>> launch upon clean air snernt bay view hunter's point. i want to start with the chair of the board of directors of the air quality management district. john bauder. i want to welcome him up he is also the mayor of emrealville. he has been supportive of this event and of this launch and so chair, i will hand it to you. [applause]. good morning. thanks for joining us today for this event to celebrate the launch the first clean air center in california in san francisco. yes. clean air center providing public accessible buildings to resident as a refuge from wildfire smoke. climate change caused increase in frequency of wild fires which

resulted in significant impacts to the air quality. many residents lack access to clean air in their homes during the smoke events which is a hazzard to health. they will be in historically under served communities the most vulnerable to impacts so that everyone has access it clean air. we are froud have worked with buffy wiks. experience the 836 to promote for wild fires and impacts they cause. governor newsome fined and approved 5 million dollars toward the program, 3 million allocated to serve the 9 county region of the bay. in partnership the 3 million dollars in funding provided by the california air resource board will upgrade the event lagz system.

purs that charge airfillmenters like this guy here. replacement fitters in smoke events and replace h vac filters with helpa or higher for public buildings. 9 counties asked to coordinate with the cities and community based organizations to help identify the cites for clean air centers deployed. the air district asked for input on the potential locations for the cites. >> we looked to the san francisco neighborhood efforts to establish cooling centers as a model to work with community on the citing of clean air center in san francisco. children are the met vulnerable to the health impacts of wildfire smoke. we encourage schools to help protect students and children. lean air centers in schools issue libraries, community, senior and rec centers.

veteran facilities. community colleges and wildfire evacuation centers. we hope to have more than 300 clean air centers across the 9 area bay area alone. with increasing impacts of climate change on air quality, these clean air centers will be a vietsdz tool to protect health from wildfire smoke. i would like to introduce davina the vice chair of our board and also a board member of the california air resource board and from bellmont, join mow in welcoming her. >> good morning. the california air resource board. and it is the capacity i will speak to you today i really thrilled be here with all of you celebrating the opening we can't say enough of not only the very

first clean air center in the bay area. for vulnerable population program. we are proud to lead the program partner with air districts including bay area qmd. now in addition to announcing the opening of the facility we are also unwill veiling the new clean air center logo you see here. it was developed by staff to help the public easily identify clean air centers. just imagine this pilot program will fund a network of clean arab centers and vulnerable communities across the state. and this loco is ment to provide a visual identity. that will make it easier for people to find a safe place

during wildfire smoke events. this is an exciting program we are taking action to help people breathe easier. and might i add these are communities that bear disproportional and unfair burdens with air pollution impact. we remember in 20202 years ago this month. when a thick layer of wildfire smoke blankets the bay area upon turning the sky orange. know thanksgiving can occur again we are fortifying our public spaces to protect public health. now this pilot will be expanded in the years ahead. and california is committed to continuing to fight climate change. and address increaseingly intense wildfires for years to come. we are working hard along side

state, federal and local partners to future proof california. and in addition to investing enforced management and wildfire resilience it is vital we prepare in any way for smoke events. this is not a future problem this it is today's reality. and response our staff is again working hard to provide tools to help people protect themselves from wildfire smoke. cars, smoke ready california campaign is publicly available social media and web campaign. includes sharable graphics in different language that have actionable steps people can take to protect themselves during a smoke episode in an easy visual format. now anyone in california can get wildfire alerts and smoke

forecasts right on their phone. thanks to an upgrade to carbs california smoke spotter mobile app. >> new features personalized alert. wildfire incident information and air quality information from purple air sense ors. to provide users with near real time smoke conscience. these tools are all part of efforts by carband the governary office to memory and protect california from the impacts of wildfire smoke. we are proud to stand along side the bay area, air quality management district. san francisco and the bay view hunter's point community to allowance the lodge of the vital program and the addition of another tool to help protect those who need it most. during the wildfire season.

we like to thank member buffy wiks for her leadership and all those who med this a reality today. congratulations j. let us continue to do rable things together. our environment and future generations require this of us. >> i would like to invite my colleague and friend tyrone of the san francisco department of the environment. am i'm delighted be here today's upon event is grounded on 3 principles. one climate change is real. 2. the affects of climate change are happening right now within our communities especially within communities that are most vulnerable. and 3 we must take action on

climate change both in mitigating or affect to dampen the affects and to prepare our communities to make sure we are resilient in the face of climate change when it come to air quality and extreme heat. high role here is to represent mayor breed. and many city diameters involved in this effort in san francisco. starts at the top with our mayor. and starts with our board of supervisors you will hear from next with the district 10 supervisor. board member and president of the board walton. it started with the many city diameters involve friday d. emergency management. libraries as well as our many community partners. this is many years in the making involved many people at the table. upon we are joined by our deputy direct from the libraries we are

joined by the city librarian. both will present us on a tour later o. i will say something with the librarian. libraries are a center of knowledge for our community. a place of res spit where teem people learn and grow. through the nobodying us on making them a beacon of libraries throughout the nation, these accomplices are a center of safety for our communityip want to thank the city librarian for his role in doing that this does not happen without communities. this has to be community driven and lead. in the bay view the department is leading this effort with the supervisor's office through the bay view program. we have a lot of partners there involved at the table.

parker from the y and many others who you will hear from later on. but this center is not vehicleful unless you have community support. you have community buy in because these centers are center this is become not utilized without them at the table. with that, i want to thank everyone for gather here and everyone that put in the hard work in today's announcement. i will pass it on to fellow board member. you will -- supervisor district 10 as well as president of the board of supervisors walton. [applause]. du want to say something. >> good morning issue everybody. >> good morning. >> welcome to bay view hunter's point where the sun is always shining and amazing for

community to come together. i want to start off one by not upon only thanking the california air resource board and the bay area quality management and the community representatives here we do work to make sure that we have clean air in our community. so i want to thank bay view advocates and the marie harrison foundation and danielle with the neighborhood empowerment network and the communities members that are present. like the director said earlier. if you remembered twenty 18 i remember like it was yesterday we had that orange haze in our skies. we had to shut down schools. people could not go to work the air quality was that horrible and most vulnerable suffered more than others. having a place where people can go to breathe clean air in community is extremely vital and

important. we are excited have the first clean air center in california here in our community in bay view hunter's point. it is important that we demonstrate the commitment to our communities that have been isolated disenfranchised and most vulnerable to the negative impacts of air quality this . is a demonstration of folks coming and care to make sure we take that step to get this done. on national voter registration day i appreciate everyone. i want to thank our director, director lam berg and working with the communities and with leadership to allow for spaces like this to happen in our libraries. thank you all so much i hope you have a beautiful day it is national voter registration day. do everything you can to give people to register and exercise their rights. thank you very much.

>> [applause]. >> i want to thank all of our speakers so far especially the air district board of directors who shown out in numbers. you see the support this we get at the air district and i'm grateful for it. i want to especially thank supervisor walton, as you know he is on our board of directors. and president of board of supervisors. and represent from sdrakt 10 and he always ensures his constituents are at the table watch that i want to introduce his conscientist wentful arian harrison born and raise in the bay rowel hunter's point. a community organizer the utd reach coordinator at united

council and also in the last couple of years established a foundation in her mother's name. she was on the environmental just move inspect bay view hunters point, san francisco and a national leader temperature is a delight to know there is a foundation in her name and so let he introduce arian the found and executive director. >> i'm arian harrison i'm the founder of the community foundation for social and environmental justice. can we live. org. [inaudible] i'm not polished but i do say hai mean and mean what i say. i'm very glad to see this program getting started. i would like to see it dub

indicated in district 10 because it is the biggest districts in san francisco. we have pollution and chemical waste and things that are creating body burdens for residents. to have the the places put in place, it is good. we will get it together. y'all with me. yea. i would like myself to see this program duplicateed go in not just into the space but place like united council and our schools. because those are where the vulnerable citizens the kids and the senior center. those are places that are null nearable that hold the most people and people are not guaranteed to make it here to the safe space we want to make sure our community is protected. i wanted to sends this message. we gotta do everything we possibly can guard the health of

our residents i'm the founder of marie foundation inc. a shout out to walton, really, really you know listening to the community. and putting forth the efforts to make sure we'll have solutions to some of the issues we have been in san francisco. and san francisco because it is in the just bay view residence denials having the issue. this is in the a bay view hunter's point issue. i think we have been able to dismiss the problems happening to too easily it is the people over there. the problems we are having here in our district are things that will affect all of san francisco. so it is in the just the bay view resident issue it is a san francisco issue. we are do it first city and profess to be the leaders in the u.s. so we have to move forward and push forward in that effort to actually be when we say we are.

andir hope you were joining mow on this mission to have clean air, water and land. i will leave you this message i'm trying to do is live. >> thank you. so, naconcludes this speaking part. of the press conference.

>> i don't think you need to be an expert to look around and see the increasing frequency of fires throughout california. they are continuing at an ever-increasing rate every summer, and as we all know, the drought continues and huge shortages of water right now. i don't think you have to be an expert to see the impact. when people create greenhouse gases, we are doing so by different activities like burning fossil fuels and letting off carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and we also do this with food waste. when we waste solid food and leave it in the landfill, it puts methane gas into the atmosphere and that accelerates the rate at which we are warming our planet and makes all the

effects of climate change worse. the good news is there are a lot of things that you can be doing, particularly composting and the added benefit is when the compost is actually applied to the soil, it has the ability to reverse climate change by pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil and the t radios. and there is huge amount of science that is breaking right now around that. >> in the early 90s, san francisco hired some engineers to analyze the material san francisco was sending to landfill. they did a waste characterization study, and that showed that most of the material san francisco was sending to landfill could be composted. it was things like food scraps, coffee grounds and egg shells and sticks and leaves from gardening. together re-ecology in san francisco started this curbside

composting program and we were the first city in the country to collect food scraps separately from other trash and turn them into compost. it turns out it was one of the best things we ever did. it kept 2.5 million tons of material out of the landfill, produced a beautiful nutrient rich compost that has gone on to hundreds of farms, orchards and vineyards. so in that way you can manage your food scraps and produce far less methane. that is part of the solution. that gives people hope that we're doing something to slow down climate change. >> i have been into organic farming my whole life. when we started planting trees, it was natural to have compost from re-ecology. compost is how i work and the soil biology or the microbes feed the plant and our job as

regenerative farmers is to feed the microbes with compost and they will feed the plant. it is very much like in business where you say take care of your employees and your employees will take carolinas of your customers. the same thing. take care of the soil microbes and soil life and that will feed and take care of the plants. >> they love compost because it is a nutrient rich soil amendment. it is food for the soil. that is photosynthesis. pulling carbon from the atmosphere. pushing it back into the soil where it belongs. and the roots exude carbon into the soil. you are helping turn a farm into a carbon sink. it is an international model. delegations from 135 countries have come to study this program. and it actually helped inspire a new law in california, senate bill 1383. which requires cities in california to reduce the amount of compostable materials they send to landfills by 75% by

2025. and san francisco helped inspire this and this is a nation-leading policy. >> because we have such an immature relationship with nature and the natural cycles and the carbon cycles, government does have to step in and protect the commons, which is soil, ocean, foryes, sir, and so forth. -- forest, and so fors. we know that our largest corporations are a significant percentage of carbon emission, and that the corporate community has significant role to play in reducing carbon emissions. unfortunately, we have no idea and no requirement that they disclose anything about the carbon footprint, the core operation and sp360 stands for the basic notion that large corporations should be transparent about the carbon footprint. it makes all the sense in the world and very common sense but is controversial. any time you are proposing a policy that is going to make

real change and that will change behavior because we know that when corporations have to disclose and be transparent and have that kind of accountability, there is going to be opposition. >> we have to provide technical assistance to comply with the state legislation sb1383 which requires them to have a food donation program. we keep the edible food local. and we are not composting it because we don't want to compost edible food. we want that food to get eaten within san francisco and feed folks in need. it is very unique in san francisco we have such a broad and expansive education program for the city. but also that we have partners in government and nonprofit that are dedicated to this work. at san francisco unified school district, we have a sustainability office and

educators throughout the science department that are building it into the curriculum. making it easy for teachers to teach about this. we work together to build a pipeline for students so that when they are really young in pre-k, they are just learning about the awe and wonder and beauty of nature and they are connecting to animals and things they would naturally find love and affinity towards. as they get older, concepts that keep them engaged like society and people and economics. >> california is experiencing many years of drought. dry periods. that is really hard on farms and is really challenging. compost helps farms get through these difficult times. how is that? compost is a natural sponge that attracts and retains water. and so when we put compost around the roots of plants, it holds any moisture there from rainfall or irrigation. it helps farms make that corner and that helps them grow for

food. you can grow 30% more food in times of drought in you farm naturally with compost. farms and cities in california are very hip now to this fact that creating compost, providing compost to farms helps communities survive and get through those dry periods. >> here is the thing. soil health, climate health, human health, one conversation. if we grow our food differently, we can capture all that excess carbon in the atmosphere and store it in unlimited quantities in the soil, that will create nutrient dense foods that will take care of most of our civilized diseases. so it's one conversation. people have to understand that they are nature. they can't separate. we started prowling the high plains in the 1870s and by the 1930s, 60 year, we turned it into a dust bowl. that is what ignorance looks like when you don't pay attention to nature. nature bats last.

so people have to wake up. wake up. compost. >> it is really easy to get frustrated because we have this belief that you have to be completely sustainable 24/7 in all aspects of your life. it is not about being perfect. it is about making a change here, a change there in your life. maybe saying, you know what? i don't have to drive to that particular place today. today i am going to take the bus or i'm going to walk. it is about having us is stainable in mind. that is -- it is about having sustainability in mind. that is how we move the dial. you don't have to be perfect all the time. >> san francisco has been and will continue to be one of the greener cities because there are communities who care about protecting a special ecosystem and habitat. thinking about the history of the ohlone and the native and indigenous people who are stewards of this land from that history to now with the

ambitious climate action plan we just passed and the goals we have, i think we have a dedicated group of people who see the importance of this place. and who put effort into building an infrastructure that actually makes it possible. >> we have a long history starting with the gold rush and the anti-war activism and that is also part of the environmental movement in the 60s and 70s. and of course, earth day in 1970 which is huge. and i feel very privileged to work for the city because we are on such a forefront of environmental issues, and we get calls from all over the world really to get information. how do cities create waste programs like they do in san francisco. we are looking into the few which you are and we want innovation. we want solutions.

>> call this meeting to order, go ahead. >> good evening this is the meeting of san francisco on the environment, the time is 5:05 p.m. the ringing of cell phones and and cell phones may be prohibited. for remote participant please know that the ring of phone can still happen virtuall