12 Communities Join the Sustainable Energy Roadmap Initiative

Silicon Valley, California | January 2016

The Sustainable Energy Roadmap (SER) program is focused on helping local communities to set and pursue goals related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and transportation and land use, all while enhancing the role of environmental justice communities in the public planning process.  The program is funded by the California Strategic Growth Council.

We are excited to announce that the first 12Âcommunities have joined the SER Program!  Click on a city below to visit their project webpage that provides access to their customize roadmap as well as local resources.

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The City of Visalia is participating in the SER program as a lead pilot municipality in the Roadmap process. Kim Loeb, Natural Resource Conservation Manager at Visalia, says, “The City has been a Valley leader in energy and water efficiency and conservation programs, innovative transit systems, and land-use planning which has strengthened our downtown and focused on infill. We see the SER program as an opportunity to shed a spotlight on and strengthen a number of our climate and energy action programs.”

The tailored Roadmap process takes municipalities through the following four steps:

  1. Performance of a baseline benchmark survey of existing municipal sustainability infrastructure, processes and practices.
  2. Identification of local sustainability goal(s) for improvement in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, transportation and land use, and social equity.
  3. Development of a Roadmap or action plan on how to achieve the goal(s), with special attention to addressing the needs of Disadvantaged Communities, tied to regional and national best practices through an online platform.
  4. Project implementation and monitoring to achieve and document success by utilizing program resources and adoption assistance.

The program is led by a collective of partners that include the San Joaquin Valley Regional Policy Council, San Rafael-based non-profit Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI), Santa Clara-based Optony Inc., Colorado Energy Group, and the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC), along with 2 leading public agencies: the Madera County Transportation Commission and the City of Visalia.