We proudly announce that the Cool Irvine program received the 2023 Beacon Leadership & Innovation award and the Platinum Level "Spotlight" Award for efforts to reduce natural gas use as an agency by 38% over the past year. The Beacon Program recognizes and supports California local agencies working to build more vibrant and sustainable communities. Beacon honors voluntary efforts by cities, counties, and special districts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, and adopt policies that promote sustainability.
The University Hills Sustainability Committee invites you to join a community-wide book discussion series. Our neighbor, Terry LePage, MDiv, PhD, has recently released an inspiring book, Eye of the Storm. This book welcomes readers to face climate and social chaos with calm and courage. It includes interviews with people finding their way through the Deep Adaptation Forum, a movement that formed in response to the work of Jem Bendell.
This book is so provocative, we recommend it for community-wide consideration. Warning: this mature content is recommended for adult discussion before including children under 18. We invite neighbors, Cool Block/Irvine participants, and anyone concerned about the state of our world and our future to join the conversation. We will discuss the book over 3 meetings with in-person discussions at the University Hills Community Center, Media Lounge, at 1083 California Avenue, Irvine CA 92617.
In preparation, you can obtain copies here or listen to a free audiorecording of the book (in addition to the usual buying options): https://opendoorcommunication.org/eye/get-the-book
City of Irvine CAAP Update
Thursday, November 2nd at 6 pm via Zoom. We had some fantastic leaders attend a workshop for Cool Irvine by the wonderful Selene Lawrence. It provided a lot of information on the CAAP update, and everyone was able to give feedback and engage in discussion!
On June 24th, 2023, we had a wonderful time at the Cool Irvine Sustainability Fair hosted at Heritage Park! This event provided information on energy efficiency, disaster preparedness, plant-based diets, rebates/tax credits, water conservation, and solar/battery storage!
We thank all of the excellent volunteers and we are appreciative of the support from the community and our partners!
February 28, 2023
We Love Our Volunteers
Thank you to everyone who volunteered during 2022! You made this program possible! To join our amazing team of volunteers, click here.
The Cool City Challenge Grant requires 120 active blocks by end of 2022. We have gotten off to a great start, but we need to keep that momentum going.
We currently have over 60 active blocks. Here is the map of existing Cool Block Leaders in Irvine from cohort 1, 2 and 3. Get your block on the map by joining us for our next training in September!
Irvine chooses 100% Renewable Energy Service for
OCPA customers
Irvine residents and businesses will soon be able to choose whether they would like to increase their renewable energy service through the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA). OCPA is a new independent, locally governed, not-for-profit Community Choice Energy provider for residential and commercial power services in Irvine.
On February 8, 2022, the Irvine City Council unanimously voted to select the 100% Renewable Energy default service level for all OCPA customers in Irvine. This is a major step toward meeting Irvine's goals of carbon neutrality by 2030. As a result, all Irvine residents and businesses will receive all of their energy from renewable sources unless they choose a lower tier or opt-out and remain with Southern California Edison (SCE) as their power provider. Service for commercial customers will begin in April 2022, and service for residential customers will begin in October 2022. For questions, please call OCPA’s customer call center at 1-866-262-7693 or visit their webpage at ocpower.org/contact-us/.
On January 13th, we launched the Cool Irvine program - a climate "moonshot" to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. Over 185 community members joined us to support this endeavor to build a climate-smart future for Irvine. We were honored to have Mayor Farrah Khan and Congresswoman Katie Porter kickoff the event to support Irvine's climate action efforts, and encourage our participation in the Cool City Challenge.
For those that were unable to access the Zoom event, we sincerely apologize for the technical issues. We are happy to share that the video recording of the event is available.
At this event, we heard from climate leaders, youth activists and our partners that will develop the initiatives to accelerate an ambitious climate plan for Irvine. We reviewed the Cool Block Program and heard from each of you about your priorities for climate action and your vision to shape Irvine’s climate resilient future. This image from the live survey captures the priorities nicely.
OC Register Article on Irvine's Cool City Journey
Newsletter Archives
State Senaor Dave Min
Presents the Cool Irvine Program with certification of recognition.
June 2022