TO: Napa County Climate Action Committee
FROM: David Morrison, Special Projects Director
REPORT BY: Ryan Melendez, Planner II, Sustainability
SUBJECT: BrightAction Communities presentation on the Napa Climate Challenge Website
RECOMMENDATION
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PRESENTATION AND ACTION ITEM: FISCAL IMPACT - Staff requests that the Climate Action Committee (CAC) receive a presentation from Lisa Altieri, Founder and President of BrightAction Communities on the Napa Climate Challenge online platform and decide whether to continue the funding of the platform management and community outreach and education efforts.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Lisa Altieri, the Founder and President of BrightAction Communities, will deliver a presentation on the Napa Climate Challenge, an online platform to help individuals and community groups take individual and community group actions towards combating climate change and measure the GHG emission reductions of those actions.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California
Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
At the July 28, 2023 CAC meeting, members received a presentation from Nicole Fues, a Program Manager and Community Organizer with BrightAction Communities, about the Napa Climate Challenge online platform. BrightAction Communities is a non-profit that provides cities and counties custom online and program tools to drive community engagement on climate solutions. The Napa Climate Challenge online platform provides simple, easy, and fun steps for residents to learn about solutions, take action, and track progress regarding GHG emissions. For this presentation, Lisa Altieri will present an update on the climate challenge platform, provide usership metrics, and discuss options for BrightAction Communities to continue to manage the Napa Climate Challenge and to provide community engagement services.
Lisa Altieri is Founder and President of BrightAction Communities, providing innovative software and engagement tools with the mission of helping cities and counties empower residents on climate solutions. BrightAction’s platform makes it simple, easy and fun for people to learn about the solutions to climate change and find actions to make a difference at home and beyond. The platform connects users with resources, robust carbon analytics and progress tracking and connects users to work together. BrightAction has custom tools for engagement for teachers, community groups, neighborhoods, companies and more.
The Napa Climate Challenge online platform provides examples of actionable items that individuals can take to both reduce their climate impacts and save money on their utility bills. Actions are divided into categories such as: “Be Energy Smart,” “Clean Energy Home,” “Shift Your Ride,” “Eat Green & Waste Less,” “Be Water Wise,” “Community & Learning,” and “Resilience.” Users can sort actions by these categories, and can further sort actions by level of difficulty, prioritization of climate impact vs. monetary savings, or by the time estimated to complete each action.
The platform also serves as a metrics tracking system. As users complete actions, the platform tracks those completed actions and provides both monetary and greenhouse gas emissions savings. As more actions are completed, greater savings and emissions reductions are shown in real time.
The actions within the platform provide an easy and encouraging way to start taking individual actions towards combating climate change. Additionally, users can form, or join existing, community groups. Churches, classrooms, community groups, sports teams, etc. can form these groups to track their compounded progress on climate actions. While combatting climate change can often feel like an overwhelmingly daunting task for any one individual to take on, this platform provides a great way for people to see their own actions making a difference over time and also banding together to see even greater impacts when people from a neighborhood, community, and even their entire city can come together to work towards climate action.
If approved by the CAC, BrightAction Communities can continue to provide their services for Napa County and all jurisdictions within. The cost for the maintenance and operation of the online platform is $9,000 for the calendar year, and an option for community outreach and educational services costs an additional $6,000. If only the maintenance task were funded, outreach and education to promote community members to use the platform would fall to the responsibility of each jurisdictions’ council and staff.
Staff recommends funding both the operational cost of the platform, and the community outreach and education services that BrightAction Community can provide.