Since 2015, the City of Los Angeles (LA), in partnership with the LA Department of Transportation and the Mayor’s Office, has received a total of $4.7 million from CARB’s Clean Mobility Options program for a zero‑emission car share pilot project. This project, known as BlueLA, is operating in 13 underserved communities that face significant air quality burdens and have historically been excluded from environmental benefits. BlueLA provides a clean and affordable mobility option in these communities, which include Downtown, Pico Union, West Lake, and Koreatown.
Toward Resilient California Communities: Solar + Storage Potential at Schools and Community Centers
California Strategic Growth Council
With funding from the Climate Change Research Program, PSE Healthy Energy is working with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Communities for a Better Environment to identify opportunities to build solar+storage resilience hubs at schools and community centers across California.
Zero-Emission Transit Vehicles, New Bike Lanes, and Shade Trees In Commerce
California Air Resources Board
Thanks to over $3 million from the Sustainable Transportation Equity Project, the City of Commerce has partnered with Climate Resolve and TreePeople to provide more clean transportation options to the city’s residents. Situated in southeast Los Angeles County in an area known for its commercial and industrial operations, Commerce has a history of providing free and reliable public transit service to its residents.
TreePeople Transforms Pacoima Middle School with a Living Schoolyard
California Natural Resources Agency
TreePeople is transforming Pacoima Middle School’s asphalt schoolyard into a more green, vibrant and healthy learning space. The Pacoima Living Schoolyards Project will bring native shade trees, shrubs, pollinator gardens, and outdoor nature-based education and play areas.
Suay: Transforming Fast Fashion through a CalRecycle Reuse Grant
California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery
Thanks to $1,315,378 from the Recycled Fiber, Plastic and Glass Grant Program, Suay is expanding their operations diverting textiles from landfills. Suay is a closed-loop recycling operation in Los Angeles that collects used garments and cleans, repairs, and re-sews these textiles remaking them into new products. The finished products are repaired clothing and remade products, such as pillows and dog beds that use stuffing from shredded garments that could not be repaired.
Community-focused outreach project, Access Clean CA, helped resident in underserved community afford electric vehicle and solar panels.
Expanding Metrolink Service in Southern California
Kompogas SLO Inc. is Creating Fuel and Compost with Waste
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.
Community Outreach and Education through the Clean Air Ambassador Program
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.
A Multi-Faceted Approach to Addressing Community-Identified Transportation Needs
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.
Long Beach Urban Wood Recovery Apprenticeship Program Prepares Youth for the Future Workforce
Funded in part by a nearly $1,000,000 grant from California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, the Conservation Corps of Long Beach (CCLB) is implementing an urban wood recovery apprenticeship program that has the potential to be a model for other programs across California. This program is teaching Corpsmembers how to remove hazardous trees throughout the city, control insects and diseases, and divert woody biomass from landfills to help keep greenhouse gases sequestered in the wood. Additionally, trees will be replaced to mitigate poor air quality, a lack of urban green space, and improve storm water retention in disadvantaged communities. Ultimately, this program will provide a foundation for Corpsmembers interested pursuing jobs in urban forestry.
Next-generation Refrigeration in New Stater Bros. Markets Grocery Store
Thanks to $50,000 from the California Air Resources Board’s Fluorinated Gas Reduction Incentive Program, Stater Bros. Markets installed a climate-friendly refrigeration system at a new supermarket in Whittier that will result in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that is the equivalent to taking more than 1,000 vehicles off the road for one year. Since refrigerants are among the fastest growing climate pollutants worldwide it is important to have projects like this one to demonstrate that transitioning the grocery sector toward cleaner refrigerants is an effective strategy for mitigating climate change.
Zero-Emission Technology at Ports Provide Cleaner Air for Vulnerable Residents
The adjacent ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles combined are the largest fixed sources of air pollution in the South Coast Air Basin, one of the most polluted air basins in the United States, in large part because the trucks and equipment used at the ports burn diesel fuel. Recognizing this, the Sustainable Terminals Accelerating Regional Transformation demonstration project was awarded $50 million to replace trucks and equipment with zero‑emission technology. The funding, which comes from California Climate Investments, supports the deployment of 102 pieces of zero‑emission terminal equipment and trucks at seaports across California, including at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. These funds are also supporting the development of new, cleaner tugboats; the deployment of two container vessels with cleaner‑burning engines; and advanced workforce development programs to support sustainable goods movement across California.
Moving Goods with Zero-Emission Technology in the Inland Empire
The Volvo Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions (Volvo LIGHTS) project aims to get cleaner trucks on the road to transport goods from ports to the Inland Empire. This project includes 23 zero‑emission battery electric trucks, 29 off‑road battery electric tractors, and 58 Level 2 and direct current fast chargers.
Paving the Way for Zero-Emission Freight Facilities in Long Beach
This program will deploy 38 electric yard trucks, 9 electric gantry cranes, 18 electric heavy lift forklifts, and 15 zero-emission Class 8 trucks. The program is also including a workforce development component with curriculum being developed to support the deployment of this technology with local school districts near the three port locations, community colleges and Long Beach State University.
San Gabriel Residents and Businesses Save Water and Energy with Appliance Rebates
Wishing Tree Park Provides New Green Space in West Carson
One of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust’s most exciting parks currently under construction is the 8.5‑acre, multi‑benefit Wishing Tree Park located in unincorporated West Carson, Los Angeles County. This project has been in the works for decades, and thanks in part to a $2,500,000 grant from California Climate Investments through the Urban Greening Program the park will be opening to the public in late 2021.
Free Transit Helps Students DASH to Class
The City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is providing free, safe, and reliable transportation to students across Los Angeles. The “DASH to Class” program allows all K-12, college, and vocational students with a Student Reduced Fare pass to ride free on LADOT Transit’s DASH buses—even for non-school related trips.
Expanding the Wholesale Produce Market Recovery Program in Los Angeles
Food Forward, which recovers produce and makes it available to hunger relief agencies in eight southern California counties, is expanding its Wholesale Produce Market Recovery Program. With the help of California Climate Investments, Food Forward will open a new “Produce Depot” near the wholesale produce market in downtown Los Angeles and double its food recovery capacity. In addition to fighting food insecurity in southern California, the project will benefit disadvantaged communities and the environment by supporting jobs and combating climate change.
Transforming Recycled Plastic into Reusable Bags
Move over Farm-to-Fork! There is a new sustainability movement emerging in California that is reducing waste, cutting GHG emissions, and providing access to new green jobs in communities across the State. You can see it on display at Command Packaging’s manufacturing facility south of downtown Los Angeles in Vernon. Think of it as “Ag-to-Bag.”