by Lynne Nittler
The CoolCalifornia Challenge begins Sunday. In the next few months, we’ll find out just how cool we really are in Davis, one household at a time.
“It’s a fun competition,” says Chris Granger, one of the key Cool Davis organizers. “Every individual or household can sign up online now. Over the next few months they will record their household energy use and transportation practices. It’s like taking your temperature. As enough citizens sign up, we’ll get a baseline on how we’re doing in Davis.”
At stake is the City of Davis’ chance to earn the coveted title of Coolest California City against the competing cities of Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Arcata, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Chula Vista, and Gonzalez. Every household that signs up earns points for Davis in the challenge.
Alan Pryor can’t wait to sign up. He’s done all he can to retrofit his south Davis home and lower his greenhouse gas emissions. Alan will earn points for converting both lawns to fruit trees and an extensive vegetable garden fed by home-made compost. He 
grows 100% of the household’s annual fruits and vegetables on a timer-controlled drip line system. He went all out on energy conservation with fluorescent and LED lighting, double-paned windows properly covered, a whole house fan and more before he invested in solar panels and a solar hot water system that cover 100% of his electrical and 70% of his hot water needs.
“Once I started, I couldn’t stop,” says Alan modestly, holding up his impressive list of 29 actions in the areas of energy production, energy conservation, toxics and waste reduction, water conservation, food production, and transportation energy reduction. But, he says with a grin, “It wasn’t completely altruism. My investments in energy conservation and sustainability were actually the best guaranteed economic investments I could make. My annual savings on the various improvements in our home were almost always greater than 10-20 % per year based on the installed cost of the improvement.” Alan passes the cool test with flying colors.
Maria and Mark Tebbutt have enjoyed examining their lives for ways to conserve, too. Like Alan, they tackled energy conservation first in their early 70’s home by adding ceiling insulation, dual paned windows, a radiant barrier, a gas fireplace insert, a whole house fan, a portable water air conditioner, a shady grapevine wall on the west side, a removable south-facing shade structure and more. They removed the lawn in favor of a veggie garden and 30 fruit trees supplying a substantial part of their food along with fresh eggs from their chickens. Waste for the landfill is minimal as they buy food bulk at the Co-op, avoid packaged foods, use cloth bags, and compost. They even adopted a mini-pet to reduce impact. The PV system is an added bonus to their energy-efficient household.
Maria claims, “I wouldn’t feel right living any other way. I continue to look for more ways to live sustainably because I want to save resources for my daughter’s generation and those that follow her. Besides, I love the challenge!”
Sharon Hale and Dawn Student share an older home in east Davis, and they’re eager to sign up online to find out how cool they are. Frugality and the need to tread lightly on the earth have motivated them to reduce their impact by replacing older appliances with energy star models, installing a tankless hot water heater with a recirculation pump, turning off all appliances not in use, lowering the thermostat in winter, reducing landfill, composting, adding a whole house fan, a ceiling fan and a solar tube, substituting LED light fixtures and more. In 2007 their annual carbon footprint was 30,532 pounds of carbon. Thanks to their conservation efforts, it dropped to 21,791 pounds of carbon by 2011 compared to the Davis average of 78,000 pounds! Their PG&E bill now averages $55 per month, down from $76.
“A low carbon life is our way of life now,” says Sharon, eager to discover her next step.
Alan insists, “What produced the largest savings were the easiest, most obvious changes. If everyone in Davis commits to just a few steps, we can make a huge impact.”
“After thoughtful efforts and cost-effective investments over time, these profiles show what is possible once you accept the challenge of reducing your household energy use. Moving toward carbon neutrality is a process and the Cool California Challenge is your opportunity to check-in as you are and begin the process of shedding carbon. Join the challenge, begin your own journey, and help Davis become the Coolest California City!” adds Chris.
Please sign up beginning April 1! Every household counts. Visit www.cooldavis.org/challenge for details. Send ideas for future profiles to info(at)cooldavis(dot)org.
My congratulations to the three households profiled here for their energy saving efforts and to Lynne Nittler for the story.
We often see in postings on the Vanguard, sentiments about the lack of change being defended by the more mature population of Davis. I think this story demonstrates how limited this type of thinking is. For me, progress is not measured solely by the number of new buildings, housing developments, or new businesses although all have their place. Progress can also be measured by addressing environmental challenges in a new way or attempting not to be wasteful of our resources. Some younger folks are also adopting what I feel is an even more forward thinking attitude. I will use my 20 year old son as an example. He has chosen not to learn to drive. He lives and attends college in the Bay area. He walks, skateboards, rides his bike, or uses public transport and certainly does not feel this adversely impacts his quality of life. When he comes home which is frequent, he takes the train and walks all around town. This attitude is what I consider to be truly progressive and hope we will see energy saving both in our homes, our communities, and transportation system as the most desirable and sustainable form of change.
The city seems to have ignored the advantages of plantings for Energy conservation.
The Davis city Arborist –with support of Tree Davis– refused our neighborhood large shade trees in front our home to create a college Park-like street. A few years back we were told by Tree Davis Executive director that city does not have money to prune large trees so they no longer plant them, just medium size trees. So they refused our request to plant even the Arboretum All Star Valley Oaks.
They even refused to planting enough trees—while College Park has tree spacing of 35 ft, they only let us plant one tree a house….when our lots are over 60 ft wide. Trees only cost the City about $15 each.
SMUD gives away trees in Sac County—which in bulk only cost them $10-$15 each, but City of Davis is penny wise and pound foolish.
Its time Davis gots its it tree policies in line with its highly admirable goals.
SMUD even has tree
Planting trees or vines along the south side of your home lowers solar gain and
treeguy, there’s no reason [i]you[/i] can’t purchase and plant trees.
Yes, I refused city trees and purchased my own.
Howover most people won’t know the city is sighting a medium size tree in their front yard instead of the bigger one that’s needed with closer spacing…
REALITY IS: once the city plants a tree, you can never remove it…and you’re stuck with it and can’t plant a more appriate large one for 50-100 years until the city tree dies. We’ll be with the poor decisions of Davis City Arborist to NOT plant big shade trees until the turn of the next century.
Neighborhoods are actively being denied the opportunity to have the same shade canopy as College Park–ours was.
You can go down a number of streets in Davis and see the bad decisions the city arborist made 40-50 years ago: smaller trees that the city have yet to replace.
Is only costs SMUD via Sac Tree Foundation $50 each to plant trees-and no more to plant a large vs a smaller tree.
Why is the city NOT planting large Trees like “Arboretum All Star” Valley Oaks?
Lynn,
Please remind us all where to go online to sign up for the Cool Davis Challenge. I have a list of life style modifications twice as long as your listed participants and can’t wait to score some points for Davis in this challenge, and total up my carbon savings.
Transition thinking has become one of the most interesting and challenging aspects of my life.
Now that we have reached peak oil, with a rapidly declining future availability of the energy that has fueled our wasteful lifestyles , we will all be challenged to make our lives more meaningful by transitioning away from dependence on stuff and toward dependence on each other. Please visit this link about the Totnes Transition Towne, in england, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0
I’m finding this long overdue challenge to be very rewarding and a lot of fun!
I could care less.
LOL @ 91 Octane
I guess I just don’t get it because this article “How cool are we?” makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
roger: [url]http://www.cooldavis.org/take-action/cool-california/[/url]
91 octane: I believe you meant to say you could [i]not[/i] care less.