Musings From the Front Lines March 2023

PK executive Chris Easter, as a member of the Contra Costa County Sustainability Commission, attended the Commission Meeting on February 27, 2023 at 5 PM.  After a significant amount of time dedicated to procedural issues the commission turned its’ attention to eliminating single-use plastics.  Passing an ordinance related to the elimination of single-use plastics would improve diversion rate as well as reduce carbon footprint.  The commission chose to push this proposal to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.  The next agenda item was to review progress made on the County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP).  The County Sustainability Director's comments focused mostly on staffing and bringing several new planners onto the team.  The County is also interested in endorsing an approach where CARB would complete the GHG emissions inventory for the County.  This approach would establish a more standardized approach to GHG inventory with more consistent methods across entities.  On May 18th there will be a conference on the Inflation Reduction Act in coordination with Los Medanos and Diablo Valley Colleges that PK will participate in.  Chris Easter proposed a standing agenda item focused on an ongoing discussion related to performance of CAP measures in terms of performance metrics, lessons learned and course corrections.