What Has SJVCEO Been Up To in June

With much of the southwest and California experiencing its first major heat wave of the summer we hope everyone is taking precautions to stay cool as well as save energy. While trying to survive the heat the SJVCEO team has been busy traveling for conferences as well as working to identify new projects that can be completed in 2016.

Some of the SJVCEO staff attended the 7th Annual Statewide Energy Efficiency Forum (or SEEC Conference) in Riverside on June 15th and 16th. This year's program was expanded to include four plenary sessions and sixteen different breakout sessions over a two day period.

This year, the forum focused on “taking a holistic approach toward a sustainable future” and how taking a full system approach to climate action and planning by understanding the interconnected and multifaceted nature of energy efficiency will better serve and create a longer term vision for our communities.
Speakers from the Local Government Commission (LGC), the Institute for Local Governments (ILG), the four IOUs (PG&E, SCE, SCG, and SDG&E), Planning and Sustainability departments from various jurisdictions, and many others spoke about current policies and programs in place that demonstrate the importance of a multi-dimensional approach that yields deeper energy savings. They also spoke to local climate actions that have allowed communities to respond to climate change more effectively and increase local and regional climate resiliency.

There were two new sessions at this year’s forum. Attendees could participate in the “Ask the Experts” one-on-one mentoring program. Experts in Finance and Funding, Regulatory Issues and Compliance, Climate Action Planning and Strategic Planning, as well as Engagement and Outreach were available for attendees to address and receive input on specific challenges. Attendees also participated in the poster session which allowed local governments partners, CivicSpark interns and many others to share their unique successes and challenges to a broader audience.

In between traveling the SJVCEO staff was busy looking through potential project listing from our energy champion partners in the cities and counties in the HDR Partnership and VIEW Partnership. We are very excited about some of the work that is being identified as well as in the works. As we say here in the office," keep the energy projects coming!" We currently do not have a lot to report in the way of projects and numbers since much of the summer is a down time for our local governments as well as our IOU partners. 

We hope to share much more exciting items with you as we make our way through the summer months. 

Stay tuned for next months update!