Sustainability office reports progress on county operations, community programs and partnerships; flags funding uncertainty

The Santa Clara County Office of Sustainability and Resilience presented its 2024 annual report to the Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation Committee on May 29, describing county operations progress, community programs and regional partnerships while warning of near-term funding uncertainties.

Acting Director Casey Hill and Sustainability Manager Gilly Corral highlighted several operations accomplishments. Facilities and Fleet is tracking 31% of county vehicles as alternatively fueled and has orders for roughly 237 additional electric or hybrid-electric vehicles that staff expect will raise the share to about 38%. The county has added on-site solar systems over the years and staff reported more than $73 million invested in solar projects through a mix of procurement mechanisms; several additional projects are in preconstruction.

The county completed a 2022 greenhouse-gas inventory for county operations showing 136,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent; employee commute represents the largest slice of operational emissions. Buildings and facilities emissions have declined since 2010, while employee commute emissions increased compared to the baseline used.

On waste and operations, the county implemented a new contract to track diversion across county facilities and established 2024 as the new baseline year, reporting a 30.3% diversion rate from landfills for county facilities. Sustainability staff also noted pilot work at Valley Medical Center adding more plant-based meal options and cited partnership projects that diverted surplus food and supported meal distribution (the county's food recovery program tracked nearly 15 million pounds of surplus food recovered).

In the community, the county hosted outreach events including induction-cooking demonstrations and the Bay Area Regional Energy Network provided home and apartment energy-efficiency rebates. The county's Juntos parks program offered nature activities and transit/parking partnerships to expand park access.

Corral said the county's Climate Collaborative grew to 46 organizations in 2024 and that partners collectively raised about $4 million for climate projects. The office is exploring a Resilience Fund to diversify funding sources for community-based climate resilience projects.

Hill warned of federal funding uncertainty and executive actions that may curtail some federal climate funding streams, and urged continued county-level leadership. "It's gonna be a very difficult year ahead from climate and sustainability, but our office is in for the long haul," Hill said.

Committee members asked detailed questions about programs and flagged opportunities for partnerships with South County agriculture and workforce programs. There were no public speakers on the item.

Motion and vote: A motion to accept the sustainability report was made and seconded; the committee approved the item by roll call. Vice chairperson Arenas voted yes; Chairperson Abe Koga voted aye.