Green Cities

In early April, Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled the City of Los Angeles’s first-ever sustainability plan. Here VX News offers commentary from Mark Gold, Acting Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and a VerdeXchange Conference speaker. Gold helped craft the plan and offers his perspective on its goals ranging from water to greenhouse-gas emission reduction. This comes just days after the UCLA IOE gave LA County a C+ on its environmental report card. The Sustainable City pLAn is excerpted here, as well.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti addressed the VerdeXchange VX2014 Conference in Downtown Los Angeles on January 28. He delivered the following transcribed remarks during a luncheon plenary entitled, “Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities—Greener by Design.” Garcetti discussed Los Angeles’ commitment to sustainability—from the first residents of the pueblo to the current administration—touching on the role of Chief Sustainability Officer Matt Petersen, the use of metrics to reach goals in the city, and his position on President Obama’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.

The City of Lancaster aims to become the first net-zero city in the world, and took strides toward that goal by mandating solar energy for every new single-family home constructed in the municipality at the start of this year. R. Rex Parris, the Mayor of Lancaster, described his vision to VerdeXchange News: that the city will serve as an example others follow, so that the nation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent the worst potential outcomes of climate change. With a clear goal, Mayor Parris has united his constituents around the frank reality of climate change.

Bruce Katz, Vice President at the Brookings Institution, co-authored The Metropolitan Revolution. VerdeXchange News has printed a piece adapted from this book below, which originally appeared online as part of LinkedIn’s Influencer’s series. Mr. Katz discusses how innovation districts—clusters of anchor institutions and innovative firms, along with related companies, mixed use housing, office, and retail—are taking the place of traditional corporate campuses, and what impact this will have on cities moving forward.

On September 23, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti welcomed visitors and participants to the One Water Leadership Summit, hosted by the US Water Alliance in Downtown Los Angeles. The One Water approach to water management aims to eliminate the departmental silos that discourage recycling of properly treated waste, storm, and potable water worldwide. It is a holistic approach to managing the resource. Mayor Garcetti highlights the progress LA and other California jurisdictions have made through investment in waste and stormwater infrastructure and green streets as his emphasis on the need for further action. VerdeXchange News presents the following edited transcript of the mayor’s summit remarks.

The inaugural VerdeXchange Arizona conference in October will bring together business leaders and politicians who are helping to build Arizona and the west through sustainability, infrastructure and international business projects.

While large cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco get a lot of attention for their efforts in greening operations and infrastructure, smaller cities around the state of California have been quietly making strides in adopting innovative technologies and policies at the local level. One such innovative city is Huntington Beach. In order to detail the programs and technologies enabling this local success story, VerdeX was pleased to speak with Huntington Beach Energy Project Manager Aaron Klemm.

With significant renewable resources available, and a progressive population and local government, the city of Austin has become a model for building the diverse package of renewable procurement, efficiency measures, and public outreach that can achieve substantial results in carbon emissions reductions.

Los Angeles provides an interesting case study for sustainable urban living—in such a vast and diverse city, solutions don’t come easily. Proving the sincerity of its sustainability efforts, L.A. recently approved a green building code to supplement ambitious smart growth practices, and the city’s efforts to promote recycling has led the nation for years.

Andy Lipkis, president and founder of TreePeople, speaks about Los Angeles’ ability to overcome its ongoing environmental crisis as a community.