12.07.2015
This Week's Items of Interest
December 9, 2015
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Prosperity - Seeking Beta Volunteers - "RUC"
Fixing California's Roads - One Mile at a Time  (12.5.2015)

Are you interested in making a difference and having an impact on how we will fund California's long-term transportation infrastructure needs?

An efficient transportation system is critical for California's economy and quality of life.  The revenues currently available for highways and local roads are inadequate to preserve and maintain existing infrastructure and to provide funds for improvements that would reduce congestion and improve safety.

A pilot program to test a user road charge, as a potential replacement to the current gas tax, has been approved by Governor Brown.

The Pilot Program is scheduled to start in the summer 2016.   
TRB's Sustainability Committee involved in more than 15 events
Planet - Air Quality - Green House Gases Released
California must do more to prevent natural gas leaks  (12.08.2015)
  • Nightmare at Southern California well is only the tip of the iceberg
  • Methane is a big contributor to climate change
  • Air Resources Board and Public Utilities Commission must take stronger action
The October  well failure at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility  in Porter Ranch continues to spew more greenhouse gases than all oil and gas sources across the state combined. But this is just the tip of a very big iceberg.
Planet - UN Climate Change Conference
UN Climate Change Conference: Governor Brown Meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (
12.07.2015)

PARIS - On his third full day in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today met with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and joined China's top climate change official Xie Zhenhua and France's Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Ségolène Royal at events highlighting California's international partnerships and climate leadership.
People - Mode - Zero-Emission Vehicles
California Announces New Under 2 MOU Signatories, International Effort to Accelerate Zero-Emission Vehicles  (12.03.2015)

SACRAMENTO-As the state's top climate officials prepare to join world leaders at the U.N. Climate Change Conference this week, California today announced an effort by 13 North American and European governments to make  all new passenger vehicles sold in their jurisdictions zero-emission by 2050. Additionally, it was announced that eight new signatories have joined the Under 2 MOU climate pact.
 People - Smart City Challenge
US DOT Funds $40 million nationwide competition  (12.07.2015)

To show what is possible when communities use technology to connect transportation assets into an interactive network, the Smart City Challenge will concentrate federal resources into one medium-sized city, selected through a nationwide competition. Funding of up to $40 million in funding will go to one mid-sized city that puts forward bold, data-driven ideas to improve lives by making transportation safer, easier, and more reliable.
Planet - Community Livable - Quiz

What Makes a Community Livable?

 People - History
 
California's state highway markers -- those green, numbered signs placed along local freeways and rural routes across the Golden State -- are so familiar a feature of the automotive landscape that it's easy to overlook their symbolism. But the shield accomplishes a neat trick. At once it points ahead and back -- forward toward some spatial destination, but also back toward a temporal point of origin.
Planet - Materials - Flooding

What you're seeing is no optical illusion - this is the real deal. According to the minute-long clip, the concrete can absorb roughly 880 gallons of water per minute. This type of concrete was created by  Tarmac, a UK-based construction company that's been in business for a century and a half. 
 Planet - Construction Materials - Returned Concrete
 
Looking for the perfect  way to reduce greenhouse gases, reduce  waste,
save embodied energy, conserve natural aggregates, save water, decrease transportation, decrease infrastructure costs, and supply quality concrete for construction projects?
Well, Caltrans, the Division of Measurement Standards (DMS), and  the ready mixed concrete industry have found  a way.
Prosperity - Cities - Sustainability Goals
Here's How Municipalities Can Reach Their Sustainability Goals 
(12.04.2015)

On December 4, over a thousand mayors from around the world will meet in Paris to accelerate the work of local governments on climate change. Many Ontario mayors attending this event will arrive with a starting advantage: more than 150 local governments in the province already have Sustainable Community Plans (SCP) -- plans to achieve environmental, social, and economic goals, developed in collaboration with businesses, NGOs and others. Many of these goals support action on climate change.
Previous Editions: Sustainability Items of Interest
08/27/15
 09/02/15
 09/09/15
 09/16/15
 09/23/15 09/30/15
10/07/15 10/13/15 10/20/28 10/28/15 11/04/15 11/12/15 11/18/18





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Caltrans
Assistant Director of Sustainability

Any reference, information, articles,or photos contained in this email to a specific product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by Caltrans, State of California or its' employees.