When you run for office, the Registrar allows you three words to describe yourself on the ballot. Having lived my own life, I completely understand what I do. But it’s hard to sum up in three words.
I’ve also come to realize as I’ve been talking to voters that my profession is not one that has a well-recognized categorization. For example, my opponent has spent his career in marketing in tech, a profession that people readily understand. But my profession and the three words that I submitted to the Registrar, “Environmental Policy Executive” and “Climate Policy Advisor” are less recognizable to people. Recently, someone asked me, “when you say you have a career in environmental policy and advocacy, what does that mean?”
So, I’d like to give an example, especially since a career in environmental policy is exactly the type of work that makes one qualified to serve as a Director at an environmental agency like the Water District.
Environmental Policy Advocate - What is that?
Early in my career working for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, I was disturbed by the environmental impacts our growth was having on the planet. I watched as the Valley of Heart’s Delight transformed into the tech capital of the world. And while the tech industry brought many good things to the valley and to the world, I saw our orchards change to office buildings and was concerned about the contamination of our groundwater caused by industry’s improper disposal of chemicals. This all begged the question: How do we grow in a way that doesn’t stifle economic growth or hinder our ability for us and our children’s children to live on this planet?
My background in environmental policy helped me understand that the built environment and the strain new growth has on the environment was an area I was particularly qualified to address. As a policy advocate, the first thing you have to do if you want to make a change is figure out who your partners are in order to accomplish your goal. In this case, I had in mind that we would convince every single city and the county to adopt new standards for building materials. This was an idea spurred by some of our early and leading environmentally minded leaders like then Councilmember Linda LeZotte who went on to serve on the Water District (and who has endorsed me). She was an early champion of things like low flow toilets to reduce our water use.
Partnerships - The Cities Association
After scanning the landscape, I decided the best partner would be the Santa Clara County Cities Association. The Cities Association is an organization where every city has a representative of their council. They work together to coordinate policy and keep apprised of what is going on in the different jurisdictions. Issues and policies discussed there are often taken back to the cities.
Elected Champions
The next step is to pick your champions, elected officials who will lead and convince their city council peers. At the Cities Association there were a couple strong environmentalists, namely Yoriko Kishimoto, then on the Palo Alto City Council and now a Director on the MidPeninsula Open Space District and Jamie Mcleod then on the Santa Clara City Council. With them, we pulled together a small group of stakeholders consisting of architects, realtors, builders and others who have a stake in how our cities grow. After about six months of learning, we came forward to the Cities Association with recommended uniform green building standards for public buildings. The recommendation started with public buildings (libraries, community centers, etc) so as to provide a sensible onramp for the private sector to start embracing new ways of building.
Those standards were adopted and with them measures to reduce water use. They were based off of, at the time, a new system for greening the building industry called LEED (now widely used).
Impetus for State Action
What is exciting is that this green building initiative here in Santa Clara County spurred efforts at the state level to update and incorporate more green building practices in state building codes which has in turn led us to where we are today. Cities, through their climate action plans, have prioritized these types of measures and practices not only for public buildings, but also the private sector. A really good example of this is in the City of Santa Clara where new data centers, which have historically used A LOT of water, are now required to dramatically reduce their water and energy usage.
As a Water District Director, every other Tuesday, the Board is making policy decisions. They include things like goals for the percent of recycled water by a certain future date, or a requirement that union labor be used for projects of a certain size, or the adoption of criteria for prioritizing water infrastructure projects. And, I also talk about another policy initiative I worked on as the Executive Director of the Bike Coalition to broaden Water District Trails Access policy here. These are all examples of policy decisions made by the Board.
How to describe this work in three words is easier said than done but I hope this helps folks understand the type of work I’ve been doing. And that it is exactly the type of work that makes one qualified for a seat on the Water District.
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