Sustainable LA Grand Challenge

Like many cities around the world, Los Angeles is already experiencing the impacts of climate change first hand. In order to align with state and regional climate goals, the city of Los Angeles is taking steps to help residents adapt and become more resilient in the face of these changes, while simultaneously mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through targeted policies, such as building decarbonization.

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions helps mitigate climate change and improves air quality, which protects public health. California has the worst air pollution than any other state in the country. As the world’s fifth-largest economy, the most populous state in the nation, and a coastal state vulnerable to climate catastrophes, we have ample reasons to be a leader in the race to net-zero GHG emissions. While achieving net-zero emissions is critical in limiting global temperature rise, the resulting long-term air quality and health impacts in the state remained unclear. Quantifying these impacts can help demonstrate the benefits of climate change action to local communities and policymakers.

Los Angeles County has high rates of food insecurity, federal food assistance and chronic diet-related diseases, in part due to lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables and limited green space and safe outdoor spaces in many communities. Urban agriculture has the potential to improve public health through increased food access and consumption, thus may help address urban food insecurity. However, there is very limited data and documentation of urban agriculture activities (e.g. size, production, crop types) in the County. Recognizing this data gap, this project expanded the current documentation efforts and assessed the production potential focusing on how urban agriculture affects public health by integrating health impact assessment (HIA) methodology, geospatial analysis and policy review. 

The shared Community Renewables program is a novel concept being implemented across the country, which enables customers to access clean power by joining a renewable energy project in their community. Thus far, including in California, the program is limited to a handful of solar energy projects and customers have very limited access. Customers who participate in community solar share solar output among themselves, as opposed to homeowners individually implementing the solar system to offset the electricity usage.  Given the potential to significantly expand renewable energy generation and use in the long run, this project explores the current status of the community renewables solar market both in Los Angeles County and the United States. The overall objective is to carry out in-depth research combining policy review, interviews and case studies to develop policy recommendations for expanding renewable energy production projects. 

Assembly Bill 551 (AB 551), California’s Urban Agricultural Incentive Zones (UAIZ) Act, provides tax incentives to landowners to transform vacant lots into small-scale agricultural plots. Major benefits of implementing AB 551 include:  Reduced number of food deserts across the City of Los Angeles.  Reduced transportation pollution from shipping produce.  Creation of new green spaces in previously vacant lots.  Expansion of local farming coupled with sustainable agriculture technologies.  Thus, the implementation of AB 551 is crucial to ensure the City of L.A. meets its 2025 Sustainable City pLAn outcome to increase urban agriculture sites by 25%. The objective of this project is to research the adoption and implementation methods of other California cities and counties that have already adopted AB 551 to relay this information to LAFPC and to share the best implementation strategies for the City of L.A.

Encouraging more green jobs is critical to successfully implementing the sustainability solutions, and being able to measure the growth of green jobs across Los Angeles and beyond is meaningful for many reasons. As one of the three E's of sustainability along with the environment and ethics, a thriving economy is an essential part of a sustainable future for the City of Los Angeles. Not to mention, transitioning to a green economy requires a trained workforce in industries such as environment, energy, transportation, and planning.  In this project, Chambeshi assisted research associated with the legal implications of the City of Los Angeles’ newly launched Low-Income Car-Share Project. Specifically, he complied and assessed the green job creation data and benefits and initiated the standardizing process of green job classification across city departments to help measure the growth of green jobs. Additionally, he helped revise greenhouse gas emission standards for the California Cap-N-Trade program to allow entities to accurately measure the amounts of emissions.