Last week, the Poly Green Schools Campaign had two crucial meetings. On Tuesday, the group met with Councilmember Al Austin’s Chief of Staff. Al Austin is a supporter of renewable energy solutions. When the CCA (Community Choice Aggregate) was presented to the City Council last year, Mr. Austin asked to take a look at the feasibility of such a transition and to continue monitoring developments in other cities that bought into a CCA. Austin’s office will also be reaching out to LBUSD Board Member Megan Kerr to further discuss our initiative.
We also met in a conjoined meeting with the LBUSD’s facilities director, Alan Reising, and San Diego Unified School District’s (SDUSD) facilities director, Lee Dulgeroff. SDUSD’s transition towards sustainability began in 2014 when the district established a sustainability committee. This committee created 13 initiatives in order to fight climate change, with one of the goals consisting of net-zero transmissions. SDUSD is currently undergoing a transition off of fossil fuels. We were thrilled to meet with Mr. Dulgeroff and discuss strategies that LBUSD can implement in order to transition off of fossil fuels. We were also reminded of our challenges. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic is calling for cleaner air, which requires a higher air exchange. This in turn results in a greater consumption of energy. As energy conservation is a key component of transitioning off of fossil fuels, we will have to find a way to maintain clean air at schools while simultaneously reducing energy usage.
We are thankful for our meetings with Austin’s office, Mr. Reising, and Mr. Dulgeroff, and we look forward to continuing to work to transition LBUSD off of fossil fuels.
Poly Green Schools Campaign