There are so many things that you can do to control and reduce your personal carbon emissions. Try the Menlo Green Challenge to find out your carbon footprint, learn more about easy steps you can take to reduce it and challenge your friends, neighbors and family to join you to see who can go the lowest! These resources can also help you and your household go light on carbon:

• Electric Car Buyers Guides, and Rebates & Incentives
• Electric Bikes & Scooters
• Driving Alternatives: carpools, transit tools and other services to help reduce driving.
• Green Home Upgrades and Fossil Free Homes
• Solar Rooftops – how to install them without any cash
• Clean Power for everyone through Community Choice Energy

Every day, leading businesses are improving their environmental image AND their economic performance by acting on the measures in the Cool California Business Toolkit. We invite you to lead by example!

• Save Energy
• Drive Less and Drive Clean
• Use Green Energy
• Save Water
• Recycle and Cut Waste
• Buy Green
• Be a Green Biz
• Build Green
• Refrigerant Management

The City of Menlo Park has taken extraordinary steps to becoming a model of sustainability and clean energy. The 2016 Earth Day Resolution lists a number of the actions and commitments to creating a sustainable, green economy:

• In 2013 the City adopted a greenhouse gas reduction target of 27% by 2020 from 2005 levels;
• In 2015 Menlo Park won four Beacon Spotlight Awards for Sustainability from the Institute for Local Government;
• In 2016, the City joined Peninsula Clean Energy in order to provide additional renewable power to residents and businesses; and
• New zoning regulations under development will incorporate green and sustainable building measures;

The City of Menlo Park has a number of noteworthy clean power and transportation projects:

Four Major Solar Installations

Since late 2015, the Arrillaga Gymnastics Center, Arrillaga Gymnasium, City Corporation Yard, and Onetta Harris Community Center have been producing renewable energy through solar rooftops. Together, they are:

• Offsetting approximately 80% of their current energy use;
• Saving over $461,000 in energy costs over 20 years and collecting $71,000 worth of energy rebates; and
• Reducing 419 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations.

Free Transit Passes

As of April 1, 2016, the City of Menlo Park became the first City in San Mateo County to join Caltrain’s GoPass Program, providing all employees with free train passes to reduce commuting by car and the associated carbon emissions.

Eco-Friendly Patrol Police Department:

The Menlo Park Police Department uses Bicycle Officers to patrol the streets, which takes one to two patrol vehicles off of the roadway. They also use a quiet, clean electric motorcycle for traffic officers, with a second one on order.

Sustainable City solutions work best when they’re integrated with other cities to form regional networks on clean energy, clean transportation and sustainable building practices.

• Menlo Spark supports clean power initiatives through the county-wide Peninsula Clean Energy program, aiming to provide carbon free power.
• Menlo Spark is working with the Clean Coalition on the Peninsula Advanced Energy Communities project, supporting local renewable energy, EV charging infrastructure, Zero Net Energy buildings and resilient communities. The 2-year project includes sustainability consultants, DNV, San Mateo County, and several cities along the mid-peninsula corridor. Check out our new CEC-approved guide to the Best Clean Energy Measures for Cities.
• Accelerating Electric Vehicles, a white paper summarizing recommendations from the June 2017 EV Charrette that we-cohosted with Plug-In America.