Sonoma County: Choices for the Future
Emission Inventory Results from Sonoma County and next steps

Read the report here (1MB pdf)

During 2004 the Climate Protection Campaign conducted a study, funded by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, of the greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted by all sectors of Sonoma County. Click here for details. The study found that between 1990 and 2000, emissions increased by 28 percent – double the national rate. Increases in vehicle miles traveled, 42.5 percent, and population, 18 percent, constitute the key factors for this rise. Scientists say that we need to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the major GHG, by 50 to 70 percent to stabilize its concentration in the atmosphere, and can succeed in making such reductions using solutions that exist today.

The Campaign will help the community address this enormous challenge through a series of strategic steps. From January through June 2005, we will oversee a process that raises public awareness, convenes leaders and representatives from a broad spectrum of the community to set a Countywide GHG emissions reduction target, and then present this target as a recommendation for adoption to the Board of Supervisors and nine city councils.
The budget for the community target-setting process is $20,000. Of this, about $10,000 was raised at a December event hosted by Alan and Kathy Strachan, Supervisor Tim Smith, Jean Schulz, and Clay and Kim Clement. Participants noted that this county’s strong commitment to climate protection, its environmental sensitivity, and its innovative, knowledge-based economy make it incumbent on Sonoma County to demonstrate that a community can dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Campaign team members Mike Sandler, Dave Erickson, Ann Hancock, and Bonny Frick pose next to Cotati Police Station's green building plaque. "People who protect the climate are very, very cool."

This spring, as part of raising community awareness, the City of Santa Rosa, led by Council member Janet Condron, will hold a Business and Climate Change conference. Co-sponsors to date include PG&E, the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, Agilent Technology, Kaiser Permanente, and the Climate Protection Campaign.
Following the establishment of a reduction target, the Campaign will lead a year long process by which community leaders will draft a plan for achievement of the target. Partners for this planning process include the Association of Bay Area Governments, Navigant Consulting, Inc., Strategic Energy Innovation, Sonoma County Waste Management Agency, and Sonoma State University.

Meanwhile, local action to implement GHG reduction measures is accelerating. All ten Sonoma municipalities and the Sonoma County Water Agency are officially part of a countywide energy efficiency initiative through which they receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy efficiency technical assistance. Partners in this initiative include the Association of Bay Area Governments, Navigant Consulting, Inc., the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Climate Protection Campaign. Funding is provided by California ratepayers, through the California Public Utilities Commission.

As part of the initiative, Dave Erickson, Bonny Frick, and Jessica Kellett, Campaign associates, are creating and implementing an extensive energy tracking system for the County, nine cities, and Water Agency. They are inputting all the agencies’ electric and natural gas energy use data, analyzing it to determine the greatest opportunities for energy savings, and using it to track impacts of changes in agencies’ operations, including energy efficiency measures.

Sonoma County attracted these resources because of Sonoma municipalities’ strong climate protection commitment. Click here for details.
Read the report here (1MB pdf)