Welcome to the Yolo County Climate Action & Sustainability Newsletter! We are excited to share updates from our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) development, countywide sustainability efforts, upcoming events, and sustainability resources as we work to meet our goal of achieving a carbon negative footprint by 2030.

We are now on social media! Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more updates on our CAAP process.

If you have resources or events you would like to be featured on the newsletter, submit them via email to sustainability@yolocounty.org for consideration.

The December YCCAC Virtual Meeting is a great opportunity to learn more about our 2030 CAAP and provide your input on critical components of our planning process. This month, we will be joined by the team at Dudek, who will be providing an update on their winning proposal to provide climate action and adaptation planning services to the County. View the Zoom link here to join our monthly meeting and view the Agenda and Meeting Materials. NOTE that this month’s meeting is a week earlier than usual!

🌱 Are you worried about extreme heat? Are you concerned about wildfires and smoke? Join the Yolo County Climate Action Commission’s Equity and Engagement Working Group! Help engage your community in the development and implementation of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP)! If you are interested in applying, view our E&E webpage at https://bit.ly/3YeiT4L or submit an application. Applications are due January 20, 2023.

🌱 Wishing three local climate leaders a happy retirement! The Yolo County Climate Action & Sustainability team wishes District 2 Supervisor Don Saylor a happy retirement and commends him for his 40-year career in public service, 11 of those years serving on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Saylor has been a climate champion for Yolo County’s Climate Action and Sustainability efforts, and we thank him dearly for his support. We also wish Taro Echiburú, Director of Community Services, and Ramin Yazdani, Director of Integrated Waste Management a happy retirement and thank them for their dedicated years of service to the County. Continue reading for two feature stories highlighting both Taro and Ramin’s careers.

Taro Echiburú has been the Director of Community Services at Yolo County since 2014, but his passion for environmental protection, local solutions, and sustainable development started long before then.  Taro moved to the United States from Chile after training as a marine biologist in college. He was always interested in scientific practices that had a useful application to humanities and policy. Once in the United States, he wanted to work for the California Coastal Commission (CCC) to balance ecological protection with inevitable growth and development. He marched into the CCC offices in Santa Cruz presenting his two master’s degrees but lack of work experience in this field and offered to work on projects for free. Taro soon landed a career with the California Coastal Commission, during which he realized the importance of work that occurs at the local level. He later moved to Davis to bring his passion for ecological protection inland. Working on habitat restoration and conservation efforts, Taro became the Planning Director for the City of Elk Grove, tasked with managing sustainable urban growth.

When Taro first read the Yolo County General Plan, his interest was piqued by the County’s unique approach to growth. The County’s values of prioritizing ecosystems and natural landscapes amidst growing cities aligned strongly with his own. After he began working for the County as the Director of Community Services, he dedicated himself to creating an environment of collaboration and respect within the department. Taro is most proud of the culture of teamwork that has been created within the department. He emphasized that every staff member’s unique talents were his key to success as each discipline interacts with each other and the public.

Although he will miss this job dearly, Taro is very excited for this next chapter of his life. He feels fortunate to have always loved his jobs and feels confident in the energy that new leaders can bring to ensure a responsible future. 

Ramin Yazdani has been with Yolo County for over 32 dedicated years. In the early days of his career with Yolo County, Ramin was tasked with designing the County’s first liner landfill and let his passions of sustainability and renewable energy guide his work. These passions led him to the position of Chief County Engineer and then Assistant Director, and then between 2002-2010, while working full-time, he worked tirelessly on his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. He became the new Director of Integrated Waste Management Division in 2018.

 Throughout his career, Ramin’s goal has been to push Yolo County towards being Landfill-free and to better manage sustainability solutions and reduce GHG emissions. He envisions a future where the Yolo County Central Landfill (YCCL) can serve as more of a resource than a disposal site, where various technologies are demonstrated for better management of waste and for renewable energy production. Already, the Central Landfill serves as a critical demonstration site for environmentally conscious practices, showing the benefits of innovative technologies to reduce methane emissions such as high-efficiency methane capture, landfill gas-to-energy, groundwater phytoremediation—using plants to clean up contaminated environments—and more. Ramin facilitated the development of the Yolo County’s Anaerobic Composter Processor in 2019, which was a huge step forward in solid waste management through the use of bioreactor technology to generate energy and compost. In recent years, Ramin worked on agreements with a solar power developer that will power the YCCL’s operation and the composting facility by solar energy in 2023, and 2024, respectively.

Ramin sees that in future, the Integrated Waste Management Division will continue to promote technologies that advance greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and elimination of landfilling in the next decade. He is passionate in the ability to transfer waste into usable resource and hopes to see those practices continue in the County. Ramin is grateful for the support of Yolo County’s Board of Supervisors in pushing forward GHG emissions reductions and hopes the YCCL can serve as a model for other jurisdictions as we pursue a greener, carbon-negative future.

December 15, 2022     Creek Cleanup at Winters Nature Park | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Putah Creek Council hosts a monthly cleanup at Winters Putah Creek Nature Park that takes place every third Thursday from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

December 19, 2022     Yolo County Climate Action Commission (YCCAC) Virtual Meeting | 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Join us at the December YCCAC Meeting to hear more about our 2030 Climate Action Plan and provide your input on critical components of our planning process. View the agenda and meeting materials at the top of this email.

January 6, 2023           Adult Education and Vocational Schools ZEV Workforce Training Project Pre-solicitation Work Group | 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

The California Air Resources Board will be presenting a pre-solicitation Work Group where staff will present information on the solicitation development and will be holding an open discussion for stakeholder feedback.

🌱 New State and Federal Measures Aim to Manage Extreme Heat Risks. In response to the extreme heat events that will become more frequent, severe, and longer lasting as climate change progresses, California adopted an action plan to protect residents. Several new state and federal programs are focusing on three goals: (1) making workplaces safer, (2) cooling down communities, and (3) improving public awareness and emergency response tools.

🌱 Partners Launch Nationwide Initiative to Accelerate Energy Upgrades for Affordable Housing. The new nationwide initiative Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) provides support for communities often left out of climate investments to develop energy-saving home retrofit strategies. R2E2 will begin training state, local, and tribal governments along with community-based organizations in January to jumpstart energy upgrades for affordable housing.

🌱 Emerald Cities Expert Reports. This page features a series of reports including guides and case studies of equitable climate action and inclusion.

🌱 Commentary: A carbon-negative county by 2030. Davis resident, Scott Steward, provides a summary of Yolo County’s climate action efforts in recent years. The article highlights the two CAAP Working Groups (the Natural and Working Lands Working Group and the Equity and Engagement Working Group), the six climate early action projects approved by the Commission, and the carbon sequestration opportunities abundant in Yolo’s agricultural land.

🌱 Sacramento Region Awarded $5 Million for Inclusive Economic Planning. The Sacramento Region was awarded $5 million in planning money from the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) program. The program advances regional economic recovery and resilience strategies that prioritize the creation of accessible, high-quality jobs in sustainable industries.

🌱 Reduction in Annual Fuel Use from Conservation Tillage. A new report from USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project says farmers can save 3.6 gallons of fuel per acre and $17 per acre with no-till farming.