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MENLO PARK MENLO PARK DRIVE LESS CHALLENGEDRIVE LESS CHALLENGE
Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens’ CommitteeAdina Levin
Drive Less Challenge
Goal: friendly social competition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
2009 Pilot - experiment at a local scale
2010 Expansion - scale to multiple communities, more deeply per community
In 2005, the community of Menlo Park emitted approximately 491,054 metric tons of CO2e• 45.8% from vehicles on roads and highways• 30.1% from energy use in commercial and
industrial buildings• 11.4% from energy use in residences• 8.5% from the closed Marsh Road Landfill• 3.6% from solid waste generated by Menlo
Park homes and businesses• 0.4% from municipal government operations
Single biggest source of carbon emissions…
Community incentives
Role models & norms
School, work Neighborhoods Faith communities Community
sponsorship Shop locally
Friendly social competition… Participate with school, work, neighborhood, faith
community 1 week after earth day, go online and log your trips
Getting kids engaged… Oak Knoll School - 28 participants, 143 trips Out of bike rack space
City role model All 5 city council members City employees - 8 participants, 41 trips The mayor and the bus rack
Neighborhoods & Faith Communities
Willows - 8 participants, 95 trips
Congregation Etz Chaim - 5 participants, 44 trips
Lighting the way
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/videolux/3007141810/
Local business sponsorsLocal business sponsors
Overall Results
Over 120 participants Nearly 500 green trips Over 5000 green miles Equivalent of 17 cars off the road If everyone did this… 15-20% of
transportation emissions
Next steps - improve and scale
Scale - deeper into Menlo Park, broader to neighboring communities
Go from 120 participants to 2400 participants Involve 3 other communities in Bay Area (targets
Palo Alto, Mountain View, Burlingame, Los Altos, Redwood City)
20K green trips, 200K green miles Grant sponsorship to fund scale (targets:
commute.org, Sustainable SV or SM, etc.)
Next steps - improve & scale
Version 1 - minimal cost• SurveyMonkey to log trips & calculate results
Logging was awkward Results only at end Couldn’t see others
• Volunteer website to share stories, list sponsors
Not integrated with logging app Not social
• Community outreach narrow• Menlo Park focus with some neighboring
communities
How to improve
Easier to use, more responsive• More responsive trip logging• Immediate results - more feedback,
more fun Better social networking
• Visibly participate with social groups• Reach out through Facebook, Twitter
How to improve
Deeper community outreach• Deeper outreach to schools, workplaces• Templates for easier volunteering
Additional communities• Toolkit to adopt per community• Needs local team & outreach
Requirements: Interactive
Organization
Chair and coordinating committee How to: toolkit Roles per city
• Publicity - press and social media• Community outreach (schools,
workplace, neighborhoods, faith)• Sponsorship - prizes, financial support
