Durban to Davis: Local Action Key to Tackling Climate Crisis

Cool Davis together with International House and Cool California is organising a panel discussion on climate change on Thursday March 1 2012, from 7-9pm
at I-House Davis. The event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is appreciated.

Speakers:

Nick Buxton, Transnational Institute
Participated in last three UN climate talks

Chris Jones, Cool California
UC Berkeley Research Associate

Chris Granger, Cool Davis
Co-coordinator of the Cool Davis Festival

About the event

Despite ever more stark warnings from climate scientists, politicians globally have been very slow to tackle global warming. The recent UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa were no exception. What are the reasons for international inaction? Can cities like Davis demonstrate how strategic investment in a low-carbon future can create healthy, vibrant communities? How can we get involved in the Cool California city challenge to become one of the “coolest” cities in California?

The event will be a zero-waste event. I-house is located at 10 College Park, Davis 95616

Please pre-register for the event at http://durbantodavis.eventbrite.com/

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TALK HOSTED BY UC DAVIS ENERGY EFFICIENCY CENTER AND  UC DAVIS GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Amory Lovins

Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute

Member of the Board of Advisors of the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center

“Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era”   

Lovins will discuss the main themes of his new book “Reinventing Fire,” a detailed roadmap for eliminating U.S. oil and coal use by 2050, led by business for profit.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012, Conference Center Ballroom UC Davis

11:30 a.m. – Doors Open

12:00 p.m. – Presentation

Directions and Parking

Brownbag lunches welcome.

Please share this invitation with others who may enjoy attending.

Seating is limited, so please register by Thursday, February 23rd.

Register here.

About Amory Lovins

Physicist Amory Lovins is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute and Chairman Emeritus of Fiberforge Corporation. His wide-ranging innovations in energy, security, environment, and development have been recognized by the Blue Planet, Volvo, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, 11 honorary doctorates, honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects, F! ellowship of the Royal Society of Arts, Foreign Membership of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood, National Design, and World Technology Awards.

He advises governments and major firms worldwide on advanced energy and resource efficiency, has briefed 20 heads of state, and has led the technical redesign of more than $30 billion worth of industrial facilities in 29 sectors to achieve very large energy savings at typically lower capital cost. A Harvard and Oxford dropout, he has published 29 books and hundreds of papers and has taught at eight universities, most recently as a 2007 visiting professor in Stanford University’s School of Engineering.

In 2009, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers.

About “Reinventing Fire”

“My friend Amory Lovins knows that the most important question of the twenty-first century is the “how” question-how we turn good ideas into working solutions. Reinventing Fire is a wise, detailed, and comprehensive blueprint for gathering the best existing technologies for energy use and putting them to work right now to create jobs, end our dependence on climate-changing fossil fuels, and unleash the enormous economic potential of the coming energy revolution.”  – President Bill Clinton

“Amory Lovins and his team of extraordinary professionals provide an analytically sound, detailed, compelling plan for transforming our national use of energy – and for saving $5 trillion in the process! Reinventing Fire is a towering work, a page-turning tour de force of compelling wisdom that deserves a permanent place on the desk – nay, in the mind – of whoever holds the chair in the Oval Office.”  – Robert C. McFarlane, national security advisor to President Reagan; co-founder and co-chair of the United States Energy Security Council

John Mott-Smith [Credit: Davis Enterprise

How are we doing?

Environment California recently released a report on the state of photovoltaic solar energy systems in California cities. The report included some surprises and some points of local interest.

They looked at “distributed solar” systems installed on rooftops of homes and businesses by owners or third-party financing companies; utility scale solar systems were not included. The results of the survey are expressed in multiple ways in order to account for differences in size between, say, the cities of Davis and Los Angeles.

The first surprise (at least for me) was that Los Angeles, despite being by far the largest city in the state, did not have the highest number of installations nor are they producing the most solar power. San Diego takes both these honors with 4,507 solar installations producing almost 40 megawatts (40 million watts) of solar power, which would rank it among the top 25 nations in the world, with more solar power than the entire country of Mexico.

The city of Davis, small as we are, comes in No. 16 in the state with more than 700 installations.

When looking at the number of installations in different-sized cities, Davis is ranked No. 4 in the state for “mid-sized” cities (bigger than “towns” but smaller than cities like Sacramento). Ahead of us are Santa Cruz, Clovis and Rocklin.

The city of Davis, small as we are, comes in No. 16 in the state with more than 700 installations.

According to the report, Davis has solar installations on a little more than 1 percent of our homes and businesses. As noted above, this does not count solar hot water systems, a large number of which have been installed to heat swimming pools and spas.

Looking at the data another way brings forward another set of champions. The city of Woodland came in second in the state among mid-sized cities in the number of watts of photovoltaic electricity produced per resident (100), trailing only Chico (110).

Davis came in 30th, with slightly less than half of Woodland’s total. Davis has more installations but systems in Woodland are larger on average.

Our neighbor to the west — Sonoma — seems to be the pace-setter. It comes in first for “large towns” (population between 10,000 and 50,000) with 4.5 installations per 100 residents. Sonoma also is first in its category with 507 watts of installed capacity per person.

Interestingly, Sonoma is one of the few jurisdictions in the state implementing the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that allows homeowners and businesses to install solar energy systems without any upfront cost and then use energy savings to pay back the installation cost through an assessment on their property tax bill (see THE BIG DAY below).

There may be some questionable assumptions or data in the report that skews the rankings, but overall it looks like Davis and Woodland are doing pretty well.

THE FOREST AND THE TREES: One of the factors limiting Davis residents in terms of solar installations is our tree canopy. Most homes and businesses benefit from the cooling effect of shade trees. We have an outstanding urban forest. In many cases, it’s not possible to have both shade trees and solar systems on the same piece of property. In fact, by most estimates, about half the homes in Davis don’t have enough sun to justify installing a solar system.

More than a few people have asked why we can’t build a “solar farm” somewhere outside town that residents could buy into; effectively owning solar panels that produce electricity, the amount of which is subtracted from their home or business energy bill. Good question, and one the city is working on answering.

You might not think such a thing would require legislation, but it does. Our local hero, city of Davis Sustainability Director Mitch Sears, is working with stalwart state Sen. Lois Wolk to enact a law to enable Davis residents to do just that and facilitate efforts to accomplish the city’s goal of obtaining 100 percent of its electrical energy from renewable sources.

THE BIG DAY: Birders sometimes set aside a specific day to go out en masse to try to see as many birds and bird species as possible. A “big day” in the energy world is of a different sort, but one took place on Jan. 23.

The Davis Natural Resources Commission had three energy-related items on its agenda. One was the expansion of the PVUSA site north of Davis to accommodate a “solar farm” as described above. The second was a program to aggregate local government employees into a bulk purchasing program for solar energy systems that substantially reduces the cost of installing rooftop solar (with the potential to expand this opportunity to all Davis residents).

The third was participation in a countywide PACE program for commercial propertie,; including apartment buildings with five or more units.

Although there were questions about each of the “trees,” the commissioners kept their collective eye on the “forest” by acting positively on all three.

The wheels of change at times turn painstakingly slow, but the city of Davis continues to push forward with its energy policy and maintain its leadership position in efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

Mr. Toad, the city of Davis mascot, turns in Davis' application for the Cool California Challenge to Chris Jones, lead researcher from UC Berkeley.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which is the coolest city in all of fair California?

As of Wednesday, Davis is in the running for the title of Coolest California City when it became one of the first six cities to apply for the Cool California Challenge.

As a result, the city and the Cool Davis Initiative will be awarded $1,000 in seed money to launch the campaign, with the possibility of even bigger prizes on the horizon.

All that is needed now is to put a mirror up to the community to see where it stands now — establish a sustainability baseline — and every resident can participate, whether they’ve been a longtime advocate or are new to the ideas of energy conservation.

Mayor Joe Krovoza observes, “We are the first city in the U.S. to adopt a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Yet we can’t reach for this goal until we all measure our energy use, and begin testing the options that will work for each of us.

“This challenge is a fantastic opportunity for us to see how we are doing, and use that information to chart the most efficient path to carbon neutrality.

“This challenge is a fantastic opportunity for us to see how we are doing, and use that information to chart the most efficient path to carbon neutrality.

“This is a new beginning for Davis,” he continued. “I know our community’s networks are up to this task, from school classes to nonprofits, from businesses to our faith-based communities to our committed UC Davis students.”

Chris Jones, a Davis resident, is the lead researcher at the Renewable and Alternative Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley. He will direct the yearlong Cool California Challenge project, which is funded by the California Air Resources Board.

Once applications close at the end of February, the cities that applied will compete for three months to see which can get the most households signed up online.

The challenge will focus on household energy efficiency and transportation. Participants will log in to record their energy use and transportation information and share their greenhouse gas reduction accomplishments.

Just by signing up, each resident earns points for Davis in the challenge.

Each of the first three months, the city with the most points earned by residents logging on will be chosen as a finalist. Recently, Davisites showed their voting power in a nationwide Christmas decoration contest. Enough Davis residents voted online every day for a week to send a Davis home to the top of the list, winning $100,000 for local schools.

Residents now have the chance to make their vote count for the environment. Each household that logs in, no matter what their current efforts at sustainability may be, can help Davis compete in the Cool California Challenge. Each of three finalist cities will earn $10,000 in support funds to continue the challenge.

Households may begin logging on in April. For more information, go to www.coolcalifornia.org/community-challenge.

For those who continue the challenge, taking time to log in periodically and record efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will help the city reach the goals of its Climate Action Plan to engage 75 percent of Davis households in a carbon reduction program by 2015. This will set Davis on a path to achieve its ultimate goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Just how cool is Davis? Check in your mirror. And watch for more information as Davis takes on the Cool California Challenge.

This article first appeared in the Davis Enterprise on February 3 2012

Yolo Energy Watch can help you make the transition to low-carbon energy

Do you want to reduce energy and save money? Want to know what incentives and rebates exist to help you make the shift?

The Yolo County Library in partnership with Yolo Energy Watch, Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Energy Upgrade California will be hosting an event at the Davis Library on February 9th from 7:00-8:30pm.  Refreshments will be served.  

Yolo Energy Watch will demonstrate how to use a watt meter and how you can borrow one from your library.

Representatives from PG&E and Energy Upgrade California will discuss home energy programs for renters and homeowners and a variety of rebates and incentives.

Please see this flyer for information on all events in the region.  For additional information, please contact Jenifer Segar at: Jenifer.segar AT valleyvision.org

Rhonda and Tony Gruska

Monticello restaurant, a business partner of Cool Davis Initiative, found out that investing in sustainability saved huge amounts on their PG&E bill and cemented strong relationships with the Davis and Yolo county community.

Monticello Seasonal Cuisine became a member of Cool Davis Initiative because they were passionate about its goals and because their own experience had shown how going green was beneficial financially and had created strong community links that made their day to day work rewarding.

Rhonda Gruska, co-owner of the restaurant with her husband Tony and farmer Jim Eldon, said, “We hope being members of the Cool Davis Initiative will help us get the word out: It is amazing to us that more restaurants don’t work harder to be energy efficient, as it really helps the bottom line. With our energy efficiency efforts, we reduced the PG&E cost to 25% of the previous restaurant that used Monticello’s space.”

Sustainability is at the core of Monticello Seasonal Cuisine’s mission. Rhonda explains that Monticello aims to “serve customers interesting and flavorful food they aren’t likely to make for themselves at home. Our menu showcases seasonal appropriateness, regional resources, freshness and has minimal interference between source and plate. We hope this farm to fork business will serve as a model reflecting the values and sustainable future of Yolo County and the region.”

And Monticello certainly walks its talk: For the renovation of the restaurant in 2011, they hired local businesses, recycled most all of the materials in the space that they could not use, used natural materials such as cork for the floors, and worked with PG&E on restaurant energy efficiency.  They insulated all outside walls and the roof, repaired holes and leaks in the walk-in cooler, used LEDs and low voltage fluorescents in the restaurant lighting, and bought a super energy and water efficient dishwasher.

They hire local employees and source almost everything they buy locally and regionally, including produce, meat, sustainable seafood, wine, and beer. They send all of their compostable waste to a local farm to feed chickens or for composting, reuse paper and plastic bread bags as garbage bags, provide compostable containers for take-out food and use cloth napkins and tablecloths.

Rhonda says community-building has been at the heart of this journey towards sustainability: “It has taken a village to build this restaurant.  We are very grateful to the many people who supported our sustainable concept and offered assistance at every turn.  We are grateful now in a position to give back to our community by purchasing local products and services, creating local jobs, etc.  It is all comes full circle, so to speak.”

Larry Fisher in the backyard where he converts trash into useful goods

Larry Fisher, a modern day tinker who works out of the limelight to convert trash into useful goods that he then shares with local community organisations, explains why reusing is even better than recycling. 

Born in Fresno in 1949, Fisher grew up taking apart and fixing things. His home-run business in Davis as a repairman of washers and dryers was therefore a natural progression. This work opened his eyes to the way new products were increasingly made with cheap breakable parts and were deliberately manufactured to be difficult to repair.

The turning point for Fisher came, however, when he visited Nicaragua in 1984. “I realised that the perfectly good food supermarkets throw away here would have been equal to or higher quality to the food I bought in markets in Nicaragua.” He decided at that point to no longer buy new things and to commit his time to reusing and recycling what others had thrown away.

Fisher says he feels horrified when he visits the local landfill or looks at what is thrown out in the garbage by big box stores, supermarkets or some households in Davis. “I think we don’t see the full cost of our throwaway society. We don’t see the trout streams that have been totally degraded. We don’t see the machines sifting mud in San Francisco Bay to take the heavy metals out. Clearly someone is laughing all the way to the bank as we throw stuff away and then buy more, but it is not the Earth, it is not our natural environment.”

Fisher also points out that a deliberate policy to reuse and recycle our waste could have very positive benefits for society. Food, often in perfectly good condition, that is thrown out of supermarkets could keep food banks full. Training in recycling waste could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and produce goods that last.

He notes that while recycling is better than throwing stuff out, it is still not as good as reusing products. “Recycling metal still has to be transported, melted down and recreated, all of which have environmental costs.” He brandishes a spade that he made by hand out of old TV aerials and which he frequently distributes to community gardens and housing coops. “This spade could last a lifetime. Compare that with a cheap spade you buy for a few dollars imported from China where you would be lucky if it lasts a few months.”

Noticeably Fisher’s philosophy for tackling climate change is less about new green technologies, but rather about reclaiming ways of living that have been lost in our consumerist society. “My family always lived frugally, but we never lacked for anything. And it wasn’t just my family. If things broke, people fixed them. If you needed something and couldn’t afford it, neighbours would share it with you. I think we will see increasing numbers of people looking to recycle, reuse and share as people become aware of the costs of supposedly ‘cheap’ products.”

In October 2010, Larry Fisher’s commitment to making an environmental and social difference was recognised when he won the Cool Davis Eco-Hero Awards.

Anjali Appadurai at protest in Durban

By Nick Buxton, published in Davis Enterprise

“You’ve been negotiating all my life,” a Maine student shouted out to a room packed full of climate experts and experienced diplomats at the United Nations climate conference earlier this month. “In that time, you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed targets, and you’ve broken promises.”

At the U.N. climate negotiations I attended in South Africa, there was no shortage of expertise and knowledge about global warming, but it was the passionate words of a student, Anjali Appadurai, that resonated most with me.

It was the third summit I have participated in but the 17th — a lifetime for Anjali — since the 1992 U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro when the first climate change accord was agreed upon. Following that action, a number of industrialized countries — except, notably, the United States — agreed to binding emissions cuts of 5 percent while all countries worldwide committed to take some action.

Yet despite the promises, global emissions of heat-trapping gases have risen by 36 percent and the world has warmed by almost half a degree since 1992. By any measure, this has been a spectacular failure by the world’s political leaders on an issue that will have grave consequences for our children and grandchildren.

Sadly, the conference this year in Durban, South Africa, was no different. The United States — blocked by congressional intransigence and White House timidity — came with empty hands. Other nations like Canada and Japan openly retreated from their previous commitments, while emerging economies such as China and India did their best to put off any binding commitments indefinitely.

Behind the scenes, thousands of corporate lobbyists applied pressure to stop any deal that would dent their profits. The result was an agreement, in essence, just to carry on negotiating with vague talk of a binding deal by 2020. This is despite warnings by scientists that we must act this decade in lowering emissions if we are to have even a 50 percent chance of keeping global warming to less than 2 degrees.

It would not be surprising if I came back depressed at this clear inability by the world’s political leaders to tackle climate change, but I have instead come back energized. For too long, the world’s attention has been focused on appealing to politicians to solve the problem. Many people looked to the U.N. because it was obvious that an ambitious global deal would be the best way to deliver effective change rapidly.

Yet the result as we have seen is decades of inaction and a public that has been disempowered and disengaged. I believe we need to take back power from politicians and prove that it is possible to kick the fossil fuel habit and create vibrant communities in the process.

We have seen through the Occupy movement, which has transformed the public debate on inequality and corporate power, that local actions can make a huge difference. Across the country, environmental and community groups working together already have managed to stop the building of hundreds of coal power plants. The result — at least in part — has been the first decline in carbon emissions in the U.S. since the mid-1980s.

One of the largest civil disobedience actions in recent decades this year has managed to halt the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport highly polluting oil tarsands from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Here in Davis and California, we have the opportunity and the power to fundamentally change how we source and use energy. We can — and are — creating a more resilient, healthy community in the process. The city of Davis already has committed itself to cutting carbon emissions by 15 percent by 2015 — and the community-led Cool Davis Initiative has been leading the way in showing households effective ways to cut both carbon and make financial savings, too. (Check out www.cooldavis.org/take-action/quick-wins.)

I believe we need to be even more ambitious. Why can’t a smart, engaged community like Davis have its own community-controlled renewable energy power station? Surely we can find innovative ways to finance an expansion of public transport, major energy refits of our housing, or to give incentives and loans for electric car use?

With the next U.N. negotiations set to meet in Qatar — one of the countries with the highest emissions per capita in the world — it is incumbent on communities like Davis to show that there is an alternative. As Appadurai put it so eloquently in her speech in Durban: “Real ambition (on climate change) … is dismissed as radical, deemed not politically possible. … Long-term thinking is not radical. What’s radical is to completely alter the planet’s climate, to betray the future of my generation, and to condemn millions to death by climate change. …

“(Nelson) Mandela said, ‘It always seems impossible, until it’s done.’ She ended her speech with the shout ‘Get it done.’ ”

Let’s heed that call, and show that while our political leaders are failing us, leadership can come instead from communities like Davis who are determined to “get it done.” The future is in our hands.

— Nick Buxton of Davis was at the U.N. climate talks with the Transnational Institute. He is an active member of the Cool Davis Initiative (www.cooldavis.org).

John Mott-Smith [Credit: Davis Enterprise

The question is complicated and the answer is difficult to determine. Here are some of the pluses and minuses.

JUST THE FACTS: Starting with the empirical, let’s look at the results of scientists monitoring and measuring carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Last December, the “World Clock” that tracks this and other global metrics (www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock) reported a concentration of 388.8 parts per million. This year, the number is 391.3 — an increase of 2.5 ppm. So, globally, we are not making progress in reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and reports indicate the rate of increase is itself still increasing.

Recent reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the international scientific collaboration, the Global Carbon Project, indicate a couple of other troubling statistics. Whereas most of our “Climate Action Plans” aim to reduce greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to 1990 levels by the year 2020, thus far those levels have increased about 30 percent above that baseline and are still going up. It moves from “troubling” to “disturbing” when viewed next to the longer term goal of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

IT’S NOT MY FAULT: The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly driven by three major trends. First, several developing countries — notably China and India — have surpassed most wealthy countries in both emissions and the rate of growth in these emissions.

Second, everybody seems intent on extracting every ounce of coal from the ground and burning it to produce energy. Third, consumption (greater energy use on a per-capita basis) in the wealthy countries continues to blunt efforts in these countries to reduce emissions.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: This term may be becoming an oxymoron, at least in California, according to a recent UC Berkeley study and report on science in the elementary grades. An article summarizing the study indicated that only about 10 percent of classrooms surveyed offer high-quality science programs and, in the Sacramento area, 71 percent of schools didn’t have a dedicated science teacher. Without a grounding in science, how will the public be able to judge scientific issues and make policy decisions?

On the plus side, the magazine Scientific American has begun a “Suspect Science” feature in the magazine to highlight high-profile examples of scientific illiteracy. It’s a good sign that some scientists are speaking up (and out).

BELOW THE RADAR: Contributing to the difficulty in figuring out if we are on a net positive or net negative path is the fact that a whole lot is happening, if not exactly behind the scenes, at least out of the national spotlight. While it is true that international efforts at a global treaty on climate change have faltered (I think they passed out fiddles in the last session), and U.S. leadership on climate change has ground to a halt (maybe even been thrown into reverse) due to congressional inaction, the EPA is going forward with new mileage standards that will require each manufacturer’s fleet to average almost 55 mpg by 2025. And jurisdictions all over the country are acting on their own.

Perhaps the brightest star in the Department of Silver Linings is the news that California is no longer judged to be the most energy-efficient state; that role is now assigned to Massachusetts. California is No. 2, followed by New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Connecticut and Maryland, with honorable mention for “most improved” going to Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Alabama and Tennessee.

Collectively, the states are investing more than $5.5 billion annually in energy-efficiency programs; 29 states have adopted energy-saving building codes and policies to reduce vehicle miles traveled; and half of the 50 states now have policies that direct electric utilities to implement energy-efficiency programs and develop renewable energy sources.

THE WINDS OF CHANGE: Although no one weather event can be traced directly to climate change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has drawn a cause-and-effect straight line between increases in greenhouse gas emissions and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. They indicate that in 2011 alone there were at least 12 such events that caused more than a billion dollars each in damage.

The International Energy Agency estimates that for every $1 not spent before 2020 to reduce greenhouse gases, it will take $4.30 to compensate for the increased emissions. Congress may not be raising taxes, or funding efforts to reduce emissions, but it is making the future a lot more expensive.

CAN TECHNOLOGY SAVE US? Probably not (says the pessimist) but there is always hope (says the optimist). Research is under way to modify annual agricultural plants into perennials. The benefit would be that corn, wheat and other staples would have deeper root systems and, if all of our crop land were planted with these varieties, the resulting sequestration of CO2 could reduce atmospheric levels to what it was at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

“It will never happen,” says the pessimist. “Just you wait and see,” says the optimist.

John Mott-Smith [Credit: Davis Enterprise

The city-sponsored community forum I talked about in the last column featured a lot of useful information. If another is scheduled, it’s well worth your time. Meanwhile, here are a few items from the presentations. I’m using my August through September 2011 water bill for the numbers below.

The water bill: First, the “water bill” is actually a composite that includes charges for storm and sanitary sewers as well as a “public service tax” and a “public safety charge.” The water portion of my bill was $68.50 (about 28 percent of the total bill). I’m sure everyone already knows this, but the bill comes once every two months. I think in terms of monthly expenses, so, dividing it in half means I’m paying $34.25 a month (at least for those two months) for water.

Second, the water rate is broken down into two parts. One, the “base charge,” is for infrastructure, is the same every month (mine is $23), and is independent of how much water is used. Two, for actual water used there are two price tiers. The first goes up to 36 ccf (hundred cubic feet) at $1.50 per ccf; the second is for anything over 36 ccf and is charged at $1.90 per ccf.

The whole ccf thing is confusing — it should be in gallons — but that is how our meters read the amount of water we use. Since almost every discussion of how to save water is couched in terms of “if you do measure X you’ll save Y gallons” it’s useful to know that one ccf equals 748 (round off to 750) gallons.

Doing the math from the information above indicates the current charge per gallon (up to 36 ccf) is about two-tenths of one cent (considerably cheaper than bottled water). So, 50 gallons of water costs a penny.

The average Davis resident uses about 150 gallons of water each day.

Where water is used: The average Davis resident uses about 150 gallons of water each day. The water conservation video on the city website says the average household uses about 500 gallons per day. According to a city of Davis study, more than half of this is for landscaping and other outdoor purposes.

Next in line are toilets and system leaks at about 10 percent each. Apparently, leaks in the system cost me about $3.50 a month. Showers account for about 9 percent, and clothes washers and faucets 7 percent each.

Conserving water: Clearly, the biggest water use is for landscaping, and the biggest water and energy and money savings are found by reducing water used for this purpose, either by watering less (apparently most of us over-water), watering smarter (design the watering system to give each plant the amount of water it needs) or/and knowing when to water (when it’s not windy or hot).

The biggest water and energy and money savings are found by reducing water used for landscaping

The city website has information on efficient lawn watering, at cityofdavis.org/pw/water/conserve/WateringYrLawn.cfm. Accepting the 500 gallons per day per household number means each home is using about 180,000 gallons a year, of which about 100,000 gallons is for watering the lawn and other outdoor uses.

It was stated at the forum that in most cases it’s possible, through conservation measures, to reduce lawn watering by as much as 50,000 gallons over a year’s time, for a savings of approximately $100.

There are also lots of opportunities for conserving water indoors. The statistics above indicate that toilets account for 10 percent of our household water usage. The city has a rebate program  that will give a credit on the utility bill of up to $125 (limit two toilets) for residents who upgrade to a 1.28 gallons-per-flush EPA “Water Sense” toilet. Certain conditions apply (don’t they always?).

A similar rebate is available for efficient washing machines is at cityofdavis.org/pw/water/Rebate.cfm.

Finding and fixing leaks: Some leaks are easy to find and fix and can save lots of water. Consider the city’s statistics: a dripping faucet can waste nearly 20,000 gallons ($40) a year, a running toilet 125,000 gallons ($250) per year, and a leaky pipe more than 500,000 gallons ($1,000) per year. Some leaks are harder to find, especially leaks in an irrigation system.

The really good news is that the city has a free leak detection program. If you think you have a leak (i.e., your water bill is too high) call the Public Works Department at (530) 757-5686 and request a leak check and water analysis. The city is also proactive on this; they monitor water usage on residential customers and if they notice a spike that seems out of the ordinary they will alert the property owner of a possible problem.

Already in California we are “over-subscribed,” with more rights to water having been allocated than there is reliable supply. Here, as in the rest of the world today as we pass the 7 billion mark for human population, conserving water will take on more and more importance.

— John Mott-Smith is a resident of Davis and a member of the core group of the Cool Davis Initiative. This column is published twice a month. Send comments to johnmottsmith AT comcast.net