2022 Profiles — California Climate Investments

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Kompogas SLO Inc. is Creating Fuel and Compost with Waste

Kompogas SLO Inc. is Creating Fuel and Compost with Waste

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery

Kompogas SLO Inc. received $3 million through the Organics Grants program to build a high-solids anaerobic digester, to be known as the Lancaster Organic Waste Facility, at the existing Lancaster Landfill and Recycling Center in Antelope Valley. With this new anaerobic digester, Kompogas SLO Inc. will be able to process residential food and green waste collected by Waste Management Inc. throughout Antelope Valley, including in the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, and turn it into renewable natural gas and high-grade compost.

Expanding Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification

Expanding Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification

California Workforce Development Board

Using $1.25 million from the Low-Carbon Economy Workforce program, the Expanding Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification (EESAMTAC) project is increasing the number of participating Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Centers from six to 21 centers located across the State. These training centers will help electricians and apprentices earn a certification demonstrating they have the skills to safely handle and diagnose modern energy storage systems and battery technologies.

Climate Resilience Planning for Key Sacramento River Watersheds

Climate Resilience Planning for Key Sacramento River Watersheds

California Wildlife Conservation Board

Supported by $400,000 from the Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, a coalition of federal, academic, non-profit and private organizations has developed a modeling tool to enhance climate adaptation and resilience planning in five Sacramento River watersheds. These watersheds provide the vast majority of California’s utilized water and over 80 percent of the freshwater to San Francisco Bay. By estimating the ecological returns of conservation and restoration efforts, the modeling tool will help determine what future actions and investments would best restore and protect the health of this important region.

Community Outreach and Education through the Clean Air Ambassador Program

Community Outreach and Education through the Clean Air Ambassador Program

California Strategic Growth Council

Supported by $2.4 million from a $23 million Transformative Climate Communities implementation grant, a coalition of community members, non-profits, and public-sector agencies called Green Together, is working to build a new generation of air quality ambassadors in the Pacoima and Sun Valley communities of the San Fernando Valley. The Clean Air Ambassadors Program, established as part of the Green Together Community Engagement Plan, trains community youth organizers through workshops covering air quality monitoring, health, climate change and air pollution. Through the program, ambassadors learn how to collect and interpret data using scientific tools to measure local particulate matter pollution. Ambassadors also learn how to communicate air pollution principles and advocate for data-informed clean air solutions. In 2021, the Clean Air Ambassadors Program hosted its inaugural class of youth leaders.

Supporting Farmers and Rancher’s Access to Grant Funding

Supporting Farmers and Rancher’s Access to Grant Funding

California Department of Food and Agriculture

Supported by $3.57 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Climate Smart Agriculture initiative provides technical assistance to help farmers find funding and implement projects that support their work while helping to achieve the State’s climate goals. These funds, which were leveraged by California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Strategic Growth Council, support 10 Community Education Specialists, a group of technical experts with the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Since 2019, these Community Education Specialists have assisted over 850 farmers and ranchers across the State with applications to programs under the Climate Smart Agriculture initiative.

Supporting Families with Affordable Housing

Supporting Families with Affordable Housing

California Strategic Growth Council

Supported in part by nearly $23 million award from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, Resources for Community Development (RCD) will provide 87 affordable rental homes in the city of Berkeley through the Maudelle Miller Shirek Community project. In addition to large, family-sized apartments and permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless residents, the ground floor of the building will become the headquarters of Healthy Black Families, Inc., a South Berkeley-based nonprofit dedicated to the health of Black families in the community. This project will help Black families and formerly homeless individuals live healthier lives and receive health services through on-site programs and services offered by Healthy Black Families, Inc.,, RCD’s resident services, and the City of Berkeley Mental Health department and third-party service providers.

Launching a New Capacity Building and Community Empowerment Project

Launching a New Capacity Building and Community Empowerment Project

California Strategic Growth Council

The Partners Advancing Climate Equity (PACE) pilot program is a capacity-building program administered by the California Strategic Growth Council and funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The year-long pilot program began in 2021 and supported 22 participants – all local leaders deeply rooted in their communities across the state – and sought to increase their ability to advance equitable and community-driven climate solutions.

Advancing Ecological, Cultural, and Community Resilience with Tribal Nations in Southern California

Advancing Ecological, Cultural, and Community Resilience with Tribal Nations in Southern California

California Strategic Growth Council

With a $990,350 award from the Climate Change Research Program, the Resilient Restoration project – led by the Climate Science Alliance Tribal Working Group, University of California Riverside, and San Diego State University – is promoting Tribal resilience by developing knowledge and supporting actions that enhance persistence of cultural practices with a focus on preserving the ecosystems and species that are integral to Tribal communities.

Supporting Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Generation in Multi-Family Farmworker Housing

Supporting Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Generation in Multi-Family Farmworker Housing

California Department of Community Services and Development

People’s Self-Help Housing was awarded over $630,000 from the Low-Income Weatherization Program’s (LIWP) Multi‑Family Energy Efficiency and Renewables program to invest in the health and well-being of its low-income farmworker community in Santa Maria, known as Los Adobes de Maria. The homes of the 65 farmworker families living in Los Adobes de Maria will receive energy efficiency upgrades that will reduce energy consumption and lower their bills.

Partnership Helps Protect San Diego County Forests

Partnership Helps Protect San Diego County Forests

California Natural Resources Agency

The Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County (RCD) is using their $1.4 million grant awarded in 2019 from the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity program to develop the region’s capacity to restore the health of its forests and protect them from severe wildfires in the future. To carry out this work, the RCD has partnered with several California Native American Tribes, the Cleveland National Forest, a private cattle company, and the Palomar Observatory to manage the region, which includes the last mixed conifer forest in San Diego County. The RCD is also developing training programs for several Fire Safe Councils in San Diego County serving 46 communities, so they can support this work.

Healthy Soils Through Whole-Orchard Recycling

Healthy Soils Through Whole-Orchard Recycling

California Department of Food and Agriculture

David Viguie of Viguie Farming is revitalizing soil health on 44 acres of a 28-year-old French prune orchard located in the city of Winters. Prior to receiving a Healthy Soils Program grant, David conventionally farmed his orchard. In his pursuit to restore the property's soil health, David applied to the Healthy Soils Program and received a $38,378 grant from California Climate Investments to achieve his goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing soil carbon by removing a prune orchard through whole-orchard recycling.

Demonstrating Emissions-Reducing Solutions for the Freight Sector

Demonstrating Emissions-Reducing Solutions for the Freight Sector

California Air Resources Board

The San Joaquin Valley Flexible Solutions for Freight Facilities project, supported with $22.6 million in funding from the Zero-and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facilities Project along with $22.6 million in matched funds from project partners, demonstrated advanced technologies on locomotives and hybrid and zero-emission equipment around rail yards. For one part of this multi-component project, the Wabtec Corporation designed, manufactured, and commissioned a battery-electric locomotive to operate in tandem with two diesel locomotives from BNSF Railway, operating like a hybrid vehicle.

Woodstove Replacements Heat Homes in Butte County

Woodstove Replacements Heat Homes in Butte County

California Air Resources Board

More than 54 Butte County households have replaced their old woodstove or stove insert with a new, cleaner alternative that heats their home, improves indoor air quality, and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, harmful particulates, and black carbon, a particularly potent climate pollutant, thanks to vouchers provided by the Woodsmoke Reduction Program. Among the residents who have benefitted from the program are Dennis and Deb, who replaced their 1979 woodstove insert, and Riki, who replaced the woodstove that came with their farmhouse, built before 1900.

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Addressing Community-Identified Transportation Needs

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Addressing Community-Identified Transportation Needs

California Air Resources Board

The Sustainable Transportation Equity Project (STEP) is designed to increase transportation equity in disadvantaged and low-income communities by funding planning and clean transportation projects and directly engaging community residents in clean transportation solutions. STEP achieves this via two grant types: Implementation Grants and Planning and Capacity Building Grants. Paid for by Cap-and-Trade dollars, the grants ultimately will help people get where they need to go — be it the doctor’s office or daycare — without using a personal vehicle.

Zero-Emission Forklifts Bring Air Pollution Reductions to Portside Communities

Zero-Emission Forklifts Bring Air Pollution Reductions to Portside Communities

California Air Resources Board

SSA Marine received $4.82 million from the Clean Off-Road Equipment Voucher Incentive Project, also known as CORE, to purchase 20 zero-emission forklifts and charging infrastructure for their locations in Stockton and West Sacramento. This equipment will help reduce greenhouse gases and air pollutants in census tracts that are heavily burdened by diesel particulate matter and other air pollutants.

Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley Community Transportation Needs Assessment

Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley Community Transportation Needs Assessment

California Air Resources Board

Using funds awarded by the Clean Mobility Options program, the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley, a federally recognized California Native American Tribe, conducted a community-driven transportation needs assessment to determine the transportation needs and preferences of Big Pine Paiute’s residents. After the needs assessment is completed and approved by their Tribal Council, the Big Pine Paiute Tribe can use it to apply for additional funding from Clean Mobility Options or other transportation grant programs to implement clean mobility projects.

Cleaner Passenger Trains through the Capitol Corridor Rail Project

Cleaner Passenger Trains through the Capitol Corridor Rail Project

California Air Resources Board

In 2019, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority, in partnership with California Department of Transportation’s Division of Mass Transit, was selected by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to receive $7.4 million from the Community Air Protection program to help replace two diesel-powered locomotives with two new Siemens Charger Tier 4 locomotives. These locomotives are now operating on the Capitol Corridor line from Auburn-Sacramento to Silicon Valley and run through disadvantaged and low-income communities in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and more. The new locomotives achieve a 90 percent reduction in particulate matter emissions and an 80 percent reduction in oxides of nitrogen emissions compared to the old, higher-polluting locomotives.

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Collecting Air Quality Data to Improve Community Health in Eastern San Francisco

Collecting Air Quality Data to Improve Community Health in Eastern San Francisco

California Air Resources Board

Brightline Defense, an environmental justice nonprofit organization, was awarded $300,000 from the Community Air Grants program to support the Brightline Air Quality Monitoring Program. This community-driven program that will install, collect, and analyze data from 15 stationary air quality sensors in heavily populated, low-income communities throughout Eastern San Francisco. The data these sensors collect are publicly available and can be used to help shape programs and policies to create cleaner air in these communities.

Santa Barbara Cool Blocks Project Inspires Community Climate Action

Santa Barbara Cool Blocks Project Inspires Community Climate Action

California Department of Transportation

In 2021, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments completed the Cool Blocks Try Transit project, a neighborhood outreach and capacity building campaign supported by a $25,000 grant from the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program and in partnership with the Empowerment Institute’s Cool Blocks program. This project brought the participating 25-block neighborhood of Isla Vista together over a series of workshops to learn about and consider climate change mitigation and resilience measures they could adopt as individuals and as a community, which included using public transit. The project inspired the community to act, which in part led to their successful application to the Sustainable Transportation Equity Project, another California Climate Investments program.

Promoting Transit Accessibility through the Solano Regional Transit Initiative

Promoting Transit Accessibility through the Solano Regional Transit Initiative

California State Transportation Agency

Thanks in part to over $4 million in funds from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, the Solano Transportation Authority has linked underserved parts of the cities of Vallejo and Fairfield to regional public transit services. This funding is supporting the $10.8 million Solano Regional Transit Initiative (SRTI), which is providing residents in Solano county with increased access to faster, more efficient transit options that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while connecting them to employment, health, educational, and other facilities that can improve their quality of life.

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California Climate Investments | Cap-and-Trade Dollars at Work