Week Five

This week was focused on the relevant case studies presented at the SPLC's Summer Summit. We met briefly to discuss the ones that may be interesting for us to learn from in proceeding in our project. From this, I read over some of the case studies that we had decided upon. I made notes on these topics as well as picking out highlights from them. There were case studies ranging from ways to consume less paper up and down the supply chain as well as how to integrate responsible mining into procurement agendas. I also attended a webinar with Mr. Bruskotter regarding Green Peace's work on sustainable palm oil. From the webinar, I learned that they work in engaging collaboration with their suppliers to carry out best practices during the extraction process.

This week also marked the first staff meeting that I was invited to attend. The meeting started off with brief snippits of what was going on in our personal lives before we attended to the business side of things. Garrett and Mikael, two of the members of the climate action team, presented the almost final version the city's Climate Action Plan. They found that they reduced overall emissions of 19.8 percent from the previous action plan. One of their largest setbacks was in the city's Big Blue Bus program as there was an increase in use of single-mode transportation due to lower gas prices. While gas has been reached an all-time low in recent years, the city hopes that pushing for reductions in emissions across the board will encourage residents to become a part of their reduction goals. We went around the table discussing our various projects. The meeting ended with the update from our Chief Sustainability Officer, Dean Kubani, who discussed his meeting with the City Manager and his desire to make major changes regarding impact of the city's offices across the board.