show & tell” forum for sharing various tracking methods
  • Integrate SF Environment's zero waste training program into corporate green team activities
  • Advocate for more durable goods when making institutional purchasing decisions
  • Facilitate a joint letter to suppliers about streamlining materials use, particularly around packaging

(Session #10)       WATER & THE ENERGY TO MOVE IT

COMMUNITY NEEDS
  • Increase the perceived value of water, as it is not priced correctly for the scarcity of the resource
  • Overcome the split incentive issue around water in commercial buildings (companies are thinking about energy efficiency but not water efficiency, as many commercial tenants can’t track water use)
  • Uncover the water and energy nexus by providing information about the GHG footprint of water
OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION
Enable conservation of water and water-related energy consumption through:
  • Education: Include water metrics in the Green Tenant Toolkit
  • Incentives: Provide incentives for water and energy conservation programs for businesses and their employees (such as gray water recycling, more efficient equipment, faucet bubblers, district hot water, heat capture, on demand water heating, solar water heating, etc).
Additional resources
Next action opportunities