Climate Action and Resiliency

Summary of objective implementation status

The Board of Supervisors demonstrated a strong commitment to enhancing community resilience and achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 by approving Strategic Pillar funds for marketing, education, and outreach. These funds supported the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP) in promoting resources and encouraging retrofit projects within the multi-family housing sector.

SCEIP is a County-administered, public service program provides financing and education services community-wide to assist in meeting the County’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, and to promote community resilience to grid power interruptions, drought, earthquakes, and wildfires.   

Between December 2021 through December 2023, Strategic Plan funded outreach was conducted to viable multi-family housing owners and property managers through email and direct mail to provide resources on achieving carbon-neutral buildings, reaching 700 property owners. A comprehensive six-month campaign was launched, which included radio, digital, social media, and print. Additional efforts included a contractor breakfast in September 2022 to educate on financing options.

From June 2022 to September 2023, ads were continuously updated and supplemented with streaming TV ads on platforms like Hulu, targeted to viewers of home improvement content. Finally, from September to December 2023, remaining funds were used for additional radio ads and property tax bill inserts, reaching over 200,000 households, to encourage property owners to participate in the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP). The final Strategic Plan funded radio ads concluded in December 2023.

Although Strategic Plan funds were fully utilized by December 2023, SCEIP continues to promote financing and incentives for multi-family retrofits.

As many multi-family housing property owners live outside of Sonoma County, SCEIP will continue to send out tax bill inserts for the Unsecured Business Tax Roll in an attempt to engage with this audience.

Through established partnerships with existing programs such as BayREN, a multi-family pilot will be rolled out in the coming year that will include additional workshops and outreach material development.

Key milestone update

SCEIP provided $491,000 in financing for a Community Solar Array benefiting 35 residents of a mobile home park in 2023.

• Total Bonding for multi-family housing: $491,000
• Total Bonding in 23-24 FY $7,338,713
• Total Bonding in 24-25 FY to date $2,984,376

Coordination and partnership update

SCEIP continues its partnership with BayREN to enhance community access to workshops and webinars. The incentives offered by the BayREN Multi-Family Program complement SCEIP’s financing options, providing valuable resources to the community. This partnership will support a new multi-family pilot program that includes increased marketing efforts to educate and connect multi-family property owners and managers with incentives and financing options. The program’s goal is to encourage retrofits of multi-family buildings, aiming for resilient, carbon-neutral structures. Additionally, this pilot will work to bridge the gap between owners and tenants by building strong relationships with property owners and management companies, offering a liaison service to assist in project planning.

Proposed activities

• County specific marketing materials
• Workshops (2) per year focused on owners & property managers
• Workshops (2) per year focused on tenants
• Direct Mail (6) focused on owners & property managers
• Dedicated time focused on relationship building and liaison service

Community, equity, and climate update

SCEIP continues to promote multi-family financing in our conversations with the community, on our website, in print collateral, and on property tax bill inserts. The Program will incorporate previously created multi-family centric radio ads in our revolving radio campaign beginning in mid-Nov 2024.

SCEIP hosted two events specific to Contractors in the last year which had a combined total of 75 participants. Staff are continuing to explore ways to engage with new contractors to participate in the program.

Objective funding

Strategic Plan funding was provided to the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP) to promote resources and drive retrofit projects in the multi-family housing sector. This initiative focused on educating property owners and managers about incentives and financing options that support retrofitting to create resilient, carbon-neutral buildings. By building connections between property owners and tenants, the program also leveraged available funding from existing programs, like Bay Area Regional Energy Network’s (BayREN) multi-family program. The goal was to maximize improvements needed to achieve carbon neutrality by using available resources and partnerships.

Funds from the CAR 2.2 strategic pillar have been fully used to enhance marketing and outreach, raising community awareness of SCEIP and its many benefits for all Sonoma County property owners. Although, Strategic Plan funds were fully expended as of December 2023, SCEIP continues to promote multi-family retrofit financing and incentive resources. Established partnerships with existing programs continue to promote SCEIP as a valuable resource to the community.