Los Angeles

In partnership with Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education: S.C.O.P.E. LA

CONTACT:

Elsa Barboza, Campaign Director, SCOPE
ebarboza@scopela.org
323-789-7920

MISSION: In February 2006, SCOPE convened the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance and launched a multi-year public policy campaign to ensure that low income communities are strategically connected to the job creation and environmental returns of an emerging green economy.

Our mission is to build a broad-based constituency in support of a sustainable, equitable, and clean energy economy that will create quality jobs for low-income people of color, create healthier and safer communities, and promote community-based land use planning and economic development. Through policy alternatives, organizing, and on the ground results, we are demonstrating that a socially-just, environmentally-sustainable, and economically-prosperous future is attainable.

WHAT’S IN THE WORKS: LA Apollo is currently working with the City and other allies to implement the Green Retrofit and Workforce Program. Due to the economic downturn, the biggest challenge is securing funding to fully achieve the vision of the ordinance and create good jobs retrofitting over 1,000 city buildings.

LA Apollo continues to look at ways to revitalize the regional manufacturing base using the production of clean energy products, components, and systems as a catalyzing agent.

LOS ANGELES SPECIFICS: Los Angeles’ elected leaders are attempting to make the second largest city in the nation into the “Greenest Big City in America” by encouraging the greening of the private sector construction industry, building green K-12 schools and community colleges, and promoting incentives to bring clean tech manufacturers to the region. At the same time, City residents are experiencing disproportionately high rates of poverty and unemployment, particularly in inner-city communities. Based on these opportunities and needs, Los Angeles is uniquely positioned to lead the nation in developing an agenda to grow the economy based upon the shared values of environmental sustainability and economic prosperity for all.

With a population of more than 3.8 million residents spread over 500 square miles, Los Angeles will be key to developing and implementing strategies to comply with California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which calls for reducing greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

In 2007, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in partnership with the Los Angeles City Council and environmental leaders, unveiled GREEN LA – An Action Plan to Lead the Nation in Fighting Global Warming. GREEN LA aims to reduce the City’s carbon footprint and address climate change in an effective, efficient and tangible manner. This includes greening the power of the nation’s largest municipal utility, as well as creating a more liveable city and catalyzing the growth of the green economic sector.

In 2008, Los Angeles adopted a private sector Green Building Ordinance establishing a series of incentives and requirements for developers to meet USGBC LEED standards for new, large private sector development.

In 2010, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power drafted an Integrated Resource Plan to provide a 20-year framework to ensure that current and future energy needs of the City are met, regulatory requirements are satisfied, and environmental policy goals are achieved. The Draft 2010 IRP lays out alternative strategies for increasing renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while maintaining power reliability and minimizing the financial impact on the City’s ratepayers.

PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In August 2006, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and City Councilman Herb Wesson signed a commitment to accept the “Apollo Challenge” and work with LA Apollo to shape a green economic and workforce development strategy.

In April 2009, after more than three years of organizing and advocacy, LA Apollo won unanimous approval from the City Council for the Green Retrofit and Workforce ordinance. The first-in-the-nation program will create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and revitalize the inner city by remodeling city buildings to be more energy and water efficient and developing a training program that creates a pathway to good, green, and safe jobs for workers in low-income communities.

In April 2010, Since Teresa Sanchez, formerly of SEIU and founding member of the LA Apollo Alliance, was appointed by the Mayor to lead implementation efforts for the Green Retrofit and Workforce Program. In November, Teresa’s hard work was recognized with the “Right Stuff Award” by the National Apollo Alliance.

In November 2010, the first class of trainees graduated from the Los Angeles Green Retrofit Training Program.

In 2011, the pilot phase of the Green Retrofit Program will remodel 15 buildings to increase energy and water efficiency.

MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS and ADVISORS Top

AFSCME District Council 36
Black Workers Center
Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies
Coalition for Clean Air
Community Coalition
Communities for a Better Environment
East LA Community Corporation
Environmental Defense LA
Green LA Coalition
IBEW Local 11
IBEW Local 18/DWP-JTI
Korean Resource Center
Laborers Local 300
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Painters District Council 36
P.I.P.E. Trust Fund
Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles
SEIU Local 721
Sierra Club
Strategic Alliance for a Just Economy
Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education (SCOPE/AGENDA)
UCLA Labor Center
UCLA Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program (UCLA-LOSH)