Electrification Assistance Outreach
In recent years, the focus on electrification of homes and businesses in California has increased. Now that there are more resources available, the availability of renewable energy is growing, and the state is moving towards tougher regulations on natural gas, it makes sense to electrify homes and businesses sooner rather than later. For these reasons, the Federal Government, the State of California, and local municipalities are all starting to incentivize the electrification of homes and commercial buildings. Environmental Innovations helps businesses and homeowners navigate these incentives and the various contractors needed for a project. We do the math for our clients to show them how much they can save by electrifying their home or business, and connect them with programs that offer 0% interest, on-bill financing, and low interest government backed loans to help offset the costs.
Municipalities who are looking for a team to promote electrification outreach to home and commercial building owners can find that team in EI. Our outreach teams know how to work with and motivate property owners, and can leverage our Green Business connections to target underserved, multilingual communities. Contact us today to find out more.
Community-Based Social Marketing Approach
EI follows the five community-based social marketing (CBSM) steps: selecting behaviors, identifying barriers, developing strategies, conducting pilots, and broad scale implementation. We prefer to take a microscale approach initially, test it, tweak it, and where necessary, scrap it and start over. Any print or digital material is initially targeted to a small subset to determine which approaches work. Once it is determined that we have landed on a replicable working strategy, it will be implemented on a broad scale.
By implementing pilot programs to small groups of targeted community or business sectors, we are able to determine the quickest, most cost effective solution that eliminates both the actual and perceived barriers for local businesses. This model helps us solve problems effectively without spending too much time or money on approaches that do not work. We incorporate this approach into program design and planning. If your municipality is in the design phase of a sustainability initiative, reach out to us to incorporate CBSM elements.
Organics/Food Waste Recovery and Recycling
AB 1826 and SB 1383 Compliance
Mandatory recycling of organic waste is a critical step toward achieving California’s aggressive recycling and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission goals. Now that solid waste GHG reduction has been codified through the adoption of AB 1826 and SB 1383, incorporated cities, no matter how small, have a mandate to shift organic waste from landfills to more productive uses, including edible food recovery, composting, and creating energy from biodigesters. It is often difficult for smaller municipalities to reach compliance for both AB 1826 and SB 1383. However, EI has created a replicable model to quickly and cost-effectively bring smaller municipalities into compliance, while also lending their experience in working with large municipalities.
EI works with waste haulers and local jurisdictions to implement commercial and residential organic waste collection programs and support edible food recovery efforts. We also implement outreach and training campaigns for food facilities to help them come into compliance with AB 1826 and SB 1383 requirements. All data is carefully tracked through our proprietary online database to provide you with the documentation you need as part of your reporting requirements to the State.
If your jurisdiction needs assistance meeting AB 1826 and SB 1383 mandates, contact us today to find out how we can help you go above and beyond your GHG and waste reduction goals.
Regulatory compliance and business outreach and regulation
Specializing in business assistance and outreach, Environmental Innovations helps jurisdictions that do not have the in-house capacity to conduct voluntary outreach, education, and regulatory enforcement. We currently coordinate regulatory industrial environmental compliance for municipalities, including all aspects of the fats, oil and grease (FOG) program for restaurants, inspection and monitoring services for light, categorical and significant industrial users, and enforcement of polystyrene bans, mandatory recycling, and compost laws.
We start by implementing an educational “soft enforcement” approach, coupled with incentives for businesses to voluntarily comply with regulatory compliance. This approach allows us to assist the businesses in a friendly, non threatening way, encouraging businesses to come into compliance smoothly. Once these paths have been exhausted, we then switch to regulatory enforcement. We currently provide this assistance to the Cities of Scotts Valley, Capitola, and Marina.
Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you with Compliance Assistance in your jurisdiction.