The environment truly is becoming a problem and us Angelenos are not only at risk of being harmed by the environment we are also responsible for the environmental problems we face. Over the past two decades many have been striving to get a “handle” on the environment; there is a real fear that our planet is quickly deteriorating. The Urban Environmental Accords, where various cities agreed to work toward improving water and air quality and reducing waste, is a sign of a collective interest in preserving and improving the environment in urban centers. The accord dictates that cities will take the following actions:
  
•Increase the use of renewable energy.
 
•Adopt a citywide green house gas reduction plan to reduce emissions by twenty five percent by 2030.
 
•Establish a policy to achieve zero waste to landfills and incinerators by 2040.

•Adopt a citywide law that reduces the use of disposable, toxic or non-renewable products.

•Implement “user-friendly” recycling and composting programs.

•Adopt a policy that mandates a green building rating system that will apply to all new municipal buildings.
 
•Adopt urban planning principles that advance higher density, mixed use, walkable, bikeable and disabled-accessible neighborhoods which coordinate land use and transportation with open space systems for recreation and ecological restoration. 

•Adopt a policy or implement a program that creates environmentally beneficial jobs in low-income neighborhoods.
 
•Ensure that there is an accessible park or recreational open space within half-a-kilometer of every city resident by 2015.
 
•Conduct an inventory of existing canopy coverage in the city and plant and maintain canopy coverage in not less than fifty per cent of all available sidewalk plating sites.
 
•Pass legislation that protects critical habitat corridors and other key habitat characteristics (e.g. water features, food bearing plants, shelter for wildlife, use of native species, etc.) from unsustainable development.

•Develop and implement a policy which expands affordable public transportation coverage to within half-a-kilometer of all city residents in ten years.

•Implement a policy to reduce the percentage of commute trips by single occupancy vehicles by ten per cent in seven years.
 
•Every year, identify one product, chemicals, or compound that is used within the city that represents the greatest risk to human health and adopt a law to provide incentives to reduce or eliminate its use by the municipal government.

•Promote the public health and environmental benefits of supporting organic foods .Ensure that twenty per cent of all city facilities (including schools) serve locally grown and organic food within seven years.

•Establish an Air Quality Index (AQI) to measure the level of air pollution and set the goal of reducing by ten per cent in seven years the number of days categorized in the AQI range as "unhealthy" to "hazardous."

•Develop policies to increase adequate access to safe drinking water, aiming at access for all by 2015.
 
•Protect the ecological integrity of the city’s primary drinking water sources (i.e. aquifers, rivers, lakes, wetlands and associated eco-systems).

•Adopt municipal wastewater management guidelines and reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharge by ten per cent in seven years.

Such efforts reflect a growing understanding of the far reaching effects that the environment can have on people’s lives and ultimately the success of a city. They also reflect an understanding that everyone contributes to the world’s environmental problems on some level and that everyone can do something to improve the environment.

If you are interested in working on some or all of this issues then contact me, Jeffrey Tipton, at 213-952-9723 and I can help point you in the right direction.