Alameda County is home to 9,000 employees, and individual conservation decisions can have a significant environmental impact. To address this, the General Services Agency Sustainability Program staff created the Green Ambassadors pilot program. This program responds to employee requests from surveys conducted throughout the county, providing information on simple steps they can take to reduce their environmental footprint. Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Alameda, Marin, Modoc and Shasta counties due to a series of severe winter storms that caused floods, downed trees, power outages, and damage to structures and roads.
Alameda County was added to the major disaster declaration due to the storms and floods. The Sierra Club has a long history of local participation in advocating for environmental issues and conservation. To help teachers and students learn more about the environment, they can access an interactive online map or download KMZ files of the Alameda County watershed map from the Explore Watersheds website. Organizations such as the California Environmental Justice Alliance, the City of Portland, the City of San Jose, San Mateo County, and Gap Inc.
are working hard to make a difference in local environmental issues. To effectively reach the broad employee base of Alameda County, an enthusiastic pilot group of about 25 volunteer employees from 10 agencies received training on opportunities to work in a green way. My professional training focuses on environmental land use planning and I have more than 15 years of professional experience working on issues related to the mitigation of climate change. In addition to my professional experience, I have been involved in campaigns with Beyond Toxics, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental justice.
I also co-founded Albany Strollers & Rollers and was a founding member of Carbon Neutral Albany (now Albany Climate Action Coalition) and Albany for Everyone. To achieve their goals, environmental coalitions in Alameda County run campaigns that focus on education and awareness. They provide information on simple steps that employees can take to reduce their environmental footprint. They also work with organizations such as the California Environmental Justice Alliance and Gap Inc.
to make a difference in local environmental issues. Additionally, they offer interactive online maps and KMZ files of the Alameda County watershed map for teachers and students to learn more about the environment.
