On April 24, 2007, the County of San Mateo Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution approving the establishment of a pilot San Mateo County Green Business Program (SMCGBP).
During the pre-launch timeline, collaborative working relationships have been established between the six interested cities, ABAG Bay Area Green Business regional staff, County staff, and compliance organizations, through a series of three coordination meetings.
During the first six months of the program, the goal is to certify 12 businesses and one County department or section. The purpose of this staff report is to update the Board of Supervisors on progress that has been made and to officially launch the program.
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The first coordination meeting was held on April 4, 2007. This meeting was attended by representatives from Redwood City, Daly City, San Carlos, Burlingame, and San Mateo. At the meeting, we briefly explained the program concept, history, city staff time and involvement required for participation, and the timeline.
The second meeting was held on May 16, 2007. This meeting was attended by Redwood City, Daly City, Millbrae, San Carlos, San Mateo, Burlingame, PG&E, County Environmental Health, Right Lights, BAAQMD, ABAG’s Green Business Program Regional Coordinator, Santa Clara County Green Business Program staff, five Water Districts represented by the above six cities, Allied Waste of San Mateo County and Daly City, and County staff. We reviewed the program process, the certification checklists, outreach material options, city-specific outreach pieces, and website content to be posted on the San Mateo County RecycleWorks.org website.
The third meeting will be held on June 13, 2007. At this meeting we will review the live website content, online application, and the updated outreach materials. In addition we will hand out the contact information for interested businesses to each of the cities and discussed, again, the importance of enlisting new businesses for the program on an ongoing basis.
To Date:
• Outreach materials including a promotional postcard and compliance checklists have been updated and will be ready July 1, 2007
• Contact sheets have been completed and are in the hands of the participating cities
• Web content for this new program is now live on RecycleWorks.org
• Collaborative relationships have been developed between the cities, the compliance organizations, and County staff
• The 5th Floor of 555 County Center, Public Works, has volunteered to be the first County location to be certified as a green business
• Tracking systems have been developed to track the progress of participating businesses
• An expanded outreach piece is being developed. This outreach piece will both support SMCGBP and serve as a tool for all businesses in the County that are interested in further developing their environmental management systems and addressing issues such as climate change
The Green Business Program will enhance our current resource conservation programs and continue to build relationships in our County that will expand our resource conservation efforts. The program is ready to be initiated. A follow-up report will be submitted to your Board in January 2008 on our evaluation of the pilot phase of the program, including staff resource commitments necessary to continue the program.
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