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What: Celebrate Earth Day at the Cool Davis 2015 awards presentation, honoring Eco-Heroes Kaiyue “David” Wang, John Mott-Smith, Orhan Orgun and Daniel Sperling and Climate Solution Award winners Parkview Place, Holmes Junior High School Green Team and UC Davis Transportation Services

When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at Picnic in the Park

Where: Band stage in Central Park, Fourth and C streets

Be green: Walk, bike or take public transit; bring your own water bottle and bring your own or buy a picnic supper
Cool Davis 2015 Awards

* Editor’s note: This is the last in a three-part series showcasing the winners of Cool Davis’ Eco-Hero and Climate Solutions Awards.

Each year, Cool Davis recognizes “Eco-Heroes” — Davis residents who model how to incorporate sustainable practices into their work, civic and everyday lives. Acting out of personal conviction, they do “the right thing” for themselves, our community and our planet.

The Cool Davis Climate Solution Awards go to local businesses, groups or organizations for exemplary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As they model ways to reduce their environmental impact, they become leaders in creating options to conserve resources, reduce fossil fuel dependence, and stabilize the climate.

In its efforts to work with our community on greenhouse gas emission reduction and sustainability issues, Cool Davis focuses on three topics: buildings (energy efficiency), consumption (reducing consumption and waste of food, water, etc.) and transportation (shifting to non-fossil-fuel vehicles and other modes of transportation).

The 2015 Eco-Hero Award in transportation goes to Daniel Sperling for his work on environmentally sustainable transportation technology, while UC Davis Transportation Services receives a Climate Solutions Award for its successful efforts to cut UCD greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality for the benefit of all.

Dan Sperling

By Claire Black Slotton

Dan Sperling is a busy man. He is a professor of civil engineering and environmental science and policy, and founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, as well as interim director of the UCD Energy Institute.

He also serves as the “car guy” on the California Air Resources Board, and this year, he’s chairing the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies in Washington, D.C.

Sperling is leading the way to an environmentally sustainable transportation technology. When asked “What are we waiting for?” he answers, “The revolution is underway but not evolving in a predictable way — in large part because it depends on consumers and policy.”

Where there is work on cleaner transportation, electric vehicles or advanced bio-fuels for transportation, he is there. As the founder of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCD, he has helped develop the ideas that have moved California to leadership in environmentally friendly transportation systems.

In short, Sperling is looking for “air quality benefit, climate change benefit and advanced replacements for oil.” Currently, he is on a campaign to direct the new Uber-like mobility services toward the public interest — to make sure it reduces overall vehicle use and greenhouse gases, and leads to greater access by those economically and physically disadvantaged.

Sperling is known for combining high-tech with high “touch” — by building strong partnerships with industry, government and the environmental community; integrating interdisciplinary research and education programs; and connecting research with public outreach and education.

He also teaches classes at UCD, inspiring the next generation of engineers and environmental scientists.

Sperling walks the walk.  He lives close to everything in Central Davis in a highly energy-efficient (zero-net-energy) home. His only vice is excessive air travel.

Clifford Contreras, UC Davis Transportation Services

By Judy Moores

On Earth Day 2015, Cool Davis will honor UC Davis Transportation Services and its director, Clifford Contreras, with a Climate Solutions Award in the transportation category.

Transportation Services (http://taps.ucdavis.edu/about) not only promotes modes of transportation that have less carbon impact on our air, it has found ways to get people out of their cars. While in 2007 the first campus travel survey reported 38 percent of commuters biked to campus, the most recent survey, from 2014, indicated that percentage had climbed to 47 percent.

Currently, the green transportation program at UCD, called the “goClub,” has more than 4,000 members and is growing. The goClub provides a variety of incentives and support to students and employees who choose to commute by bike, walk, bus, train, carpool or vanpool rather than use a single-occupant vehicle.
While much of its work focuses on UCD, Transportation Services’ online bicycle safety course (http://bikesafety.ucdavis.edu) is available to anyone, any time and is free of charge. This course is a great resource for organizations and businesses that want to reduce their carbon footprint by encouraging biking as well as for individuals who are new to biking or need an up-to-date refresher course.

“Through its goClub efforts and promotion of preferred modes, Transportation Services has become a leader in the state and the country for its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality for the benefit of all people and the environment,” Contreras says.
It is no wonder that the League of American Bicyclists has awarded UCD double platinum national recognition — both as a business with 20,041 employees and as a university with an enrollment of 33,300.

Cliff ContrerasW

Dan SperlingW

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