History of the Organization's Efforts
City of Corvallis staff and City Council have been working on sustainability efforts for many years, with emphasis on minimizing the operational impacts on the environment. In the 1990s, the focus was on cost-saving aspects of projects that also had resource saving benefits i.e. identifying ways to reduce energy consumption and preserve financial resources. Sustainability wasn't a fully-understood concept at that time and staff didn't fully appreciate the additional benefits to the global environment from our cost-saving measures. Staff began tracking our operational improvements in terms of sustainability impacts around 2002, and accomplishments were heavily weighted toward reducing solid waste and saving energy.
In 2005, the City Council adopted a specific goal to enhance organizational sustainability efforts. Staff hired a consultant, Zero Waste Alliance, to help develop a strategy to implement this goal. Over a three-month period the consultant met with many City employees to assess current levels of effort and to develop recommendations for future actions. Zero Waste Alliance concluded that Corvallis already did some things very well, such as material reuse, reducing energy consumption, and elimination of hazardous chemical use. The City’s existing efforts provided the initial building blocks necessary to guide the organization towards building a robust sustainability program. The consultant recommended specific steps the City could follow to develop a more systematic, comprehensive approach to sustainability, with stated goals, timelines and metrics.
In fiscal year 2006/2007, the Council responded by authorizing a new sustainability coordinator position with the goal of developing a sustainability management plan. An internal Sustainability Steering Committee worked on development of long-term goals in five key areas:
- Employer of Choice
- Sustainable Facilities
- Sustainable Purchasing
- Vehicle Carbon Footprint
- Waste Reduction
Over the following decade City staff focused their efforts in alignment with these goals, with significant effort expended to complete greenhouse gas inventories to establish and track progress toward reducing emissions.
In 2015, a citizen group brought forward a proposed Climate Action Plan to the City Council for adoption. City Council responded by appointing a Climate Action Task Force to offer recommendations for the entire community to address climate change and its impacts.
In December 2016, following a two-year research, outreach, and development period, the City Council adopted the Climate Action Task Force proposed Corvallis Climate Action Plan (CAP) as a guiding advisory document. Each year, as part of the Strategic Operating Plan (SOP), the City considers the advice provided in the CAP, and identifies appropriate objectives it anticipates being accomplishable within the SOP planning window. The CAP itself is organized into six action areas:
- Buildings & Energy
- Land Use & Transportation
- Consumption & Waste
- Food & Agriculture
- Urban Natural Resources
- Health, Social Services & Community Well-Being
The CAP identifies goals within action areas, categorized by either mitigation or adaptation efforts, as well as those that affect municipal operations or the community as a whole. Staff collaborates with the City’s Climate Action Advisory Board (established in February, 2018) and provides a separate annual report on progress towards the recommendations within the CAP. In addition to the annual CAP report from the Climate Action Advisory Board, staff also provides a separate, but related, annual report regarding the City’s sustainability efforts and a biennial organizational greenhouse gas emissions report, as classified in the CAP. Reporting on greenhouse gas emissions began in 2016 following the inventory process referenced above.
Key milestones in the City’s sustainability initiatives are summarized in the timeline below.
Community Partners
Corvallis is fortunate to have an engaged community dedicated to environmental projects and broader sustainability efforts. While it’s impossible to list every community group or member partnering with the City on sustainability over the years, there are some key sustainability-focused community groups that staff currently works with on a frequent basis and should be acknowledged. These groups are listed below:
- Benton County
- Climate Action Advisory Board
- Corvallis Environmental Center
- Corvallis Sustainability Coalition
- Corvallis School District
- First Alternative Co-Op
- Oregon State University
- Public Sector Sustainability Roundtable
- Willamette Riverkeepers
Council and staff extend their gratitude and appreciation to these groups, as well as other community members that take sustainable approaches to their every-day lives and volunteer efforts.
