The Valley Improvement Projects Community Center will be hosting a pair of meetings/workshops along with the California Cleaner Freight Coalition (CCFC), a statewide collective of non-profits and community based organizations seeking to reduce emission from transportation and mobile sources including trucks, rail, air and marine vessels.
The first will be a workshop on “Race, Power, and Privilege” or RPP. Its desired outcomes are: To review key ideas; we need to examine the Root Causes of RPP, discuss strategies and solutions for this group in the context of building leadership at the local, regional and statewide level. To highlight and identify challenges—using personal experiences and case studies (videos) and share constructive strategies to navigate the challenges of racism, class and privilege in the workplace. What impacts does it have on local leadership? How does it affect your work and social environment? What kind of tools do we have to support each other in working through the RPP obstacle course? To determine the next steps for our RPP work (including a follow up meeting) and what to present to the Network. The workshop will be held this Saturday, April 12th, from 10am-2pm.
The second will be a community outreach meeting with members of the CCFC as well as California Air Resources board members, regional advocate organizations, community groups, and the general public. This will be an opportunity for community groups and individuals ask questions and express concerns on issues having to do with clean air, the environment, sustainability, new technologies, and regulations. Some questions that we’ll be asking include:
What is a sustainable freight system?
What issues and concerns do you feel must be addressed if a sustainable freight system is to be achieved?
What actions do you think government should take to encourage both the general business community and supply chain businesses, in particular, to help meet sustainable goals?
What actions would you recommend as next steps to achieving a sustainable freight system?
What hurdles exist within the existing goods movement system that if removed could provide better efficiency and a more sustainable freight system?
What are areas of potential unintended consequences?
Strategies to foster a sustainable freight system, in part, rely on emerging technologies to meet Green House Gases and criteria emissions goals, what should both the public and private sector do to ensure needed technologies are advanced and are commercially available in time to meet milestone deadlines?
What are the issues/concerns with emerging technologies?
What other issues is the group facing that we should be aware of?
How does the California freight system become more efficient so it can expand, be competitive and reduce emissions?
Do you have suggestions regarding potential funding and market mechanisms to support the transformation of freight-related infrastructure, vehicles, equipment and operations?
What actions could CARB support with business communities where air quality is not the primary or identified benefit (e.g. fuel efficiency, waste diversion, rebates or tax credits)?
What is the best way to engage additional stakeholders?
Should next steps involve individual meetings? Focus groups? Workshops? Existing stakeholder meetings? Coordination and/or integration with other efforts (i.e. local, regional, other State, and federal efforts)?
This meeting will take place on Saturday, May 3rd at 2pm, both at the VIP Community Center.