LIVEGreen Together Collaborative - fighting climate change in Pacoima/Sun Valley
The Green Together Collaborative received a grant of $23 million from the California Strategic Growth Council’s Transformative Climate Communities Program to increase the climate resilience of Pacoima and Sun Valley through tree planting, solar panel installation, active transportation, and more. We seek support for a project coordinator to marshal the efforts of multiple agencies and for a resilience center that will serve as the focal point for the community’s fight against climate change.
Please list the organizations collaborating on this proposal.
LA Conservation Corps
GRID Alternatives
LA Business Council
LA CleanTech Incubator
Trust for Public Land/LA
LADOT
LA Sanitation
Community Partners
Briefly tell us a story that demonstrates how your organization turns inspiration into impact.
Pacoima Beautiful was founded as an environmental justice organization, focused on educating the community about health issues and fighting against the further proliferation of polluting uses. In 1996, five mothers, distraught at the unpleasant sight of trash and toxic smells they endured while walking their young children to school, took action. They knew the only way to create a safe and clean community for their children and neighbors was through collective action, so like good neighbors, they joined forces to bring Pacoima some of its first major community clean-ups and tree planting events. The beautification projects of our founding mothers set the grassroots foundation that our historically women led organization has stood by for the past 22 years. Today, Pacoima Beautiful is the only environmental justice organization in the Northeast San Fernando Valley striving for community improvement.
Which of the LIVE metrics will your submission impact?
Exposure to air toxins
Tree canopy cover
Walk/bike/transit score
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
San Fernando Valley
How will your project make LA the best place to LIVE?
Green Together will realize the central goal of Transformative Climate Communities funding, which is to demonstrate how meaningful community engagement coupled with strategic investments can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while advancing social equity, economic opportunity, and community resilience. Implementation of neighborhood-level transformative climate community plans include multiple, coordinated greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects that provide local economic, environmental, and health benefits to disadvantaged communities.
The Northeast San Fernando Valley is one of the most environmentally-impacted neighborhoods in the state. This area suffers from numerous environmental hazards including three elevated freeways, industrial uses, and a commercial airport. It is also one of the most vulnerable areas in the City of Los Angeles to climate change with the number of extreme heat days predicted to multiply in the coming decades.
The timeline will be over five years (2019-2024).
The metrics for making LA the best place to LIVE include tree canopy cover, exposure to air toxins, and walk/bike/transit score. The Strategic Growth Council will require accounting of greenhouse gas reduction through a range of climate resilience activities including tree planting, energy savings, alternative energy production, and active transportation strategies.
In what stage of innovation is this project?
Post-pilot (testing an expansion of concept after initially successful pilot)
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
The definition of success is satisfying statewide goals for greenhouse gas reduction. The measures of success would be energy savings for solar projects, metric tons of carbon sequestered by tree planting, and reduction in traffic or increase in use of active transportation.