Advancing Sustainability with Community, Compassion, Competence, and Cutting-Edge Approaches

County of Santa Clara Framework for Creating the Sustainability Master Plan

Fuel-Cell Energy Production at Elmwood Correctional Facility

Martial Cottle County Park Alviso Marina County Park

Presented on: Thursday, March 8, 2018 Prepared by: Office of Sustainability, Office of the County Executive

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Sustainability Master Plan Framework EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 SUSTAINABILTY MASTER PLAN ELEMENTS

2.1 Planning Sustainability

2.1.1 Policy Statement, Environmental Stewardship Goals and Other Relevant Requirements

2.1.2 Identification of Sustainability Priorities 2.1.3 Sustainability Factors 2.1.4 Identification of Objectives, Targets, and Programs to Advance Sustainability

2.2 The Doing of Sustainability and Climate Defense 2.2.1 Organizational Structure and Responsibility 2.2.2 Employee Competence, Training, and Awareness 2.2.3 Communications with Our Community, Our Partners, and County Colleagues 2.2.4 The SMP and System Documentation 2.2.5 Operational Control 2.2.6 Document Control

2.3 Checking Sustainability Progress and Appraising Performance 2.3.1 Monitoring and Measuring Success 2.3.2 Sustainability Reporting 2.3.3 Sustainability Scorecard 2.3.4 Regional Sustainability Report 2.3.5 Records Management 2.3.6 Internal Review Process 2.3.7 Corrective Adjustment and Preventative Actions

2.4 Acting to Improve Performance 2.4.1 Directors Stewardship Review 2.4.2 Continual Improvement

2.5 Sustainability “Master” Planning Status

3.0 SMP FRAMEWORK PROCESS AND SCHEDULE FOR COMPLETION

3.1 Informal Competitive Procurement Selection 3.2 County Feedback 3.3 Framework Presentation: FGOC, HLUET, and BOS 3.4 Development of a Sustainability Master Plan 3.5 SMP Framework Schedule

4.0 APPENDICES

Appendix A. Abbreviations, Key Terms and Definitions Appendix B. 8.0 Policies on Sustainability (Adopted 4-27-10) (Abbreviated) Appendix C. Environmental Stewardship Goals Appendix D. Bay Area Climate Collaborative: 2017 Overview and Progress Report (Abridged) Appendix E. Plan Reference Table

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The County of Santa Clara is committed to “building and maintaining a healthy and safe community for current and future generations through preserving natural resources and the environment, fostering a healthy economy, and meeting the basic needs of all residents with respect and cultural awareness.”1 These three elements – a healthy environment, vibrant economy, and social equity – provides the County’s vision for “sustainability.” Sustainability supports the County, its businesses and its residents to meet the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Because the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors recognized that the interrelationships among the three elements are more important than any one element, the Board directs the County to develop public policy and programs that pursue a thoughtful, balanced approach when interests compete.2 This balanced approach should focus new programs and policies primarily on shared interests, whenever possible.3 Our County is asked to “think sustainably” and utilize, when appropriate, an inclusive collaborative process that aims to produce visionary decisions today that will ensure a viable, thriving community for the future.4 Furthermore, the Board recognizes three characteristics to fully integrating the County’s commitment to sustainability:

(1) A focus on serving the community, enhancing the economy, protecting local environmental resources and establishing a vision of sustainability for all programs and policies that the County will adopt;

(2) Actions to build a sustainable governmental agency with a sound financial foundation, a diverse, innovative, productive workforce and a light environmental footprint; and,

(3) Leadership in the community and the region with elected officials and staff working collaboratively with other counties, cities, agencies and organizations to develop solutions that provide wide-reaching benefits, and by setting an example of thoughtful, innovative, balanced approaches to policy and programs.5

Notably, the County’s public servants are eager to advance a healthier environment, a vibrant economy, and social equity. Within each department, County employees are actively pursuing ways to do so. What remains to be actualized is the coordinated collaboration that strategically balances and advances sustainability. One of the primary objectives of the Sustainability Master Plan (“SMP”)6 is to develop effective mechanisms for both intra-County and regional collaboration to advance sustainability. The SMP proposed will further the County’s sustainability vision and goals because it is designed to result in the structures and means to increase collaboration for improved sustainability. Through increased collaboration, the County can: prioritize and streamline efforts; leverage expertise and relationships; increase staff and community awareness; promote sustainable thinking; reduce redundancies; and, support balanced sustainable decision-making.

1 Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Policy Manual, Part. 8.1, Sustainability, p. 8-1 (Adopted 4-27-10). 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid, at 8-1, 8.2. 6 The SMP and other Capitalized Terms used throughout this Framework are further defined in Appendix A below. In addition, roles and responsibilities are characterized in Section 2.2.

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This Sustainability Master Plan Framework (“Framework”) proposes the blueprint for the County’s SMP. It describes a process to create a foundational management system to achieve coordinated collaboration and a resulting plan for advancing sustainability. The Framework process intends to transform how sustainability is implemented at the County and operationalize the Board of Supervisors’ policy for “an inclusive collaborative process that aims to produce visionary decisions today that will ensure a viable and thriving community for the future.”7 This will be a dynamic process rather than just a written document. The developed management system will be flexible enough to permit departmental innovation but structured enough to facilitate strategic decision-making about how to best pursue and achieve long-term sustainability aims and goals. Sustainability goals are defined herein to include the County’s “climate defense” goals, defined as Board of Supervisors’ Resolutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.8 Because the County acts in a variety of leadership roles, the proposed process and resulting SMP must consider the County’s role as a:

• governmental regulator and service provider to the County’s unincorporated areas; • operational manager responsible for County facilities, vehicles, roads, lands, and County

employees; and, • County-wide leader and influencer to help advance sustainability and climate defense measures

for the region and the cities within the County’s jurisdiction. During the Framework process, each of these County roles will be reviewed to identify potential priorities for sustainability action and engagement. This Framework, if adopted, creates a management system’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” (“PDCA”) system that can incorporate future sustainability and climate defense goals and initiatives. In the Planning stage, staff will identify sustainability priorities based on Board of Supervisors’ policies and initiatives, legal, and other requirements. Staff will also undertake a detailed analysis to identify the significant County activities, goods, or services that can adversely or beneficially impact goal achievement. Departments will be asked to align and collaborate on efforts that positively impact goal achievement by designing or amending existing programs to accelerate linkages, sustainable thinking, and goal progress. The Doing stage operationalizes the SMP planning process. The SMP process will be used to first identify the organizational responsibilities, resources, and the operational controls necessary for sustaining the SMP management system; second, it will be used to identify the programs to be managed from the planning stage; and finally, it will be used to assist in deterring significant adverse impacts to goal progress. By identifying and documenting the minimum procedures and records necessary to maintain the system, this stage will ensure that operational control procedures are implemented. This stage also implements organization-wide employee sustainability training and clear communication channels for disseminating information about the County’s sustainability policies, procedures, and overall performance. The third stage, Checking, defines how the County monitors goal and system performance, and readjusts efforts when realignment is needed. Readjustment should occur when operational procedures fail to properly control for significant adverse impacts to sustainability efforts, or when progress on County

7 Ibid. at 8-1. 8 Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara Affirming its Commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, Environmental Sustainability, and Combating Climate Change, Resolution No. BOS-2017-85 (Adopted 6-20-2017); Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara Adopting the U.S. Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration, Resolution No. 229944 (Adopted 9-25-2007); Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara on Participating in the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, Resolution No. 31892 (Adopted 9-2-2004).

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priorities is compromised. To provide increased transparency, the data sets required to accurately monitor and measure goal performance, determine baselines, and establish how goal performance is reported will be defined. A method for reporting goal performance, for monitoring for system failures, and for taking preventative steps before failure occurs will also be established. Finally, in the Acting stage County Directors will be asked to participate in a “Directors Stewardship Review,” which is a periodic review of the County’s sustainability goals, overall progress, and system performance (as more fully explained in Section 2.2 and 2.3; and Appendix B below). Though this review, County Directors can establish a culture of continual sustainability improvement and collaboration across all County departments. At least annually, the Directors will propose to the Board of Supervisors an updated “Strategic Sustainability Plan” that reports on the past year’s performance and recommends at a high-level the sustainability priorities for the coming year. In this manner, an annual foundation is created for holistically planning, initiating, managing, and reporting the County’s sustainability activities and performance, and for dynamically responding to new problems or opportunities as they arise. The proposed Framework will result in a SMP that provides the structure and plan to actualize the Board of Supervisors’ vision of a sustainable County of Santa Clara. The SMP outcome will provide the strategic leadership framework, multi-year targets, measures, and operational elements necessary to meet BOS goals and steer County efforts toward a sustainable future. The Framework aims to build upon what are already core County strengths by focusing employees to “4C” the County of Santa Clara’s Sustainable Future:

Community: Meet present needs without compromising future generations Compassion: Care about making our community sustainable Competence: Learn to be a sustainability practitioner Cutting Edge: Be innovative to improve sustainability and climate defense

Finally, a critical component of the Framework involves the County’s leadership in the community and the region to encourage collaboration and innovative solutions that provide wide-reaching benefits. The County’s leadership is already apparent by County-wide initiates that have advanced sustainability. For example, the County helped to establish Silicon Valley Clean Energy, an electricity provider that provides many Santa Clara County residents and businesses with clean energy—renewable and carbon free electricity at competitive rates. The Framework process will be used to identify ways that the County will continue to lead, collaborate, and encourage the cities within the County of Santa Clara, other public agencies, and other partners to tackle shared sustainability goals. The process will also identify public outreach opportunities that can be leveraged to educate our citizens about the County’s sustainability efforts and how they can assist. This document describes the process to create the SMP, which results in a sustainability management system and documented plan. The final section proposes, at a high-level, the schedule for developing the SMP over the coming year. While each PDCA component is described sequentially, some parts of the PDCA process will likely occur concurrently to expedite system implementation. For example, how the County measures, monitors and reports on the Board’s priority to reduce GHG emissions might be tackled before the “Check” stage, although this stage is when monitoring and performance reporting is generally established. Given the size, scope, and complexity of County activities, goods, and services, it is anticipated that a detailed implementation schedule will be presented to both the Board of Supervisors’ Finance and Government Operations Committee (“FGOC”), and the Housing, Land Use, Environment, and Transportation (“HLUET”) committee during proposed quarterly reporting on the SMP development.

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1.0 INTRODUCTION The Apollo 8 astronauts gave humanity an iconic image – the Earth from outer space. A fragile blue marble set against a backdrop of immense darkness (see FIGURE 1. Earth from Space). Upon this Earth we live, and we die. This is our home. This is our community. This is our inheritance, and the inheritance we pass on to our children. Our past, present, and future all exist here in our moments of choice. Before Bay-area resident Stewart Brand founded his ground-breaking magazine the Whole Earth Catalog®9, he initiated a public campaign for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to release the then rumored satellite photo of the Earth from space, the first image of our "Whole Earth."10 The image served as a powerful symbol, evoking from people a sense of shared destiny and adaptive strategies to protect the environment. Brand and his innovative contemporaries promoted sustainability as a discipline, valuing self-sufficiency, ecology, holism and scientifically-verifiable local resiliency.11 Their message, delivered for their time, encouraged individual power and action. Today, our urgent need calls for collective and aggregated powerful actions. The County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors (“BOS”), the elected leaders of our County community, is committed to building and maintaining a healthy, safe, and equitable County for current and future generations. As such, the BOS has advanced holistic, innovative, and far-reaching goals for strategic sustainability and environmental stewardship planning.

FIGURE 1. Earth from Space.12

9 See http://www.wholeearth.com/history-whole-earth-catalog.php; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog (as of 02/22/2018). 10 See Carole Cadwalladr, “Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog, the book that changed the world,” The Guardian, May 4, 2013, available at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/05/stewart-brand-whole-earth-catalog (as of 02/26/2018). 11 See Whole Earth Catalog, “Purpose” and “Function” statements (Fall 1968) p. 2. 12 PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (https://www.nasa.gov/content/blue-marble-image-of-the-earth-from-apollo-17). Apollo 8 took the first pictures of Earth from outer space. The photograph displayed here is referred to as the “Blue Marble” and was taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts.

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The County leadership’s commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship has produced a wide-array of forward-looking local and regional initiatives. As the County’s portfolio of sustainability initiatives expands and matures, the need to institutionalize a comprehensive system for leading, organizing, and managing the County’s activities has, likewise, increased. This Framework provides the blueprint for developing the County of Santa Clara’s SMP. The SMP process, if adopted, creates an overall adaptable and dynamic management system that can integrate and coordinate County departments’ sustainability efforts. As such, the resulting SMP advances the vision for a sustainable County of Santa Clara by institutionalizing the strategic leadership framework, goals, multi-year targets, measures, and the operational elements needed to steer County efforts into the future. The SMP will build upon what are already core County of Santa Clara strengths to:

“4C” the County of Santa Clara’s Sustainable Future • Community: Meet present needs without compromising future generations • Compassion: Care about making our community sustainable • Competence: Learn to be a sustainability practitioner • Cutting Edge: Be innovative to improve sustainability and climate defense.

How will the Sustainability Master Plan be different? This Framework proposes a SMP that is different from the type of plan typically characterized as a “sustainability plan.” Depending on the professional body producing a given plan three distinct categories of sustainability plans typically emerge:

(1) site-specific urban design plans; (2) habitat conservation plans; and, (3) Climate action plans (“CAP”), that include greenhouse gas (“GHG”) inventories.

Urban design plans focus on physical sites, ranging in scale from a single building parcel to an entire community. Habitat conservation plans prescribe the management of a defined ecological system, traditionally providing developers, agencies, or communities with a means to avoid significant impacts to threatened or endangered species during land development. The CAP documents climate change mitigation efforts to avoid, reduce, or better manage GHG emissions. All three types of sustainability plans are already exemplified by the County. Here are three examples:

• Civic Center Master Plan: Facilities and Fleet (FAF) is leading the effort to re-envision the 40-acre

County Civic Center with sustainability as a core tenet during all phases of development. The Master Plan is still in development, with a goal of completing these efforts in late 2018;

• Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan: is a multi-agency effort that provides a framework for promoting the protection and recovery of natural resources, including endangered species, while streamlining the incidental take permitting process for planned development, infrastructure, and maintenance activities. This Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan allows the County of Santa Clara, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and the cities of Gilroy, Morgan Hill, and San José to receive endangered-species permits for activities and projects they conduct under their jurisdiction that involve potential impacts to endangered or protected species or habitat;

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• Municipal Operations GHG Inventory: In 2007, the Board of Supervisors signed the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration and established a set of aggressive goals for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions for the County.13 In 2005 and 2010, a GHG emission inventory was completed to identify the baseline and current state of the County’s emissions for operations and facilities. FAF is leading an effort to update the County’s Municipal Operations GHG Inventory and Climate Action Plan for Municipal Operations, which is anticipated to be completed in 2019.

This Framework presents a broader focus than the specific nature of these planning models. However, the value of these other planning models is not diminished by this broader effort. Such plans are a critical component in carrying out County sustainability activities that support goal achievement. The proposed SMP instead provides strategic direction for the County’s sustainability vision and documents a comprehensive management systems strategy aimed at coordinating activities intended to meet both present and future sustainability goals set by the BOS, County departments, and local, state, and federal requirements. Overtime, this dynamic SMP will include the full breadth of the County’s goals and initiatives that support the County’s sustainable vision by creating a strategy and management systems structure that:

• Coordinates and supports intra-departmental collaboration and decision-making; • Coordinates and supports regional collaboration and decision-making; • Avoids unnecessary repetition; • Provides increased transparency as to the County’s sustainability progress; • Encourages all County employees to become sustainability practitioners; • Fosters partnerships to leverage resources and accelerate goal progress; • Normalizes continual improvement; and, • Promotes innovation and transformation to achieve a more sustainable world.

The County’s Role as a Sustainability and Climate Defense Leader The County acts in a variety of sustainability and climate defense leadership roles. First, as a governmental body, the County has responsibility for adopting and enforcing ordinances and codes, and providing services for the County’s unincorporated areas. Second, the County has direct operational management and control of County facilities, vehicles, roads, lands, and the human resources that carry out County activities. Finally, the County has a County-wide leadership and influencer role to help advance sustainability and climate defense measures for the region and the cities within the County’s jurisdiction. The SMP will address each of these County roles relative to BOS goals to advance sustainability and climate defense.

13 The Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration states the need to stop increasing the amount of emissions by 2010, decrease emissions by 10 percent every 5 years from 2010 – 2050, and reach an 80 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. See Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara Adopting the U.S. Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration, Resolution No. 229944 (Adopted 09-25-2007).

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2.0 SUSTAINABILITY MASTER PLAN ELEMENTS With over 18,000 full time employees and a budget of over $6.5 billion, the County’s activity is managed by roughly 32 major departments divided into five major policy area categories: health; corrections; social services; housing/land use; and government operations. To increase the probability that this workforce, the budget and the County’s official pursuits are coordinated to advance a shared sustainability vision, a defined management system is crucial. A management system will advance sustainability goal achievement by providing management a structured way to identify, operationalize, and manage County internal, County–focused, and regional initiatives that help to achieve BOS sustainability policies and goals. The SMP process includes the identification and documentation of an overall management system framework that can:

• Integrate the County’s sustainability efforts; • Provide staff with a means to identify and review the activities, goods. or services that can impact

goal achievement; • Develop administrative policies and procedures that advance environmental stewardship; • Monitor and measure goal performance; • Provide a transparent mechanism for management review and realignment when needed; • Share information internally and with external partners; • Identify opportunities to leverage resources and collaborate on projects that advance goal

achievement both internally and with external partners; and, • Communicate sustainability progress to staff, partners, and the public.

The SMP management system will align with the FGOC’s August 2015 recommendation to create a Sustainability Master Plan:

Santa Clara County has a number of large departments, many of which are working on sustainability projects. An Integrated Sustainability Master Plan to guide decisions, inform departments of connectivity or repetition, and to inform departments of potential partnerships in work or grant funding requests will strengthen the County’s progress in this area.14

The SMP process will be used to achieve three primary aims. First, to develop and document the County’s strategy to achieve the BOS vision for a more sustainable future. Second, to clarify and document the existing relationships and sustainability efforts within the different County departments and offices, and with the County’s external partners and other stakeholders. Third, to develop and implement an adaptable management system to achieve continual sustainability improvement. The management system includes:

1. Planning • BOS Policies on Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship Goals (ESG), Resolutions and

other goals relevant to sustainability, and legal and other requirements • Identification of County activities that adversely or positively affect sustainability progress • Identification of opportunities to advance sustainability • Identification of legal and other requirements • Analysis of priorities for action to advance sustainability and climate change defense

14 Board Referral 77917, “Direct Administration through the Office of the County Executive (Office of Sustainability) to report back to the full Board of Supervisors on the budgetary resources necessary to create an Integrated Sustainability Master Plan including a draft framework for the Master Plan,” County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, August 25, 2015. Available at http://sccgov.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=30&ID=71453&MeetingID=6061 (as of 02/23/2018).

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• Objectives, targets, and programs to advance sustainability and achieve BOS goals

2. Implementation and Operational Control • Organizational structure, roles, responsibilities and authorities and resource requirements • Program operational requirements, including policies and procedures when required • Employee competence, training, and awareness • Communications • SMP and system documentation • Operational control • Document control

3. Performance Appraisal • Monitoring and measuring performance against the goals, objectives, and targets • Records management • Internal review process • Corrective adjustment and prevention

4. Directors Stewardship Review

• Evaluation of progress and areas for improvement • Annual Sustainability Plan

Therefore, rather than becoming a stale “shelf” document, the SMP will create the “Plan, Do, Check, Act” components of the active, iterative system necessary to coordinate, manage, and monitor the County’s overall sustainability efforts and drive goal achievement (see FIGURE 2. Sustainability Management System at the County of Santa Clara).

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FIGURE 2. Sustainability Management System at the County of Santa Clara.15

15 Diagram illustrates the “Plan, Check, Act, Do” (PDCA) sequence in the subsequent sections of this Framework document. The diagram’s format was based on the PDCA “environmental management system” process literature. See the International Organization for Standardization, 14001 Environmental Management Standards, available at https://www.iso.org/iso-14001-environmental-management.html (as of 02/23/2018), and U.S. EPA, available at https://www.epa.gov/ems/learn-about-environmental-management-systems (as of 02/23/2018).

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2.1 Planning Sustainability

2.1.1 Policy Statement, Environmental Stewardship Goals and Other Relevant Requirements

The SMP process begins with the County’s “Environmental Stewardship Goals” (ESGs) (see Appendix C. Environmental Stewardship Goals) and BOS “Policies on Sustainability” (see Appendix B. 8.0 Policies on Sustainability), legal requirements that affect the County’s sustainability activities, and other relevant requirements such as BOS adopted resolutions and initiatives that affect sustainability progress. The SMP process will try to identify, to the greatest extent possible, the relevant goals and requirements that impact the County’s sustainability progress. The SMP process includes identifying these requirements by reviewing for consistency and alignment the BOS ESGs, sustainability policies, federal and state legal requirements, and other BOS sustainability initiatives. If necessary, future suggestions for priority-setting or revisions to the BOS ESGs, policies, or other BOS initiatives will be brought to the BOS for consideration.

2.1.2 Identification of Sustainability Priorities

Through the SMP process, the County will identify the aspects, defined as parts of the activities, goods, or services under County control or influence that can be expected to either positively or negatively significantly impact sustainability goal progress. This “identification” process is framed to be broad in both time and scope because County decision-making must ideally aim to meet:

[T]he needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits – not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities.16 (Our Common Future, 1987).

Because the SMP aims to implement an adaptable management system, ultimately the SMP will be able to include an array of specific categories, referred to as “factors,” against which County can review and evaluate their aspects that can impact the factors and, potentially, the County sustainability priorities. However, to create momentum and build success, County efforts will initially focus on a single resource that impacts a BOS goal, such as water, to educate employees, focus County efforts, build collaboration among departments, develop the management system, and steer County departments and employees in the same direction.

2.1.3 Sustainability Factors To develop the factor categories, various types of environmental assessments and plans were reviewed to identify sustainability “Issues of Concern” addressed by the:

• California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis (California’s broadest environmental law); • U.S. Green Building Council [USGBC] (site-specific level); • Living Building Challenge, The Living Future Institute (site-specific level);

16 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future (also known as the Brundtland Commission Report) (1987) Chapter 1, Section 3, paragraph 27, available at http://www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf (as of 02/24/2018).

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• Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education [AASHE] (campus/neighborhood level);

• California State University [CSU] (campus/neighborhood level); • University of California Office of the President [UCOP] (campus/neighborhood level); • County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors Policy Manual; • California Department of General Services (regional level); • U.S. General Services Administration, Region 9 (regional level); • Commission for Environment Cooperation (international level); and • United Nations (international level).

As a result, 20 factors were identified that are characterized as “Issues of Concern” (FIGURE 3. Issues of Concern). CEQA assessments are the most comprehensive and include all but three factors found in other plans reviewed. These 20 factors listed alphabetically are:

1. Aesthetics; 2. Agricultural & Forestry Resources; 3. Air Quality; 4. Biological, Ecosystem & Habitat Resources; 5. Cultural Resources; 6. Geology & Soils; 7. GHG Emissions & Climate Change; 8. Hazards, Hazardous Materials, Environmental Health & Safety; 9. Hydrology & Water Quality; 10. Innovation & Education (not a CEQA category); 11. Land Use & Community Planning (includes “Green” buildings); 12. Mineral Resources; 13. Noise; 14. Population & Housing; 15. Procurement & Investment (not a CEQA category); 16. Public Services; 17. Recreation; 18. Social Justice (not a CEQA category); 19. Transportation & Traffic Management; and 20. Utilities & Service Systems.

The BOS Sustainability Policy and ESGs explicitly address seven of the 20 factors:

• Agricultural & Forestry Resources; • GHG Emissions & Climate Change; • Innovation & Education; • Land Use & Community Planning; • Recreation; • Transportation & Traffic Management; and, • Utilities & Service Systems.

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FIGURE 3. Issues of Concern. The Issues of Concern are a survey of various sustainability plans with identified factors. The graphic shows which BOS ESGs apply to each factor category. The Framework will initially focus on a resource that is relevant to a priority BOS goal. The resource will be considered relative to the factors to identify significant impacts to the factors and BOS goals for sustainability. Therefore, throughout the organization, the activities, goods, and services under the County’s control or influence will be reviewed to identify those parts, or aspects, that significantly impact the sustainability factors and goals. By focusing initially on one priority area and identifying those aspects that cause significant impacts, County departments will be led through an educational and sustainability team-building process that identifies and mitigates potential barriers to success, and supports the creation of a sustainability network for enhanced collaboration and transformation. For example, the County could initially tackle water impacts, which may be easy for staff and other stakeholders to recognize and understand. Activities under the County’s influence or control that involve water might include:

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Example Water Aspects: • Water use for irrigation and landscaping, cleaning, construction, cooling processes, power

generation, toilets and showers, drinking, etc.; • Wastewater discharge to watercourse or land; • Wastewater discharge to utility; • Storm water run-off mitigation; • Rainwater capture; • Graywater reuse; • Water for recreation; • Water for scenic value.

Example Water Impacts

• Water pollution; • Water resources depletion; • Water supply replenishment; • Water conservation; • Enhanced or reduced habitat; • Enhanced or reduced aesthetics; • Enhanced or reduced recreation; and, • Enhanced or reduced biological diversity.

Thus, County activities, goods, and services involving water may give rise to impacts across several factors: aesthetics; agriculture and forests; biological and ecosystems resources; hydrology and water quality; and utility services. Whether any of the impacts are significant would need to be analyzed and determined. Once the sustainability management system is developed to manage one type of aspect such as water, County staff will be better prepared to undertake an urgent but far more complicated factor such as GHG Emissions and Climate Change.

2.1.4 Identification of Objectives, Targets, and Programs to Advance Sustainability

As previously described, the SMP process will identify those aspects of the County’s activities, goods, or services that significantly impact a factor relevant to achieving sustainability and climate defense progress. Once these significant aspects and impacts are identified, the County will identify existing programs, or initiate new programs, aimed at reducing negative and enhancing beneficial impacts. Programs will be designed to include clearly defined objectives with milestones and targets to measure progress and success.

2.2 The Doing of Sustainability and Climate Defense

2.2.1 Organizational Structure and Responsibility The SMP will define and clarify, to the extent necessary, the organizational structure including the roles, responsibilities, and authorities for administering the priority programs identified that advance County sustainability and climate defense goals. Structure definition and clarification will include processes for departmental coordination with the OOS and other County departments on priority programs and the reporting of progress on the goals, objectives, and targets. Responsibility and authority will include defining the means for ensuring that staff, organizational, financial, and technological resources are available to implement, maintain, and improve on the SMP management system and the programs designed to advance sustainability and climate defense.

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However, this Framework does define specific roles and responsibilities necessary for developing and implementing the SMP as is described below. The Office of Sustainability The Office of Sustainability (“OOS”), within the Office of the County Executive, will be responsible for leading County sustainability innovation and transformation and coordinating the County’s sustainability efforts to capitalize on opportunities and strategically advance sustainability across all County departments, operations, supply chain, and partnership endeavors. OOS responsibility includes:

• Overseeing the SMP development to advance the integration of sustainability into County departments;

• Supporting the formulation and execution of the County’s sustainability policies and strategies; • Assisting the BOS and County departments to identify material sustainability and climate defense

issues; • Educating employees to become sustainability leaders/practitioners; • Coordinating internal sustainability and climate defense efforts to improve collaboration; • Leveraging and coordinating external partners and funding opportunities to advance the County’s

sustainability goals; • Working with internal and external stakeholders and the community to advance sustainability and

climate defense progress to achieve County goals; and • Reporting on overall sustainability and climate defense performance.

Department Sustainability Coordinator Each relevant department head will be asked to identify a Sustainability Coordinator who will be involved in the SMP process (the Framework) and who will ensure that the SMP and supporting sustainability management system is established, implemented and maintained within his or her department. The Sustainability Coordinator will participate on the Sustainable County Working Group (defined below), interface with the OOS, and keep OOS informed on departmental progress. Directors will be asked to approve the time and resources needed to fulfill the responsibilities of this role.

Stakeholder Groups’ Roles and Structure Continued and sustained stakeholder engagement is central to the SMP’s long-term success. Through the SMP, the OOS will establish processes to regularly involve both internal and external stakeholders. Internally, SMP engagement will involve at least two stakeholder groups: 1) the Directors Stewardship Team, for reviewing sustainability goal progress, decision-making, and providing staff with management direction; and 2) the Sustainable County Working Group for staff-level knowledge-sharing, problem-solving, coordination, and providing improvement recommendations to leadership.

The Directors Stewardship Team and the Sustainable County Working Group are led by the OOS. Due to their anticipated impacts upon the County of Santa Clara sustainability and climate defense goals, it is currently expected, but will be verified, that representation from the following departments will be required:

• Behavioral Health Services • Department of Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency • Department of Corrections • Department of Parks and Recreation • Facilities and Fleet Department • Planning and Development Department

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• Probation Department • Public Health Department • Roads and Airports Department • Santa Clara Valley Medical Center • Social Services Agency • Office of Budget and Analysis • Office of the Chief Information Officer • Procurement Department

Other departments that will likely be approached at some point during the SMP process include, but are not limited to, the:

• Office of Emergency Services • Office of Supportive Housing • Office of the Chief Financial Officer • Office of the County Counsel • Office of the County Executive

External stakeholder engagement will be achieved through the County’s ongoing participation in existing sustainability regional initiatives and the potential launch by the County of Santa Clara of a sustainability “Community of Practice” (“CoP”), a knowledge-based group of sustainability experts, which will include the cities within the County and, potentially, other interested organizational stakeholders.

Directors Stewardship Team

The Directors Stewardship Team (“DST”) is led by the Director of the OOS and is comprised of, at minimum, the directors from each department whose activities, products, or services have a significant impact on BOS sustainability goal performance. This group is responsible for at least semi-annually reviewing County sustainability performance indicators and for recommending corrective realignments, as necessary. Additional responsibilities for this group and how it ideally operates will be defined in collaboration with its members. This group could be a strong advisory partner to the OOS, the Office of the County Executive, and ultimately the BOS, on how policies and initiatives to advance sustainability and climate defense might be integrated into County operations, services, programs, ordinances, and partnerships. For example, DST members could be responsible for reviewing, considering, and providing comments on new County goals, initiatives, policies, programs, or procedures that advance sustainability and climate defense.

Sustainable County Working Group The Sustainable County Working Group (“SCWG”) is led by the OOS and is comprised of the Sustainability Coordinators within each applicable County department whose activities, goods or services can have a significant impact on the County’s sustainability and climate defense progress. This group is intended to evolve into a sustainability CoP, to help leverage departmental expertise, integrate sustainability into County departments and operations, coordinate the County’s sustainability activities, support program implementation, and report to the OOS on goal progress. An important role for this group is to recommend to the OOS, for possible referral to the DST, ideas for new policies, programs, best practices, or funding opportunities to accelerate sustainability progress. Additional SCWG responsibilities and how it operates will be defined in collaboration with its members, and with DST approval.

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External Organizational Stakeholders External organizational stakeholders have an important role in supporting County-wide and regional sustainability progress. The SMP process will establish mechanisms for regular stakeholder engagement and collaboration. The County is committed to engaging the regional partners to build mutually-beneficial, ongoing relationships around achieving major sustainability goals. The local governments of the San Francisco Bay Area have for the past decade, with some success, attempted to unify and standardize sustainability efforts, culminating in 15 cities and counties passing a regional Climate Compact (see Appendix D. Bay Area Climate Collaborative: 2017 Overview and Progress Report (Abridged)). The County is currently reviewing the best means for establishing external organizational stakeholder participation and collaboration. There is a wide array of regional organizations that operate within the County, some of which are already addressing substantive sustainability issues. Organizations that host regionally-focused dialogues include the: Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Agency; Silicon Valley Clean Energy (a community-owned electricity provider); Santa Clara Valley Water District; Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority; and, Santa Clara Open Space Authority. Additionally, local non-profits like SPUR, Joint Venture Silicon Valley, and Sustainable Silicon Valley regularly host Santa Clara County-wide stakeholder groups. For the County to engage as a sustainability leader, it is important that the County participate in relevant initiatives and workgroups that advance the BOS sustainability and GHG emission reduction goals. The County is already participating in relevant external stakeholder meetings. The SMP should also include a role for external stakeholder organizations to host meetings specifically on behalf of the County to advance BOS sustainability goals. Additionally, the County plans to survey the sustainability leads at each city within the County of Santa Clara to determine their specific interest in participating in a periodic County and cities workgroup to discuss and leverage expertise on sustainability and climate defense issues, best practices, and explore opportunities for collaboration and reporting harmonization. If launched, this group could also include other interested organizational stakeholders. Currently, the Framework schedule includes an External Organizational Stakeholders Workgroup (the “Regional Sustainability Committee) to discuss regional coordination (see Section 3.5 SMP Framework Schedule).

2.2.2 Employee Competence, Training, and Awareness Critical to the achieving continuous improvement, all County employees should become sustainability change agents to incorporate sustainable practices into both their workplace and communities. The SMP process will identify key persons performing tasks that have or can have a significant impact on achieving the sustainability goals or on meeting legal and other requirements. The necessary training required for staff to perform operational and programmatic tasks designed to achieve the sustainability goals or objectives will be identified to ensure that staff are competent to do those tasks. In addition to job-specific knowledge, the County should empower all employees to become sustainability practitioners. The SMP process will seek to identify the best way to provide “Sustainability Awareness and Leadership” training to all County employees. In addition, the SMP process will explore how best to make County contractors aware of the County’s sustainability policies so that they can be supportive partners in the County’s efforts.

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2.2.3 Communications with Our Community, Our Partners, and County Colleagues

Individual decisions made every day at the household level cumulatively affect the County’s overall sustainability. The County has a real opportunity to educate our community about how each person can help to advance us into a more sustainable future. The SMP process will help to identify opportunities to educate our citizens to help them make better informed, sustainable choices. Furthermore, as a governmental organization that represents the County’s citizens, the SMP process needs to provide a means for public input and transparency. Once complete, the SMP will define a process for communicating with the County’s community and for responding to public inquires or comments about County sustainability efforts. The communications process will also consider mechanisms for how the County builds a robust network of partners to share information, leverage expertise, engage in problem-solving, and pursue funding opportunities. For internal County relationships, the Framework will help develop processes that will be incorporated into the resulting SMP for supporting communications about sustainability and climate defense among various areas and levels of the organization to aid decision-making and knowledge-sharing. By creating processes for enhanced internal communications, the SMP will aim to promote interdisciplinary forums for increasing sustainability advocacy and disseminating best practices. Better internal coordination and communications will allow the County to identify opportunities for collaboration both across County departments and externally with the partnership network.

2.2.4 The SMP and System Documentation The SMP will include the BOS policy and goals, the SMP’s scope, and a high-level overview of the priority County programs, activities, and actions being implemented to achieve sustainability progress including the objectives, critical milestones, and targets. Because County activities to implement sustainability are substantial and may include many previously well-developed programmatic activities, the SMP where appropriate will provide references to other County documents rather than duplicate the information contained in those documents. The SMP will seek to provide sufficient information to help staff ensure effective planning, operation, and control of the priority programs and processes that affect the sustainability goals.

2.2.5 Operational Control The SMP process (Framework) will seek to identify and control for operational risks that adversely impact the sustainability goals, objectives, targets, or programs and which warrant control procedures. Such control may involve employee experience or training or may involve documented policies, procedures, or standard work practices.

2.2.6 Document Control A document control system will be established for documents defined as necessary to maintaining the integrity and proper functioning of the sustainability management system.

2.3 Checking Sustainability Progress and Appraising Performance

2.3.1 Monitoring and Measuring Success It is critical that the SMP include defined baselines for each sustainability goal to provide clear metrics on progress and trends. For reporting legitimacy, the departments that are responsible for generating the

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data should not be the same departments that are also verifying the performance progress. Through the SMP process, the County plans to identify how goal performance monitoring and measurement can be improved. Furthermore, which attributes to measure and what data sets to monitor to best inform decision-making will be the focus of a small team of Stanford University researchers who will be working with the County in the summer of 2018.

2.3.2 Sustainability Reporting The SMP process will be used to determine and recommend the appropriate administrative process to collect, analyze and report performance indicators that show County progress on goals, objectives, and targets and how well the management system is functioning. Performance indicators will be kept to the minimum needed to gauge County progress and system functioning and will be designed to be understandable, objective, measurable, replicable, and relevant to what the County is trying to accomplish. Sustainability performance may be shown by two different reports: a County-operations focused Sustainability Scorecard and a County of Santa Clara jurisdiction-wide Regional Sustainability Report.

2.3.3 Sustainability Scorecard Driving the SMP process, the County will identify the metrics and data gathering necessary to compile two Sustainability Scorecard versions: one interim progress Scorecard and one-year end “final” Scorecard. The Scorecard would report on the County’s progress in reaching GHG, ESG and other sustainability targets and potentially also list the major milestones anticipated and completed during the one-year timeframe. Whether specific metrics should be reported on a fiscal year or calendar year basis will be determined as part of this process. The Scorecard is expected to be a major tool for the BOS and County employees to review goal progress and gauge whether existing policies, programs, and practices are effective or if adjustments are required. Optional Task 1. Carbon Disclosure Project for Cities The County will review for feasibility an option to measure and disclose County progress on GHG emissions reduction against other cities and counties using the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). CDP provides a global platform to measure and manage disclosure of GHG emissions. The CDP questionnaire covers four main areas: governance, GHG emissions, adaptation, and strategy. Currently, the CDP has more than 500 cities annually measuring and disclosing environmental data to manage emissions, build resilience, and protect from the growing impacts of climate change. Of over 500 cities reporting to CDP: 127 cities are in the United States; 24 cities are in California; 13 cities are in the San Francisco Bay Area; and, four are in the County of Santa Clara including Cupertino, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto and San José. Additionally, 58 counties currently are reporting to CDP, of which seven counties are in the United States: City of Aspen and Pitkin County; Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County; Montgomery County, Maryland; Palm Beach County, Florida; San Juan County, Washington; the City and County of San Francisco; and the City and County of Honolulu. The State of California also discloses GHG emission reduction information to the CDP. Optional Task 2. Dashboard or Public Information Web Interface The County will investigate the possible creation of a “sustainability dashboard” or other application interface for the County community and general public. The creation of a dashboard, if feasible, would likely not occur until after the County’s sustainability management system is fully implemented.

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2.3.4 Regional Sustainability Report The County will work with regional partners to determine if some form of regional sustainability reporting is feasible. An inventory of the major regional sustainability goals appropriate for jurisdiction-wide disclosure will be developed. Appropriate external partners will be asked to review the inventory for common and contrasting goals across the County’s jurisdiction. For common sustainability goals, the County will engage partners in discussing how reporting of sustainability might be harmonized to include standard data sets, metrics, and reporting frequency. This Regional Sustainability Report, if feasible, would provide a compilation of sustainability goals held throughout the County’s jurisdiction and the performance reported by each partner.

2.3.5 Records Management The SMP process will be used to identify those records that are necessary for maintaining management system integrity and verifying performance. Such records may include, but not be limited to, employee training records, process monitoring data, utility bills, fuel records, invoices, operational records, and sustainability performance review reports. A schedule to define the necessary records and their retention requirements will be developed.

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2.3.6 Internal Review Process The SMP process will be used to develop and document the appropriate level of internal review that is necessary to ensure that the SMP system is operating properly, programs are advancing, and that objectives and targets are being met.

2.3.7 Corrective Adjustment and Preventative Actions The Framework will develop a procedure for handling problems with system or program implementation. Responsibility will be assigned for identifying and investigating root cause issues, and making corrections as needed. Corrective adjustments will be aimed at: 1) resolving the immediate issue; 2) considering whether similar issues might exist or arise elsewhere in the County; and 3) taking action, if needed, to prevent similar problems from occurring. Actions that implement system changes will ideally be documented and monitored to evaluate effectiveness. The County can then monitor for trends that may adversely impact the sustainability management system or overall program effectiveness.

2.4 Acting to Improve Performance

2.4.1 Directors Stewardship Review The SMP structure establishes a Directors Stewardship Review process. County Department Directors serving on the DST will meet at least semi-annually to review the SMP’s overall management system, sustainability and climate defense programs, the County’s ability to meet legal or other requirements, and performance on goals and initiatives. The DST will make documented recommendations for policies, program, and operational improvements, where needed. Recommendations requiring BOS direction will be presented accordingly.

2.4.2 Continual Improvement

Annual Strategic Sustainability Plan To support transparency and continual improvement on goal progress, the SMP will include the development of a concise, high-level annual Strategic Sustainability Plan (“SSP”). The SSP is intended to be responsive to the DST Stewardship Review documented outcomes. The SSP will include a brief review of the past year’s achievements and goal progress, and will provide a high-level forward-looking work plan for the coming year. The forward-looking SSP sections are expected to include references to the County’s major programs, objectives, and milestones that support goal achievement, including major new initiatives or programs expected to be launched. These forward-looking sections along with the Sustainability Scorecards will be included in the DST Stewardship Review process that occurs semi-annually.

Strategic Management of the County’s Sustainability Enterprise Because the SMP process creates a “living” management system framework for implementing sustainability initiatives and programs throughout the County of Santa Clara, updates to the SMP’s documentation will be ongoing as new or updated goals are added and achieved goals are retired. Programs and activities to achieve BOS goals and initiatives will be periodically reviewed, and updates or corrective adjustments will be made as needed. After each semi-annual Directors Stewardship Review, the results, recommendations, and outcomes will be reported by the OOS to the BOS, including recommendations for BOS actions to support improved goal achievement.

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2.5 Sustainability “Master” Planning Status In August 2015, the BOS directed the County Executive Office to create an “Integrated Sustainability Master Plan.” There were already many efforts underway to advance County sustainability. However, the BOS recognized that to strategically advance the County needed a unified vision to coordinate County efforts and leverage resources. In response, on September 29, 2015, the OOS provided preliminary information on developing an SMP; the BOS referral unanimously approved the referral to proceed with resource acquisition and development. Unfortunately, subsequent budget and staffing issues delayed initiation of this work. In February 2017, the OOS as the County’s sustainability lead, began preliminary work on the SMP Framework by hosting briefing meetings with seven County departments. The OOS used these meetings to gather information and participant feedback on existing sustainability knowledge, concerns, and needs from the:

• Department of Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency; • Department of Corrections; • Department of Parks and Recreation; • Facilities and Fleet Department; • Planning and Development Department; • Public Health Department; and • Roads and Airports Department.

The OOS also toured the Elmwood Correctional Facility, Martial Cottle County Park, Alviso Marina County Park, the City of San Jose’s Environmental Innovation Center, and the Veggielution urban agricultural grounds to obtain information. From September to November 2017, external stakeholders were sent a survey to obtain feedback about their sustainability targets and reporting for five common top-priority goals. Surveys were sent to sustainability staff from the following:

• Cities: San Jose, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, and Saratoga.

• Universities: Mission College, Evergreen Valley College, West Valley College, De Anza College,

San Jose City College, Foothill College, Gavilan College, San Jose State University, Stanford University, and Santa Clara University.

• Other Organizations: Ames NASA Research Park and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

Of the 26 stakeholder organizations contacted, 19 responded to the OOS survey with six representatives indicating a willingness to participate in future discussions about forming a regional collaboration working group. These six organizations include:

• Cupertino; • Los Altos; • Los Gatos; • NASA Ames Research Park; • San Jose; and • Santa Clara University.

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From this early feedback, staff identified the development of this Framework document and the structure for ongoing staff engagement as priorities. During the first six-months of 2017, the OOS staff initiated the pilot phase of stakeholder engagement through a series of direct, one-on-one outreach meetings with internal County sustainability stakeholders. At these meetings, OOS staff introduced the SMP development process in broad terms, and reviewed BOS ESGs and the SMP Board referral to solicit the breadth of current sustainability efforts and receive initial feedback on elements for inclusion. OOS staff held six meetings and met with five departments to obtain their feedback to inform the scope of work for professional consultant services and the SMP Framework. The pilot phase culminated in July with the first meeting of the “catalyst” SCWG. This first SCWG was provided a draft version of an early Framework for review and comment. The Framework was updated based on their comments. On October 30, 2017, a new Director of the Office of Sustainability, joined the County and was asked by the Deputy County Executive to review the proposed Framework. The Director determined that the Framework needed to be realigned to create an SMP that provides a system for strategically identifying, organizing, managing, and reporting on County sustainability efforts to achieve goal progress. Since November 2017, OOS has engaged in an ongoing review of BOS Resolutions, relevant California regulations, County Ordinances, initiatives, and policies applicable to sustainability efforts. The OOS has also updated this Framework to include the components necessary to integrate and institutionalize the SMP sustainability management system into County-wide activities.

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3.0 SMP FRAMEWORK PROCESS AND SCHEDULE FOR COMPLETION

3.1 Informal Competitive Procurement Selection During Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, BOS provided $75,000 dollars in one-time funds to secure professional consulting services to guide SMP development. The task of retaining professional services was completed. Given the scope of work and project budget, OOS requested and received permission to conduct an Informal Competitive Procurement, and requested proposals from eight firms on April 10, 2017. On May 12, 2017, a proposal from Raimi + Associates (R+A) was deemed responsive and highly qualified to assist with SMP development. On September 7, 2017, OOS completed a service agreement with R+A and a kick-off meeting is planned after BOS acceptance of this Framework.

3.2 County Feedback This Framework was issued to County Directors for comment and review prior to presentation to Board Committees.

3.3 Framework Presentation: FGOC, HLUET, and BOS Feedback was received from five County departments and the Framework will be revised accordingly. The Framework will be presented to both FGOC and HLUET, and, if necessary, to the BOS. Committee presentations are planned for the March FGOC meeting on March 8, 2018; the March HLUET meeting on March 15, 2018; and if necessary, for the regular BOS meeting on April 3, 2018.

3.4 Development of a Sustainability Master Plan After the BOS receives the Framework, the County will begin to develop the SMP. A Sustainability Charrette is anticipated in September 2018. Current ESGs and Board Resolutions will be reviewed, and the sustainability management system will be discussed including the need for performance reporting and periodic review. Over the next year, OOS plans to engage the SCWG and others, as needed, and work one-on-one with departments to plan for an overall integrated system for achieving the management of strategic sustainability and climate defense. This work will include a review of County activities, goods, and services to identify significant impacts to the BOS sustainability and climate defense goals; determining priorities for action; and developing programs for goal improvement. Quarterly reporting to FGOC and HLUET on the SMP progress is anticipated.

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3.5 SMP Framework Schedule An estimated schedule for completing the tasks listed in section 2.0 SUSTAINABILITY MASTER PLAN ELEMENTS is below. A refined schedule will be developed during the Planning phase.

Task No. Sustainability Master Plan One-Year Timeline Venue

Estimated Completion

Date

Planning Phase

1 Present Sustainability Master Plan Framework FGOC March 8, 2018

2 Present Sustainability Master Plan Framework HLUET March 15, 2018

3 Consultant Team Kick-Off Meeting Office of Sustainability

Late March 2018

4

County Policy, Targets, and Priorities Consolidation

- Review BOS Policies and Resolutions, ESGs, and other sustainability goals defined by County initiatives;

- Identify relevant legal and other requirements; - Analyze priorities for action to advance sustainability

goals.

Office of Sustainability

April – May 2018

5 Establish Directors Stewardship Team Office of Sustainability

Late March 2018

6 Host External Organizational Stakeholders Workgroup

(Regional Sustainability Committee)

Office of Sustainability

Late April 2018

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Engage Departments to Further Sustainability Objectives

- Conduct one-on-one department and coordinated group meetings to determine aspect and impacts;

- Perform consolidation and analysis of aspects and impacts;

- Identify County activities that adversely or positively affect sustainability progress;

- Determine significant impacts and priorities for action; - Provide employee awareness training.

Office of Sustainability

May – August 2018

8

Sustainability Charrette

- Collectively identify opportunities to advance sustainability throughout County organization;

- Identify objectives, targets, and programs to advance sustainability and achieve BOS goals.

Sustainable County Working

Group

September 2018

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Task No. Sustainability Master Plan One-Year Timeline Venue

Estimated Completion

Date

9

Consultant Sustainability Master Plan Coordination Meeting

- Collate and document research, results of Sustainability

Charrette, programs identified to further BOS goals.

Office of Sustainability

October 2018

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- SCWG review of results of Sustainability Charrette; - Establish a foundation to discuss County operational

and management structures to achieve County’s sustainability goals;

- Examine the organizational structure, roles, responsibilities, and resource requirements necessary implement programs to meet BOS goals.

Sustainable County Working

Group and Directors

Stewardship Team

November 2018

11 Report to Board of Supervisors on Goals, Objectives, Targets, and Priority Programs January 2019

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County Operational Engagement

- Identify County’s necessary operational control and procedures;

- Identify training and competence needs; - Develop procedures and work instructions, as needed.

Departments and

Office of Sustainability

December 2018 –

February 2019

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Establish Performance Measurement

- Establish the protocol for monitoring and measuring performance against the goals, objectives, and targets set for County sustainability;

- Identify records management procedures; - Establish review, monitoring, and reporting systems.

Departments and

Office of Sustainability

December – February

2019

14 Directors Stewardship Team Review Distribute Draft Sustainability Master Plan to Directors for review for comments prior to BOS review.

February 2019

15 Study Session, review Draft Sustainability Master Plan BOS February 2019

16 Approval of Sustainability Master Plan, Referral to Board of Supervisors FGOC / HLUET February

2019

17 Adoption of Final Sustainability Master Plan BOS March 2019

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APPENDIX A Abbreviations, Key Terms and Definitions

Abbreviations AASHE Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education BOS County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors CAP Climate Action Plan CDP Carbon Disclosure Project CEQA California Environmental Quality Act CoP Community of Practice CSU California State University DST Directors Stewardship Team ESG Environmental Stewardship Goals FAF Facilities and Fleet Department FGOC Finance and Government Operations Committee Framework Sustainability Master Plan Framework FY Fiscal Year, running from July 1 until June 30 GHG Greenhouse Gas HLUET Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation Committee ISO International Organization for Standardization NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration OOS Office of Sustainability PDCA Plan, Do, Check, Act R+A Raimi + Associates RSR Regional Sustainability Report SCWG Sustainable County Working Group SMP Sustainability Master Plan SSP Strategic Sustainability Plan U.S. EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency UCOP University of California Office of the President USGBC United States Green Building Council Key Terms and Definitions Aspects: Those parts of the activities, goods, or services under County control or influence that can

impact the County sustainability goals. Climate Defense: Goals and initiatives set by Board of Supervisors’ resolutions to reduce greenhouse gas

(GHG) emissions including: Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara Affirming its Commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, Environmental Sustainability, and Combating Climate Change, Resolution No. BOS-2017-85 (Adopted 6-20-2017); Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara Adopting the U.S. Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration, Resolution No. 229944 (Adopted 9-25-2007); and Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara on Participating in the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, Resolution No. 31892 (Adopted 9-2-2004).

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Community of Practice (CoP): Based on concepts developed by Etienne Wegner’s Communities of Practice (1988), as used in here, the County shall encourage a knowledge-based group of sustainability experts, to include representatives from the cities within the County and, potentially, other interested organizational stakeholders.

County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors (BOS): the elected leaders of the County of Santa Clara. Directors Stewardship Team (DST): Performing as a strong advisory partner to OOS, the County

Executive Office, and ultimately the BOS, the DST is led by the OOS Director and comprised of the directors from each department whose activities, goods, or services have a significant impact on County sustainability. This group is responsible for: a semi-annual review of County sustainability performance indicators; recommending corrective realignments; and leadership to implement changes necessary to reach the County’s sustainability goals.

Environmental Stewardship Goals (ESGs): The Environmental Stewardship Goals were adopted by the

County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors on June 9, 2009, as the County’s commitment to the Bay Area Climate Change Compact (BACC). The BACC was developed by three Bay Area cities and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in early 2009. The ESGs were originally proposed as a set of ten goals, but were modified and eventually numbered eleven. As of April 2017, the ESGs are reported on monthly to the Board of Supervisors’ Housing, Land Use, Environment, and Transportation (HLUET) committee.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG): this term is defined here to be the carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,

ozone, and other gases in the atmosphere that are considered to contribute to global warming. GHG Inventory and Climate Action Plan (CAP): Defined in terms of compliance with the California Global

Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) as well as other local government objectives (for instance, the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration), a GHG inventory and CAP are a pair of planning documents that account for all GHG emission sources from a specific operational scope, and detail a timely plan to reduce those GHG emissions to a defined reduction target. California State law, through AB 32, sets a broad dictate to meet a GHG reduction goal for all California emissions; by 2020 all GHG emissions should be reduced to 1990 GHG emissions levels. Locally, the County of Santa Clara has established the following goals as part of the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration: • Stop increasing GHG emissions by 2010; • Decrease emissions by 10 percent every 5 years from 2010 – 2050; and, • Reach an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

Issues of Concern (IOCs): The IOC is a categorical resource list that has a basis in the environmental

factor checklist required by a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) initial study. To assure the catalog of IOC is comprehensive, three categories were added to the typical environmental factor checklist based on a survey of sustainability criteria from multiple sources.

Metrics: Sustainability metrics are criteria and a means of calculation to measure progress. The

sustainability metrics are typically created by: harvesting raw data; standardizing the data; data analysis or conversion; and, finally, reporting the metric as a measure against a baseline to show performance progress. Tracking sustainability metrics can provide a community an overview of what is occurring to objectively judge the success of protocols or programs designed to achieve sustainability goals.

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“Plan, Do, Check, Act” (“PDCA”) Management System: Based on the work of W. Edward Deming, PDCA is a framework of policies, processes, and procedures used by an organization to fulfill all the tasks required to achieve stated objectives.

Regional Sustainability Report (RSR): is a report that provides a compilation of sustainability goals held

throughout the County’s jurisdiction including the common sustainability metrics reported by each partner. After developing an inventory of the major regional sustainability goals appropriate for jurisdiction-wide disclosure, OOS hopes to work with regional partners to harmonize standard data sets, metrics, and reporting frequency to support RSR production.

Strategic Sustainability Plan (SSP): is a high-level annual plan to respond to the Directors Stewardship Review and documented outcomes. The SSP includes a brief review of the past year’s achievements and goal progress, and will provide a forward-looking work plan for the coming year. Sustainability Coordinator: Within each major department, a sustainability coordinator ensures that the

Sustainability Master Plan and supporting sustainability management system is established, implemented and maintained within their department. The Sustainability Coordinator will participate on Sustainable County Working Group, interface with OOS, and keep OOS informed on departmental progress.

Sustainability Master Plan Framework (Framework): is the blueprint for creating the County’s SMP. The

Framework describes a process to create a foundational management system to achieve coordinated collaboration and a resulting plan for advancing sustainability.

Sustainability Master Plan (SMP): The SMP is the management system including the necessary

documents and the plan needed to communicate the County’s vision for sustainability and implement the vision through the County’s activities, goods, and services. The SMP is intended to support goal achievement, promote continual improvement, coordinate decision-making, avoid unnecessary repetition, and encourage departmental partnerships in work and/or grant funding application.

Sustainability Scorecard: The Sustainability Scorecard is a reporting and communication tool used to

report goal performance. Sustainable County Working Group (SCWG): The Sustainable County Working Group is comprised of

departmental representatives to help leverage expertise, integrate sustainability into County departments and operations, coordinate County’s sustainability activities, support program implementation, and report to OOS on goal progress. An important role for this group is to recommend to OOS, for possible referral to the DST, ideas for new policies, programs, best practices, or funding opportunities to accelerate sustainability progress.

Silicon Valley 2.0: The Silicon Valley 2.0 Project was developed with partners and the County of Santa

Clara Office of Sustainability to respond to a gap in regional climate adaptation planning, and the need for an implementation blueprint. The project focused on the question of what tool would best serve decision-makers and others who need information to make significant commitments and develop long-term strategies for climate defense.

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APPENDIX B

8.0 POLICIES ON SUSTAINABILITY (Adopted 4-27-10) (Abbreviated)17

8.1 SUSTAINABILITY

The County of Santa Clara is committed to building and maintaining a healthy and safe community for current and future generations through preserving natural resources and the environment, fostering a healthy economy and meeting the basic needs of all residents with respect and cultural awareness.

Three elements help define sustainability, which will allow the County, its businesses and its residents to meet the needs of today while not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The County develops public policy and programs that will support each of these:

Vibrant Economy

Businesses thrive, residents are employed, innovation flourishes, and services needed to attract new green businesses and develop and train a future workforce are readily available.

Healthy Environment

The use of natural resources, necessary for sustaining life, is in balance with nature’s ability to replenish them. The community has access to and protects natural habitats and parks, clean air and water, and ecological diversity. The built environment is well-planned to respect the natural environment and to promote public health, safety and recreation.

Social Equity

The County provides an inclusive environment that supports the diversity of our community and encourages civic engagement. All neighborhoods are safe from crime and violence and residents have access to the basic needs of education, health services, housing and food.

Providing Balance

The interrelationships among the three elements are more important than any one element. In the County of Santa Clara, public policy and programs shall pursue a thoughtful, balanced approach when interests compete and focus new programs and policies primarily on shared interests, whenever possible. The process of thinking sustainably and utilizing, when appropriate, an inclusive collaborative process will produce visionary decisions today that will ensure a viable and thriving community for the future.

There are three aspects to fully integrating the commitment to sustainability within the County:

(A) A focus on serving the community, enhancing the economy, protecting local environmental resources and establishing a vision of sustainability for all programs and policies that the County will adopt, and

(B) Actions to build a sustainable governmental agency with a sound financial foundation, a diverse, innovative, productive workforce and a light environmental footprint.

17 For the full text see: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Policy Manual available at: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/bos/Legislation/BOS-Policy-Manual/Documents/BOSPolicyCHAP8.pdf (as of 02/23/2018).

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(C) Leadership in the community and the region with elected officials and staff working collaboratively with other counties, cities, agencies and organizations to develop solutions that provide wide-reaching benefits, and by setting an example of thoughtful, innovative, balanced approaches to policy and programs.

This commitment of the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors to a sustainable future shall be reflected in decisions of public policy, programs and services, and in a workplace that encourages continuous improvement for existing programs; values and maximizes employee assets; and stimulates an atmosphere of innovation, collaboration, productivity, pride and personal commitment to sustainability.

All present and future County elected officials, administration and employees will recognize and respect the connections between economic, environment, social and health systems in meeting their explicit and implied responsibilities to current and future generations

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APPENDIX C ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP GOALS

June 9, 2009 County's Goals for Environmental Stewardship Within the lesser of 15 years or as prescribed by the Bay Area Climate Change Collaborative Compact, as appropriate, the County of Santa Clara in tandem with its residents, businesses, and the various local governments within the County will: 1. Ensure that 100% of light fixtures owned and operated by the County, in buildings, on streets, and in

parks are at the highest energy efficiency standard.

2. Reduce per capita energy use by 50%.

3. Receive 100% of our electrical power from clean renewable sources.

4. Ensure that 100% of County buildings are LEED certified and require LEED standards for construction in county land use jurisdictions.

5. Divert 100% of county waste from landfills and convert waste to energy.

6. Reduce our consumption of water by 20% and recycle or beneficially reuse 100% of our waste water.

7. Adopt a County General Plan with measurable standards for sustainable development.

8. Ensure that 100% of public fleet vehicles are electric, hybrid electric or run on alternative fuels.

9. Work with local governments and regional authorities to ensure that all existing county trails are interconnected with local and regional trails.

10. Plant 1,000 trees in unincorporated urban county pockets and work with local governments and agencies to build a comprehensive urban forest.

11. Increase the available blue and white collar "clean and green workforce" course/trainings available regionally and in Santa Clara County and help place 20,000 trainees and graduates in the regional labor force by the end of 2013.

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APPENDIX D BAY AREA CLIMATE COLLABORATIVE

2017 OVERVIEW and PROGRESS REPORT (ABRIDGED)

The following BAY AREA CLIMATE COLLABORATIVE: 2017 OVERVIEW and PROGRESS REPORT has been abridged from the original report delivered on September 29, 2017, to the HLUET Committee as an attachment to the monthly report on County progress on the Environmental Stewardship Goals.

History The Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) was a regional effort to unify and standardize local government efforts against climate change. The collaborative was created in 2009 by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to accelerate the implementation of clean energy solutions. Based on existing local sustainability policy including San Jose’s Green Vision, the BACC proposed widespread adoption of ten EESGs:

1. Establish an example reference standard for “baseline” green building and rooftop solar practices by the end of 2010;

2. Incentivize and encourage transportation mode-shifts, such as networked work locations, bicycling and public transit, to reduce 2008 baseline gasoline consumption by 3% by the end of 2013, and 8% by the end of 2018;

3. From a 2008 baseline, increase by 30% the use of renewable energy sources for electrical energy by the end of 2013 and by 50% by the end of 2018;

4. Through conservation and energy efficiency, reduce electrical energy usage in buildings from a 2008 baseline by an average of 10% by the end of 2013 and by 15% by the end of 2018;

5. Increase the available blue and white collar “clean and green workforce” course/trainings by the end of 2013 and help place 20,000 trainees and graduates in the labor force by the end of 2013;

6. From a 2008 baseline, decrease community water consumption by 15% by the end of 2013 and 20% by the end of 2018 and increase water recycling rates by 10% by the end of 2013 and 15% by the end of 2018;

7. Develop and adopt municipal and organizational climate adaptation plans by the end of 2013 to increase resiliency to the impacts of climate change;

8. Implement a common, ongoing region-wide public information campaign by the end of 2010, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase community resiliency;

9. Increase solid waste diversion from landfills to 75% by the end of 2013, and to achieve zero waste by the end of 2020;

10. Increase the number of zero emissions and other advanced ultra-low emission light duty vehicles to 10% of municipal fleets by the end of 2013, and to 25% by the end of 2018.

In 2009, fifteen local governments signed a Climate Compact, representing their commitment to develop strategies to address the BACC’s ten goals. While the ESGs proposed in the BACC were essential for encouraging sustainability goal alignment among local Bay Area governments, the local governments increasingly reference applicable state and federal policy to guide their climate action and sustainability planning.

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BACC and the County of Santa Clara The County of Santa Clara signed the Climate Compact in 2009 and continues to work toward Environmental Stewardship Goals (ESGs) that are refined to reflect local and state GHG reduction policies. The County reports ESG goal progress on a monthly basis to the Board of Supervisors’ HLUET Committee. The County’s current ESGs are:

1. Ensure that 100% of light fixtures owned and operated by the County, in buildings, on streets, and in parks are the highest energy efficiency standard;

2. Reduce per capita energy use by 50%; 3. Receive 100% of our electrical power from clean renewable sources; 4. Ensure that 100% of County buildings are LEED certified and require LEED standards for

construction in county land use jurisdictions; 5. Divert 100% of county waste from landfills and convert waste to energy; 6. Reduce our consumption of water by 20% and recycle or beneficially reuse 100% of our waste

water; 7. Adopt a County General Plan with measurable standards for sustainable development; 8. Ensure that 100% of public fleet vehicles are electric, hybrid electric or run on alternative fuels; 9. Work with local governments and regional authorities to ensure that all existing county trails are

interconnected with local and regional trails; 10. Plant 1,000 trees in unincorporated urban county pockets and work with local governments and

agencies to build a comprehensive urban forest; and 11. Increase the available blue and white collar "clean and green workforce" course/trainings

available regionally and in Santa Clara County and help place 20,000 trainees and graduates in the regional labor force by the end of 2013.

BACC City Involvement BACC signatories within the County include Campbell, Cupertino, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Saratoga. Each city has or is in the process of developing a Climate Action Plan (CAP) with a set of environmental goals. CAPs goals include topics addressed in the BACC, such as per capita electricity usage and solid waste diversion, but most cities have a different metric and/or target per jurisdiction for measuring emissions reduction. Few cities have CAP goals that are exactly matched to the BACC ESGs. San Jose, Santa Clara, and Cupertino report their progress publicly on an annual basis; the remaining cities have not yet posted CAP goal updates.

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BACC Involvement by City

City CAP BACC Compatible

Goals

BACC Specific Goals

Reporting Progress

Campbell Cupertino Los Altos Hills Los Gatos Morgan Hill Mountain View San Jose Santa Clara (city) Saratoga Santa Clara County

BACC Local Government Involvement Outside the County BACC signatories outside of the County of Santa Clara include San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont, Hayward, and San Mateo County. Each of these signatories has a CAP and regular sustainability reporting, however none of these cities reference the BACC in their CAP or sustainability reports. San Francisco and Oakland report their sustainability progress on an annual basis.

BACC Involvement by City

City CAP BACC compatible

goals

BACC Specific Goals

Reporting Progress

Fremont Hayward Oakland San Francisco San Mateo County

Sources Silicon Valley Leadership Group, “Bay Area Climate Collaborative and Prospect Silicon Valley

Join Forces”, 22 January 2015, svlg.org/bacc-prospectsv/ City of Fremont, “Bay Area Climate Compact”, 29 August 2008,

Fremont.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/2297 California League of Conservation Voters, “Bay Area Climate Collaborative”, 11 March 2009,

https://youtu.be/w42va4fvWy0

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APPENDIX E. PLAN REFERENCE TABLE

The SMP will reference relevant plans, as appropriate, including but are not limited to, the following:

Plan Administered By

Capital Improvement Plan Facilities and Fleet Department

Civic Center Master Plan Facilities and Fleet Department Utility Master Plan Facilities and Fleet Department Valley Medical Center Expansion Facilities and Fleet Department Civic Center Master Plan Facilities and Fleet Department General Plan Sustainability Element Planning and Development Department General Plan Health Element Planning and Development Department Green Infrastructure Plan Department of Consumer and Environmental

Protection Agency Expressway Plan 2040 Roads and Airports Department Santa Clara County Public Health Department Strategic Plan 2015-2018

Public Health Department

Countywide Trails Master Plan Department of Parks and Recreation Parks Strategic Plan Department of Parks and Recreation Santa Clara County Op Area Plans & Annexes Office of Emergency Services Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, including 2016-2017 Update

Office of Emergency Services

Silicon Valley 2.0 Office of Sustainability Estuary Blueprint: Comprehensive Conservation & Management Plan

San Francisco Estuary Partnership, September 2016

Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan Santa Clara Habitat Conservation Agency California WaterFix California Natural Resources Agency Santa Clara Valley Greenprint Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority