Convening about 250 elected officials, business and community leaders from across the region, Metro held a Climate Leadership Summit on Friday that explored ways the Portland area can build vibrant neighborhoods and spread economic growth while reducing emissions that are linked to climate change.
Climate Leadership Summit from oregonmetro on Vimeo.
Speakers and a panel discussion focused on exploring a wide array of policies and strategies that can reduce traffic congestion and dependence on driving by providing more travel options and opportunities for everyone. Building more affordable, mixed-use commercial centers and corridors, creating more walkable neighborhoods and expanding public transit, bike and pedestrian connections help reduce emissions. Expanding the use of synchronized traffic signals, so drivers get more green lights, can reduce pollution. Building electric vehicle charging stations can help spread the use of zero-emission cars.
Those are among the strategies that can help reduce emissions linked to climate change. But they are also policies the region pioneered for other reasons, such as fighting congestion, protecting the region’s farm and forest lands, improving the region’s air quality and making more vibrant downtowns.
John Fregonese of Fregonese and Associates, Inc. discusses what strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could look like in Oregon communities. “We stand on the shoulders of giants,” Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette said. “We benefit from decisions to create urban growth boundaries so that we wouldn’t sprawl … and so we could protect the land and the water and the other natural resources that we rely on.”
A panel discussion by four community leaders provided examples of local actions already taking place that could be part of emissions reduction strategies.
Developer Dwight Unti described the challenge of building an apartment building in downtown Gresham, which opened last year in the midst of a recession. The building’s first floor retail space and upper-floors apartments are all full, with other potential tenants on a waiting list.
“There is significant market demand for climate smart development in the form of vertical housing over ground floor commercial space,” Unti said.
Such infill development makes the most of public infrastructure – the streets and water lines that are already in place. But these projects are more expensive because of the cost of building multiple story buildings.
“This was not possible without an extremely strong public private partnership between our firm, Metro and the City of Gresham,” he said. “Without solving that equation, we’re simply not going to get there.”
Several speakers throughout the day urged policymakers to ensure that any prosperity and public investment that comes from efforts to fight climate change also help minorities, low-income, the elderly and other underserved communities.
“In our stratified and segregated society, policy statements and inclusive language are not enough to create a shared prosperity,” said Connie Ashbrook, executive director of Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. “We need design and implementation strategies that, among other things, ensure that diverse people get good jobs.”
Ashbrook’s organization trains low-income women for jobs in high-skilled, high-wage construction and building trades. It has recently helped many women get jobs making homes more energy efficient, partnering with Clean Energy Works Oregon and other local groups.
Greg Chambers, director of Climate and Energy for Nike, said there’s a strong business case for addressing carbon emissions from business.
“Carbon equals dollars,” Chambers said. “If you’re managing your climate and energy impacts, you’re saving money. So that’s the business case. But overwhelmingly, Nike is doing this for the sustainability case.”
Nike’s production of sports clothing depends on cotton production, which depends on water supplies – which are “in crisis mode” worldwide, he said. Synthetic apparel and equipment comes from petroleum based materials, which are not renewable sources.
Tigard Mayor Craig Dirksen explained how his community has changed its policies and plans to encourage more activity in commercial corridors to protect existing neighborhoods. That is one of several high capacity public transit alternatives being considered in Metro’s Southwest Corridor plan.
Scores of summit participants used keypad polling devices to voice their opinions on potential effects of strategies that summit speakers presented. Those strategies are among the many that Metro staff will study this summer as they learn what it takes to meet the state carbon reduction targets.
Public opinion researcher Adam Davis also told the audience about recent polls showing regional support for a tight urban growth boundary and the law requiring lower climate related emissions.
The discussion comes at a pivotal time for action on climate change and livability. On Friday, the Department of Land Conservation and Development recommended a 21 percent reduction in per person emissions for cars, SUVs and light trucks in the Portland area by 2035. That does not include reductions in emissions that could come thanks to more fuel efficient cars and other technology.
The policies and strategies that came up at Friday’s summit are believed to be among those that could help meet the 21 percent target.
The target is a draft subject to six weeks of public review. The Land Conservation and Development Commission plans to vote on a target in late May, taking effect June 1. State law requires the region to report to the legislature in January on the results of some scenarios that could meet that target.
The summit also was a joint meeting of the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation, which controls federal transportation investments in the region, and the Metro Policy Advisory Committee, which advises the agency on land use and transportation policies.
Collette chairs the transportation committee and was the co-emcee of the summit, along with Clackamas County Chair Charlotte Lehan, who chairs the policy advisory committee.
Materials from the summit, including polling results, will be posted on the Metro website next week.