Environment
One of the greatest divides in this election is between those who embrace environmental improvements and those who believe they are unimportant or a drag on business.
I am a founding member of the Burlingame Green Ribbon Task Force. Our task force, which comprised thoughtful people from politics and the community, looked at ways in which we could enhance our city’s environmental policies and help improve our planet, bearing in mind that we are a small community. As a direct result of our activities, Burlingame has waived its fees for solar panels, is reviewing its unhealthy, abnormal and expensive requirement that homes pump all storm water to the street, and hosted its first ever Green Street Fair (on which I also serve). The Task Force also drafted a two part Climate Action Plan to provide information and later incentives for Green Building, low water policies, and better transportation initiatives in the city.
While the City Council voted to endorse our plan, it was clear in the public hearings that several council members were extremely dubious and were only voting for it because there were no teeth in it. These Council Members are stuck in the past, perceiving green energy and green policies to be more expensive and generally useless to business or the home owner.
How surprised they might be to learn that Wal-Mart is on a major campaign to “green” its supply chain. Other companies similarly are understanding – in a way that this Council does not – that energy savings and green building leads to more valuable buildings that are less expensive to run – ie, more profitable!
If elected, I will encourage more emphasis on “greening” our city buildings, our transport fleet, and our businesses, for example by insisting that new commercial buildings achieve LEED standard certification (by the way, Safeway is shooting for a LEED Silver standard). We will help home owners understand what steps they can take when remodeling to save money with recycled products and low water landscapes. There is a lot we can do, but in the first place, we have to want to do it.
Let’s get green done!