Weeks after Portland and Multnomah County committed to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, six teams of PSU researchers and city representatives reported on their own efforts to reduce carbon emissions and prepare for climate change at the 2017 Portland Climate Action Collaborative Symposium.
The May 5 symposium at Ecotrust drew more than 60 people from Portland State, city agencies, and the community to hear about climate efforts in Portland ranging from food purchasing guidelines to electric vehicle strategy, bike infrastructure, and disaster resilience.
“Portland’s emissions are more than 40 percent lower than they were in 1990—that’s an incredible effort,” said Michael Armstrong, senior sustainability manager with Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). “But we still have a long way to go. This collaborative is intended to really create an impact on our carbon reduction goals.”
Here’s a rundown of the current projects:
Electrifying Portland’s Transportation System
PSU graduate student Helen Baykan is an intern at Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.A lot has changed since Portland adopted its first Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy in 2010, so the city figured it was time for an update. Through a paid internship facilitated by PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions (ISS), public administration graduate student Helen Baykan worked with Michelle Crim, climate action program manager at BPS, to design the city’s 2017 Electric Vehicle Strategy.
The team is tracking local and national EV policies and incentives and developing recommendations to accelerate EV adoption, increase transportation access for underserved communities, and meet its carbon reduction goals.
Healthy and Sustainable Food Purchasing Guidelines
Remember the 100-mile-diet fad that was all the rage about a decade ago? The idea was to promote a local food economy while cutting carbon emissions from food transport.
While eating local has plenty of benefits, recent studies cited in Portland’s 2015 Climate Action Plan show that its link to carbon reduction is tenuous—transportation only accounts for about 11 percent of carbon emissions from food while production accounts for about 84 percent. When it comes to climate change, food type, not origin, has the greatest impact.
PSU students Monica Nunes and Dirk Larson have been working with Steve Cohen at BPS to develop food purchasing guidelines that encourage city staff to select sustainably minded caterers and healthier, lower-carbon foods—think plant-based proteins like beans and veggies rather than beef and dairy—when ordering food for city events.
Equity and the Green Loop
The Green Loop is a proposed six-mile bike and pedestrian path through downtown and inner east Portland.About five years ago, the city hatched the idea for the Green Loop—a six-mile bike and pedestrian path that would strategically connect and protect open space in central Portland. Part of the idea was to offer a safe way for people to access downtown amenities like OMSI and the Portland Art Museum while reducing car traffic and pollution. But they wondered: would people use it?
The question challenged Lora Lillard, an urban designer at BPS, to consider how underserved communities who live outside the central city might use the Green Loop. Lillard teamed up with sociology professor Amy Lubitow to hold focus groups with residents who live in outer Portland neighborhoods like Cully and Lents—diverse areas that are currently experiencing or are at-risk of gentrification.
What they found is that the main barriers for people to get downtown, or elsewhere in the city, are often safety-related in the neighborhoods themselves, like lack of sidewalks and safe lighting at transit stops. The majority of people in the study, 88 percent, reported that they don’t travel downtown in a typical week.
Their conclusion when it comes to the Green Loop? “It’s not that we shouldn’t do it,” said Lubitow. “But we need to think about the needs in neighborhoods as well.” The team is working with community organization Green Lents to pursue the idea of a mini-Green Loop, called the Green Ring, that would connect open areas throughout the Lents neighborhood.
Landslide Prevention and Response
Damage from landslides in Portland costs millions of dollars each year.Landslides often occur where they’ve happened in the past. Armed with that pearl of wisdom, Ericka Koss from Portland’s Bureau of Development Services hired an ISS-funded intern, PSU student Max Bordal, to digitize and archive data on past landslides in Portland—information that property owners can use to prevent landslides and save money, especially as Portland winters become warmer and wetter with climate change.
This was an ideal year for Koss to have additional help. A typical winter brings about 20 private property landslides in Portland. This extraordinary winter brought about 60—and an estimated $7-8 million in property damage.
Most insurance companies don’t cover landslide damage, so property owners often have to pay for repairs out-of-pocket. Koss and Bordal hope the data they collect will not only be used by property owners to prevent landslides through better stormwater management, but will also help insurance agencies better assess landslide risk and increasingly offer landslide insurance as an option to property owners.
Urban Heat Islands and Multifamily Zoning
Temperature map of the Portland area during a summer heat wave.A team led by PSU urban planning professor Vivek Shandas last year launched a series of interactive maps that identify “urban heat islands”—areas that can run 10 to 20 degrees hotter than other areas of the city and pose serious health risks during extreme heat waves.
Since heat waves are projected to become more frequent and severe with climate change, Shandas is working with Portland city planner Bill Cunningham to incorporate his heat island findings into the city’s code updates for multi-family dwellings, which are traditionally where most heat-related deaths in cities occur.
Solutions to reduce urban heat island effects include planting trees and vegetated walls, changing the reflectivity of roofs and other surfaces, and alternating the heights of neighboring buildings to promote air flow.
Climate Change and Flood Risk on the Willamette
Geography professor Heejun Chang has been working with Portland city planner Jeff Caudill to assess the risk of increased flooding along the Willamette due to climate change. The team has created simulations and mapped scenarios of projected sea level rise and increased precipitation for areas along the river—information that planners will use to estimate flood damage and consider in future city planning.
The Partnership
Launched four years ago by PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions and Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the Portland Climate Action Collaborative matches PSU students and faculty with city staff to work on projects that support the goals of the region’s Climate Action Plan. Support for the partnership is provided by the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation and the Bullitt Foundation.
Learn more about the Portland Climate Action Collaborative here.