Community Sustainability and Climate Change
Davis Sustainability
Davis can trace its sustainability roots back more than 40 years to the date the community decided to establish the first bike lanes in the United States. With this seemingly simple act of painting lines on its streets, the Davis community set in motion a series of local actions that established it as one of the early leaders in the sustainable communities movement. This movement has taken hold in recent years as the potential consequences of climate change, species decline, and reliance on non-renewable energy supplies have come into sharper focus. With its early actions to establish alternatives to automobile travel, energy conservation, solar energy production, farmland and habitat protections, inclusionary housing programs, and innovative land use policies, Davis is well positioned to fight global warming and work toward a more sustainable future.
Follow links to the left to find out more about the City’s existing programs related to sustainability.
What is a sustainable community?
Sustainability is a general concept used to describe a community that considers the long-term affects of its decisions on future generations and the natural world. It is a tool that helps individuals, communities, states, and nations focus on what needs to be done to ensure that future generations and natural communities are stable and thrive. In practice this means that a community recognizes that economy, society, and environment are mutually dependent and need to be balanced. To move toward sustainability, communities and individuals must incorporate this concept into both long-term and day-to-day decisions.
For most communities this requires a new mind-set. For Davis this means a renewed focus on established core community values of innovation and conservation and building on existing programs. This will allow Davis to take positive steps toward sustainability and provide an even stronger example of a community designed to address and adapt to the environmental challenges on the horizon.
Current Efforts – Climate Change
The City is currently focused on addressing local greenhouse gas emissions. The City is conducting an inventory of community greenhouse gas emissions and will set reduction targets when the inventory is complete early next year. See the Climate Change link to the left for more information on City efforts and suggestions for what you can do.
The City is also coordinating with UC Davis and other organizations to identify where efforts on sustainability and climate change overlap. This will allow the City to partner with other organizations and groups to increase the effectiveness of its actions.
