MENLO PARK MENLO PARK DRIVE LESS CHALLENGEDRIVE LESS CHALLENGE

Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens’ CommitteeAdina Levin

Drive Less Challenge

Goal: friendly social competition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

2009 Pilot - experiment at a local scale

2010 Expansion - scale to multiple communities, more deeply per community

In 2005, the community of Menlo Park emitted approximately 491,054 metric tons of CO2e• 45.8% from vehicles on roads and highways• 30.1% from energy use in commercial and

industrial buildings• 11.4% from energy use in residences• 8.5% from the closed Marsh Road Landfill• 3.6% from solid waste generated by Menlo

Park homes and businesses• 0.4% from municipal government operations

Single biggest source of carbon emissions…

Community incentives

Role models & norms

School, work Neighborhoods Faith communities Community

sponsorship Shop locally

Friendly social competition… Participate with school, work, neighborhood, faith

community 1 week after earth day, go online and log your trips

Getting kids engaged… Oak Knoll School - 28 participants, 143 trips Out of bike rack space

City role model All 5 city council members City employees - 8 participants, 41 trips The mayor and the bus rack

Neighborhoods & Faith Communities

Willows - 8 participants, 95 trips

Congregation Etz Chaim - 5 participants, 44 trips

Lighting the way

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/videolux/3007141810/

Local business sponsorsLocal business sponsors

Overall Results

Over 120 participants Nearly 500 green trips Over 5000 green miles Equivalent of 17 cars off the road If everyone did this… 15-20% of

transportation emissions

Next steps - improve and scale

Scale - deeper into Menlo Park, broader to neighboring communities

Go from 120 participants to 2400 participants Involve 3 other communities in Bay Area (targets

Palo Alto, Mountain View, Burlingame, Los Altos, Redwood City)

20K green trips, 200K green miles Grant sponsorship to fund scale (targets:

commute.org, Sustainable SV or SM, etc.)

Next steps - improve & scale

Version 1 - minimal cost• SurveyMonkey to log trips & calculate results

Logging was awkward Results only at end Couldn’t see others

• Volunteer website to share stories, list sponsors

Not integrated with logging app Not social

• Community outreach narrow• Menlo Park focus with some neighboring

communities

How to improve

Easier to use, more responsive• More responsive trip logging• Immediate results - more feedback,

more fun Better social networking

• Visibly participate with social groups• Reach out through Facebook, Twitter

How to improve

Deeper community outreach• Deeper outreach to schools, workplaces• Templates for easier volunteering

Additional communities• Toolkit to adopt per community• Needs local team & outreach

Requirements: Interactive

Organization

Chair and coordinating committee How to: toolkit Roles per city

• Publicity - press and social media• Community outreach (schools,

workplace, neighborhoods, faith)• Sponsorship - prizes, financial support

Questions?

Adina Levin alevin@alevin.com drivelesschallenge.com