| Action | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bringing your Footprint to Zero | Carbon Offsets for Air Travel |
Check out this Smithsonian article: Can Eco-Conscious Travelers Do Anything To Fly Green? Buying carbon offsets won't stop global warming, but if you're traveling, it's your best individual option for reducing your carbon footprint. |
| Stewarding Neighborhood Infrastructure | Palo Alto - Neighborhood Parks |
Neighborhood groups can contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of their neighborhood parks by contacting the City of Palo Parks Division. Volunteers must only do work in collaboration with City staff and in accordance with the City’s standard practices. This program: encourages community gathering and interaction; reduces reliance on municipal funding; and contributes to an increased sense of neighborhood pride for community. Contact: Mark Ribeiro at Mark.ribeiro@cityofpaloalto.org. |
| Achieving Maximum Energy Efficiency | SF - Bay Area Energy Upgrade |
"Home Upgrade" helps you identify ways to strengthen your home’s energy efficiency. You’ll learn how heating, air conditioning, insulation, water, and other systems can all work together to effectively reduce energy consumption and reduce energy costs. |
| Building Resiliency and Connection on Your Block * | LA - Report a Pothole |
Request a repair or report a pothole in your neighborhood. |
| Reducing Your Household Waste | SF - Zero Waste Toolkit |
Help the City of San Francisco reach zero waste by 2020 and be the zero waste champion in your household or building. Follow these steps to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost as much as possible. This tool is provided by SF Environment. |
| Reducing Your Household Waste | SF - Composting Services |
San Francisco residential customers can order a compost collection cart at no additional cost. Use this link to order a green cart for curbside collection or to request a 2-gallon Kitchen Pail. This service provided by Recology SF. |
| Generating Power From the Sun | LA - GRID Alternatives |
GRID Alternatives - Greater Los Angeles - leads teams of volunteers and job trainees to install solar electric systems for low-income families in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties, providing families with needed savings and giving area workers hands-on experience to help them find employment in the green-tech economy. |
| Knowing the Place Where You Live | SF - Nature in the City |
Nature in the City is San Francisco’s first organization wholly dedicated to ecological conservation, restoration, and stewardship of the city’s bioregions and wild places. |
| Reducing Your Household Waste | SF – Real Foodies Compost |
A campaign to help San Franciscan’s learn how to properly compost. Includes tips and resources to reduce food waste. |
| Creating a Community Vegetable Garden | SF - Urban Harvesting Program |
The Urban Harvesting Program from SF Public Works works with residents and businesses to help collect and distribute food grown from trees and community gardens for distribution at shelters, food banks and other places of need. |
Our neighborhood. Our planet.
Resources
“Cities are the platform for change in our world today. The Cool Block links the challenges facing our planet to the intimate, personal, social scale of the city block. This program starts and ends with the premise and promise—that the individual, household, and neighbors are the way forward in the face of seemingly insoluble global problems.”
