Host: City of Emeryville
Region: Bay Area
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Affordable Housing, Climate Adaptation, Climate Mitigation, Ecosystem / Habitat Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Transportation / Mobility, Waste Management, Water Management
Skills Needed: Project Management, Research, Marketing, Policy Analysis/Development, Flexibility/Adaptability, Self-Motivated

Service Needs & Plans

* The City of Emeryville is a small city with a small staff and a supportive Council, so we get involved in all aspects of sustainability work. We have a number of projects in mind, and the Fellow can focus on one or more of these.
* The projects we’re proposing all address aspects of climate mitigation and/or environmental quality. Adaptation and resiliency aspects of these projects are also of great interest.

Project Description

The City of Emeryville has several identified several projects that will be supporting implementation of Emeryville’s Climate Action Plan 2.0 and environmental services programming activities. Specific projects the fellow will assist on would include:

Solar & Storage
Fellow will work with staff and regional energy partners EBCE to implement the final stages of a plan to install solar and battery storage at critical government facilities and allow continued operation during emergency and PSPS events.

Stormwater Hydrodynamic Separator
Fellow will assist with managing a program to install a stormwater capture device in Emeryville to decrease mercury, PCBs, and trash flowing into the Bay.

Low Carbon Building
Fellow will research other CA cities implementing low-carbon building materials policies and identify any potentially applicable policies for the City of Emeryville. Research would include regular communication with regional partner, StopWaste, who is also leading a low carbon building materials initiative.

Urban Greening Implementation
Fellow will identify any potential resources or opportunities to implement the recently completed urban greening plan and implement to the extent feasible. Examples of this could include creating public/private partnership programs or partnering with community-based organizations.

Other CAP/Resiliency Programs
Fellow will assist in other CAP or resiliency programs as needed. Potential initiatives could include organizing partners to initiate a resiliency study to address sea level rise, outreach to businesses on reusable foodware policies, and fleet electrification/EV infrastructure.

Desired Skills

The City of Emeryville is hoping to host one CivicSpark Fellow for the 23-24 program year, to work on sustainability policies and programs. A self-motivated Fellow would be able to pursue projects through any and all phases from conception through planning to implementation and reporting.

Emeryville’s staff is small, and therefore the work is not siloed, so there is room for a Fellow to focus on projects that particularly interest them. A flexible individual with good communication skills and a passion for one or more topic areas would be ideal. Our identified needs include decarbonization policy for construction; waste minimization, food recovery and reusable foodware; implementing solar + storage programs at City facilities; implementing urban greening initiatives; project management for stormwater infrastructure improvement; and participation in local and regional climate change adaptation and resiliency efforts.

Organization & Community Highlights

The work culture in Emeryville is collaborative and supportive. A lot of work is done across department lines, and staff take on a wide range of responsibilities on a variety of topics. We work closely with regional partners in other jurisdictions on many projects and programs as well.
The organization and the staff value equity and inclusion highly, and we are seen as a model for cities hoping to expand housing opportunities, with a focus on affordable and/or family-friendly housing. Our bike/ped infrastructure efforts are also widely noted. The City Council is fully supportive of sustainability and applies a justice/equity/diversity/inclusion lens on staff’s work.

Remote or On-Site Placement

Hybrid