Creative Greenius

The Green Idea City of Hermosa Beach project has reached a major milestone in its goal to help the town become the first carbon-neutral city in the South Bay.

The City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday to agree to a memorandum of understanding between Hermosa Beach and AECOM, an international provider of environmental and energy-related technical and management support services.

The global conglomerate will work for free to provide consulting and grant writing services that secure funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as other programs that can cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Read the rest of the story on Hermosa Beach Patch.com

My wife, Debra, and I watched our beloved world champion Los Angeles Lakers banish the bullies from Boston back to Beantown at the Staples Center. Thursday night’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals was a magical experience we’ll never forget — for more reasons than you’d think.

Thursday was “Dump the Pump Day,” which encouraged residents to take public transportation for travel instead of driving. So we decided to leave our car at home and ride the train and bus to The Big Fastener. We had plenty of smart reasons to:

• We’d save at least $50 in gas and parking.
• We’d save the stress and aggravation of rush-hour traffic.
• Our car wouldn’t be at risk in post-game celebrations.
• We’d cut our carbon footprint and help cut greenhouse gas emissions while supporting public transportation.

Read the rest of the story on Hermosa Beach Patch.com

An ill-advised, last-minute attempt to add dedicated bicycle lanes to the Upper Pier Avenue project resulted in disappointment, tension and frustration that was expressed emotionally at times by three of the five Hermosa Beach City Council members at the panel’s meeting Tuesday night.

Councilman Jeff Duclos had spearheaded a push to reevaluate the bike lane project, and I was one of the local environmental leaders he contacted about that last week.  Duclos told me via telephone that the door was open to take a second look at the concrete center median slated for the new Upper Pier, because the project was over budget and behind schedule.

He said that eliminating the center median would not only get the project back on track and save big money, but it would also open space for dedicated bike lanes.  He further confided that the Hermosa Beach police and fire departments were now expressing safety concerns about the median.

Read more about it on Hermosa Beach Patch.com

Hoping to encourage more Fiesta Hermosa attendees to go carbon-free in their transportation, the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau offered free valet parking for bicycles this Memorial Day weekend.

Expectations were for about 100 to 200 bicycles to take advantage of the new service each day. But within just a few hours of the valet lot opening on Saturday morning, the lot was filled to near capacity with between 600 to 700 bicycles checked in, parked and watched over until their owners returned to claim them.

No bikes were reported either lost or damaged. The reviews from those who used the service were nothing short of raves. I know because I was part of the volunteer team from the South Bay Bicycle Coalition (SBBC) who valet parked and retrieved bikes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Read more about it at Hermosa Beach.com

If Hermosa Beach is ever truly going to become a carbon-neutral city it’s going to have to make some very big and very healthy changes, including cutting out the use of unsustainable fossil fuel-based plastic products.

If there were a poster boy for non-sustainability and wasteful spending, it would be the disposable plastic water bottle.  In the United States we consume more than 500 million bottles of water each week. That’s one billion plastic water bottles every two weeks and 800 million of those don’t get recycled; they wind up filling our landfills with plastic that will never biodegrade.

Or they find their way into the ocean, adding to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which now covers hundreds of miles across the North Pacific Ocean, turning the sea into the world’s biggest garbage dump and killing birds, fish and sea mammals in the process. There are giant plastic garbage patches in four other oceans too.

Read more about it on Hermsoa Beach Patch.com

Despite two unexpected days of May showers, the Bike to Work Week Challenge here in the South Bay had no shortage of participants from the cities of Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo and Torrance.  South Bay businesses Aerospace Corp., Zislis Group, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and DirecTV all took the challenge as well.

The exact number of participants and challenge winners wasn’t tabulated yet by our deadline, but Bike to Work Week’s success was evident at the VIP Reception honoring the event’s co-chairs at Shade hotel in Manhattan Beach.

One of those co-chairs, Redondo Beach City Councilman Steven Diels, traveled to the hotel on his tandem bike, arriving with his wife and young son on his zero emission ride. Diels is also a member of the South Bay Bicycle Coalition.

Read more about it in Redondo Beach Patch.com

Brad Bartz is big on Hermosa Beach. He’s betting that the city’s efforts to become carbon neutral will make it the “green beacon” that brings in a new generation of green businesses just like his, ABC Solar.

Bartz is placing his bet by leasing the location that formerly housed the International News Stand at 344 Pacific Coast Highway.  It’s on a stretch of PCH that is surrounded by buildings with “For Lease” signs everywhere you turn, but when Bartz looks around all he sees is opportunity…. and “naked roofs.”

Bartz and ABC Solar have a long history installing solar throughout the South Bay and he has just as long of a history battling with local municipalities like Torrance and Manhattan Beach when he feels they are needlessly obstructing the public’s right to get free electricity from the sun. I have to admit, I’ve enjoyed watching him do so.

Read more about it on Hermosa Beach Patch.com

Despite the South Bay’s reputation as being a laid-back area, those of us who live here know that getting to and from work each day can be stressful.

There is nothing melodious about the cutthroat, “I’m already late and you’re in my way” attitude of the road warriors as they head to and from the office. And they’re typically still on the job while they’re in the car thanks to the smart phones that keep us tethered to work no matter where we are.

But what if we could radically change that whole scenario? What if drivers could instead ride their bicycles to work?

If you live in Hermosa Beach, you are the envy of people all over this planet. It’s easy to get jaded and take it for granted if you’re a local, or to lose sight of 99 percent of the world’s population who would gladly swap places with you if given the chance. The beach, the ocean, the weather, the fresh coastal air blowing in, the Hermosa Beach culture and lifestyle–they all combine to build an image of a SoCal paradise. If it really is all about “location, location, location,” then Hermosa Beach has got it made.

Or does it?

If you look at a list of California’s  six worst greenhouse gas emitters (as compiled by the California Air Resources Board), you’ll notice that three of them are pretty close to Hermosa Beach. The El Segundo Chevron refinery is just four miles away, the Torrance Exxon Mobil Refinery is four miles away (in the other direction), and the always-popular BP/Arco Refinery is just 12 miles away in Carson.

Read more about it on Hermosa Beach Patch.com